AFL Autopsy Loss to the Hawkes

[sameolds33]

I took my dogs for a walk at the local lake at half time with my wife. One of the dogs ate a dead carp and vomited it up in the car on the way home.

I had to pull over to allow my wife and I to both

I spent the last quarter cleaning dead fish dog spew out of my car.

Still feels like a better experience than watching us.

It was better than you might have imagined. Once I was reconciled to losing the game - in the first Q, it was quite satisfying cheering on the small wins in play for the rest of the game. And concentrating on the effort if not the skill.

Hope is a rollercoaster bitch of emotion. But tonight it was snuffed out early by the 4 goal margin that they managed to maintain so easily every time hope threatened.

 

[ant555]

The difference?
They are a team built by a good recruiting team with a specific style of football in mind. We are an add hock bunch built by an average recruiting team with no specific plans other than just picking players.
People can flame over player X or player Y or the coach but the fact is they will finish top 4 and our build is actually been restarted.

We fought it out well but we paid for some early defensive lapses and it was not just the whipping boys. As you would expect the young guys made a few bad defensive errors that really hurt . Even Caldwell and Merrett where guilty of some lazy defence that lead to goals.

Not what we wanted but the reality is we are 4 or so goals from the genuine top 4 contenders.

Effort pretty good. Execution average. Team defence a work in progress. Coaching tactics bit ordinary early.
Should not have let them have an extra behind the ball given they like to torch sides from the back half.

Umpires had a bit of a shocker both ways. Hope that is not their standard for the season.

Anyway. A bit meh. Some good stuff and some of the same mistakes. Anyway it is round 1 .

 

[Mercurial89]

As the saying goes, Round 1 can't read too much into some things,

But it was generally the same things and the same players that were the warts of this team that it always is.
Skills, efficiency, poor decisions.

The good was the effort and the desire was there and the fitness looks good. Though it's the healthiest you will feel all year, you should be running well. Our issue is being ground down by seasons so we shall see.
Our newest youth looks like when given responsibility it can do the job.
Caddy has it, Kako is our cleanest player, Durham is our midfield effort guy, caldwell good.
Perkins was given a job to do on Sicily and looked like a guy overthinking. When he got off that role and played his game he was fine enough.
Harry was great I thought, now we need 10 matches in a row of that output.
Tsatas looked lost early and by the end of the game was our best clearance player.
Hobbs I don't see it,
Prior didn't have a great game but I think expectations were too high on him. He looked mid coming in and performed thus.
Just keep playing kids, get faster.
I'd go younger if possible, bring in more debutants.
Explore your list at the highest level.
I'll point to Richmond as the example, they just won a game but they could lose every game for the rest of the year, it will be a fun one for them because they are handing the keys to the youth and they will get more picks and turn that list over.

We need to get out from under some of these contracts to our mid age bracket guys and move them on.

This draper contract is going to unfortuantely going to be a killer. Instead of a haul by trading him we are going to be stuck with a forward ruck who has no forward craft and is a poor tap ruckman.
Not good.

We are a lot further away from top 4 sides than that margin even shows.
The way we move the ball through people is a real issue and no one in that backline is suddenly changing it. We need new players, not repurposed players that have been here.

 

[andleanback]

really, we are the youngest?

Youngest team this round and will be even younger next week with Ridley and langers out

 

[ghostdog]

Are we so desperate to keep Shiel in the team that we're trying to turn him into a defender because others have gone past him in the mids? There isn't one quality he has that would make him a suitable defender let alone a good one. It was a strange move when it was being talked about in the pre-season but now that we've seen it in practice... yuck.

Yeah nah. He was good against the Cats. A bit off tonight.

 

[brutus76]

Dear Brad,

1.Mason Redman is a defender
2. You cannot turn Dylan Shiel into All Australian HBF Dayne Zorko. Archie Roberts should play that positions
3. Play Saady
4. Long stops in footy boots
5. A few experienced players giving hardly a fruit

 

[Jobe Watson]

Yeah nah. He was good against the Cats. A bit off tonight.

In a zero pressure pre-season game.

 

[Seb78]

Who comes in for Rids and Langers?

Hayes & Edwards??

 

[Pweter]

Not so bad. It was like 1 team knew what to expect, another team took the best part of a half to wake up to it.

What I don't know is if we matched Hawthorn after a bit or if they backed off then couldn't completely shut us out.

 

[jannissary]

lost at selection imo, we went too tall knowing full well the hawks’ll play small. they took the game away early and our planet shattering strategy of bomb it to no one’s advantage really didn’t work.

the core issue is that our forward line flounders due to shit entries, and our defence has to work overtime to cover for the one way running that’s plagued our team for the past 4-5 years. we fought back well but it was ultimately too little too late. lack of mature leaders in key positions will continue to take its tole.

did note that zach started cramping badly in the last 3-4 minutes.

 

[ghostdog]

In a zero pressure pre-season game.

Not as much as tonight, sure, but obviously not zero.

 

[ghostdog]

Not so bad. It was like 1 team knew what to expect, another team took the best part of a half to wake up to it.

What I don't know is if we matched Hawthorn after a bit or if they backed off then couldn't completely shut us out.

We kept competing and they were forced to keep responding. I think we kept them honest.

 

[andleanback]

Thought durham was wasted while keeping redman in the middle.

Poor coaching again coupled with not starting Gresham. We looked so much better with another genuine small in the front half

 

[andleanback]

Dear Brad,

1.Mason Redman is a defender
2. You cannot turn Dylan Shiel into All Australian HBF Dayne Zorko. Archie Roberts should play that positions
3. Play Saady
4. Long stops in footy boots
5. A few experienced players giving hardly a fruit

It wasn’t long stops that were the issue, the ground isn’t bedded in properly. Chunks were coming out of the ground and players were just losing their legs

 

[jdstorm]

Who comes in for Rids and Langers?

Hayes & Edwards??

Hard to know.

With Ridley could be a Hayes type or could be a wing or mid with Roberts/Redman shifting into a HB role.

For Langford. Edwards the obvious choice but Gresham looked really good tonight and deserves to be best 22. So in that case we’re looking for a sub candidate.

For me I’d give Prior another week and bring in setterfield for Ridley (shifting Redman back to HB)

Not sure about sub. Probably SEH

 

[Yoda_]

Didn’t watch the game but assuming with more scoring shots we had an opportunity to be in the game but what the bed because, well, that’s what Essendon does?

Do we have any positives to take away?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jannissary]

gresh should’ve started anyway, dumb decision, injected some good pace

 

[MiguelM]

In a zero pressure pre-season game.

Jury still out. Was good back end of last season.

Some awful clangers but wasn't alone there. We might need to push Martin back for a week or two though.

 

[ghostdog]

It wasn’t long stops that were the issue, the ground isn’t bedded in properly. Chunks were coming out of the ground and players were just losing their legs

Some parts of the ground were disgraceful, like that pocket. Lucky no one broke an ankle.

 

[JT_the_Man]

I didn’t think we were that bad. Squandered some opportunities in the first, some of which came back to hurt us on the rebound. That’s where the damage was done.

Oh, and wtf was up with Redman trying to play a tagging role in the middle… Note that we actually outscore them after that bizarre tactic was halted.

Also **** Scrimshaw

 

[JT_the_Man]

Oh yeah and Gresham as the sub was stupid, we needed another small forward for balance from the start.

 

[raskolnikov]

Don't forget that Hawks had a game under their belt. We'll be better for the run.

 

[Keystone agony]

Caldwell and Draper best for me

Caddy special player brewing

Concerns keep growing for Eli, Hobbs Perkins (Albeit gave a bit 2nd half - his ball handling is terrible) tgese guys are going to be top 10 picks like the avg pick gets you there

Redman onball dont like, durham i wanted there and offered heaps in the last half

Tom Edwards in for Langford although id like to see HJ key fwd again, but he was very good on the wing the last fortnight

 

[Sewer de Lance]

As a neutral supporter I came away from tonights game thinking your club has finally turned the corner & made some real positive inroads to your overall game style. Keep your heads up, you’ll trouble a few sides this year.

 

[jannissary]

cousin brad taking a formula that worked (duz in the guts) and changed it. hope it’s the last we see of those changes