Autopsy Round 2, 2022: Hawks disconnect the power

[Noneedforaname]

I've been looking forward to the journey. The trip that Sammy has started with these bloke.
I was not expecting this type of things for a couple of years maybe.
Sure there would be glimpses, passages of play, but not a sustained 4 quarter effort like last night.
That is going to be a famous and important game we look back on.

Just wow.

 

[Bugs1977]

There were more than a few Hawks here.. Fantastic night

It was so good hearing that from home Tops. The loud cheering wasn’t just when we were up big but more so at the start of the game. Really drowned out all their fans and took them out of the game.

 

[Yardie]

Nash in the ruck again.
That clearance and kick to Lewis was superb.
The run and gather for his goal was awe inspiring.
A great game.

They way he held the ball and kicked it for that goal was all Gaelic footy!

 

[Yardie]

I'm trying to understand the contested possession differential. I think it is because we kept them under so much pressure that each possession in a chain became contested. Is that how the contested possession stat works?

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Unsure if it’s been mentioned yet - but we held Port goalless for two quarters last night. Absolute testament to how good our defensive unit stands up. Frost and Sicily work brilliantly together and Hardwick just does his business all night and makes it brutally hard for opposition forwards.

 

[buddylove23]

I've been looking forward to the journey. The trip that Sammy has started with these bloke.
I was not expecting this type of things for a couple of years maybe.
Sure there would be glimpses, passages of play, but not a sustained 4 quarter effort like last night.
That is going to be a famous and important game we look back on.

Just wow.

Surprised me. I’m all in.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[WWSD]

Coming soon…

C: Day (20), Ward (18), MacDonald (19)

 

[Hawker55]

Denver will play every week unless injured from now on, no doubt.

Agree. I think we got used to Clarko’s rationing of games to kids unless they absolutely tore it up - at times in that 17 years it was harder to get out of the side then get in.

Sam seems to be about giving players a decent run rather than 1 or 2

 

[Fleabane]

It’s called goodbye season 2022.
They want Clarkson thinking that will fix midfielders all getting sucked into contest and correct the over defensive focus
I didn’t have the heart or guts to point out that’s what we had been complaining about with Clarkson in his final years

Yep, been there, done that.

 

[zacattack]

I love it that Sam Mitchell is not mucking around with players' heads and keeping them in positions where they were 'born to play'
(no more chess with forcing players to fit a fully defensive/too much rotating mind-set). E.g. no more Gunston to defence suddenly; keeping
Chad in his latter career years mainly at half forward flank where he can be a freak/etc.
And OMG the sudden increase in foot skills/bullet passes again/accuracy in front of goal - is this the David Hale

David Hale

Age

40

Ht

201cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.7

2star

HB

4.9

4star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

0.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

6.6

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

2.0

2star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.8

3star

G

0.4

3star

influence/the lifting of standards with
a very exciting bunch of new draft picks?
The side is so much more enjoyable to watch now..I think I struggled to see a single 'kick backwards' pass in defence last night...a classic Clarko
zone defence manoeuvre..

 

[H00t]

I'm trying to understand the contested possession differential. I think it is because we kept them under so much pressure that each possession in a chain became contested. Is that how the contested possession stat works?

We got smacked in tackles also. Port were much better than us around the clearances.

Once we turned the ball over though and went quickly, port were very lazy defensively in transition, which allowed us to transfer the ball from one end to the other.

All our hard running paid off big time. Contested side still needs a lot of work though.

 

[Fleabane]

I love it that Sam Mitchell is not mucking around with players' heads and keeping them in positions where they were 'born to play'
(no more chess with forcing players to fit a fully defensive/too much rotating mind-set). E.g. no more Gunston to defence suddenly; keeping
Chad in his latter career years mainly at half forward flank where he can be a freak/etc.
And OMG the sudden increase in foot skills/bullet passes again/accuracy in front of goal - is this the David Hale influence/the lifting of standards with
a very exciting bunch of new draft picks?
The side is so much more enjoyable to watch now..I think I struggled to see a single 'kick backwards' pass in defence last night...a classic Clarko
zone defence manoeuvre..

Agree with all that although Gunston did pop up in defence towards the end of quarters I noticed which I thought was a smart move.
I really like it that players are playing to their strengths, being encouraged to use their instincts. The last few years I thought they looked really confused at times, like they were wrestling with instructions vs their natural instincts; last night they were all on the same page and very few wasted possessions. Exhilarating stuff.

 

[H00t]

The question that keeps running around in my head is:

Where would we be today if Sicily and Gunston had played last season?

Some thoughts:

• Clarko would still be coaching.
• We probably wouldn't have Harvey and/or Mitchell at the club.
• Brockman would have developed more under Gunston's tutorage.
• CJ probably wouldn't be as developed as we have seen.
• We wouldn't have Ward AND MacDonald.
• Shiels probably would have played last night.

Lots of hypotheticals, but this is a real sliding doors scenario.

For me the biggest difference is game plan. If we played with our slow ball movement from last year we lose this game comfortably.

Gunston and Sicily are benefiting as much from quick play as they are benefiting us.

By attacking we give our defence time to set up more, plus it makes the opposition run defensively. Which port refused to do. It lets us break out of the opposition zone. Rather than drowning in it.

 

[MinerBoy]

I love it that Sam Mitchell is not mucking around with players' heads and keeping them in positions where they were 'born to play'
(no more chess with forcing players to fit a fully defensive/too much rotating mind-set). E.g. no more Gunston to defence suddenly;

Unless there's about 90 seconds left in a quarter and the other side has momentum and guess who bobs up for a defensive mark!!

 

[Phil McCreviss]

An interesting thing that I've noticed in the last few years. Coaches seem to be at the top of their game in a age range between early 40s to late 40's. There is an argument that some of the older coaches ie Clarkson, Hinkley, Longmire etc are not innovating and reliant on obsolete game plans. Mitchell has made subtle tweaks with almost the same personnel and its made a significant difference. Pretty sure he is applying some modern techniques that Clarkson would never have entertained.

 

[moginie]

Hawks undefeated in their last 6 AFL games yet the clown Kane on the Footy Show calls the Hawks a bottom 4 side to put emphasis on Port playing poorly rather than credit to the Hawks

I think that Cornes should worry more about the fact that his team is very likely to be 0-5.

 

[The hands of stone]

Love the youth that Mitchell is playing and geez the 2 kids we took in last years draft look pretty good for 1st year players.

I want to keep grounded as Port was horrible last night, we kicked a freakish 13.0 from set shots but, the ball transition ball movement from backline to the forward part of the ground was the best I've seen in years.

I hope Mitch Lewis can have a very consistent season and own that spot.

Nash and Newcombe big bodies are very important for midfield dynamic. We might not be winning the clearances but we aren't allowing those easy deep clearances like recent years.

Sicily and Gunston back has been huge, didn't expect Gunston to be moving like he never had 2 back surgeries.

Still think we'll go through some struggles like most young sides do, especially when we lose some confidence. But we can see a style that is trying to be implemented, a style that stands up and a real youth movement and direction for the future. Delighted to see Sammy rack up some early wins the whole " Hawks are idiots for getting rid if clarko " mantra doesn't become dominant in the media.

Get excited mate and embrace it . Ups and downs and the like .

We still have to fit our best young player back in to improve our side further .

Your mates down the highway also have a few talented youngsters to come in Higgins and Ceglar to improve there side also .

 

[badgrill]

Our field kicking was 100% better then the north game also hope this is the base and just continues to get better and better one thing along with our goal kicking that has just got worse and worse since our 3peat.

one observation when comparing to our 3peat era was how many 'easy' set shots close to goal with not too much of an angle - contributing to amazing set shot accuracy. 2012-14 in particular I remember this being a feature

 

[Mitchell Madness]

I think that Cornes should worry more about the fact that his team is very likely to be 0-5.

Cornes, and to a larger extent the media, perform on confirmation bias.
Hawthorn are bad, therefore their opposition must be worse.

No different to 2013-15 where the narrative became "the league is weak" because they kept predicting the hawks demise

 

[CHUBBSS]

An interesting thing that I've noticed in the last few years. Coaches seem to be at the top of their game in a age range between early 40s to late 40's. There is an argument that some of the older coaches ie Clarkson, Hinkley, Longmire etc are not innovating and reliant on obsolete game plans. Mitchell has made subtle tweaks with almost the same personnel and its made a significant difference. Pretty sure he is applying some modern techniques that Clarkson would never have entertained.

Talking about this the other day, I’ll have to use my words carefully here haha

I have the current perception that after a certain age point it’s like all of a sudden their is just all this bad decision making that their never once was when you look at all the ex elite coaches, pagan, sheedy etc is it the game growing out of them or hubris or something else but it still doesn’t explain the bad decision making?

 

[mustang]

The question that keeps running around in my head is:

Where would we be today if Sicily and Gunston had played last season?

Some thoughts:

• Clarko would still be coaching.
• We probably wouldn't have Harvey and/or Mitchell at the club.
• Brockman would have developed more under Gunston's tutorage.
• CJ probably wouldn't be as developed as we have seen.
• We wouldn't have Ward AND MacDonald.
• Shiels probably would have played last night.

Lots of hypotheticals, but this is a real sliding doors scenario.

We could have also traded our first two picks last year for ready made b grade talents.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Some stats to breakdown:

Centre Bounce Attendance's:
19 - Worpel, Mitchell
17 - JOM
14 - Ward
10 - Newcombe
8 - Nash

Clearances:
5 - Mitchell
4 - JOM, Ward
3 - Worpel, Nash
2 - MacDonald, Morrison
1 - Wingard, Newc, Moore, McEvoy, Scrimshaw, Phillips, Reeves

Pressure Acts:
34 - Worpel
26 - Ward
23 - Morrison
21 - Moore
19 - Breust
18 - Mitchell
17 - JOM, MacDonald, Newcombe
16 - Maginess, CJ
15 - Hardwick

Score Involvements:
9 - Moore
8 - McEvoy
7 - JOM, Lewis, Breust, Gunston
6 - MacDonald, Mitchell
5 - Newcombe, Worpel, Morrison, Hardwick
4 - Ward, Scrimshaw, Sicily
3 - Nash, DGB
2 - Wingard, Frost, Reeves
1 - Maginess, Phillips

 

[Brishawk]

I'm trying to understand the contested possession differential. I think it is because we kept them under so much pressure that each possession in a chain became contested. Is that how the contested possession stat works?

Yes. We were much better than them at turning contested possessions into uncontested rather than have long chains of contested possessions. Port didn’t control the game but for scoring. They overused the ball trying to escape our pressure and generally kicked to contests inside fifty.

 

[OnTheRocks]

The ladder is 0.1% from perfection

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Some stats to breakdown:

Centre Bounce Attendance's:
19 - Worpel, Mitchell
17 - JOM
14 - Ward
10 - Newcombe
8 - Nash

Clearances:
5 - Mitchell
4 - JOM, Ward
3 - Worpel, Nash
2 - MacDonald, Morrison
1 - Wingard, Newc, Moore, McEvoy, Scrimshaw, Phillips, Reeves

Pressure Acts:
34 - Worpel
26 - Ward
23 - Morrison
21 - Moore
19 - Breust
18 - Mitchell
17 - JOM, MacDonald, Newcombe
16 - Maginess, CJ
15 - Hardwick

Score Involvements:
9 - Moore
8 - McEvoy
7 - JOM, Lewis, Breust, Gunston
6 - MacDonald, Mitchell
5 - Newcombe, Worpel, Morrison, Hardwick
4 - Ward, Scrimshaw, Sicily
3 - Nash, DGB
2 - Wingard, Frost, Reeves
1 - Maginess, Phillips

5 score involvements from Dimma is pretty damn impressive for a defender.