Coach Sam Mitchell's direction for the club and 2024 news

[Strapping Young Lad]

If anyone wants to have a listen about what the data is saying in regards to whether we have actually gotten worse this year have a listen to this from the 9:15 mark.

I know a few people have already touched on it, but the data is also showing that our results this year have been slightly better despite actually putting out a younger team and dealing with some injuries.




And here.

 

[lethalselbow]

Sam Mitchell on SEN, this morning.

 

[Turly]

Buckley failed at Collingwood too but their list proved to be OK.

He got them to a GF and should have won.

Wouldn’t call that a failure.

 

[bindas12]

Hawthorn's expectations - watch from 08:00 min mark.

 

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. The youngest team of the league suffering injuries to important players and positions plays like s**t. It isn't exactly rocket science. And for people who say 'blaming injuries is a cop out'. It isn't a cop out, it's reality. Mix this with a slight drop in intensity and it explains everything.

 

[ahhhhhh]

I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. The youngest team of the league suffering injuries to important players and positions plays like s**t. It isn't exactly rocket science. And for people who say 'blaming injuries is a cop out'. It isn't a cop out, it's reality. Mix this with a slight drop in intensity and it explains everything.

What explains the slight drop in intensity?

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Mix this with a slight drop in intensity and it explains everything.

Slight drop in intensity? That's remarkably underselling the display on Saturday night.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. The youngest team of the league suffering injuries to important players and positions plays like s**t. It isn't exactly rocket science. And for people who say 'blaming injuries is a cop out'. It isn't a cop out, it's reality. Mix this with a slight drop in intensity and it explains everything.

Day is obviously a big loss and is one player that we cannot cover at the moment, Lewis is another and is probably our most important player.

But when the injuries began piling up at the start of the season posters were claiming CJ is a fringe best 22 player and that Blanck won't be a big loss. Frost is probably playing some career best football and he might not have even been playing if Blanck was fit for selection.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Day is obviously a big loss and is one player that we cannot cover at the moment, Lewis is another and is probably our most important player.

But when the injuries began piling up at the start of the season posters were claiming CJ is a fringe best 22 player and that Blanck won't be a big loss. Frost is probably playing some career best football and he might not have even been playing if Blanck was fit for selection.

Lewis also didn't play until round 7 last year.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

He didn’t say anything about the following players performance going backwards this season though

Sicily
Nash
Newcombe
MacDonald
Lewis
Reeves
Breust
Ward

How was he going to though, we’d not played a game?
He did highlight that we might see a slow start to the year and that there were things that would take time to iron out.

I think we all know Sicily is being lumped with a bigger role that handcuffs him to a forward without Blanck.
Nash, who knows what his issue is,is it the loss of the hitout advantage we had, is it Day not being there, but perhaps he just needs to freshen up and ignore the contract talk.
Newcombe is getting a bit more work done on him with no Day, but his drive through the contest has been lacking, and he’s another for the “not sure what’s happened to him”.
MacDonald is still very young, he’s had his up and down moments in previous years too, but hasn’t put his best foot forward in 2024. Needs to refresh.
Lewis was reportedly carrying a hip in the first couple of weeks and is now injured again. When he was out there he was fulfilling his role without being a standout, but it’s important to remember we’ve completely changed our forward line in 1 preseason, there was some work to be done in getting everyone to work well together.
The ruck rule has claimed Reeves’ biggest advantage which was his height and ability to not be pushed or blocked off the drop of the ball. Until he can combat that he’s going to be at Box Hill trying to work it out - however he now has concussion.
Breust was carrying a groin niggle into games. He didn’t have the ability to push off or change direction which is a big part of his game.
Ward is 20yrs old, he’s never going to be consistent at this age, and I don’t really agree that he’s gone backwards. He is just young.

There are some collective reasons as to the drop-off of players, but also some individual ones that we don’t really understand from looking on. We can hope these things themselves out in the coming weeks.

 

[HoldingThe Ball]

Sam Mitchell on SEN, this morning.

Well Sam has defended a few players and made some, albeit limited excuses for the others.

But he has backed HIS side to win on Sunday.

He has done his bit and declared Hawthorn are better than they showed last Saturday, and we will see that against Norf.

All on the players then.

They wouldn't want to repeat the effort and desire shown in the CGS game without some very serious questions being asked by a hell of a lot of people.

 

[HedgeFund]

I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. The youngest team of the league suffering injuries to important players and positions plays like s**t. It isn't exactly rocket science. And for people who say 'blaming injuries is a cop out'. It isn't a cop out, it's reality. Mix this with a slight drop in intensity and it explains everything.

Wonder why Richmond lost so easily to West Coast.

KPD: Grimes & Gibcus
KPF: Lynch & Balta
Mids: Taranto, Prestia, Hopper, Ross

That’s their entire spine and 1st choice on ball unit.

Injuries can actually explain a lot.

 

[HedgeFund]

Lewis also didn't play until round 7 last year.

And we didn’t beat anyone other than North until Rd 9 last year.

 

[offtherails9]

What explains the slight drop in intensity?

Optimistic view would say two heavy tough games against the Cats then Pies on 6 day breaks plus travel was just a bit too much for the young team. Mitch actually suggested they may have been overtraining too which adds to it

 

[Flukey!]

He got them to a GF and should have won.

Wouldn’t call that a failure.

Me either.
But he isnt there anymore and he didnt win a flag.

 

[peetoo]

We have 12 games tops at MCG and Launy. Expecting half as wins seems about right, it won’t be as clear as that

6 wins from the remaining 18 rounds sounds about right , more or less.

 

[peetoo]

Optimistic view would say two heavy tough games against the Cats then Pies on 6 day breaks plus travel was just a bit too much for the young team. Mitch actually suggested they may have been overtraining too which adds to it

It was surprising hawks seemed to outlast the pies even though they had 4 more days rest

 

[CHUBBSS]

3-0 record against clarko now, that will be an interesting one to follow over the next few years

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

3-0 record against clarko now, that will be an interesting one to follow over the next few years

We only struggled passed the Roos but a 3-0 zip record for Sam is so soothing

 

[Judd2Sewell]

 

[KermitJagger]

Slight drop in intensity? That's remarkably underselling the display on Saturday night.

I don't think it is, honestly. I think the way games go these days is if you're not on you can get trounced.

Just look at the club that pantsed us last week, similarly pantsed back by Sydney this week. Hard to read too much into things when clubs have these turnarounds on a weekly basis.

 

[FB19]

Some of the selection decisions this year are baffling. Surely we need as much game time into our youth as possible, so what is the thought process on continuing to play HH as sub and having ramsden now missing 2 games at any level?

 

[PenAndPaper]

Some of the selection decisions this year are baffling. Surely we need as much game time into our youth as possible, so what is the thought process on continuing to play HH as sub and having ramsden now missing 2 games at any level?

You're not just going to be gifted game time though. Gunston had more disposals, marks, shots on goal and score involvements in this one game than Ramma has had in two combined.

 

[FB19]

You're not just going to be gifted game time though. Gunston had more disposals, marks, shots on goal and score involvements in this one game than Ramma has had in two combined.

I think you missed my point. I said play him in a game for his development. I didn’t say seniors just at some level.

 

[Roddy]

Unlike in 2005-6 (when it was blazingly obvious), I can't envision what our forward line is going to look like in even a year, let alone beyond that - will Lewis be a part of it, or will he be constantly in and out with injury (or even traded out)? Will Ramma be there? Is Chol just a stopgap? Will Gunners still be around, or this his last year? Breuster - see Gunners. When is Calsher going to enter the fold? Will McCabe make it?
And the forward line mosquito fleet? A potential embarrassment of riches - Moore, Chad, Ginni, Hardwick, Wiz, Bruest, Butler, even Finn?

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

There’s some things that are still looking pretty good for us considering that quite a few metrics got a beating last week and that we should get a bit of a bump in our midfield with Day returning.

Also, to get some of these numbers below while being well down in the midfield holds us in good stead, I feel.

We are 12th in the comp for Contested Possesions. 0.6 below the AFL average of 131.6.
Worth remembering that we are the second youngest list in the comp too which makes our 10th placing for contested possession rate ok imo.

6th for kicking efficiency.
6th for disposal efficiency.
8th for intercept possessions.
8th for groundball gets.
9th for stoppage clearances.
7th for marks inside 50.
8th for marks inside 50 per entry.
11th for intercept marks(0.2 below league ave).


The other thing to note, as different to last year is that we’re 0.1 below the league average for Kicks per disposal.
We were a handball happy team last year, now we have a clear focus on kicking.