Autopsy Round 3, 2021: Hawks lose to Cats, Easter Monday

[Mercy Seat]

Absolutely that's the goal.
But look how easily Geelong took control of the ball and took it down their end or at least a couple of kicks away from our goals.

In the interview with Baldy Hale last year, he mentioned that Clarko had a name for the high ball. Can't remember the name, but Hale explained the theory behind it being that it was to pressure the opposition in the air and on the ground and either cause a turnover or force a rush kick out to our zone setup 60m from goal.

Worked well when you had Rough who was exceptionally balanced in the air, Gunston who was a master at body position and Hale who was a very smart footballer to control the air ball, then Poo and Cyril to apply pressure when it's on the ground allowing Franklin and Bruest to help pressure and use their immaculate goal sense to snag goals at opportune times.

We don't have anything close to that now. Gunston is being asked to play the tall man role and sit under the ball. Bruest needs help with the immediate pressure once the ball hits the deck. We have to deal with a dumb football brain Ceglar, unbalanced TOB and weak air target in Lewis. We're not playing to any of our forwards' strengths. We're playing to a gameplan based around a philosophy.

Chaos Ball. We did it when the opposition had been able to set up but we had the likes of peak Cyril, Breust, Hill and Poppy mopping up. If you look at the way we are playing now, the forwards are trying to make space, and the times we’ve looked good this year are when we are able to catch the opp out of position. We have a new forwards coach in McCrae who is trying to do something similar to what tigers do, but we are still a way off. Ultimately though, it comes down to our ball movement.

 

[rdhopkins2]

I just think it's unfair that a team who finished 15th has to play the previous season's Grand Finalists in the first 3 rounds.

On the contrary, we get some good early tests to see where we are at and an earlier chance to improve. Would rather see development leading towards future premierships rather than a cheap win against a lower side.

This is week playing Freo in Perth will be a good test of our ability to travel and win. No excuses. Freo are horrible but anticipate they will be tougher to beat on their own dungheap.

 

[HairyO]

Howe continually gets mowed down from
behind every game he plays with lack of game awareness and it’s usually in big moments as he can’t get out of second gear.

Took a great contested mark from a terrible kick just before his turnover.

Centred the ball to Lewis from the boundary when under pressure a few minutes before that.

He did more good than bad. If we had cleared the ball after the throw in I doubt people would be mentioning the mistake.

Last week we kicked the ball out on the full 4 times. I dont remember complaints like this.

We made literally dozens of mistakes. If any of those other mistakes were the final miatake of the game that would be what people are moaning about.

Plus some blaming TOB for the loss.

 

[KermitJagger]

As much as I like Howe sometimes, Greaves is waiting in the wings who can play a similar role with more consistent footskills. I hope he finds form again because Howe isn't going to get dropped unless he does.

 

[burner1]

Who was on Guthrie and Duncan as they racked them up? Wasn’t Mitchell (as was being tagged). While the stats say we had more clearances thought the cats mids beat us - at very least spread and got it out of congestion far easier than we did - which is a constant issue. How many of eg JOMs clearances were a clean kick?

 

[Judd2Sewell]

It wasn't though, Smith is a rat he thought he was jumping off a sinking ship and abandoned the club when he was needed to help rebuild. fu** him.

We do not need a 31 year old winger to rebuild. If we needed him then we were doing it wrong.

 

[TheFourPillars]

First off, you're assuming I watched the game on tv. I've been to every Easter Monday game since it became a tradition so...

Secondly, who do you think makes the choice for the forwards not to lead?
Is it the player/s? Doubt it, as it's been a consistent thing for Hawks forwards since 2009. No junior coach 'forgets' to teach their players to lead.
Is it the forwards coach? Doubt it. McCrae came from Richmond and Lynch and Riewoldt are notorious leaders.
Is it the head coach? Of course it bloody is. You know it is. Ask Jordan Lewis or listen to him on fox footy when he speaks about our forward structure and he'll tell you what the mids are instructed to do entering the forward 50 under Clarkson. David Hale has even made mention of it when being interviewed last year.

You really got to stop making excuses for him. The only thing that's remain consistent throughout the past 12 or so years of our forwards not leading is the head coach. The players have changed and the assistant coaches have changed yet the strategy hasn't. It was almost expect that Rough and Franklin, 2 far superior forwards than Kosi and Lewis, to have the same type of ineffectual games against Geelong.

Don't blame the players, it's not their fault. They were playing to instruction.

Lol so we train to play the way your suggesting. The forwards dont lead. In fact in the first half they dont even compete. We fumble and have skill errors and mistakes everywhere. The long high ball to the square is the go to by any team that has no options when there are streaming forward. Howe is being slammed for his decision making but he was following instruction. We were covered going down the line we had to switch the ball to the fat side so we could have space for our forwards. His execution let him down much like a lot of players in our team. We r playing a different game plan its really easy to see that but we r no where near executing consistently.

 

[essaynode]

Three things I liked from yesterday:
1. A close game and the team's effort. Gosh it was boring at times, but the last quarter was entertaining. Not giving up keeps me hopeful.
2. The defensive structures. It was clear from where I was sitting that Geelong were playing slow because our defensive structures didn't allow them easy options transitioning from defence to offence. This is the sign of a well-drilled side.
3. The continued rise of CJ. Love him taking on the game. His confidence should increase week to week.

Three things to improve:
1. Forward 50 entries. Something wasn't clicking in the forward line. And then when it did get in, Geelong seemed to be able to get it out pretty easily. Perhaps this is the trade off for point 2 above? I don't know.
2. Skill levels. Second week in a row where the kicks/handballs are a little too loopy or lofted which gives the opposition time to close and spoil. The Dan Howe kick that was intercepted in the last quarter was a good example.
3. Goal kicking. We missed some shots that if we'd nailed would have put on more scoreboard pressure earlier.

 

[CobberRodgers]

Howe continually gets mowed down from
behind every game he plays with lack of game awareness and it’s usually in big moments as he can’t get out of second gear.

If I could see what he was trying to do even before he did it from 10 rows back in the stand and yelled out "don't kick it into the middle you can't make that kick' then how does he not know he can't make the kick? He's not improving our list, he's not going to be around for our next tilt.

Give a kid a go.

 

[CobberRodgers]

I think Isaac would’ve been disappointed if no one booed him. If I’d been there I would’ve booed him. If the player doesn’t care, which he clearly doesn’t, what’s the fuss?

Treloar getting booed by Collingwood is a bit different (and doesn’t make sense, shouldn’t they be booing their own list manager?), but also he’s a player who clearly went through a bit of a tough time personally, seems a bit harsh to boo him. Horses for courses on the boo.

I think the issue for me is that clubs came for him at the end of 2019 and he said he wanted to stay a Hawk knowing full well he was going to be a FA at the end of 2020. We could have cashed in at the end of 2019.

To then opt out, and go to Geelong of all clubs, well, you can't blame people for getting their noses out of joint.

Not disputing his achievements and performance with us, he was great, but I hope he has no success at Geelong whatsoever.

 

[hawk for 37]

Not enough love here for Scrimshaw. Thought his coolness in tight was great yesterday.
Hoping one of Scrimshaw CJ or Day push up to the wings at some point.
3 outstanding prospects sitting at half back. Silicy back with Impey in great form, then it’s got to happen.

 

[TylerDurden]

If I could see what he was trying to do even before he did it from 10 rows back in the stand and yelled out "don't kick it into the middle you can't make that kick' then how does he not know he can't make the kick? He's not improving our list, he's not going to be around for our next tilt.

Give a kid a go.

I yelled out the same thing. Never seen a guy telegraph like him. Even the crowd knows his next move it's that flipping obvious.

 

[CobberRodgers]

Three things I liked from yesterday:
1. A close game and the team's effort. Gosh it was boring at times, but the last quarter was entertaining. Not giving up keeps me hopeful.
2. The defensive structures. It was clear from where I was sitting that Geelong were playing slow because our defensive structures didn't allow them easy options transitioning from defence to offence. This is the sign of a well-drilled side.
3. The continued rise of CJ. Love him taking on the game. His confidence should increase week to week.

Three things to improve:
1. Forward 50 entries. Something wasn't clicking in the forward line. And then when it did get in, Geelong seemed to be able to get it out pretty easily. Perhaps this is the trade off for point 2 above? I don't know.
2. Skill levels. Second week in a row where the kicks/handballs are a little too loopy or lofted which gives the opposition time to close and spoil. The Dan Howe kick that was intercepted in the last quarter was a good example.
3. Goal kicking. We missed some shots that if we'd nailed would have put on more scoreboard pressure earlier.

I spent a bit of time in the first half watching at the ground the forward line set ups and movement.

Didn't seem like their was much of either.

Kozzy and Lewis hardly moved or lead. Very stagnant, so easy to predict and pick off, especially when you sit behind your opponent and your midfielders all can't kick over 40m.

I'd love to be Kozzy's size. I know it's only his 3rd game, but he needs to start running and jumping and hurting packs. Sticking knees into backs and crashing bodies. Forward line needs mongrel in it. Now.

 

[WWSD]

Remember that Scrimshaw still isn’t at 100% match fitness yet, but still had an impact.

81% Time on Ground

 

[Come back Cyril]

Took a great contested mark from a terrible kick just before his turnover.

Centred the ball to Lewis from the boundary when under pressure a few minutes before that.

He did more good than bad. If we had cleared the ball after the throw in I doubt people would be mentioning the mistake.

Last week we kicked the ball out on the full 4 times. I dont remember complaints like this.

We made literally dozens of mistakes. If any of those other mistakes were the final miatake of the game that would be what people are moaning about.

Plus some blaming TOB for the loss.

I agree that Howe wasn't our worst player, and to be honest I don't mind the errors he made trying to inititate agressive play by centering the ball. As other have mentioned, Hodge was pretty prone to those errors too (wasn't just the game against Geelong, there were dozens of examples).

The issue with Howe is that his body of work has shown he is slow, a poor decision maker under pressure and has dreadful spatial awareness. If he also can't hit kicks after a mark it makes it difficult to see how he has the right skill set to contribute to a quality team.

He is brave, follows coaches instructions and plays his role defensively, but in my opinion, his physical limitations require a much better skill set to justify his place as best 22. I do think he's a decent enough depth player who always plays his role, so I'm sure he will continue to get games, but I hope not at the expense of players with much greater potential.

 

[MinerBoy]

Exactly - we need patience

I sit here on the stairs cause I'd rather be alone. If I can't have it right now, I'll wait here....

 

[TheFourPillars]

Cegs with only 66% game time. Will we bring back TOB for Cegs this week in the west

 

[OnTheRocks]

There should be a stat that shows us everytime we get outplayed by the cats we whinge about the umps.

A few of our players are appealing for frees now

 

[Brishawk]

Cegs with only 66% game time. Will we bring back TOB for Cegs this week in the west

Did he get injured? Just didn’t seem to be able to compete. Was better last week without being great.

 

[CobberRodgers]

A few of our players are appealing for frees now

Why wouldn't we?

Direct link between midfields that stand there with their arms out and complaining every time someone gets tackled and their ability to get free kicks.

Dogs and Cats are masters of this.

 

[OnTheRocks]

Are our tall forwards coached to stand and point rather than lead? How hard is it to lead at the ball carrier? I reckon it cost us a few goals today and played into the Cats defenders hands.

I was hoping our forwards would lead consistently to our ball carriers. The high ball coming in plays to geelols strength more so than ours. Our young forwards may not mark everything that they lead to but should endeavour to make a lead and make a physical presence to whoever stands in their way, much like Riewoldt and Lynch do. Not all backmen are brave to stand in the space of a leading forward knowing he's coming at speed behind them.

 

[Bugs1977]

Huge respect from a cats fan for the young Hawks style of footy today. Very unlucky not to win. They’re going to do alright this year.

Nice and classy comment

 

[Rowie09]

I'm not sure about anybody else here, but I'm fairly thrilled with where we are at.

We've played Richmond and Geelong the past two weeks. Last years grand finallists, and two of the blue chip contenders in 2021. We've gone down by a combined 5 goals.

We've played 12 quarters of footy this year. I reckon we've played 9 good ones, and 3 poor ones. (2nd v Ess, 1st v Rich, 2nd v Geel)

Importantly though, we've lost playing a brand that we want to play.

The attacking, running nature of our game at the moment is excellent. Our back six has been tremendous. How underrated is Jarman Impey?

Our struggles right now lay forward of the ball. We cant seem to nail that final kick - but again - Kozzy, Brockman, Moore and even Lewis is so inexperienced. It'll click eventually.

This was always a bottom 4 (some even suggested spoon) year for us, but I think our showing in the first three weeks has been excellent.

The ladder doesn't show it, but we're ok I think.

 

[OnTheRocks]

Why wouldn't we?

Direct link between midfields that stand there with their arms out and complaining every time someone gets tackled and their ability to get free kicks.

Dogs and Cats are masters of this.

They are both beneath us, let us not go down to their standards
Many times it was just worthless appealing. Let the umps do their job, they make enough bad decisions without the unnecessary pressure by players trying to influence their decisions.
Maybe it's time for the AFL to stamp it out?

 

[CobberRodgers]

They are both beneath us, let us not go down to their standards
Many times it was just worthless appealing. Let the umps do their job, they make enough bad decisions without the unnecessary pressure by players trying to influence their decisions.
Maybe it's time for the AFL to stamp it out?

If they're going to get it wrong all the time why wouldn't we try and be on the right side of it for once?