Thought the umpiring was piss poor for both sides but favouring Adelaide.
It's a relief we have a really good record against West Coast in Sydney, but those away games are the ones we need to win.
Thought the umpiring was piss poor for both sides but favouring Adelaide.
It's a relief we have a really good record against West Coast in Sydney, but those away games are the ones we need to win.
Last edited by bloodsbigot; 18th April 2016 at 02:50 AM.
Sinclair and Jones in for Nankervis and Towers.
I'd be tempted to chop McGlynn for Hewett/Rose too, but we don't want too many changes. I know McGlynn has credits in the bank, but if we're playing Papley as the small forward then I don't think McGlynn suits our midfield. He's short, average paced, and has been poor at times with disposal. Hewett was unlucky to be dropped and Rose has been tearing up ressies.
We are badly missing Reid who surely must come in as a key defender.
Only change for this week would be:
In: Sinclair
Out: Nankervis
Need to give Papley another run to see what he is made of.
A good summary there Graeme - I'd argue our key fault, even against teams that can trouble us as you outline here, is that we simply don't kick to advantage enough into our forward line. Give it a year or two, and hopefully getting a few more elite kicks into our team (or improving the skills of what we got) and that might change - but it is a real Achilles heal. If we had skills commensurate with those of the Hawks in that regard, we would of won fairly comfortably on Saturday night, for what really hurt us is that, too often, when we have the ball and time to deliver it into our forward line, we butchered any chance we had to get a result out of it by having poor delivery into the forward line. Get a few of those poor kicks right into the forward line and the result would have been different.
That doesn't take away from a pretty good performance, at a ground and against an opposition where not many teams will take the points (assuming their early season form holds up).
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
On balance, across the 4 quarters, the shoddy umpiring was pretty even in my book - the 50/50 calls were fairly even across the night. The one that still has me frustrated (and even got a mention from that useless Robbo in his column today) was the Betts Hands in the Back Non-free kick. I can take 50/50 calls going against you sometimes and in your favour others, but ones like that, where it was blatantly obvious what happened, that really frustrate me. The umpire simply bottled it at a key time in the match - that is not to say the result would have been different, but it was a critical call at a critical moment, and it was a simple one to make as well.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
And while it probably didn't matter too much in the end (and acknowledging we tend to focus on decisions late in the game more than those early), the non-deliberate call against Walker when he booted the ball into a completely empty forward line just to get possession was clearly against the way the DOOB rule has been adjudged this year. We should at least have regained possession rather than having a throw in.
Yep, it was an obvious one yet none our boys tried to call for it to be a free, even the commentators mentioned that.
The push in the back ... I have a hard time understanding those calls. Often a player will be going for a ball only to be completely held, arms across the body and nothing happens but if it was in a marking contest they would get a free. It is hard to explain but a clip would show it easily. It is the one thing about the game my dad is at a loss to understand, it completely frustrates him and I can't explain to him why it happens.
"Fortunately, this is the internet, so knowing nothing is no obstacle to having an opinion!." Beerman 18-07-2017
There were a number of decisions that really hurt us, including a few questionable or soft ones that cost us goals, but I didn't get the impression there was a particular bias in the calls over the course of the game.
I thought the umpiring was poor across the fixture this round. The most telling one was by Andrew Stephens making 2 successive 15 mtr calls against the Saints in the final minutes of the game that were clearly okay. This led to Hawthorn's winning goal. It was picked up later that Stephens is an avid Hawthorn fan. Here is a screenshot of his Twitter page, before it was withdrawn (due to the comments).
aestephens.jpg
************************************************** ************************************
Hawthorn have themselves well covered, both on the field and on the AFL Commission. Nothing left to chance.
Last edited by Ludwig; 18th April 2016 at 12:55 PM.
Must be trying to compete with Matt Stevic to become Hawthorn's #1 member
Stevic'spresence in the 2012 decider made our victory all the sweeter that day - despite his best efforts to drag his wees and poos over the line.
The Hawks have been, in my book, exceptionally lucky through the first few rounds with the umpiring, getting several key calls go their way. Hopefully they use up all their luck this year early on, and when they need it (which invariably seems to be prelim final weekend) they find the barrel is empty.
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
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