Game Day Round 3, 2021: Hawks v Cats, Easter Monday 3:20pm @MCG

[Dixie Flatline]

Good opportunity for Lewis to lead from the front today. We have gone in with some green tall forwards, so I expect that Clarkson will be asking them to just compete in the air and to prevent Geelong defenders from taking intercept marks across half back.

We need to sit on Higgins and Smith. Without Dangerfield and an ageing Selwood, I expect Scott will try to steer the play through Higgins and Smith as being their most damaging midfielders.

Hartigan on Hawkins is an important contest. Hawkins lives playing Hawthorn but big bodied defenders do cause him problems.

We need contributions from O'Meara and from Wingard in the midfield if we are to win this today.

If Geelong are serious about being a premiership fancy, they should win this comfortably but we have seen stranger things happen this weekend and conventional wisdom seems to go out the window when these two teams are involved.

 

[Mrzohs]

- I Would love nothing more for Lewis to bust a few packs and to clunk a few.
-Looking fwd to see Wingard & Bruest work in tandem.
-CJ, Impey off half back continue to grow together with Scrims.

I just wanna see these 3 things all day
1:Hard at it.
2 :work rate (spread) 2way.
3 :skills execution.

 

[TylerDurden]

Good opportunity for Lewis to lead from the front today. We have gone in with some green tall forwards, so I expect that Clarkson will be asking them to just compete in the air and to prevent Geelong defenders from taking intercept marks across half back.

We need to sit on Higgins and Smith. Without Dangerfield and an ageing Selwood, I expect Scott will try to steer the play through Higgins and Smith as being their most damaging midfielders.

Hartigan on Hawkins is an important contest. Hawkins lives playing Hawthorn but big bodied defenders do cause him problems.

We need contributions from O'Meara and from Wingard in the midfield if we are to win this today.

If Geelong are serious about being a premiership fancy, they should win this comfortably but we have seen stranger things happen this weekend and conventional wisdom seems to go out the window when these two teams are involved.

Selwood may be ageing, but Smith and Higgins are also close to their mid 30s. I get Smith can be damaging, but we also have running wingers in Phillips, Morrison and Shiels.

I still believe Selwood is the barometer, especially without Dangerfield. They'll look to his leadership to set the tone early. Cut em off at the head.

 

[B&GBlood]

Its 5 oclock somewhere

5 O"clock, sun is over the yard arm by 11 am.

 

[TylerDurden]

Give me a bit of this shit on the siren today.
Yes Joel, you just lost a Prelim in the dying seconds of the game. On your knees son.

 

[Mrzohs]

Selwood may be ageing, but Smith and Higgins are also close to their mid 30s. I get Smith can be damaging, but we also have running wingers in Phillips, Morrison and Shiels.

I still believe Selwood is the barometer, especially without Dangerfield. They'll look to his leadership to set the tone early. Cut em off at the head.

- Agree Shiels to Selwood for mine.

 

[threesixpio]

Need to win the ruck and centre clearance and deliver lace out to a leading forward. If we can do this ten times for the game, for ten goals, victory is ours.

View attachment 1094217

Give me a bit of this sh*t on the siren today.
Yes Joel, you just lost a Prelim in the dying seconds of the game. On your knees son.

And where Cyril runs past him whilst he is on his knees. Oh what glory

 

[moginie]

The question is how much time will chad play in the middle? He has had a interrupted pre season so we'll be lucky if he's in there 30% imo. Needs to build up some match conditioning 1st

It's also tempered by the inclusion of Duncan and how much time he'll spend in the middle.

I can only hope he's a bit underdone because he's just as important to them as Selwood.

 

[savagelunchbox]

On paper, we're not '$3.35 outsider' bad. However, Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

48

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

has always been Clarko's kryptonite. Has always struggled coaching strategically against him. Hopefully some new intel in McCrae can help him there and hopefully he's not a 'yes' man.

If the likes of Brockman, Bruest, Wingard and even Worpel can transition quickly into the F50 and find some space for the mids to find them and find them in a position that makes the kick to the top of the square look like a bad option, we should be favourites to win this. Cats adore that kick to the top of the square. They sit there waiting for it and use it to start their transition attack. Bringing the ball to ground doesn't work either as they're setup to win the ball in the air and on the ground from the high ball strategy.

Playing along the boundary, as we did last week, also plays into the Cats' favour.

 

[Roddy]

View attachment 1094217

Give me a bit of this sh*t on the siren today.
Yes Joel, you just lost a Prelim in the dying seconds of the game. On your knees son.

How a-mazing was that moment. They made this 'pact', never to lose to us again. They won a whole bunch of relatively meaningless H&A games and one non-knockout final against us, and then the second we meet them in a knockout final, bang, we do it again. 'twas a thing of beauty.

 

[Mercy Seat]

We dont have a tall forward who is good enough to back up a solo ruckman.

Particularly when they don’t want BB doing more than 50/60% of the ruck work. We know that he’s versatile enough to play back and forward, so it’s not like we are carrying either.

In an ideal world we’d have a dedicated ruck playing at 70% and a David hale type filling in the gaps. We just don’t have that at moment. Will be interesting to see what they do once one of them has an injury.

 

[Ridingthebumps]

Geelong have always troubled us as they don’t allow us to switch, even during our go glory days. I would just love to see us change things up and go super aggressive today and take them on through the guts. I don’t think their defensive group is as strong as previous years, so let’s give our forward line some one on one opportunities today. Cegs in the middle has been horrible so far and from memory Stanley toweled us up last year so for one can he please get physical and play like a big guy.

 

[burger09]

This rivalry needs a classic game, nail biting finish and a hawks win to fuel its fire.

A comfortable cats win and it's getting a bit ho hum for the vast majority.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Carl Spackler]

We have basically broken even at stoppages around the ground and in the centre across the two games. It isn’t like we are getting some discernible advantage in the middle. And neither big boy or ceglar have come a lot up forward. And they are soaking up a place on the bench we could be using to rest runners. I’m not seeing a lot of upside to having two rucks.

They are so frequently the target for kicks coming out of defense that I think the two rucks are there for link-ups in a chain of possession rather than as end-points either forwards or backwards. I suspect there's a belief that movement by kick is faster than by hand or running (which I guess is a reasonable belief) so they coaches are trying to make that happen. I wonder what sort of data or analysis supports their reasoning because it is certainly counter to the zeitgeist.

I can't say specifically, obviously, but if they were trying to get rucks into positions which split an opponent's midfield zone, take a mark, play on quickly... then that's a plan. Get yourself two rucks so you can choose to move up either wing or by hand/run through the middle. Yeah, I suppose that's a plan. I have no idea if it's THE plan; I'm just trying to make what I see fit a logic.

 

[Carl Spackler]

How early is too early to crack my first beer ?

It's after noon somewhere in the world so any time is appropriate.

 

[Billyc]

Selwood may be ageing, but Smith and Higgins are also close to their mid 30s. I get Smith can be damaging, but we also have running wingers in Phillips, Morrison and Shiels.

I still believe Selwood is the barometer, especially without Dangerfield. They'll look to his leadership to set the tone early. Cut em off at the head.

Yep. Selwood and Hawkins live for Hawthorn games and will set the tone for them in terms of aggression and intent. We need to be ready for that and need to expect Hawkins in particular to throw some weight around at our young blokes down back. Hartigan is a great physical match up for him. Keep those two from generating any energy and without Dangerfield and I reckon they struggle to get going

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Paywalled.

 

[Milkshaker]

Plenty of run in that Cats side. Prepping for better efforts at the G imo.

 

[JustKickIt]

Bold Prediction: Selwood will get multiple high contact free kicks

 

[WWSD]

I want to see Impey in the midfield.

 

[Brishawk]

They are so frequently the target for kicks coming out of defense that I think the two rucks are there for link-ups in a chain of possession rather than as end-points either forwards or backwards. I suspect there's a belief that movement by kick is faster than by hand or running (which I guess is a reasonable belief) so they coaches are trying to make that happen. I wonder what sort of data or analysis supports their reasoning because it is certainly counter to the zeitgeist.

I can't say specifically, obviously, but if they were trying to get rucks into positions which split an opponent's midfield zone, take a mark, play on quickly... then that's a plan. Get yourself two rucks so you can choose to move up either wing or by hand/run through the middle. Yeah, I suppose that's a plan. I have no idea if it's THE plan; I'm just trying to make what I see fit a logic.

Yeah I just wonder if we wouldn’t be better off with the extra forward taking that role. Let the ruckman play behind play a bit more to save energy too.

 

[rei154]

Our delivery into 50 will determine the outcome of this one more than anything else I reckon.
I expect we'll come level in the ruck dual, lose clearances but damage them in general play.

Cats by 20 or us by 9- I'm leaning towards us with their outs though.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Yeah I just wonder if we wouldn’t be better off with the extra forward taking that role. Let the ruckman play behind play a bit more to save energy too.

Will we see Reeves before the end of the year I wonder, just for a taste?

Extremely green, but is a ruck that seems to have a bit of forward craft from what I have seen.
Certainly early days for him and a fair while before I’d expect him to be pushing into the 22, but hopefully we give him a look this year to see what it’s all about If he keeps ticking boxes at Box Hill.

 

[Bugs1977]

Yeah I just wonder if we wouldn’t be better off with the extra forward taking that role. Let the ruckman play behind play a bit more to save energy too.

Even with the 2 ruck set up this part is already happening Bris.