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.

 

[flinchfree]

We were saying the opposite last year. Where to for Meek

One player got better. Considerably.
The other hasn't.

 

[cs61]

Over the past two weeks, I’ve watched replays of the Freo and Collingwood games, focusing on Nashy on the inside and CJ on the outside.

I can now clearly see why Sam loves them both. Nashy creates space on the inside with his astute blocking and sheer size, while CJ does the same on the outside with his burst running. These traits aren’t reflected in stats sheets but the end-product that we all see - our slick ball movement - owes a heck of a lot to what Nashy and CJ do.

I invite anyone who still doubts their contribution to carry out the same exercise that I did - I’m sure you’ll change your mind.

Now, let’s just get them re-signed as quickly as possible please!

Every time re-watched a game, Jiath is just involved doing good stuff in chains, and helping put speed on the ball. He makes it look effortless the way he gets it then hands it off, takes off, and then it back and he's set someone else off in a better position and we are off, and the opposition have to try to go with him/us time and time again. It'd be exhausting, and we have been breaking teams like GWS and Pies who much prefer to run forward than defensive transitions. Also gets a lot of little defensive hands in to disrupt opposition chain or a spoil by cutting off, that due to his coverage and run on spread he's able to get to more than most.

I'd say given wing is new to him he's out performing where I'd thought he'd be coming back from injury issues, and adjusting to one of the most difficult positions in terms of running patterns/strategy. We've looked better with him on the wing, and the exciting part he has a lot of scope for improvement, and I'm surprised some see that as a negative or that he needs to be dropped rather than more games to continue to build that connection/get used to running patterns on the wing and what decisions to make in close.

 

[LegendLewis]

Great Ginni got the MVP. Could have been Nash or even the Wiz.

Each week it seems someone new gets the MVP, does anyone have the MVP list of this years games handy?

 

[cryptor]

Great Ginni got the MVP. Could have been Nash or even the Wiz.

Each week it seems someone new gets the MVP, does anyone have the MVP list of this years games handy?

R01: Ginnivan
R02: Weddle
R03: Worpel
R04: Hardwick
R05: Maginness
R06: Moore
R07: Moore (2)
R08: Impey
R09: Amon
R10: Hardwick (2)
R11: Worpel (2)
R12: Moore (3)
R13: Day
R14: Sicily
R15: BYE
R16: Newcombe
R17: Moore (4)
R18: Meek
R19: Ginnivan (2)

 

[LegendLewis]

R01: Ginnivan
R02: Weddle
R03: Worpel
R04: Hardwick
R05: Maginness
R06: Moore
R07: Moore (2)
R08: Impey
R09: Amon
R10: Hardwick (2)
R11: Worpel (2)
R12: Moore (3)
R13: Day
R14: Sicily
R15: BYE
R16: Newcombe
R17: Moore (4)
R18: Meek
R19: Ginnivan (2)

Legend!
Thank you

 

[cryptor]

Legend!
Thank you

Going back through it I was surprised Meek only had his first last week. I thought he had several earlier in the year.

 

[Nugett]

Sam is the obvious winner for Coach of the year this year. Regardless of where we finish, has taken our list further than most expected

 

[LegendLewis]

Going back through it I was surprised Meek only had his first last week. I thought he had several earlier in the year.

Yeah I would have thought so too.

What gets me is that it is 12 different players who have won an MVP.

That's difficult for oppo teams to try and cover and speaks volumes about the TEAM.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Over the last eleven games (since the Sydney loss) we are nine wins and two losses.

Points for total - 997
Points against total - 791

Points per game - 90.63
Points against per game - 71.91

Percentage - 126.03

Only one poor performance in that entire period, which can be forgiven given how young the team is.

Over that same period the form ladder reads:

Brisbane - 9W - 1D - 1L - 134.75%
Hawks - 9W - 2L - 126.03%
Sydney - 8W - 3L - 139.21%
Freo - 7W - 1D - 3L - 118.82%
Doggies - 7W - 4L - 119.67%
Blues - 7W - 4L - 116.04%

Spoiler

Brisbane for - 1,167 at 106.09
Brisbane against - 866 at 78.73

Sydney for - 1,122 at 102.00
Sydney against - 806 at 73.27

Freo for - 991 at 90.09
Freo against - 834 at 75.82

Doggies for - 1,028 at 93.45
Doggies against - 859 at 78.09

Blues for - 1,092 at 99.27
Blues against - 941 at 85.55

 

[cryptor]

Yeah I would have thought so too.

What gets me is that it is 12 different players who have won an MVP.

That's difficult for oppo teams to try and cover and speaks volumes about the TEAM.

Totally agree. The fact Sicily, Newcombe and Day have only been it once each shows the growth from last year.

 

[Steven Tyler]

Sam is the obvious winner for Coach of the year this year. Regardless of where we finish, has taken our list further than most expected

Longmuir from Freo has done a great job so far also

 

[The Chad and I]

Clarko had his cluster.


This time we've got "Sammy's Swarm"
Mitch has built a fortress of intercepting talls in defence, and it seems the rest of the team except for Meek, Chol and Dear are ALL hard running players who could be interchangeably played across 2 lines (at least) from half back/wings, to wing/fwd, mid/fwds and high half forwards who seem to do whatever the hell they want. We don't actually have specialist small forwards or even small defenders.

5 tallish defenders, 1 ruck, 2 KPF
15 running players.

One thing they all do is attack the contest and ball - RELENTLESSLY.
Absolutely ferocious attack on ground balls and incredible work rate to spread from there.

Collingwood game was a huge statement.
We are back.

The more I think about it, the more I realise this team reminds me much more of Geelong's 2006 than our 2008 or 2013-15 teams.

Geelong had a big group of players capable of playing midfield, so much so that guys like Chapman and Johnson were pushed into fwd/mid roles, similar to our current team.

Geelong had swagger, camaraderie, and played a very attacking game that took the league by storm.
The structure I outlined above was also quite similar to Geelong's team:
Solid talls in defence. Large group of running players. Ruck (Ottens), + 2 KPF (Mooney/Hawkins).

Very similar to our current team in structure and attitude.

 

[Roddy]

LOVE what Kingy's saying here....

​

 

[smeltitdeltit]

wonder how we’d be looking on Squiggle from round 6 onwards…..

 

[KermitJagger]

LOVE what Kingy's saying here....

​

I think there's a fundamental difference in the excitement and "arrogance" we're showing compared to the same I've seen in the past.

The young Hawks celebrations are to each other and to the crowd. Some of the other overt stuff I've seen over the years has been directed at the opposition player, Joe Daniher rubbing oppo player's heads and stuff. Even Sic trying to get a high five off Joey after kicking a goal on him. So long as the celebrating isn't mean spirited and disrespectful to the competition I'm all for it.

I also think that because Sam allows them to do this that he can still pull them in if needed, pretty sure players have said as much too.

 

[peetoo]

I’m reminded how a Geelong forwards finger twirl celebration used to trigger us

 

[Roddy]

The turnaround has been phenomenal. We're not there yet of course, but we're absolutely on our way. I knew it was coming, but I'm a touch astonished at the speed of it. What can we put it down to? All I can say is that it isn't one thing.

That said, I think we can lay a fair bit of it at the feet of the coach. He is one smart cookie with a great footy brain, a fabulous communicator and an excellent man-manager.

What do you think?

 

[theiaofseed]

Longmuir from Freo has done a great job so far also

He's performed to expectation, they finished 5th in 2022. Some people in the media tipped Hawthorn to win the wooden spoon.

 

[The Golden Glenferrie]

The turnaround has been phenomenal. We're not there yet of course, but we're absolutely on our way. I knew it was coming, but I'm a touch astonished at the speed of it. What can we put it down to? All I can say is that it isn't one thing.

That said, I think we can lay a fair bit of it at the feet of the coach. He is one smart cookie with a great footy brain, a fabulous communicator and an excellent man-manager.

What do you think?

Sam.

He is replicating what he saw under Clarko, but refining it and make it more accessible.

 

[DogDaySonny]

He's performed to expectation, they finished 5th in 2022. Some people in the media tipped Hawthorn to win the wooden spoon.

I don’t think that COTY should simply be the “ladder overachiever award”. I think it should be a more sophisticated assessment that judges the coach’s impact on the game that year, his innovativeness and effectiveness at developing a winning game play, his influence on the competition and development of the game that year PLUS his results against his competition.

I still think Sammy is the clear winner by evidence of the defensive impact of the team on opponent scoring as the season has progressed. I also think the balance and unpredictability of our attack is competition leading and they key to our racking up some pretty big scores recently as it’s taken hold. But even if we had finished top four last year, I would still argue Sammy is COTY due to the playing style of our squad. The fact that he’s done it with such young players is just a cream on the argument’s cake, IMO.

 

[theiaofseed]

I don’t think that COTY should simply be the “ladder overachiever award”. I think it should be a more sophisticated assessment that judges the coach’s impact on the game that year, his innovativeness and effectiveness at developing a winning game play, his influence on the competition and development of the game that year PLUS his results against his competition.

Yes exactly what I said, Fremantle's season needs context. Fremantle haven't improved on their 2022 season. If you just award best coach on which team finished first then you ignore the actual impact of the coach and what they have to work with.

Mitchell is clearly the coach who has made the biggest strides this year with the the resources at his disposal.

 

[Roddy]

Sam.

He is replicating what he saw under Clarko, but refining it and make it more accessible.

The allowing, even encouragement of the players to play with flair, personality and celebration has been something from left field, but a master-stroke nonetheless.

 

[KermitJagger]

The turnaround has been phenomenal. We're not there yet of course, but we're absolutely on our way. I knew it was coming, but I'm a touch astonished at the speed of it. What can we put it down to? All I can say is that it isn't one thing.

That said, I think we can lay a fair bit of it at the feet of the coach. He is one smart cookie with a great footy brain, a fabulous communicator and an excellent man-manager.

What do you think?

Yeah it definitely isn't one thing. I don't like putting too much down to the coaches, really annoyed me when our wins were Clarko's a genius and our losses were the players are bad, but Sam's fingerprints are on too much of it to downplay his impact. Everything from the recruitment, drafting, strategy and the "bring your weapons" style of coaching.

The other part is that the playing group all seem to really thrive off each other and instead of it being a bit cliquey between generations you've got the older guys really getting involved, mentoring and all that. From what I've heard, a lot of that was player driven - and we're seeing it now because we had the leadership in place to understand where it was coming from and accept it.

 

[The Golden Glenferrie]

The allowing, even encouragement of the players to play with flair, personality and celebration has been something from left field, but a master-stroke nonetheless.

For now. Once we start losing or lose a couple, the media will run with it as a negative.

In the long run, its going to be good for everyone

 

[Steven Tyler]

He's performed to expectation, they finished 5th in 2022. Some people in the media tipped Hawthorn to win the wooden spoon.

I don’t care where they finished in 2022
I think Longmuir has done a great job in 2024 so far

Coach of the year is a nothing award anyway