Autopsy Round 8, 2024 : Hawks leash the Dogs

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn​

9 Jarman Impey (HAW)
9 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
5 Dylan Moore (HAW)
3 James Sicily (HAW)
2 Blake Hardwick (HAW)
2 Conor Nash (HAW)

Where my Nash haters at?

 

[Bugs1977]

I genuinely look at him like the guys in the ufc that just take too many knocks now, he doesn’t look right and those big hits are cumulative. He almost goes robot mode in stages.

Even the best fighters take a year off after multiple head injuries. Libba has just been battering ram for so long.

Yep I really like Libba but if there's ever a candidate for CTE running around in the AFL it's him. I really don't think the Dogs medicos are doing right by him. Just go back and look at Beveridge's comments about the first bad concussion he clearly had a couple of games ago.

 

[Slainte]

Dale and Scrimshaw both could have been in the votes. I'm surprised Hardwick and Nash are in there over those two, not that they played poorly or anything.

Nash was our most effective player in the engine room - both defensively and offensively. Scrimshaw was great but so too were Weddle and Frost. Dale's metres gained (691) was more than 200 ahead of the next (Amon) - and he mostly hit targets.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Rewatched the game and it was definitely worth it. First thing I noticed was Newcombe getting a tag from Macrae and despite this had a significant impact on the game. Was quieter in the second half mainly the third quarter but set the game up early in the contest.



Dear was fantastic on debut, showed his talent and ability. The leap, speed and athletic capacity, good smarts, tackling ferociousness. Sticky mits and in the end finished with 2 and helped in a big way towards winning.



Impey returned well and played a really good role in defense.



MacDonald was superb with his class and backed himself in despite a poor start to his 2024 campaign.



Scrimshaw was excellent, his ability to read the ball in flight is ridiculously good. Defensive masterclass on top of his ball use being superb.



Weddle the other who ran all day, used it well, got forward, exploited JUH and locked him down aswell. Frost was ever solid in his role yet again.



Meek by name not by nature. Meek was absolutely superior to English. Dominated him. Physically belted the Dogs. 45 hitouts 16 disposals 11 contested with a goal and 7 score involvements. Incredible.



Day still blowing out the cobwebs. Ward good in defensive transition and running both ways, he’s this close to it all clicking and he’ll start to open games up, inside 50 kicks were unreal. Hardwick also did a really good role playing taller and just sitting in the hole, considering no dogs smalls were dangerous. Maginness and his two way running was simply just a joy to watch at the game, he does the hard stuff, the boring stuff.



Dylan Moore

13

Dylan Moore

Age

25

Ht

177cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.9

3star

K

5.1

2star

HB

6.7

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

2.9

4star

G

0.3

3star

No current season stats available

D

12.2

3star

K

6.0

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

5.4

5star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

is the best pure half forward in the competition and his ability to also push into the middle has been undeniably impressive. 24 touches (10 contested) with a goal, 4 goal assists and 9 score involvements.



James Sicily

6

James Sicily

Age

30

Ht

188cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

12.7

5star

HB

5.7

4star

M

6.3

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

365.0

5star

D

19.4

4star

K

14.3

5star

HB

5.1

3star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.0

2star

MG

437.4

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

6.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

173.8

3star

is the captain for a reason, captain courageous with his efforts. Monstrous. Super impressed by his leadership and his tenacity to keep going all the time. Went forward in the last on one leg and sealed a victory.



Gunston provided good leadership and impressed by his smarts forward of the ball 2.4 but 6 shots on goal is still very good.



Watson as sub, thought he lost it for the group with that miss directly infront. Instead buckled down and the 2on1 win on the wing was utterly grouse. The forward 50 stoppages late in the game he was also key in locking it in.



Morrison wasn’t great and will likely be on the outer this week, Worpel been quiet, Mackenzie subbed but was okay when on the ground.



Few quiet games and couple changes to be made with Lewis, Breust, Wingard, Chol to return within the next couple weeks. Mainly Lewis, Breust and Chol as Wingard is still conditioning back from his Achilles.



It’s a win the group needed to let them blossom, to be really full strength very soon and to catapult the season forward is going to be an intriguing prospect.

 

[spudmaster]

How bloody good is that winning feeling!!! The win against North was good, but hell yesterday was awesome. Fantastic to see Dear snag two on debut, Impey a masterclass all day, Sicily a true captain's game given all his injuries. Nothing better than belting out the song.

Carna Hawks.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Not strictly game related, but this has been an A-Grade example of what commentary could be. The entire group. Hopefully signs of what it'll be in the future with the more recent retirees and actually dedicated callers.

The main caller, the horse racer. Forgot his name already but his voice is therapy like purely therapeutic. Haven’t felt that way since Dennis. Calls the game super well and he did the Brisbane game in Tassie a couple years ago. I remember one of the calls were “Lewis for goal, he’s brought Launceston to life” after he bombs it 55m.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Yeah that commentator sounds a bit like Roy or HG, though I'm not sure who is who.

 

[KermitJagger]

Yeah that commentator sounds a bit like Roy or HG, though I'm not sure who is who.

He just has that classic Aussie sports broadcaster voice. He sounds like he's straight off the radio in the best possible way.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Yes and no.

Not his first few minutes of the first quarter. Got involved in quite a pile up with lots of push, shove, crash and bash going on when as leader he really needed to be the one who pulled our players out of there and concentrate on the game that was ongoing.

Plus the you know the MRO will always look for something out of nothing and Sicily gave him something to look at.

So gutsy to come back after his shoulder was out and then later his ankle getting some attention. To go forward was a great move and added something.

Certainly his best game for the year after the early scuffles.

Came after he was backing his teammates up, I don’t care about scuffles. They happen because if you do something to one his or another teammate he’ll do something, as did Frost and Hardwick.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Is anyone that was at the ground able to provide some insight as to what Josh Wards role was today?

On the TV he looked to be the winger on the side of the ground the ball wasn't haha.

Played a little wing but mainly high half forward. His workrate was immense and ran himself off his legs, shut down their transition game with Morrison running in tandem. Got ignored a bit and had good space, needs to get the pace of timing a little better but it’ll click. Good foot skills inside 50.

 

[Topiary]

The main caller, the horse racer. Forgot his name already but his voice is therapy like purely therapeutic. Haven’t felt that way since Dennis. Calls the game super well and he did the Brisbane game in Tassie a couple years ago. I remember one of the calls were “Lewis for goal, he’s brought Launceston to life” after he bombs it 55m.

The caller’s name is Matt Hill. Just superb.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

The Dogs have a great lineup. If they're touchy about anything it should be Bevo, the fact that he tried absolutely nothing to get JUH into the game after being worn like a glove by Frost is an indictment. Mitchell and our leadership team swung things around, Moore went into the middle, Sic up forward, Hardwick down back, Day behind the ball. It won us the game.

For a coach who is so willing to mix things up in team selection and throw players into different positions pre-game, he's a terrible game day coach.

I rekon a decent coach would be trying something different to get the point across also regarding coaching from the bench as opposed to staying up in the box every match. He's just so set in his ways and he's message inst getting through clearly why not try and coach from the bench for a fortnight see if it triggers something in the players. It's the modern way coaches are choosing to operate and for the Dogs they need some sort of circuit breaker. Either he changes his style or he gets the arse. Pretty simple really.

 

[SpanishBrowne]

Drop Nash, he's no good.

Only 2 votes. Hope Sam puts him on notice this week

 

[humid hawk]

The caller’s name is Matt Hill. Just superb.

Yeah, he's a fantastic caller. Just wonderful to have someone adroitly describing the game without an ego to feed. Richie Benaud would approve!

 

[brad sue well]

The caller’s name is Matt Hill. Just superb.

Said it during the game. It added to the game so well. A professional showing the craft required.

We have become accustomed to past players thinking they can do anything. Their voice just isn’t up to it. Montagna in an NBL game over summer was embarrassing.

 

[brad sue well]

Yep I really like Libba but if there's ever a candidate for CTE running around in the AFL it's him. I really don't think the Dogs medicos are doing right by him. Just go back and look at Beveridge's comments about the first bad concussion he clearly had a couple of games ago.

Fourth in 12 months. Just can’t see how AFL doctors have the ability to assess a player is ready sooner than the community. What skill or tool is it? 28 days is the best advice, let’s look after the players.

Footy is such a great game, not at this expense.

If in doubt, sit them out.

 

[smeltitdeltit]

Gunner had the black armband. Only one wearing one it seems. Something he does every week (for his dad)?

 

[Flukey!]

I loved Meeks tap from the goal line to Ward for his goal.
That is real footy smarts.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Lucky we did win this, or Jai Newcombe's 28 metre penalty would have been in the news today.

 

[Alite]

It wasn't a tactical decision by the coaching staff.

It was suggested to Sam by Sic at the 3/4 time break because his ankle was stuffed and he couldn't jump.

Move was based on nothing else other than Sic could've been exposed in defence as a liability as he couldn't move properly.

Reminds me of Stewey Dew being cooked in the 2008 GF and putting himself fwd.

…

Dew - who had lost match fitness during 2007 and arguably hadn’t fully regained it before the ‘08 flag decider - proved crucial. It was a move, he admits, that was driven out of desperation - and injuries. “I just drifted forward. I actually hurt my knee, and I think we were down two, I think Croady was off and Clinton Young was off”… “So we were sort of rotating forward and back, and couldn’t come off the ground for a little bit there, so just before three-quarter-time I think the runner said, can’t come off now, have to wait until three-quarter-time.

“I thought I’ll just wander forward and send someone back.”

…

Re-living that never gets old

 

[brad sue well]

Reminds me of Stewey Dew being cooked in the 2008 GF and putting himself fwd.

…

Dew - who had lost match fitness during 2007 and arguably hadn’t fully regained it before the ‘08 flag decider - proved crucial. It was a move, he admits, that was driven out of desperation - and injuries. “I just drifted forward. I actually hurt my knee, and I think we were down two, I think Croady was off and Clinton Young was off”… “So we were sort of rotating forward and back, and couldn’t come off the ground for a little bit there, so just before three-quarter-time I think the runner said, can’t come off now, have to wait until three-quarter-time.

“I thought I’ll just wander forward and send someone back.”

…

Re-living that never gets old

Every single time, that day was a dream.

 

[killerspud]

Every single time, that day was a dream.

...unless you are a cat -in which case its a total nightmare. Had a conversation with Cameron Ling after the 2012 GF and he said that day we were just like the Cats in 08. I joked to him that it still bothers him. I cant' remember his exact words but it was something to the effect that yeah it still annoyed him

 

[Alite]

Feels like people forget just how good Jars was in the seasons immediately after he joined us.

He’s played better than yesterday.

If it was not his best game, then it was the first time he was the Hawks best-on in a win.

Agreed Jars was in great form before he did his ACL in 2022, but he has only ever gotten 1 Brownlow vote. He will surely get 2 or 3 votes after yesterday’s performance.

 

[Brucie Buffer]

Still buzzing after the win. Public holiday up North, took the kids to the park and the missus seen me on my phone and said are you on Bigfooty?
Frosty has to be one of the in form backs in the league, glad he has triggered another year and I hope we have a few more years of this kind of form.

I think this is the game that we will look back on and see it made Sicily as a captain. Been down on form but I think he will have gained a new found respect from his team mates and the coaching staff. He could’ve easily tapped out but stood up when we needed him.

 

[Bedi]

I’m a little concerned Nash might have something to answer for though. With 8:35 left to go in the last he gets called for a throw and then bumps the umpire who made the call.

I don’t think he did it deliberately, so I’m hoping it’s just a fine.

I haven't seen the replay but it didnt look great at the game. Not one bit... Though given i havent heard anything about i assume it was 100% unavoidable contact