Autopsy Round 8, 2021: Hawks stretched by Eagles

[Brishawk]

not referring to the times we kicked to Kosi on the wing and he was playing Behind and soundly beaten.

I am referring to the amount of times Howe, Phillips Mitchell Hardwick had the ball at HB from a switch or a kick in from FB and then completely stopped when we had another midfielder 30 metres away with a quick kick and some quick ball movement ..

instead we stop, hold, hold, hold and then go backwards or sideways and end up on the other side of the ground with the whole ground blocked up.

I am saying this for all those that don’t want to listen or argue that we don’t have the cattle or the eagles are too good for us and we are hopeless rah rah rah go back and watch the game closely.

I counted 6 times we didn’t pull the trigger on a kick to someone by themselves and instead stopped and completely blocked any momentum we had by getting it to that position of the ground.

the game style, cohesion, and any sense of flare to me is non existent.

If it’s the players that can’t hit a kick 30 metres away get rid of them.

If it’s the coaching that has us playing this terrible brand of football then change it fast.

And I’m telling you we do not train to play this way. It isn’t a directive and you are just inventing a myth. West coast are a very good defensive team and they create pressure and doubt on the player with the ball. Our players aren't collectively a great kicking side and are down on confidence. The maths is simple and a lot more logically supported than some idiotic notion that the coach is trying to sabotage our ball movement by directive but is visibly frustrated by it at the same time

 

[Brishawk]

How many more weeks of losses are going to end in a discussion about what we did in 2017?

It might be time to move on.

We will be hearing about it until we win our next flag.

 

[TheFourPillars]

They players stopped and propped because there were no options or the kick was deemed too dangerous ala a turnover would be a goal. Some times self preservation kicks in. Some of u have mentioned u have to have played the game to know. Well its only human to lose confidence not just in yourself but the players upfield. We were trying not to concede a wce fast start. It was in the back of my mind. If its in my mind i am sure it was in the players mind.

 

[TheFourPillars]

And I’m telling you we do not train to play this way. It isn’t a directive and you are just inventing a myth. West coast are a very good defensive team and they create pressure and doubt on the player with the ball. Our players aren't collectively a great kicking side and are down on confidence. The maths is simple and a lot more logically supported than some idiotic notion that the coach is trying to sabotage our ball movement by directive but is visibly frustrated by it at the same time

I've given up mate i have explained this multiple times. The game plan is a mythical being that will fix itself in time

 

[Lickmesocks]

And I’m telling you we do not train to play this way. It isn’t a directive and you are just inventing a myth. West coast are a very good defensive team and they create pressure and doubt on the player with the ball. Our players aren't collectively a great kicking side and are down on confidence. The maths is simple and a lot more logically supported than some idiotic notion that the coach is trying to sabotage our ball movement by directive but is visibly frustrated by it at the same time

ahh love your passion. Let’s hope we find the confidence this week to move the ball, take a few risks, and aim to put 12-14 goals on the board against the winless Kangaroos:

 

[Charchi]

The game plan of long bomb to an inexperienced and immature forward line will fail 9 out of 10 times, it might work better for mature bodies, however it failed 13 times in a row against Geelong too with Buddy, Rough, Hale and Gunna. Our young players are pushed off the ball too easily for seasoned defenders. Only once for the entire game did we kick successfully to a forward leading and that was Bruest kicking to Lewis on the lead in the last, several others were cut off, but kicking to a leading forward is just not a tactic we are using. Far too often players are running out of defence and our forwards are running backwards towards goal, so we stop and prop and eventually turn it over.
Forget it being our turn at the bottom BS, our game style and lack of basic skill is infuriating to watch at present, it does not play to our one and only strength and that is young forwards who can mark on the lead, no wonder we are on the nose.

 

[Brishawk]

ahh love your passion. Let’s hope we find the confidence this week to move the ball, take a few risks, and aim to put 12-14 goals on the board against the winless Kangaroos:

North will probably not put us under the same pressure and are unlikely to punish as much as west coast. So I expect to see more fluid ball movement subject to having Gunston back so we have someone to kick to.

but in the medium term it is going to be a case of players getting slowly better at it. Some players will not get better and have to be left out of the side for someone else but it is hard to make full judgment s when the cohesion and execution under pressure is so poor. Buckle up as we will have more bad weeks than good this year but the investment is made for the future.

 

[Yardie]

Our list is terrible but its the reason why which upsets most supporters. We chose to top up and overpaid severley "coz Hawthorn just gets the trade done" rubbish. The pics alone given for JOM and Wingard were staggering. JOM had a major question mark over a serious knee injury which haunts us as we speak. Wingard has dodgy calves which also haunt us to this day. We paid Burton, first rounder and second rounder for Wingard yet didn't follow through on our initial interest on AMON who would have then cost a bag pf chips - this year he is AA form

We all love to pot Essendon but last year they refused to hand over 2x 1st rounders for Dunkley. Their last offer was 1x first rounder and a second which was fair and reasonable. They walked away on a player who overall is far superior to Wingard yet we paid more than what Bulldogs wanted for Dunkley???

We could have backed out of both deals but kept bending over to both GC and Port Adelaide which wreaked of desperation, there was a time when we used to bend clubs over in trades. Don't get me started on our ruck division. Big Boy has been a warrior but got destroyed by Nick Nat who has done two knees. Ceglar has gone gun shy at centre bounces and is now a major liability yet has another year on is contract. WE have Reeves but he is still unproven and needs more time

I watched both Box Hill and yesterday's game and our depth in non existence and potentially the worst in the league. There is hope but we need to nail the draft this year and hopefully bring in some good players via trades

What is done is done. You can't change the past. We can't go back and have a do over.

I would recommend that you go to university and do a course in structural engineering. Once complete you can then build yourself a bridge and get over it.

Like, how many times are we going to go over those mistakes. Every week? FFS.......

 

[burner1]

How do we execute this mythical fast style that we train for? Essendon seem to manage it. We can seem to only do it vs other bottom 4 sides when engaged in a shoot out.

Even if we train for a quicker offensive style, Clarko preaches defence (defend first, attack second) so am sure that’s always in back of players minds when making the 50/50 calls irrespective of what our offensive ball movement is meant to look like.

We could release the shackles and risk large losses but that’s not really in Clarkos playbook (or only really done at end of season). At some point we may have to as if we effectively spend a whole season not implementing our preferred game plan that seems a wasted year?

Having a crap list also doesn’t help.

 

[Millsie69]

15,277 the official crowd yesterday. Yikes!

 

[MrPremiership]

15,277 the official crowd yesterday. Yikes!

That's more than I thought we were going to get.

Didn't Collingwood get 19,000 to an MCG game only a few weeks ago? Aren't they supposed to be a big club?

At least we have mothers day as an excuse

 

[MrPremiership]

Positives

- Mitchell having 41 disposals and getting back slowly to his best form. Playing a different game, but it's good to have him back and miles away from that horrific leg break
- Worpel as a pure inside mid, racking up 30 and kicking goals. Best game he's had for 2 years. Great to remember how good he can be at that role. Will be an important part of our rebuild.
- Lewis keeps clunking contested marks, top 10 in the league. Kicking a few goals and presenting up the ground. Great to see him at least putting games together.
- Impey playing well back from the ACL.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

I'm gonna try to take some positives out of what was a genuinely bad game, and say only conceding a 38 point loss and 98 points against in a game where you've conceded 68 inside 50s to 35 shows that our defensive structures are fine.

Our midfield on the other hand is a few players short, particularly when it's missing the best centre clearance player in the comp and our best midfielder in Jaegs and having lost three above average running wings over the one off-season. We definitely need more depth in that area, because we cannot cover its deficiencies when you combine it with the fact we're missing two of our better and more creative users out of the backline in Day and Sicily.

To those saying "Oh West Coast, more injuries, away from home" - fine. They still had almost a full cohort in the middle and up forward, which was all they really needed because the ball barely got down our end and when it did their defense had some trouble. The amount of players missing needs to be considered with where they're missing from.

LOL Shuey and Yeo are arguably the Eagles 2 best mids.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

15,277 the official crowd yesterday. Yikes!

I predicted 11k so I'm pretty happy we reached 15k.

 

[KermitJagger]

LOL Shuey and Yeo are arguably the Eagles 2 best mids.

Shuey probably but Yeo hasn't played for a while, and is a utility just as much as a midfielder.

Naitanui, Gaff, Sheed, Kelly and Redden is still a large chunk of their same midfield.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Shuey probably but Yeo hasn't played for a while, and is a utility just as much as a midfielder.

Naitanui, Gaff, Sheed, Kelly and Redden is still a large chunk of their same midfield.

Sicily hasn't played in a while either, doesn't mean he isn't our best defender. Yes Yeo is a utility I'll pay that, but he's still predominatly used in the midfield. Both guys are in West Coasts top 5 and huge parts of West Coasts midfield.

 

[Rev08]

How many more weeks of losses are going to end in a discussion about what we did in 2017?

It might be time to move on.

Is there anything to say we’re not still making the same mistakes though? We drafted a whopping 4 players last year, on the back of 3 the year prior, signed a 28 year old Kyle Hartigan and have made little to no effort to improve our draft hand. Haven’t seen enough yet to be confident we have learned our lesson.

 

[MrPremiership]

Is there anything to say we’re not still making the same mistakes though? We drafted a whopping 4 players last year, on the back of 3 the year prior, signed a 28 year old Kyle Hartigan and have made little to no effort to improve our draft hand. Haven’t seen enough yet to be confident we have learned our lesson.

Drafted 5.

DGB
S. Mitchell
Downie
Brockman
Saunders

Then Bramble in the SSP

Picked up a 24yo, 100 game player too.

We weren't rebuilding the list in 1 off-season

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Drafted 5.

DGB
S. Mitchell
Downie
Brockman
Saunders

Then Bramble in the SSP

Picked up a 24yo, 100 game player too.

We weren't rebuilding the list in 1 off-season

It's such a shame for a vareity of reasons we didn't have any player from the last 2 drafts playing yesterday.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

i shudder to think how many goals the big fwds would've scored on us if we didn't pick up hartigan

 

[Rev08]

Drafted 5.

DGB
S. Mitchell
Downie
Brockman
Saunders

Then Bramble in the SSP

Picked up a 24yo, 100 game player too.

We weren't rebuilding the list in 1 off-season

Saunders in the rookie draft. You can’t really rely on the rookie draft and SSP to rebuild a list where up to half the team fielded on the weekend needs replacing.

 

[JR33]

Clearly the players are not sticking to the game plan. Watch the interview with Phillips after the game yesterday, he said it’s time for them to put their foot down and start taking the game on. Probably lack of confidence and belief

 

[Spursfan]

Saunders in the rookie draft. You can’t really rely on the rookie draft and SSP to rebuild a list where up to half the team fielded on the weekend needs replacing.

That's why its going to take more than 1 draft. Were looking at least this year and next of hitting the draft to really get a critical mass of young talent.

 

[MrPremiership]

Saunders in the rookie draft. You can’t really rely on the rookie draft and SSP to rebuild a list where up to half the team fielded on the weekend needs replacing.

Got nothing to do about relying on any particular draft, its about getting talent in the door

 

[MrPremiership]

That's why its going to take more than 1 draft. Were looking at least this year and next of hitting the draft to really get a critical mass of young talent.

Yeah, we weren't rebuilding the entire list with 22 selections in 1 draft.

Posters have forgotten how long it took to do the last rebuild. Hint: it didn't start in 2004