Rnd 7 Vs Hawks

[Triple B]

I walked out on Saturday night obviously disappointed, but certainly no feeling of 'We're @@@@@@' as a few here seem to think.

Hawks put immense pressure on us early and obviously were soooo up for the game that if we off a bit, we were toast. Unfortunately we were off a lot and got burnt badly. We have so much upside with Tippett, LRT and Mummy as big men to step straight in and Shaw is being missed terribly as well.

As Scott (?) mentioned earlier in the thread, it was an absolute cc of the SF a few years back. Hawks got every bounce and pulled goals out of their clacker in the first qtr in both games and we were just chasing tail the rest of the game, even down to a spirited final quarter surge that gave us the slightest of sniffs, only to be blown away a minute later by a string of Hawk goals.

We actually had a bit of fun at the game and made the most of a dire situation. Even tho we don't agree with the media and general populace that we were lucky and they lost the GF and we didn't win it, we were happy to run with that theory on Saturday night and constantly reminded all the Hawk fans around how their side @@@@ themselves and are certified September chokers. Every time Gunstan kicked a goal the other night the miss in the last quarter got a good airing and a few Swans fans behind us joined in the spirit of the stir. Roughead was another who we suggested save some of his arsey goals and possessions for later in the year as he usually exhausts his quota sometime at the end of August.

[ScottH]

How good was McVeighs vision and handball to hit a flying Goodes who chipped to Parker for the final goal of the 3rd qtr???

[magic.merkin]

Gary Rohan will not make the the first's this year. Accept it and move on. All the power to him for next year.

[Mountain Man]

Not that I think Franklin is ever lacking in 'confidence', but that 1st goal set him up
- and probably the whole team's confidence that it would be one of those (good) nights

[Melbournehammer]

He was only outgunned when Clarko was able to isolate him on 198 plus opponents. He held his own on guys his own size. He actually got some telling ball when in those situations and worked really well with Tony A. Marty avoided kicking to Tony A most of the night even if he was free, Mal seemed to go over his head to players in a marking contest too. What happened was the ball kept coming back. Tony A kept presenting but too often they went to marking contests.

It seems to me that some of our players were in self preservation mode on Saturday night. Get plenty of disposals but the outcome of those disposals was pretty ordinary. The Rampe situation should never have been allowed to happen by our experienced backs. They ignored it because it would have meant either Marty or Mal taking a tall. Better them than a rookie at least they have the experience to know what to do in that situation.

We did not work hard enough to present or make the contest. We didn't chase or if we did gave up on too many occasions. Our routines were shot to pieces by a better coach who had the cattle to shut us down. I predicted this debacle because of the way we have played all season. There has not been that sense of urgency all season and we have been caught out in the set ups on several occasions. Geelong made us look feeble and our defensive pressure was non existent. The same applies here, we were never in it.

I am wondering if our coaches have any new moves because the Hawks sure did and in this game we didn't. they are going to have to do something very soon or we will get beaten by the likes of Freemantle, Essendon and Carlton, Crows (back), Pies. Now I don't think Pies & Carlton are that good but with our intensity and lack of second, third and fourth options in set plays we will be limited.

+1

I think the hawks and geelong in the old days when they had mooney, hawkins, jpod and johnson was very similar. Our defenders work best when they create packs. Against the really good teams the defenders are incredibly reluctant to leave their man - and it is understandable when you have breust and gunston kicking goals at will when the thing hits the deck and roughy, hale and buddy are all bigger than their direct opponent.

The only point i disagree with was rampe - he had to take a tall no matter what. But I think him on gunston was the right match up not him on roughhead. I think longmire should have played reid back from the off and had rampe on gunston. when our midfield gets cut to pieces - like it was for the first quarter on sat night the usual approach of putting rok back there is a mistake as I think he is getting too slow for that position and cant impact enough contests.

I hope we haven't got too far ahead of ourselves as a result of 10 minutes of good footy against North.

Someone else said the game reminded them of the games against collingwood and geelong from three years ago where we never in it but made the result ok by kicking some goals in the last quarter. That was my view as well. The game was over the moment jpk missed his shot at goal (not that i am blaming him) because it was pretty clear we just weren't going to score enough.

[Auntie.Gerald]

it actually reminded me of the GF in a strange way

I always felt that in the GF the Hawks just failed to execute and if they did they were out the gate and running away with it

but sat night they executed their entries and we paid the price and secondly we didnt have a big 2nd qtr etc to get us ahead of the hawks at any stage

[wolftone57]

Rampe tried all night. He was outgunned for most of the time but I bet he learned a lot from it. We need to remember that he is a work in progress where first grade is concerned, and I'm happy to persist with him.

He was only outgunned when Clarko was able to isolate him on 198 plus opponents. He held his own on guys his own size. He actually got some telling ball when in those situations and worked really well with Tony A. Marty avoided kicking to Tony A most of the night even if he was free, Mal seemed to go over his head to players in a marking contest too. What happened was the ball kept coming back. Tony A kept presenting but too often they went to marking contests.

It seems to me that some of our players were in self preservation mode on Saturday night. Get plenty of disposals but the outcome of those disposals was pretty ordinary. The Rampe situation should never have been allowed to happen by our experienced backs. They ignored it because it would have meant either Marty or Mal taking a tall. Better them than a rookie at least they have the experience to know what to do in that situation.

We did not work hard enough to present or make the contest. We didn't chase or if we did gave up on too many occasions. Our routines were shot to pieces by a better coach who had the cattle to shut us down. I predicted this debacle because of the way we have played all season. There has not been that sense of urgency all season and we have been caught out in the set ups on several occasions. Geelong made us look feeble and our defensive pressure was non existent. The same applies here, we were never in it.

I am wondering if our coaches have any new moves because the Hawks sure did and in this game we didn't. they are going to have to do something very soon or we will get beaten by the likes of Freemantle, Essendon and Carlton, Crows (back), Pies. Now I don't think Pies & Carlton are that good but with our intensity and lack of second, third and fourth options in set plays we will be limited.

[Doctor]

We (with the exception of Goodesy and Joey) played like absolute crap.
Would it bloody well hurt them to maybe look up for a milli-second to check to see where they're kicking the ball.
I hoped that it would be otherwise (as he's going great guns in the ressies), but Jessie just isn't going to cut it in the firsts.

I think you're being harsh on Pyke and McGlynn but that's about all.

[troyjones2525]

While i was bitterly disappointed with Saturday nights effort i still hold hope that 1. Hawthorn was always going to want it more and 2. we still have a lot of improvement left in this years team. We have quite a few first choice players out of Saturday nights team that will make a huge difference. Armstrong out for Shaw is 1 must. Mumford, LRT and Tippett all will be huge ins when fit and firing in the 2nd half of the year. You could make a case for Morton into the side also if needed and possibly Mitchell if he can string some games together and stay injury free, here's hoping he can make the adjustment to senior level AFL as easily as he has his entire footy life. One more forgotten player that could possibly be a huge addition to this years line-up if everything goes right from here is Gary Rohan. If he can come back with confidence in the 2nd half of the year and string some quality games together in the 2's he will add more of that X factor we've been missing from Jetta this year! The whole groups attitude and hunger needs to lift back to where it was last year and then here's hoping for a huge 2nd half to the season all the way to another premiership!

[rojo]

We are on a bit of a knife edge at the moment. Our 'old boys' are beginning to show their age, with injuries becoming a factor for them and we are having through necessity to include inexperienced players. Mummy too is a bit of a worry. It is hard to remember when he was last injury free and playing at his best. So the middle tier are maybe feeling the exposure a bit.

With Mummy and LRT both out not only were we lacking talls, but lacking talls with grunt and a physical presence. Goodsey at his best is scary but who else was there on Sat. night to give a bit of protection to the smalls! Mike is excellent with his body work - if only he could teach Sam a trick or two - but that is his strength, he is not necessarily ever going to charge through and scatter a pack. Both Goodsey and LRT are going to be irreplaceable - have we got anyone coming through to take over from them?? Maybe AJ is one when he is back on track and perhaps KT the other. Phew! But we still have the challenge of how to turn it around next week with the players available.

[AnnieH]

We (with the exception of Goodesy and Joey) played like absolute crap.
Would it bloody well hurt them to maybe look up for a milli-second to check to see where they're kicking the ball.
I hoped that it would be otherwise (as he's going great guns in the ressies), but Jessie just isn't going to cut it in the firsts.

[dimelb]

Rampe tried all night. He was outgunned for most of the time but I bet he learned a lot from it. We need to remember that he is a work in progress where first grade is concerned, and I'm happy to persist with him.

[aardvark]

Clarkson coached really well. They put a lot of thought into who they tagged (hanners) and who they isolated defensively (Rampe) and played to their strengths really well. Longmire was forced to be reactive all night but to his credit at least he tried some different things. It was just all too late.

[Cosmic Wizard]

The next three week will tell if we really are a premiership threat.
If we lose just once, we are ok, but anything more and we will be just making up the finals numbers.
Too many passengers in our team at the moment.
Its great that the coaching staff keeping picking young players and giving them game time, but lets look at the results.
We need to blood some more backmen, as this is our biggest liability at the moment.
Reid, White, Armstrong need to go back to the seconds, and maybe Bolton as well.
We do have other players, why not Walsh, as no one can be worst than White, and he can have a go in the backlines.
Not to disappointed by the result, just hoping that we learn from that disagree and build on it.

[ScottH]

Apart from the usual throwing things when Jesse is playing, I was sick of him doing little toe-pokes (pretty much emphasises your comment about how to get the ball) - when he wasn't winning the ball he'd stand there and on at least two occasions he stuck his foot out to kick it and they led to Hawks goals. Okay that sounded better in my head.

Reg's always been a concern for me, I think because of no LRT, Johnson around him his weaknesses are coming to the forefront instead of being hidden away.

Your probably right about LRT and AJ missing.
Ted used to be the weak link, now Ted is miles ahead of Reg.