Autopsy Round 15, 2023 : Hawks get burned by Suns

[Holy Rioli]

Took my partner and son to their first ever AFL game (my boy is 5 years old and this is the first time they have played on the GC in his life time!).

It was a nice start, he clapped so hard for the early Mitch Lewis hanger. Told me to clap when Kozi took the mark early in the 2nd haha.

I feel like teams with young elite midfielders nullify one area of the ground where we have an advantage ourselves, with our big issues this year being away to the Swans, Port, GC & Freo which all fit this criteria.

I just realised after 14 games we have played in every state in Australia already and 8 games outside of Melbourne...what a brutal travel start to the year.

I saw Grumbleguts photo, I was sitting somewhere near where he was by the looks of it, I've figured out who he is on Facebook so I'd know what he'd look like but I didn't see him.

Sad Target Man wasn't there but then again not a single goal was kicked by us at our cheer end of the ground either.

That Luko free kick in the 1st wowsers, even GC fans (yes there were 3-4k of the crowd as GC fans) were a bit perplexed by it.

We really miss Sicily, we moved the ball too sideways without ever finding that wide release kick, or poor skills caused unnecessary turnovers. It feels like a long and narrow ground very much like the old Subiaco, so maybe this style of play isn't suitable to that shape oval.

Also for all the talk of dew and stuff, we just dropped sitters, no excuse at all. It wasn't humid, it was perfect temperature (late teens), no moisture at all, just really poor efforts and concentration.

Really disappointing game in the end, we just didn't have a plan to bring the ball forward and just ****ed around dinky sideways in our back half most of the game.

 

[Fulgent]

I suspect Venus crossing into Sagittarius

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It feels more like Cancer in Uranus.

 

[SSSSSS]

No Sic No Hawks? Bloody hope not. Don’t think the media understand how ridiculously awesome he is as a player. Also, his leadership makes a huge difference


Hopefully we see a strong response next week

Massive flow on effect when he's out.

Have to pull Day out of the guts and Moore out of the HFF.

Sis makes us a 6 goal better side as an individual but when you compound the loss of Day and Moore to their respective lines, it's close to a 8-10 goal difference IMO.

 

[badgrill]

It was quiet as a church a lot of the time...albeit regularly punctuated by the PA system blaring out some shite whenever they scored a goal

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should've started a Mexican Wave - hear that's all the rage at the footy these days

 

[grumbleguts]

I can't believe Brendan McCullum had to fly all the way to Brisbane from England to tell the Hawks in the change room, that as far as he was concerned, Hawks had played all the football and were the real winners.

 

[TylerDurden]

Spot on. Struggle to see how we win without him.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Spot on. Struggle to see how we win without him.

This is only true because we are young we have 3 players with around 10 games of experience in that backline

 

[DogDaySonny]

This is only true because we are young we have 3 players with around 10 games of experience in that backline

Another sign of inexperience is how poorly we travel.

Travel aside, we were outworked and out-positioned for nearly the entire game, as we have been in all of our extreme beatings this year. Thankfully, GCS is awful or the beating could have been so much worse with no additional lessons to learn from it.

Wisdom is the knowledge to avoid mistakes. And wisdom can only be gained from making mistakes. I think a lot of time will be spent in this off-season working on positioning to defend turnovers (this season's consistent challenge) and locking down a team when they gain momentum. We keep trying to blaze away and go forward, regardless of the Mabo of the moment. But when the vibe is against you, sometimes you just need to lock the game down and stop anything from happening before you can burst out going forward again with abandon (as the boys do so well when the wind is in their sails).

All of that is easier said than done, of course, but we've seen some great progress from the team this year. I'm disappointed by thrashings like this, but not dishearted.

 

[DogDaySonny]

On locking down the game, it may be legitimately argued that we shouldn't pursue that strategy when momentum swings against us. We beat Brisbane, after all, by consistently turning up the dial another notch whenever they tried to rally. That, too, is a legitimate strategy - trying to maintain the forward initiative in the match at all times rather than trying to defensively deny initiative to the other side. It's certainly very exciting when 'attack every time, all the time' is going well. I just think we would be well-served by adding the "nobody is gonna do nuthin' out here" play to our bag of tricks to control the game.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I am by NO MEANS arguing we should be like Ross Lyon and sit in a bunker from the opening bounce. I'm just saying, once in a while when the other side seems to be running wild, it's useful to bunker down and change the speed of the contest, make them work a little harder to get the reward at the expense of being as offensive our selves. And when they start to get frustrated then out we come, as aggressive as we can be.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

On locking down the game, it may be legitimately argued that we shouldn't pursue that strategy when momentum swings against us. We beat Brisbane, after all, by consistently turning up the dial another notch whenever they tried to rally. That, too, is a legitimate strategy - trying to maintain the forward initiative in the match at all times rather than trying to defensively deny initiative to the other side. It's certainly very exciting when 'attack every time, all the time' is going well. I just think we would be well-served by adding the "nobody is gonna do nuthin' out here" play to our bag of tricks to control the game.

There was something in an old NFL video that said, if teams score 2 TDS in a quarter, you have 5 minutes to get one back before the momentum stops and you need to start grinding 2-3 yards at a play

Going all out vs Brisbane was OK because we got that momentum back.

Against GC, when the momentum didn't return, we needed to take it slow and kill 10 minutes to stop them getting the ball.
We didn't we started dump kicking it back to them

 

[Hodginator]

Spot on. Struggle to see how we win without him.

Fairly glaringly obvious statement from Bucks there.

AFL essentially helping our draft hand with suspending Sicily for 3 weeks.

 

[humid hawk]

We certainly looked second to the ball and were outworked by the suns - but I think what we missed most was Sic's disposal.

The amount of times that a simple kick was fluffed or lazily kicked through on the bounce, or a handball was shovelled at the feet of a running player was staggering. Our kicking can be pretty good when we're on - but as soon as we're under pressure it goes to shit. This is certainly something that can get better with experience but it's probably something to focus on in training.

 

[DogDaySonny]

Fairly glaringly obvious statement from Bucks there.

AFL essentially helping our draft hand with suspending Sicily for 3 weeks.

Even before Sicily, I was pretty confident we would finish 16th unless Carlton went to complete custard, which is always a strong possibility. But with Siss out and now this beating by GCS, I'm pretty certain that Carlton will finish above us (even when we do beat them this weekend like red-headed stepchildren).

I don't want us to lose, by the way. I want us to win every game to end the season. I just want the lower ladder team who is above us to also win their games. Carlton is playing like Carlton and I wasn't certain they would outplay us to the end of the year, threatening our nice draft position.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

I get all the Sicily missing talk. And clearly when only 5 of your team that run out on the park have played 100 games and 13 of them have played less than 50, you need your most experienced to help lead.

But last time I checked Sicily doesn't play in the middle and that is where we got trounced and never stood a chance. We got pantsed in the middle as badly as we have been all year.

The defenders all things considered, did as well as you could hope under the constant barrage. There was little respite.

And when the ball was kicked forward, once the GC played one defender in front of Lewis and one on his shoulder there wasn't much else.

It was a very poor performance. Lets hope they can pick themselves up like they have for most of the year when they have put in a shocker, and we can stick it to Carlton.

 

[SSSSSS]

I get all the Sicily missing talk. And clearly when only 5 of your team that run out on the park have played 100 games and 13 of them have played less than 50, you need your most experienced to help lead.

But last time I checked Sicily doesn't play in the middle and that is where we got trounced and never stood a chance. We got pantsed in the middle as badly as we have been all year.

The defenders all things considered, did as well as you could hope under the constant barrage. There was little respite.

And when the ball was kicked forward, once the GC played one defender in front of Lewis and one on his shoulder there wasn't much else.

It was a very poor performance. Lets hope they can pick themselves up like they have for most of the year when they have put in a shocker, and we can stick it to Carlton.

Interesting to see Newcombe and Worpel both very low CBA% compared to previous weeks. Both our best ball winners.

Was surprised to see Day having attended 80%+ of CBAs. Must have done a world of running to get back and defend so valiantly.

 

[TylerDurden]

Dimma took a CB.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

Was at the game. Very low intensity contest, perfect conditions for football. On the ground after the game the ground only very slightly Dewey though by watching us tonight you’d think it was ultra slippery out there - it wasn’t. We couldn’t hit a short target all night - 10 meter passes to a man on their own under no pressure and we coughed it up every single time. Outmarked all over the ground all night too. At least we know that we can play better than that though we had zero answers for the Suns attack. All our guys were off the pace tonight. Lloyd Meek 2 possessions in almost 3qtrs ?? Could’ve done with a big body taking a few grabs tonight. Didn’t expect to win anyway and we will be much better than this by next season.

Again our lack of aerial quality killed us. Its a massive issue and laid bare badly when Sic is missing. Plus our small fwds were poor and gave us no bite to make up for it.

Reeves, Meek, Kozi all have wildly fluctuating form with their marking. Add in Blanck who is a stopper rather than someone who intercepts (although is starting to show some signs) and the cupboard is bare.

 

[almuz]

Reminded me of one of those early season games where we simply couldn’t move the ball out of D50.

Also some of our disposals were rank e.g. setting it up nice and high to Mac Andrew’s advantage over Butler. Or lacing out a Suns player 30 meters away. Or handballing to a teammate’s feet.

One for the bin.

 

[Elhawko]

Again our lack of aerial quality killed us. Its a massive issue and laid bare badly when Sic is missing. Plus our small fwds were poor and gave us no bite to make up for it.

Reeves, Meek, Kozi all have wildly fluctuating form with their marking. Add in Blanck who is a stopper rather than someone who intercepts (although is starting to show some signs) and the cupboard is bare.

Really good point, I think. Lewis and Sis can take contested marks but really we can’t rely on anyone else to do so, not consistently anyway. Our rucks took one mark between them this week. I hope we draft for some arial capability this year.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Damned lies and statistics.

What stat reflects his absolute inability to halve a contest?

Had 2 contests for the game and lost 0.

His issue was making the contest, or getting to it. Which wasn't really and issue considering it was mainly outside 50 where he would position himself in a dangerous spot and let his man take easy marks up field. He did well considering the lack of pressure going inside 50, Frost was 50 fold worse and that's an understatement. Scrimshaw did well enough.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

There was no run and carry, no delay of the handball to draw the opponent.
Lack of two way running.
Lazy footy just dump kicking from where ever we took possession (surely a record for marks from oppo kicks)

Scrimshaw needed to step up in sicily's absence, and did nothing

blanck was decent, but his 5 mins of agro lifted the suns, a bit like sicily used to do. He will learn

Probably newcombes worst game since being drafted, but he's been amazing every other week

Breust again needed to be directing traffic, but just doesn't show leadership forward of centre. We desperately need an onfield coach up forward (think Dixon 2006/07)

Just an all-round poor effort. Moore with all the votes, move on and regroup

Bolded are the worst takes I've seen.

Scrimshaw was fine defensively considering everything, the lack of midfield pressure & whatever. He didn't lose a 1on1 contest. He as i mentioned already, was positioning himself in dangerous positions and allowing his man to get easy marks, which is fine, they were all outside 50, he did fine defensively and offensively he was good, he won plenty of the footy, his intercepting game was good and he was able to kill some contests often with his third man up reading of the play.

"Did nothing" is harsh, no comment on how poor Frost was, is funny.

Blanck was ****ing great, in a game where our D50 was under the pump constantly, absolutely zero pressure for big chunks going inside 50 and his man, who is an absolute jet in Ben King kicked just 2 goals, and they came within a few minutes of each other. Outside of that he didn't get near it. He had 5 contests and lost 0, he killed the ball all game and had 9 spoils and he was able to intercept and read the ball a fair few times aswell. I'm super happy with Blanck.

Newcombe has played worse games, he wasn't great but his intensity was good, just didn't have much help, his hands continue to impress me, they are vice like in a humid, dewy day where we dropped marks for fun. He helped defense and was able to roll back down there. The issue was just our contest around the ball, as a cohesive unit. Not just 1.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

A very hard game to watch live. I took someone for their first afl game experience and it was hard game to sell! The game was played with little spirit and low skill level with little noise

• Take W.Day out of our midfield and it become fairly average. Worps,Nuke,Nash, Moore, are all solid players but not that star factor / footy I.Q that is W.Day.
• Meek, Kosi are clueless at times to find the space and time to lead or present down the line. They often struggle to have impact on the contest or break even in it!
• We Lacked leadership across the ground!
• The Sicily factor, Day Covers the back, Moore plays in the middle.Which sounds great but in the end our Mids / Forward line both played like rubbish and got comprised!

LUL, Newcombe is a star and will be as good as Day. Worps/Nash are genuinely hard coal face workers, Nash aswell with his run with ability and defensive side, they are tone setters aswell. Moore is a gun fwd/mid (when he plays in there) which he didn't all game i believe.

That's just a horrid take. We've got Ward, MacKenzie and MacDonald aswell who are all high quality.

Second bolded is true and false, can be at times, but i was impressed at times with Kosi's ability to atleast make a contest where we'd just bomb it no one at all.

Yes we did.

Moore barely played in the middle, Day went back for a quarter to stem the flow and was into the guts the next qtr.

Sicily is a huge out because Frost is genuinely that bad.

 

[The hands of stone]

Absolutely not excusing the performance but worth noting in our last rebuild 05/06 we had numerous games that followed yesterdays script.
Start off decently get overwhelmed , lose any ability to win contest or move the ball .
After half time you barely score . Then last quarter it all unravels and...well you don't score .

Sic out is a triple threat gone for us . Defender , intercepter/rebounder and skipper . Again you sometimes got to cop the pain to get the long term gain.

I wouldnt be overeacting too much to yesterday much the same as I wouldnt to the Lions win.

 

[Topiary]

Says it all. At least the Coach gets it.

Put it this way, I am told, the senior coach is befuddled by the fall off in effort as many of us are. He believes it has nothing to do with age or inexperience or structure.

 

[HawthornHawk]

Was always going to be hard for a handball happy team to succeed up north in the late afternoon slot, let's hope for a good response