Our Defence Is Ranked 13th

[Hawk1978]

I was shocked to hear on radio the other day that when the ball actually makes it into our defensive 50 we are only ranked 13th in stopping a score!

I think it was John Ralph saying it the other day, very surprising with Gibson and Lake back there.
Sounds like a key defender should once again be on our shopping list, perhaps we can land Frawley.
Lake could then groom him to take over from him in a couple of years.
I reckon Lake has 2 left in him.

 

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

We had a makeshift defence for more than half of our season. So I am not surprised that we conceded so many points. But it also doesn't matter as our game style is so high scoring. I don't think we need to buy a key defender, Heatherley and Brand are making steady progress at Box Hill and with another preseason behind them will probably play a few games next season.

 

[Hawks1994]

But our whole team is number 1...

 

[Flag08]

Where are we ranked when Shoey is not playing? Just for interest...

 

[Messenger]

The key phrase being "when it gets to defensive 50".

 

[Hawk1978]

Yeah I guess Lake and Gibbo missed a lot of games this year. Interesting to see how we rate next year.
Kurt is a bit short for my liking at 192cm although not too bad, some pretty big forwards floating around. Tippet, Buddy, Cloke, Hawkins etc.
Brand will take a few years to muscle up but sounds promising.

 

[Xtreme]

I'm not surprised as I get seriously worried at the speed some opposition teams were able to rocket the ball into their forward line, the defence was prone to leaking goals at the worst possible time.

 

[TyHawk]

We averaged around 79 points a game against but 112 for!! That may tell the true story as well. We are not ultra defensive at the stoppages considering we are number 1 from scores from stoppages!!! Back in 2011 we were a little defensive with our Mids falling back to help the defense but not enough goals from them, since 2012 we rely on monstering the opposition from Clearences and that comes with it's perks! Not enough numbers rolling back to help as it's a full ground defence. In the last two finals series (6 games) the average against drops to about 72 points per game, because the likes of Hill, Smith, Hodge and Shiels roll back a lot more!! Mindset completely changes in finals.

 

[B0SK]

We had no cohesion in defense all year due to injuries. That was one of my greatest concerns going into the GF, but on the day they held up very well.

Another thing to bear in mind when discussing defenses is their ability to generate successful offensive thrusts is almost as important being able to negate opposition attacks these days. Something our defense has always done extremely well.

 

[kazzooka]

The key phrase being "when it gets to defensive 50".

Yeah it really skews it. Our backs tend to push up the ground and try and cut it off before it gets in there. On the occasions that they get it over spanger,gibson, stratton etc.. it's usually pretty open behind and scoring is easy. If we pushed our defense back to the goal line we'd get scored on less per inside 50 but concede a heap more inside 50s.

 

[Bikefreak]

I was shocked to hear on radio the other day that when the ball actually makes it into our defensive 50 we are only ranked 13th in stopping a score!

I think it was John Ralph saying it the other day, very surprising with Gibson and Lake back there.
Sounds like a key defender should once again be on our shopping list, perhaps we can land Frawley.
Lake could then groom him to take over from him in a couple of years.
I reckon Lake has 2 left in him.

In all honesty, we would really only be in serious trouble if we were ranked 13th or lower for when the ball enters our forward line and is rebounded without a score.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Defence should only be something you have to do when you're not attacking. Unfortunately for awhile there, it was the be-all and end-all of football and made the game damned boring. Since the mid 2000s when teams like Sydney used to bore everyone to death, premierships are being won by teams who dare to attack, and that can only be good for the game.

 

[Pessimistic]

Table says 5th best defence. Its ingenious to make that 13th somehow.

Be handy to see the percentage with lake n gibbo on deck

 

[Dipper]

In 2008 we conceded the lowest inside 50s in the comp but were worst in terms of ratio of goals conceded per entry.

That was obviously a lot more polarised due to the forward press stopping entries but once it was pierced it was panic stations but as has been pointed out above these days we set up to give ourselves a decent shout of scoring and we want a reasonably open game, nothing to see here I'd say.

On a tangent for most of the season we were bottom or close to bottom for average tackles per game, obviously that is partly dictated by having a lot of the ball but there was a lot of talk on here about how we coral and don't over commit to the tackle as a tactic, was interested to see one of the players talking I think after the QF, about how they'd sat down and spoken about this and decided to do something about it and spent some time concentrating on tackling in training and hey presto the GF was the perfect example of a team that had recognised an area in need of improvement and rectified it.

 

[Badesumofu]

Our style has been to prevent the ball going down there in the first place, for some time now. Lake and Gibson missed a lot of matches this year, really a lot.

 

[Rioli magic]

We're ranked number 1 in defence when it makes it into the goal square though.... eg Keiren Jack bogging himself. Twice.

 

[Hawk Dork]

13th ranked defence was obviously an intricate well planned part of the rope a dope long term picture .

 

[Davo23]

None of our defenders have been AA in the last 2 years, while the great defences of Freo, Swans & Geelong have dominated the selections

So, our defenders are no good.


I say we go after Richards and Enright ...

 

[Oooh Cyril]

Statistics are just numbers like Cyril's official stats. Could it be that the way we attack the goals which gives us high scores also makes us prone to leaking quick goals to the opposition?

 

[QuietB]

Defence should only be something you have to do when you're not attacking. Unfortunately for awhile there, it was the be-all and end-all of football and made the game damned boring. Since the mid 2000s when teams like Sydney used to bore everyone to death, premierships are being won by teams who dare to attack, and that can only be good for the game.

I think the other thing to consider is how taxing it is to all defend all the time. The Hawks would not survive a season doing what they did on Saturday week in and week out - it is not sustainable. I think Clarko gets in these shootouts all year to conserve energy, and saves the ultra defensive effort for special occasions.

 

[Brown n Gold]

Defensively our game plan revolves around not letting the opposition get the ball into our 50m... To do that we are sometimes exposed on the fast break turnover. It is hardly surprising that our goals against per inside 50 ranks 13th.

 

[MC_9]

It is just the nature of our game plan. We push so hard up the ground, that teams can often get one over the top.

I think that we actually have one of the best defences in the league. If we are set up in defence, we are very hard to score against.

On a side note, I think Ben Stratton is one of the leagues best medium defenders. When was that last time he was beaten?

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I think the other thing to consider is how taxing it is to all defend all the time. The Hawks would not survive a season doing what they did on Saturday week in and week out - it is not sustainable. I think Clarko gets in these shootouts all year to conserve energy, and saves the ultra defensive effort for special occasions.

Very good point, I'd never considered this before.

 

[TheFourPillars]

We have one of the best defensive structures in the game. I have measured it from the 2nd level of the grand stand at the G and it takes us very short period of time to transition from offence to defence. Its the ability of players to roll of and defend any part of the ground. Team Defence its rather awesome to watch

 

[threesixpio]

I think the other thing to consider is how taxing it is to all defend all the time. The Hawks would not survive a season doing what they did on Saturday week in and week out - it is not sustainable. I think Clarko gets in these shootouts all year to conserve energy, and saves the ultra defensive effort for special occasions.

Cool post. The Hawks in both of the last two GFs completely f&cked on Freo and Sh&tney with our defensive pressure. Almost arrogant how we could turn that wheel the other way on the big day. SUCH a great team.