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.

 

[peetoo]

How is dimma not rated higher? So absolutely dependable

 

[CHUBBSS]

How is dimma not rated higher? So absolutely dependable

He played forward a bit?

 

[theiaofseed]

How is dimma not rated higher? So absolutely dependable

He's a lock down defender that doesn't get cheap ball, best in the business. He just wont score high in rankings.

 

[MisterBean]

I'm looking forward to seeing Sicily playing as an intercept-marking, rebounding midfielder.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

I'm looking forward to seeing Sicily playing as an intercept-marking, rebounding midfielder.

The few times I have seen Sic play as midfielder he has seemed to quite enjoy the freedom it has given him to roam around the ground at will and put up some big numbers.

That's one of the most exciting things about getting Battle and Barrass is the flexibility we now have to use Sic in multiple positions (in saying that I think he is still the best all round Backman in the league so he will still predominantly play down back).

 

[bigmaxi]

The few times I have seen Sic play as midfielder he has seemed to quite enjoy the freedom it has given him to roam around the ground at will and put up some big numbers.

That's one of the most exciting things about getting Battle and Barrass is the flexibility we now have to use Sic in multiple positions (in saying that I think he is still the best all round Backman in the league so he will still predominantly play down back).

Agree, I see him playing as a High Half Back, Hodge like, next year. His ability to read the play and the ball in flight is extraordinary. Launching laser like bullets into the forward fifty. Then sneaking down deep into the forward line, ripping the ball out of the air and kicking goals.

 

[offtherails9]

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I hear Garry Lyon talking about this on SEN a fair bit, and I think they show it monthly On The Couch or something. It's a pretty rock solid formula for whatever reason but I think this year would be the year it gets broken. It's such a shame we're playing the Dogs as it should almost be the Grand Final match up.

 

[DogDaySonny]

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What is the URL to this graph? I can’t find it on the site. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bedi]

Agree, I see him playing as a High Half Back, Hodge like, next year. His ability to read the play and the ball in flight is extraordinary. Launching laser like bullets into the forward fifty. Then sneaking down deep into the forward line, ripping the ball out of the air and kicking goals.

am loving that Luke Hodge role comparison

 

[Brishawk]

My custom form tracker has us the most improving team, along with the dogs in the last 6 rounds in the season (the tail is 6 weeks long with the bend at 3 weeks). Geelong also with a bit of a late surge. If our trajectory holds it would see us rocket into flag calculations in the next couple of weeks. Obviously we need to keep winning for that to occur.

A few other observations: Carlton the only team with a below average defence to make the top 8. Defence is critical but defence is not enough to ensure you make the 8 with Crows, Dees, Freo and Saints all above average defence that didn't make the 8. You have to be able to defend and attack if you want to be competitive come finals time and I can confidently state, we are good at both now. Has been a huge improvement from the last two years (and even early in the year).


How did we get here? It is all about defence, defence, defence. Early season we were slightly improved (remember it is the slope not the height that matters most here) but from around round 8 onwards we were an above average defence and one of the best performed in the whole league. Only Bulldogs and Lions surpass us on this measure.


But something else changed this season. Our attack rating started improving from around round 10 onwards but really took off late in the season so that we now have above average attack. Its not just that we put some big scores on the board, we did it consistently and at at a higher rate than other teams v the opposition we faced in that time.

 

[KermitJagger]

I hear Garry Lyon talking about this on SEN a fair bit, and I think they show it monthly On The Couch or something. It's a pretty rock solid formula for whatever reason but I think this year would be the year it gets broken. It's such a shame we're playing the Dogs as it should almost be the Grand Final match up.

What is the URL to this graph? I can’t find it on the site. Thanks in advance.

This is actually a different one to the one on SEN. The one they use is just an attack defense metric, the top 6 attack and top 6 defence wins the flag. This one by Andrew Whelan tracks the specific stats that flag winners are generally top 6 at and along with the Dogs we have the most of those.

 

[peetoo]

Squiggle agrees. Movement there was a hark back to lions in early 2000s

 

[Brishawk]

Squiggle agrees. Movement there was a hark back to lions in early 2000s

In attack we took a different path...
(note in producing this chart I have come to realise that my data source uses different names for clubs over time - I'm looking at you North Melbourne, then Kangaroos, then back to North Melbourne because no one cared - so a couple of games are missing from the Brisbane trend - I'll have to fix that over summer when I re-write this to run better)


But in defence.....missing games and slight offset aside (thanks round zero!) you can see the path is going to be very similar regardless. So not surprised squiggle moved in similar paths.

 

[Brishawk]

Some interesting things when comparing these scores to previous season by Hawthorn...

Attack is similar to 2007 (recall this is relative to the league v our opposition) but by the end of the season our cumulative score is close-ish to 2008. If we had gotten off to even a slightly better start we would be in 2008/2011 territory.


On defence we are right there with most of the years apart from 2008, 2011 and 2015 (gee we were a good side in 2011 and 2012 - could have had a 4 or 5-pete if we had been just a little better in finals!). We definitely look like a side coming into that premiership level of performance. Our cumulative score is being badly hurt by our terrible start to the year. Really dam exciting!

 

[Brishawk]

Hmmm well we don't look as close on this chart but I'd suggest this is due to the slow start - the angle of our slope going into finals (see above) is right up there with the best form we have taken into finals in any of those years.

 

[CHUBBSS]

Hmmm well we don't look as close on this chart but I'd suggest this is due to the slow start - the angle of our slope going into finals (see above) is right up there with the best form we have taken into finals in any of those years.

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It’s almost like this is the target Mitchell has behind closed doors, your can see it building towards those prime areas.

 

[Roddy]

What a fabulous last week and a half for the Hawthorn Fc, aside from Will’s injury.
We record our biggest win of the year in the last H&A game.
We grab a spot in the top 8 and finals after starting 0-5.
Two of the best defenders in the game nominate us as their destination club.
The chicks have a great win.
Outside winning flags, it doesn’t get much better than that!

 

[Philhawk]

Can we talk about how special Sam is as a coach?

On his coaching debut I thought he was simply superb.

I was at the game so missed the punditry, but I just feel some of his moves between the quarters were just absolutely top shelf.

Also, we have had a couple last quarters this year where our inexperience has led to the kids relinquishing a big lead - last night was a testament to him.

Maintained the rage, kept coaching hard and finished off strong.

He is something seriously special.

 

[peetoo]

What a fabulous last week and a half for the Hawthorn Fc, aside from Will’s injury.
We record our biggest win of the year in the last H&A game.
We grab a spot in the top 8 and finals after starting 0-5.
Two of the best defenders in the game nominate us as their destination club.
The chicks have a great win.
Outside winning flags, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Last nights team plus barass battle Lewis day French CJ reeves as well as McCabe and others . Solid top 30 players

 

[Roddy]

Last nights team plus barass battle Lewis day French CJ reeves as well as McCabe and others . Solid top 30 players

The mind fairly boggles.

 

[cs61]

Can we talk about how special Sam is as a coach?

On his coaching debut I thought he was simply superb.

I was at the game so missed the punditry, but I just feel some of his moves between the quarters were just absolutely top shelf.

Also, we have had a couple last quarters this year where our inexperience has led to the kids relinquishing a big lead - last night was a testament to him.

Maintained the rage, kept coaching hard and finished off strong.

He is something seriously special.

• Watson kicking straight in a final after having the worst yips I've seen to start the year. Also sharing to others when he could of had 5 in a final.
• Ginnivan sharing the football and making good inside 50 plays and being unselfish, and enjoying other success, after having some 'almost games' during the year.
• Dear being able to have a game like that in finals in his first year, and play 4 quarters, take marks, kick straight... etc.
• Morrison, Ward and Maginness solid team selections over Jiath and all played good roles, even though Jiath is a favourite of Sam and his preference is to play Jiath in our best 23.
• To navigate not having Day and MacKenzie against a side not really missing any and still look like we batted deeper than them on the ground due to our collective game style and team defence.
• To push through the challenges the Dogs threw with slowing the game down and choking our run and still manage to get it going from 2nd quarter onwwards, and push through nerves, mistakes etc.
• The way we have used Gunston to keep our structure and also quell the opposition defenders dominating us.

All have been a huge tick for Sam and the coaching team and also our player development. Also to the players themselves to put the work in to improve.

 

[peetoo]

2008 captain Sam Mitchell believed they could go all the way, and I think coach Sam believes in 2024

Also a wealth of experience in between to counter The lack of within the squad

 

[HoldingThe Ball]

I'm not for one second getting ahead here - potentially 3 hard games to go....but....

If Hawthorn won the Flag this year with this motley collection of veterans, kids, cast-offs and unsung heroes, well, I think Sam Mitchell would have good reason to think he had pulled off one of the greatest of Flag's of all time.

Read our list prior to round one and no-one in all honesty would have expected this.

I honestly think Sam hasn't got anywhere near the kudos he deserves for assembling this team, and the way it plays.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I'm not for one second getting ahead here - potentially 3 hard games to go....but....

If Hawthorn won the Flag this year with this motley collection of veterans, kids, cast-offs and unsung heroes, well, I think Sam Mitchell would have good reason to think he had pulled off one of the greatest of Flag's of all time.

Read our list prior to round one and no-one in all honesty would have expected this.

I honestly think Sam hasn't got anywhere near the kudos he deserves for assembling this team, and the way it plays.

You are indeed getting ahead of yourself.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

A lot of talk about how good players generally don't make good coaches, but people forget he was a very smart player.
He wasn't the quickest (super quick off the mark but hit top pace in 1 second), he had to work to get to where he got to as a player. Even his sublime skills are because he worked his arse off to get there.

He isn't a naturally talented athlete who coasted by