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.

 

[scrim reaper]

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

Wow

 

[eldorado]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

It's a free country, you can worry about whatever odd little preoccupation floats your boat.

Your anxieties don't necessarily warrant anything for others to spend time contemplating, though...

 

[Hawkers Hero]

An easy start to the season, whilst good for early wins, also lulls you into a false sense of security.

If we had started this year with North, Richmond and the Eagles in the first 5 and been 3-2, would the same mindset shift to work hard have been present if we then get thumped by Gold Coast?

We have seen from Essendon this year the danger of an easy fixture early. Id rather a few tough games up front to get you stuck into a season and test you with easier games in the middle of the year and a tough last few weeks to prep for finals.

 

[humid hawk]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

The only goal is a premiership (or 5). How we get there really doesn't matter.

I think the stats show that teams who peak early are at a disadvantage though.

Just enjoy the footy now!

 

[Leather Poisoning]

An easy start to the season, whilst good for early wins, also lulls you into a false sense of security.

If we had started this year with North, Richmond and the Eagles in the first 5 and been 3-2, would the same mindset shift to work hard have been present if we then get thumped by Gold Coast?

We have seen from Essendon this year the danger of an easy fixture early. Id rather a few tough games up front to get you stuck into a season and test you with easier games in the middle of the year and a tough last few weeks to prep for finals.

This is so true.

We won 7 games in 2023.
We've won 11 so far in 2024. (and haven't yet played double ups against north or richmond - so soft draw benefit hasn't been realised yet).

I think Mitchell is good at watching the better teams and keeping on feet on the ground in terms of the distance between us and them. He knows we're fragile if we get a few injuries.

I absolutely love how he and the coaching staff responding after round 5. That's where they earn their money. He could have gone conservative, defensive and eked out wins, or tried to limit us to respectable losses. But tweaked and changed and experimented.

I say this has been a very successful season, regardless of what happens in the next 4-8 weeks

 

[Yardie]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

This team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

There ya go.....

 

[Ned Ryerson]

This team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

There ya go.....

Were you straight faced though? I will accept 85% straight faced.

 

[DogDaySonny]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

This is a gold star effort at concern trolling. My congratulations.

You will earn a platinum star if you can add their uniforms being too tight into your next post. Keep up the … work, I guess.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

You will earn a platinum star if you can add their uniforms being too tight into your next post.

Stuart Dew likes this post.

 

[eldorado]

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

I couldn't even get this far with a straight face...

 

[Roddy]

Just an interesting little stat I’ve noticed in the last two weeks, defensively: we conceded a single goal against the reigning premiers in the first half two weeks ago, then 2 goals for the entire second half against Adelaide in Adelaide (and they were junk time nothing-goals after we’d taken the foot off the gas), so, notionally, 3 goals in an entire game across two weeks.

Impressive. Especially with a backline that, on paper and purely visually, looks undersized…

 

[Brishawk]

Just an interesting little stat I’ve noticed in the last two weeks, defensively: we conceded a single goal against the reigning premiers in the first half two weeks ago, then 2 goals for the entire second half against Adelaide in Adelaide (and they were junk time nothing-goals after we’d taken the foot off the gas), so, notionally, 3 goals in an entire game across two weeks.

Impressive. Especially with a backline that, on paper and purely visually, looks undersized…

We have moved from one of the worst defensive teams to one of the best since round 5. It has been a tremendous turnaround. The midfield and forwards really stepped up their defensive pressure.

 

[wahawk]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

‘a good Victorian team for Gather Round’

Remind me who we played this season in Gather Round ?
Was it the reigning premiers ?
A ‘good’ Victorian team ?

 

[hawkman]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

I would prefer our request of who to play in Round 1 is the team we beat on GF day

 

[RCAB]

2025? I'm more interested to see what is prognosticated in 2026

 

[mustang]

We have moved from one of the worst defensive teams to one of the best since round 5. It has been a tremendous turnaround. The midfield and forwards really stepped up their defensive pressure.

I wonder if this was a development thing and Day returning or they changed the game plan as it wasn’t working, like Clarko used to do at bye time.

 

[Hawkers Hero]

I wonder if this was a development thing and Day returning or they changed the game plan as it wasn’t working, like Clarko used to do at bye time.

I think one of the biggest changes in the side was just the Forward line learning to work together as a unit - its easy to forget that in round 1, pretty much none of the starting 6 had played together and we were still trying to find the right mix (Finn and Dimma being trialed forward, Breust and Gunston together etc).

So much of success in the current game is driven by forward half pressure to generate turnover and repeat entries and initially we were allowing the ball to walk out putting our relatively undersized back line under immense pressure.

 

[twentythree]

Yeah I worry that including Lewis in the team will be a step back ... The guy doesn't strike me as a chase, tackle and pressure player.

He'd be sought after on the trade market.

 

[wahawk]

Yeah I worry that including Lewis in the team will be a step back ... The guy doesn't strike me as a chase, tackle and pressure player.

He'd be sought after on the trade market.

By which clubs ?

 

[JZedd]

Hello David king

Is it David King or David Queen.
Busted my chops reading how many free kicks we're getting. Unbelievable envy and unprofessional.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Just an interesting little stat I’ve noticed in the last two weeks, defensively: we conceded a single goal against the reigning premiers in the first half two weeks ago, then 2 goals for the entire second half against Adelaide in Adelaide (and they were junk time nothing-goals after we’d taken the foot off the gas), so, notionally, 3 goals in an entire game across two weeks.

Impressive. Especially with a backline that, on paper and purely visually, looks undersized…

Pies a little inflated given they missed a few very gettable shots, but overall it has been the work of the midfield that has allowed the defenders time to react.

We saw in the cats game what happens when the midfield isn't at least breaking even

 

[JZedd]

Take a long walk

Off a short pier??

 

[HawthornHawk]

Need
A KPF capable of kicking 6 (Dear could grow into this player)
A KDP that can kill the high/long ball to the top of the Goal Square (Barrass for the next 3+yrs)

Want
A burst mid that receives the handball from the clearance winner (Duke / Worpel / Nash or Day), who runs 15m & hits a 30m target by foot. Like Robert Harvey, but fast AF. Or like Judd, without the 6+ uncharacteristic turnovers a game.

I think you're probably right.

It sounds like we'll solve our KPD issue this off season.

We probably need another tall forward who can be competitive in the air, not fussed about the kicking 6 thing, we're much more dangerous as a group who can spread that load. I love what Chol brings in other areas but this is not a strength of his.

I think we're targeting Smith to be that burst player, but I also wonder whether MacDonald can grow into that role.

 

[Walshawk]

I think you're probably right.

It sounds like we'll solve our KPD issue this off season.

We probably need another tall forward who can be competitive in the air, not fussed about the kicking 6 thing, we're much more dangerous as a group who can spread that load. I love what Chol brings in other areas but this is not a strength of his.

I think we're targeting Smith to be that burst player, but I also wonder whether MacDonald can grow into that role.

We won’t need all of Frost, Barrass, Battle, Weddle, Scrim and Sicily down back. If we get Battle, then one of Sicily/Weddle goes forward, if we get both, then Sic goes forward and Weddle can roam wherever he wants, We also have Lewis up our sleeve. We are very close to being sorted for KPPs.

Day is becoming that burst player. He is hitting more targets so either his s kills or decision making has improved. Hopefully we can grab a quick mid in the draft.

 

[KermitJagger]

I know the dead cat bounce suggestion wasn’t popular but given the fixture early in the season is starting to become a lot more regimented I am already worried about 0-3 next season. Should we go out of our way to request West Coast in Tassie as our first home game just to ensure there’s a soft kill somewhere in the first 5 weeks.

We are certs to play Essendon and Geelong in the first month and now that we’re a drawcard we’ll probably get Sydney away and a good Victorian team for gather round, or maybe even Port rather than say, Richmond or St Kilda.

I don’t think anyone with a straight face can tell me this team is good enough to beat Geelong or early-season-jumped-up-Essendon in 2025.

I'm going to take this on face value and assume that it's not an effort to troll, and ask you one thing - why is the assumption that we are likely to flounder and that other older teams like Essendon and Geelong will stay where they are or improve enough to be obvious favourites in 2025? Even this year we should have beaten the "early-season-jumped-up-Essendon" if not for our woeful goal kicking.

Since Sam officially flicked the switch to running his own team at the end of 2022 and we lost Jaeger, Tom and Big Boy, we've improved from 7 wins at 80% in 2023 to 11 wins at 104% in 2024 with 4 games to go. We're also the second youngest list in the competition, and we're running out every week with a single midfielder who has played over 100 games.

At the very least we'll be going into that season with the same team, but they'll be that much more experienced, mature and will have had much more time together to mesh as a team. At best we will be going into that season with the same young, promising core surrounded with acquisitions that will make us better right out of the gate. I just think it's hugely cynical as a supporter to go into a season where all the signs are that we'll continue to improve, and expect us to regress.

Also - just on terminology, we weren't declining so it couldn't possibly be a dead cat bounce. We had already gone as low as we could and had been there for a few years, 7 wins in 2023, 8 in 2022, 7 in 2021, the equivalent of 7 in 2020.