Autopsy Round 1, 2017: Ess v Haw, **Ess supporters read the OP** Ban Hammer will be wielded with impunity

[BigBen_JRC]

Also umpires never win or lose you matches but we were really stiff with not getting about 6 or so HTB decisions. Particularly in our f-50.

Sorry to invade your thread with a message but I was actually looking for a place to say exactly this to you guys. Glad we got won but can't help but feel the AFL needed the Dons to win. Some shocking decisions for you guys. Hopefully next time the umpiring can be a little more fair

 

[kazzooka]

To address that lack of pace in defense. What about Isaac Smith to the half back flank? Have Stewart and Henderson as the two wingmen and bring in Miles for Duryea.

Schoenmakers and Vickery in the same forward-line will never work. Imagine if we had Brand or Schoenmakers at center half back. Gibson's task would be made much easier then having to constantly try and play on key forwards who are much bigger then him like we saw last night.

Isaac Smith needs to stay on the wing. Put rioli on the back flank.

 

[realhawk]

Despite a really dreadful display last night, it's still an open question whether we're heading for the basement, or just need to refine our game and get used to a competely different engine room. There's no reason (at least on paper) that Titch and JOM in for Mitch and Lewis out isn't an upgrade over the next 2 years, given the respective ages, and around the ground we still have (at least on paper) excellent players in every line.

Still, there were some frighteningly bad efforts last night that it's hard to explain away.

My personal lowlight was the Siciliy in defence thing. I have a lot of faith in Clarko, but I can't get my head around this one. After several years of wasting Gunston with this swingman obsession, he now wants to add Sicily to that programme? I love watching that boy do his lovely "float across the pack" thing up forward, but bugger me when he decided to do it last night and spoil McEvoy 15m in front of goal, I actually turned off the game and went for a walk.

top post , correct on all fronts, gunstan and Sicily need to stay deep forward, success comes from doing the basics very well and keeping things simple, to much experimenting and mucking around., but don't expect changes as we know the coach is very stubborn in his view. Gunstan will be on the wing and Sicily will be at half back, our mids will bomb the ball long into our forward line where monsters like poppy will have to outmark KPD

 

[threesixpio]

Sorry to invade your thread with a message but I was actually looking for a place to say exactly this to you guys. Glad we got won but can't help but feel the AFL needed the Dons to win. Some shocking decisions for you guys. Hopefully next time the umpiring can be a little more fair

I thought the umpiring was terrible all night but there were some calls that should have gone your way too

 

[threesixpio]

Isaac Smith needs to stay on the wing. Put rioli on the back flank.

I want to freshen up with youth back there. Burton, Glass, Miles - need to freshen up a bit

 

[Since 2001]

Hawthorns weakness in the air is becoming a big problem again - particularly down back. How many roving goals from inside 15m did the bombers kick last night. Hawks massively overcommitted to the contest and they rarely mark it.

Yeah, players were spoiling each others marks down back. 3 would go up and not get it out of bounds, therefore allowing easy goals.

Why is that we have 3 hawks go up against 1 opposition player?

****ing frustrating

 

[Dragz]

Meh. Not fussed. A game into Rough and Jaegar. The Injectors were playing their GF last night. They had to come out and fire otherwise their club would implode. I'm not expecting that much this year tbh. Think we need Stewart to come in, really need another contested ball winner.

 

[Gralin]

Yeah, players were spoiling each others marks down back. 3 would go up and not get it out of bounds, therefore allowing easy goals.

Why is that we have 3 hawks go up against 1 opposition player?

******* frustrating

lack of trust

 

[Since 2001]

You want to make 6 changes after round 1??? Seriously

I would make at least three changes. We've already made a huge change for the better, so why stop now?
blood the kids, give them games, at least they will come in with something to prove. Some players just look way to comfortable out there (Gibbo).

 

[Lance Uppercut]

The worst bit, of course, is that the spirit of the crowd was as bad for Hawthorn as the play on the field. Essendon outperformed the cheering as well. By a large margin. Also, it seemed that half our cheer squad section was empty behind goals. What's up with that?

I was wondering about this too, the cheersquad I mean

 

[Davo23]

Sorry to invade your thread with a message but I was actually looking for a place to say exactly this to you guys. Glad we got won but can't help but feel the AFL needed the Dons to win. Some shocking decisions for you guys. Hopefully next time the umpiring can be a little more fair

Great trolling, mate.

We believe you.

 

[Since 2001]

Also the handling balling team mates into trouble. Just get the ball fwd.

 

[Hawks1994]

Simply weren't good enough whrn the pressure was on. Evwryone seemed to have oil on their hands, yes it was humid but still rare to see players like Burgoyne fumbling so much.

Something else I noticed was what looked like complete confusion in defense. On several occasions Burgoyne or Frawley had to wave vigorously and yell at the bench to understand exactly how they had to set up. I've never seen us be so unsure with our structure which is a little concerning

Hopefully it's just a poor start and we can clean up some of those poor areas in the coming weeks. Having said that, this is unlikely to be a flag contending year so time to swing some changes and give younger blokes an extended run to see what thier made of

 

[Ned Ryerson]

For anyone who wants to lament about Mitchell's possession stats today - just have a look at his tackle count also. Not to mention the contested possessions.

I hate that he's gone, I wish we still had him - but by god he would not have made a difference last night.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

The worst bit, of course, is that the spirit of the crowd was as bad for Hawthorn as the play on the field. Essendon outperformed the cheering as well. By a large margin. Also, it seemed that half our cheer squad section was empty behind goals. What's up with that?

I mentioned this a few times last year on here. Even at home games last year our cheer squad area was half full. Not sure what's going on there. If the club needs more people there they should maybe put a call out on social media.

 

[Bombermania]

A few points

-I would leave Sicily up forward, he was a good leading forward at Box Hill
-Issac Smith should also be forward/mid
-Gibson seemed unfit
-on Walla, if I was Clarko, I would have played Rioli on him, I know he suffered a corky early but he is one guy that could have gone with Walla all night

 

[Bombermania]

For anyone who wants to lament about Mitchell's possession stats today - just have a look at his tackle count also. Not to mention the contested possessions.

I hate that he's gone, I wish we still had him - but by god he would not have made a difference last night.

There were a few passages where the Hawks moved the ball from half back and just needed that extra clean kick into the forward 50 or there were times when Essendon was running the ball though space that he use to occupy.

By mid season the mids should have worked out how to cover these things so his lost will be lessened overtime.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

There were a few passages where the Hawks moved the ball from half back and just needed that extra clean kick into the forward 50 or there were times when Essendon was running the ball though space that he use to occupy.

By mid season the mids should have worked out how to cover these things so his lost will be lessened overtime.

Plenty of teams ran though that space last year though. I love Sammy, but he was treated like a turnstile by quicker mids a lot last year.

 

[BigBen_JRC]

Great trolling, mate.

We believe you.

Believe what you want mate, just my honest opinion

 

[QuietB]

Yeah, players were spoiling each others marks down back. 3 would go up and not get it out of bounds, therefore allowing easy goals.

Why is that we have 3 hawks go up against 1 opposition player?

******* frustrating

Hawthorn lost 13 games in a row to Geelong basically because Taylor marks the ball and Gibbo refuses to.

And defensive marking was the biggest thing Lake added to the team. And as soon as he left it was gone again.

Imagine being an opposition forward - if one of your blokes does not mark it you know it is hitting the ground. No chance Hawthorn are going to mark it

 

[Noneedforaname]

If Sicily can't get a game in our forward 6 he should leave cause he will get a game every other team and we should make room for him. Gunston too.

I think bruest, puopolo, Rioli and Roughead, shoenmakers and Vickery should be put into different parts of the ground ahead of them.

Gunston and Sicily don't contribute as well wing and back as they do forward. Shoenmakers is a better option down back than Sicily.

I get that we have to make some of these guys play other roles to keep the best players in the team. But I think the execution is wrong. We made a grand final with a young shoenmakers as our number 1 defender, pretty sure we'll be ok with a more experienced, stronger and more confident shoey as our number 2 defender.

So you're saying Roughie to CHB?

 

[Baz_hawk]

Our defence's biggest problem last night was communication. So many times players would peel off their opponent to cover up the ground but no one would push to cover the man they left. I'm not sure where the breakdown was occurring but it opened us up and allowed an easy out.
Also, on opposition kick ins we allowed an easy out by covering boundary but not inside. A really disappointing and unforgivable breakdown in our structure. It did seem to be more of a case of players not fully understanding the game-plan as on occasions we were working hard and stopped the Bombers moving the ball out of our half but far too often we allowed for an easy out. This opened up our defence and basically put us in a foot race every time.

 

[Grumblez]

All this crap about Clarko playing people out of position , there is a method to the madness .
Play Sicily back and what does he learn? He learns how to defend.
So when he does go forward he knows how to defend if caught behind and learns that natural instinct to chase the opponent hard.
Play Gunston up on wing, what does he learn ? He learns the craft of bringing a ball from defensive 50 and it's transition to the forward 50! How does that help? Well when he goes forward he knows exactly where and how that ball will be coming into the fwd 50.
A lot of u have forgotten what did we recruit shoey as? A forward . Where did he play?
Poppy was also recruited as one of the best lockdown small defenders in the sanfl.
This are just some examples.
And the cry about not playing the kids last night!
What would u prefer the experienced players getting beaten by a team that's had 18 months to prepare for the game they now how to absorb the loss. Or play our new kids and get absolutely smashed and demolish their confidence for weeks to come and backtrack their progress.
And we won the clearances with 2 new midfielders and a returning Langford so make that almost 3 new midfielders in the middle that need to work out how they best work together.
It's round 1 for god sakes , put the guns away and see it for what it was.
A learning experience for some of our players to better their game for the future and a absorbent defeat and a learning curve for our midfield.

You gotta spend money to make money.
You gotta lose game to win games.

This is a minor rebuild so we will lose games and grind out wins the hard way to rebound better when clarko flicks the "ON" switch.

 

[Pessimistic]

To address that lack of pace in defense. What about Isaac Smith to the half back flank? Have Stewart and Henderson as the two wingmen and bring in Miles for Duryea.

Schoenmakers and Vickery in the same forward-line will never work. Imagine if we had Brand or Schoenmakers at center half back. Gibson's task would be made much easier rather then having to constantly try and play on key forwards who are much bigger then him like we saw last night.

Sorry to invade your thread with a message but I was actually looking for a place to say exactly this to you guys. Glad we got won but can't help but feel the AFL needed the Dons to win. Some shocking decisions for you guys. Hopefully next time the umpiring can be a little more fair

Thanks but I reckon sides got stiffed equally

 

[OzJohnnie]

You gotta spend money to make money.
You gotta lose game to win games.

I agree with all of your post, grumblez. This bit, though, is a concern for me. I'm happy to play out of position. Happy to make guys uncomfortable. But the effort has to be top notch. Last night they were outworked. I can accept getting beat when we make a big effort but when we don't make the effort we lose the value of playing out of position.

Far too often our players were caught on their heels, looking at the opposition make plays happen.

Anyway, I hope we beat Adelaide next week. But even more I hope we play like we want to win. Play like Spanger. Like every touch might be our last.