However, the point remains, looking at the season as a whole, that we achieved our success with Crawf playing only a supporting, rather than starring role.
Not to mention C Young. finals form was amazing, one of the best individual halfs of football played was his first half in the Grand Final. really missed him on the wing last season when he was injured and the booming left foot
No 1 Reason we won the 08 Premiership was Preparation! Preseason, player management and development
No 2 Reason we won the 08 Premiership was Game Plan / Tactics. We adapted our gameplan according to our opposition. Losing matches to the Bulldogs, StKilda and Geelong during the season meant we were able to address what went wrong and size up our opposition in readiness for meeting them again in Finals.
Individuals
Crawf - Played little part in the season however his tackling pressure and work rate around the ground on the day were vintage Crawf. His disposals or direct contribution were not as good however but he was a motivational force.
Mitchell - Made no impact in the 1st half of the match but improved in the 2nd
Franklin - Was poor in the 1st half. Especially his 1st quarter was terrible. He kept going to ground and was getting pantsed by Scarlett.
Young - Supposedly was Norm Smith till he came off. IMO look at each of his posessions, he turoved over the footy a few times which overrates his match a little but excellent by his standards.
Williams - Enormous
Dew - Enormous
Sewell - Our best mid on the day
Hodge - The match winner frustrating Geelong's forward line with his sweeping of the backline and playing off his opponents.
Roughead - just a game.
All in all, by Hawthorn's standard for that season, they had an average game in terms of individual contribution across the board.
Hodge's ability in the finals campaign to negate his opponent, play off them, chop off all the supply and create fast rebound out of the backline meant that the rest of the playing group were released to play attacking football, knowing Hodge had their backs if a mistake was made.
Their motto was - Let Boldness Be My Friend. Bold attacking football won them the flag and the confidence to play boldly was mainly due to Hodge.
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