Coach Sam Mitchell's direction for the club and 2024 news

[Strapping Young Lad]

If anyone wants to have a listen about what the data is saying in regards to whether we have actually gotten worse this year have a listen to this from the 9:15 mark.

I know a few people have already touched on it, but the data is also showing that our results this year have been slightly better despite actually putting out a younger team and dealing with some injuries.




And here.

 

[Hrvat Hawks]

I don't think it's time to poo the bed just yet. It's not great what we are seeing but I truly believe if we start playing with some big pressure and tackling things can look a lot better. I think we are so far off playing with any of that. I feel like last season Sam Mitchell set us up for an attacking mode. I think now we have to have the defensive base sorted.

 

[Brishawk]

To bring this back to sam’s direction…

The team played a man on man defence all night. I did notice on several occasions that players would not be next to their regular opponents and and looking around for someone to match up on but with now one nearby they sort of trott to a place they might expect the ball to go.

This left space of the opposition players to work into space and open us up. It wasnt every play but it was clear we lacked awareness of when players around us were free and getting dangerous. The ‘i’ve got an opponent’ mindset of man on man defence makes it easy for players to think they are doing their job without still considering the needs of the team. We will need to improve on that greatly. The defensive strategy is vastly different to how we played under clarko.

 

[Philhawk]

If we’re smart, we extend his contract by 2 years this week and really back him in.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Mate, i was there. In no way were the conditions tough, nor did we need to make any material difference to how any team would play. As i posted above, I watched a very humid game two weeks ago and the pies reserves in real humidity and actual light rain at times had no problem handling the ball. Players vomited and cramped. Still no impact on the ball handling. If we are that concerned about playing in slightly different conditions to home then we have a big problem. The focus on the conditions is polar opposite to the mindset to play in any conditions, any time. You talk like they players never play in wet and greasy conditions in melbourne or tassie…

We definitely play in wet and greasy conditions elsewhere, but do you completely disregard the coaches and players talking about those conditions too? Or failure to play to them?

No one is saying we lost because it was humid, but to completely ignore and disregard the fact we called out the conditions in our captains run, we set up and briefed the players to play to those conditions and then we had a visibly frustrated coach declare post game that we didn’t play to those conditions, is beyond bizarre.

Whether you felt the conditions or saw them worse two weeks earlier really doesn’t matter, because the team who were out on the park went to specific lengths to train in, and then play to the conditions and didn’t meet the brief according to the coach or the players themselves.

I don’t know why people are choosing to ignore or disregard what was a clearly communicated factor within the game, both pre and post game.

 

[Brishawk]

We definitely play in wet and greasy conditions elsewhere, but do you completely disregard the coaches and players talking about those conditions too? Or failure to play to them?

No one is saying we lost because it was humid, but to completely ignore and disregard the fact we called out the conditions in our captains run, we set up and briefed the players to play to those conditions and then we had a visibly frustrated coach declare post game that we didn’t play to those conditions, is beyond bizarre.

Whether you felt the conditions or saw them worse two weeks earlier really doesn’t matter, because the team who were out on the park went to specific lengths to train in, and then play to the conditions and didn’t meet the brief according to the coach or the players themselves.

I don’t know why people are choosing to ignore or disregard what was a clearly communicated factor within the game, both pre and post game.

Im not ignoring it, im calling it a copout and a concern that it was such a focus when the conditions were benign. Im telling you that we should all be concerned by what is coming out of the club. As this thread is for a different purpose, ill not post again on this topic

 

[spudmaster]

The 'completely unacceptable' numbers behind Hawks' woes

Josh Gabelich lays bare the steep decline of Hawthorn's midfield in 2024

www.afl.com.au

The Hawks are ranked No.18 in the AFL for clearances and centre clearances after round eight and will need to go to work this week after they were taught a lesson by Gold Coast.

I hate it when people come from the future and drop spoilers.

 

[Hawks91b]

Have to laugh a bit about the humidity argument. Are we applying the same principle when they come down here or in Tassie when its very very cold.

This performance was cooked from the start, the effort was off, the Gamplan to play slow is still perplexing and easy to defend and they just grabbed up and shook us like a big bully all night.

We will get better this year and will have a run at some point but the cracks aren't that easy to cover up in the longer term. I can see another year of significant player exits and hopefully we can get some real top end talent through draft, trade and FA through the next couple of years. We are desperately crying out for a few guys that can carry the side on its back when things get tough so need to stop drafting vanilla who will never be that, especially with early picks.

 

[RoughysMullet]

Sam’s turned over more than half the list in 3 years- our 2021 list that Clarko left him was full of spuds - it’s going to take time- coaching really isn’t gonna change that…

 

[perrdan86]

Have to laugh a bit about the humidity argument. Are we applying the same principle when they come down here or in Tassie when its very very cold.

This performance was cooked from the start, the effort was off, the Gamplan to play slow is still perplexing and easy to defend and they just grabbed up and shook us like a big bully all night.

We will get better this year and will have a run at some point but the cracks aren't that easy to cover up in the longer term. I can see another year of significant player exits and hopefully we can get some real top end talent through draft, trade and FA through the next couple of years. We are desperately crying out for a few guys that can carry the side on its back when things get tough so need to stop drafting vanilla who will never be that, especially with early picks.

This is what i'm not understanding about this season. Leads to most of our inside 50s being just junk kicks to packs of players.

Cant understand why we aren't using the handball to speed up transition.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

If we’re smart, we extend his contract by 2 years this week and really back him in.

I don’t see how that’s smart. If we continue the year with this same kind of form then there’s no way known he deserves any more than a 12 month extension.

 

[HedgeFund]

If we’re smart, we extend his contract by 2 years this week and really back him in.

He’s contracted until the end of 2025.

Why would pushing that out to end of 2027 be a “smart” move?

Are there other clubs in the market for his services?

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

This is what i'm not understanding about this season. Leads to most of our inside 50s being just junk kicks to packs of players.

Cant understand why we aren't using the handball to speed up transition.

This is my one major criticism of Sam. Our game plan seems to be heavily reliant on kicking and the handball stuff is almost an after thought. We are struggling and more stagnant as a result but it is not a natural thought for our squad who all prefer to kick, around corners and even while being tackled.

Other than HH who shows soft hands in close quarters, most others are not very good at hitting targets by hand or placing the ball to advantage by hand.

 

[Mississippi]

If we’re smart, we extend his contract by 2 years this week and really back him in.

That wouldn’t be smart at all - just ridiculously dumb.
Mitchell is contracted to end of 2025.
At present, we’ve regressed to our worst season opening for 54 years.
And you’re suggesting, we should renew his contract to end of 2027!!??

If we were in the Premier League, Sam would have been sacked this week.

Right now we have the worst list in the AFL, and the players we have on the ground are looking soft, many shirking the hard ball and are seemingly not interested. There were half a dozen players who should have been dragged last Saturday for their soft efforts. And that follows on from a game, a couple of weeks ago against Melbourne, where our players were too afraid to kick the ball into our forward half.

The pressure right now is for the coaches to turn things around. Our list is mediocre and we can’t blame the coaches for that.
But Sam and his assistant coaches have to get some fierceness and enthusiasm happening on the ground. Realistically we’re going to lose the vast majority of games for the balance of the year but we don’t want to see our players roll over and have their tummies tickled.

Pre-season, many posters were saying - “Don’t worry about pre-season form, when the season’s underway, we’ll show our true colours”. Sadly, we’ve done the opposite - by achieving a 54 year low.

If we finish with the wooden spoon this year then the pressure is really, really on Sam. And that’s a long way from a 2 year extension.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Are we the only club that talks more about the greasy conditions when we play GC up there every season ? Reality is we're soft, we have players who trot along for four qtrs of footy without hardly been noticed. Im pretty sure Sam isn't going to be letting the players off this week because of ' greasy conditions ' . Nor should he.
We're starting to become one of the club's that opposition love playing to get some form.. terrible, things gotta change in attitude wise, coz' I still believe 100% that we have a very talented list.

 

[tommyk72]

As of last week we were 8th in the comp for contested possessions, and 5th for contested possession rate.

Contested possession has actually been ok for us this year.
Bombers, we were +6(122 total)
Demons, -8(116)
Cats, +13(145)
Pies, +9(150)

Saturday night was a night we couldn’t afford to lapse.
We were -8, for a total of 127.

Playing contested footy involves tackling, and we’re down towards the bottom on that.

 

[JR33]

Moore’s comment about tiptoeing and sitting out of drills makes it sound like the coaches and players are worried about injuries, which might be the reason why we are not going hard at it? Did the injuries cause the confidence to drop amongst the group. What’s everyone’s thought on his comment?

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Moore’s comment about tiptoeing and sitting out of drills makes it sound like the coaches and players are worried about injuries, which might be the reason why we are not going hard at it? Did the injuries cause the confidence to drop amongst the group. What’s everyone’s thought on his comment?

Yes, Newmo has mentioned previously, we’ve been light on for full contact drills over the last 2 weeks of 6 day breaks, due to our injury list.

 

[Nuggets73]

We’ve got a bunch of kids running around with less than 50 games in them, you’re always going to get these inconsistent performances .. this is to be expected.

.. Keep the faith boys, we’ve been in this position before .. it’s just gonna take time

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Moore’s comment about tiptoeing and sitting out of drills makes it sound like the coaches and players are worried about injuries, which might be the reason why we are not going hard at it? Did the injuries cause the confidence to drop amongst the group. What’s everyone’s thought on his comment?

It’s also why Sam mentioned in the post game presser that they might just have to “lose one”(a player to injury) this week, as we’d not been hard enough in the contest as a result of laying off on the full contact drills.

You’d really hope that doesn’t become 2 or 3 like our intra club.

 

[Philhawk]

That wouldn’t be smart at all - just ridiculously dumb.
Mitchell is contracted to end of 2025.
At present, we’ve regressed to our worst season opening for 54 years.
And you’re suggesting, we should renew his contract to end of 2025!!??

If we were in the Premier League, Sam would have been sacked this week.

Right now we have the worst list in the AFL, and the players we have on the ground are looking soft, many shirking the hard ball and are seemingly not interested. There were half a dozen players who should have been dragged last Saturday for their soft efforts. And that follows on from a game, a couple of weeks ago against Melbourne, where our players were too afraid to kick the ball into our forward half.

The pressure right now is for the coaches to turn things around. Our list is mediocre and we can’t blame the coaches for that.
But Sam and his assistant coaches have to get some fierceness and enthusiasm happening on the ground. Realistically we’re going to lose the vast majority of games for the balance of the year but we don’t want to see our players roll over and have their tummies tickled.

Pre-season, many posted were saying - “Don’t worry about pre-season form, when the season’s underway, we’ll show our true colours”. Sadly, we’ve done the opposite - by achieving a 54 year low.

If we finish with the wooden spoon this year then the pressure is really, really on Sam. And that’s a long way from a 2 year extension.

Sorry, but that’s absurd. If people can’t see how good a coach Sam is, then we’re having a laugh.

Good teams develop through continuity.

In mid 2006, Clarkson was given a 2 year extension.

We have a 5 year talent replenishment plan that’ll fuel our next flag. It’s extremely short sighted to think that Sam should be under any kind of scrutiny any time soon:

 

[TylerDurden]

Sorry, but that’s absurd. If people can’t see how good a coach Sam is, then we’re having a laugh.

Good teams develop through continuity.

In mid 2006, Clarkson was given a 2 year extension.

We have a 5 year talent replenishment plan that’ll fuel our next flag. It’s extremely short sighted to think that Sam should be under any kind of scrutiny any time soon:

The media are coming for him hard now..if we lose this week, they'll have his head on a stake.

 

[theiaofseed]

The media are coming for him hard now..if we lose this week, they'll have his head on a stake.

Cool but we're not a rabble off field, long as the board believes in the message who cares what this weeks verbal diarrhea is spewing from the media.

 

[eldorado]

There was a shot in the second quarter of Scrimmers on the bench absolutely drenched in sweat.

I think it worked quite well in taming his silly furry mullet.

From now on, he should either play with more product in his hair, or move back to the Suns.

(More seriously, yes, it was quite telling how saturated he was)

 

[Philhawk]

The media are coming for him hard now..if we lose this week, they'll have his head on a stake.

I’d like to think Gowers is smarter than that.

Genuinely, only a fool would reevaluate Sam’s position before round 22, 2025. Even then, that seems early.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

The media are coming for him hard now..if we lose this week, they'll have his head on a stake.

The media can throw a wobbly all they want.