Unofficial Preview Round 1, 2024: Bombers v Hawks, MCG 1:10pm Sat 16th March

[Hawked Wings]

There’s nothing surer than me drinking 12 stubbies tonight due to my excitement levels then waking up hungover and ruining the day
Until my first beer at 10am
Let’s go you hawkers

 

[HedgeFund]

Taught Jack in Year 11, very very focussed on footy not academics, not a ratbag.

One of your fellow staff members would disagree.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Srimshaw will play as a KPD this year especially since Blank has gone down. Be prepared

 

[Bugs1977]

Has anyone sent Finn Merrett’s mobile number yet ……. so he can call him and tuck him into bed tonight!

Not too sure what the vaseline is for. Thoughts threesixpio?

 

[Big Hotdog]

Srimshaw will play as a KPD this year especially since Blank has gone down. Be prepared

It feels like we are asking a lot of Scrimshaw and I hope people can appreciate the tasks that will be laid before him.
Real risk of becoming the whipping boy.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Big Hotdog]

Kingy knows his shit too...

But **** I hope he's right

 

[TheFourPillars]

It feels like we are asking a lot of Scrimshaw and I hope people can appreciate the tasks that will be laid before him.
Real risk of becoming the whipping boy.

No we are not. Scrim is well aware of what is expected of him. He has taken this on as part of his development.

 

[smish]

Looking at ESS on paper they look like a motley crue with a few mercenaries sprinkled in.

Can someone remind me of their game plan/style again? From memory it's build up play outside the back 50. There was also talk about them being vulnerable in transition defence.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Someone throws mud at the bombers every time we play them.

 

[SSSSSS]

Someone throws mud at the bombers every time we play them.

Everytime we play them the media is out in force that their 'season is on the line'. The mental short people they are they get geed up by it.

It's round 1.

 

[Blackhawk42]

There’s nothing surer than me drinking 12 stubbies tonight due to my excitement levels then waking up hungover and ruining the day
Until my first beer at 10am
Let’s go you hawkers

I hope this is the line up.
Good luck come half time.

 

[matey]

I've said it before with Finn but if we look at footy like a chessboard it's like sacrificing a pawn to take out the opponents queen.

It's has to be one of the most valuable trade offs to sacrifice the game of your 22nd best player for the oppositions best.

Great analogy .

What I also liked seeing last year on a number of occasions was the opposition niggling and bumping Finn behind play and at ball ups. We know that Finn is winning when this happens! He is big enough to look after himself and isn’t put off by this but more importantly for a short moment it attracts the mind/focus of those players trying to niggle him ….. signs of frustration

 

[cAsEy_18]

Looking at ESS on paper they look like a motley crue with a few mercenaries sprinkled in.

Can someone remind me of their game plan/style again? From memory it's build up play outside the back 50. There was also talk about them being vulnerable in transition defence.

Can you CC us into the email if you work it out? Wouldn't mind knowing it myself.

 

[Hawks1994]

We're a huge shout in this

Both teams are missing players, at full strength I think they have our measure, but now...

Big game for both clubs already too, a loss for * could put them straight on the back foot, and our opening month is real tricky

• Redman is super important for them, Hardwick or Ginni to do a defensive forward job on him to stop his drive?
• Names on a sheet don't mean anything these days, but Ward named smack-bang in the guts is exciting
• Weddle on the wing; hooley dooley
• Finn to tag Merrett and let Worpel, Newcombe and Nash to go to work
• Wanna see Lewis and Chol working together, our forward structure looks lightyears better than last couple seasons when we struggled to kick 10 goals a match. Hoping for some bigger scores
• End of the day though; win, loss or draw, seeing so many of our young guys holding spots is suuuper exciting. We just gotta let Mitch and the lads cook

After Round 3 I will miss about 8 rounds of footy due to being overseas so hopefully I can see a win here before I ship off

 

[TylerDurden]

I keep having recurring nightmares of last year's r1 result. Then I look at both teams, and the players that cut us up, are not there. Even Weideman was causing us headaches.

Feeling more confident this time around.

Time to get some beers in tonight, in ready for the war.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

If Weddle plays well and grows into the wing role then just imagine the potential partnership he could form with CJ. Both are in the top few percentile for athletic profiles in the league.

Both can help defensively and also push forward due to their running power. Both can offer an aerial outlet too, as their opponents will likely not be as tall or as strong in the air.

Add in Ward and MacDonald (and Amon?) rotating through, who both have an incredible tanks, and we'd have a relentless wingman group.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

Finn can do a job on a range of players, look at the scalps he's taken over the last few years:

• Libba (until he was injured)
• Miller
• Oliver (for 3 quarters)
• Daicos
• Langdon
• Rioli (for 3 quarters)
• Sheezel (first half)
• Thomas (second half)
• Dawson
• T. Kelly
• J. Kelly
• Sinclair (one quarter only)
• Bolton

He played well on Weightman last weekend too. We are talking about some of the best midfielders / players in the league here.

He has shown he can play on every variety of midfielder and on running HBF's too. Now he's starting to show he can play on small forwards.

with a team with plenty of young one-way runners having a player like Finn is very valuable

as we develop and mature no doubt a lot of our players (especially midfielders) will improve their defensive efforts and running patterns but for now they get exposed a lot, it makes every defensive-minded player worth their weight in gold imo. he's not a "best 22 player" – in that he's likely not one of the 22 most talented AFL players on our list. but i reckon as far as building a match-winning side, he will be there more often than not.

and he's also definitely top 22 most handsome on our list, so that has to count for something too

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I like our side, but would definitely feel more confident if Day and CJ were out there.

 

[drewgle]

From our round 1 game last year -

Hawthorn
In: Chol, D'Ambrosio. Ginnivan, Gunston, Lewis, Scimshaw, Watson, Weddle
Out: Blanck, Bramble, Day, Greene, Jiath, Koschitzke, Meek, Wingard

That looks like a very big improvement.


In comparison - our opponents -
Essendon
In: Cox, Duursma, Goldstein, Gresham, Guelfi, McKay, Reid, Stringer, Tsatas, Wright
Out: Davey, Draper, Laverde, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Parish, Phillips, Ridley, Shiel, Weideman, Zerk-Thatcher

Mixed bag there of both older players and younger players coming in- lost some good players.

 

[Adebisi]

Private school boy haha he is from the Dandenong area. Looks exactly like someone who lives out that way. Was actually briefly in a YouTube video a couple of years ago when a dude did a video of the Doveton/Dandenong area because of how notoriously rough it is. Was trying to get away from the camera but it was definitely him with a group of people. May have gone to a private school but he's an eshay at heart.

I remember this too

 

[Judd2Sewell]

I keep having recurring nightmares of last year's r1 result. Then I look at both teams, and the players that cut us up, are not there. Even Weideman was causing us headaches.

Feeling more confident this time around.

Time to get some beers in tonight, in ready for the war.

We've got no excuses for putting in an embarrassing performance like last season. If we look at the ins/outs for us compared to last season I think we look much better on paper.

No Greene, Kosi, Meek or Bramble.

Though no Day, CJ, Blanck or Wingard too are losses. Day in particular.

But we have replaced that group with Lewis, Chol, Ginnivan, Watson, Scrimshaw, Weddle, D'Ambrosio and Gunston.

Only four, max, of the players missing would be getting games now - Day, CJ, Blanck and Wingard (?).

Essendon are going to miss Parish, Ridley, and Draper in particular, but also BZT and Shiel IMO.

I think their ins probably just outweigh those losses overall, as McKay, Stringer, 2MP, Gresham and Goldy are all experienced players who could have a big impact on the game. Who knows how Duursma, Reid, Tsatas or Cox will go though.

 

[Adebisi]

Don’t get the Finn hate.
We literally have a player that is the very best, bar none in the competition at the role he is asked to play and people don’t want to play him, particularly in a game where the opponent has a player with the potential to destroy us.
He plays and he’ll play well

You sing, and you sing good

 

[parsons nose]

Our Achilles heel is our back line, plenty of rebound but lacking in competent, truly defensive types. The mids will be needing to work really hard when we don’t have the ball.

 

[Lawsy]

If Weddle plays well and grows into the wing role then just imagine the potential partnership he could form with CJ. Both are in the top few percentile for athletic profiles in the league.

Until CJ can get on the ground consistently, thats all it will be, potential. The last couple of years haven't been great for him so I'm hoping he gets a good run at it but not pinning any hopes on him as a wing man. He seems too explosive and may be best served on a HBF again IMO