How will we fare against the hawks?

[PAdman]

glass will come out punching ash smith in the face if he turns into a lazy bastard

hopefully kerr is dropped

 

[eagles rule]

will be high intensity game the Hawks off a 6 day break on sunday v crows were impressive after a tough game v geelong ,I think we will be switched on this week and will get the win by 35 points .

The keys to winning are blanketing Mitchell ,stopping Gibson setting up down back ,Buddy and Cyril up fwd a tough job but not impossible .

 

[ROYAL EAGLE]

We always match up well against Hawthorn.

They are side I always think we have a chance against.

At subi at night we should win in a hard game.

Looking foward to it, as I think the Hawks are the side out of the top 4 we match up well against.

 

[illwizard]

How many games did we lose at home last year out of interest? I think only one, but I can't remember who to. Sydney methinks

 

[kempy]

How many games did we lose at home last year out of interest? I think only one, but I can't remember who to. Sydney methinks

Yes - Sydney it was due mainly to Goodes in the last quarter.

 

[EagleMan87]

West Coast beat Hawthorn at Subi in 2008 and 2010, two terrible years for us. I'm pretty confident of a win.

 

[Mick63]

Going to be a cracking game, sort of reminds me of the build up to the Friday night Geelong game we won last year. Hopefully this game goes down a similar path, we burst out of the blocks and make them play catch up and us hang on for a win!

MacKenzie first crack at Buddy.

Tag Mitchell heavily, or play a 'soft' tag and back our midfield head-to-head?

Who gets first crack at Rioli? Maybe Smith?

Going to massive, big stage, I think this will smash the Q-clash in the ratings

 

[WWSD]

West Coast beat Hawthorn at Subi in 2008 and 2010, two terrible years for us. I'm pretty confident of a win.

Umm we actually beat you at Subiaco in 2008 by about 12 goals, I know that for a fact.

 

[ep2018]

Umm we actually beat you at Subiaco in 2008 by about 12 goals, I know that for a fact.

Was hoping Buddy would kick his 100th there, so I could run on the field.

 

[BradWCE]

West Coast beat Hawthorn at Subi in 2008 and 2010, two terrible years for us. I'm pretty confident of a win.

Nah, in 2008 they flogged us but we were awful that year and they went on to win the flag. 2009 and 2010 we beat them and then last year we only played them away. I think we do match up against them well and since it's at subi we've got a good chance of picking up the win.

 

[WWSD]

Was hoping Buddy would kick his 100th there, so I could run on the field.

haha yeah i think he missed those easy shots in the 3rd and 4th quarter on purpose just so he could kick the 100 the following week.

 

[East coast eagle]

Well, I'm pencilling us in for the points this week.

I think we'll do them over here, but I can't say I'm too confident about our flag aspirations. I just don't think we're THAT good.

Although I have to disagree with you. Most of the posters I've seen on here rate WCE higher than what we deserve.

I just saw a Carlton supporter say that WC are his favourites. And I've seen a lot of posters throwing us in there for the top two etc etc.

I just don't see it. We'll compete, but I don't think we are as good as what it seems. We had a freak year last year, and we've flogged three bottom four sides.

Agree , dont think we will win the flag this year, just think we deserve the title of flag contender, honestly beleive next year is our year.. But if we get there this year so be it.. need to beat the sqwaks..

 

[smiths]

OT, but can someone let me use their interstate or in the wings membership # to buy resale tickets on Thursday.

 

[MIKE85]

Has anyone else noticed we havnt really used the press so far this season?
What are peoples thoughts on that? Do you think it is because we were playing bottom 4 sides and knew we could beat them in a shoot out or is Woosh tinkering with a game plan that every other team now try's to implement.
It just seems the last few weeks the opposition have easily cleared our forward line, still tackling hard in the forward 50 but not as much time retained in there.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

I was watching one of those football shows on fox recently and someone was saying that the press is basically dead, with most teams learning how to beat it over the off-season.

I think so far there's been very little of it from any team.

 

[sTeeL]

We have beaten 3 teams currently without a win and all looking hopeless. I hope to god we play a heap better this week than last otherwise itll be a whitewash.

 

[Prem87]

TBH our clearance work has been very ordinary most of the time, we were being matched by GWS for most of the game. We're going get smashed by the Hawks in the middle - we're really relying on clean tap outs from Naitanui to our midfielders.

 

[EagleShore]

Has anyone else noticed we havnt really used the press so far this season?
What are peoples thoughts on that? Do you think it is because we were playing bottom 4 sides and knew we could beat them in a shoot out or is Woosh tinkering with a game plan that every other team now try's to implement.
It just seems the last few weeks the opposition have easily cleared our forward line, still tackling hard in the forward 50 but not as much time retained in there.

posted something similar in the "Rd4 Changes vs Hawthorn" thread...

I'm confused, as it was looking way too easy (at times) for the WB & GWS to play the ball from their defensive 50 right through the middle of the ground down to their forward 50 and score.

I still think the press can work but it requires a switch to one-on-one at a certain point, probably when (better) teams start to beat it with their first few possessions out of their defensive 50 arc by:

* Kicking long down the boundary line to reliable contested marking targets (most "top 8" teams);
* Kicking short & precise, zig-zagging across the ground (Hawthorn); or
* Handballing through the proverbial minefield of opposition players (North Melbourne)

Will be fascinated to see the methods WC will employ this weekend against a very good team.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Don't forget Carlton's strategy of press-up the ground hard and lead back to the goal square as fast as you can into space.

 

[tesseract]

Has anyone else noticed we havnt really used the press so far this season?
What are peoples thoughts on that? Do you think it is because we were playing bottom 4 sides and knew we could beat them in a shoot out or is Woosh tinkering with a game plan that every other team now try's to implement.
It just seems the last few weeks the opposition have easily cleared our forward line, still tackling hard in the forward 50 but not as much time retained in there.

I've noticed the lack of press too. I don't think the press is dead. Now that all clubs supposedly have an idea of how to beat it, it's those clubs which aren't great exponents of it that should put it away. So far, WC haven't had need to bring it out. A whole season's use of it would leave the team exhausted come finals time. Clubs may have a solid theory on how to beat the press, but when it comes to actually doing so under WC's intense pressure, theory will quickly go out the window, and WC can capitalize on an opposition who's improvising. I'm yet to believe that clubs have a proven way of defeating the amount of pressure WC can bring to bear from use of the press.

 

[Roughies Boys]

Its obvious that this game will be very different to those we have played so far. I think Hawthorn will go in as favourites simply because we won't put out out our best possible team. We have an advantage in the ruck but will need to make that count. If we simply bomb it in long I think we will be outmarked by the Hawks - we usually are. Both sides are good by foot - our improvement here has been very noticeable. Our midfield will have to all play well, especially Kerr if he plays of course. Without knowing their team at this stage I think they are are 4-5 goal better side than us on paper.

I actually thought you guys out-marked us last time. We only added Stratts & Roughy to help our backline, Roughy only when needed. I agree with everything else accept for Hawthorn only being good kickers, when people rate us as one of the best accurate kicking teams they have seen.

Good Luck, thinking the home-ground advantage will get you across the line.

 

[Masto]

I saw elements of the press vs GWS. Its why a few times, once they cleared the zone, they got the ball into their forward line rather easily. But we are not over-committing to it like we did last year at times. There were times last year after a kick-in when almost our entire team was inside the forward 50. I haven't seen that much this year. I'm sure at some point Woosh will unleash the full court press when teams are least expecting it. Its more a strategy suited to Subiaco.

 

[DivideandMultiply]

Kinda worried we are going to cop a hiding....

 

[pantskyle]

I doubt we will get belted.

 

[sydney eagle]

To me this match is the first big test of the Eagles credentials as a finals prospect. If we can beat the Hawks, or even run them to a close loss, we can start feeling good about our finals chances. If we get belted it puts the finals campaign back a long way !