Autopsy Round 20, 2025: Hawks give them the Blues

[Simon Crawshay]

Scrim needs to learn from Frosty and “do the basics well” - nothing more

To be fair to Scrimmers he is usually an excellent kick, he can actually hit the difficult kick.

I think he just had an off night with his kicking (he wasn’t alone there either).

I think the team/Sam is okay with Scrimmers taking a riskier option in occasion.

 

[Badesumofu]

Forward line is looking very dangerous with Lewis and especially Dear getting amongst it. Dear is going to be an S-tier key forward.

Our defence was brilliant, Sic is just about back to his best and was huge. You can see the group gelling better down there as well.

Day, while a bit rusty, was right back to doing Day things. He will grow through the remaining games. Midfield was a concern at times but it's also instructive to look at some of the TOG% for players like Nash (as well as the more obvious ones like Day and Newc). Those guys all spent extra time on the pine while Wiz and others got some more minutes in the midfield. I reckon our core midfield group is fatigued (especially Newc). Giving those guys a bit of a spell was valuable. Meek also looks a bit tired which is not surprising with him going up against multiple rucks the last few weeks and without Chol to give him a spell (and Chol barely took a ruck contest the last game he did play).

Having Newc freshen up and Day grow back into the side should help a lot. We are still IMO a top-tier mid short and having Day out has exacerbated that badly.

Just need to keep finding ways to win and probably find a way to give Meek a rest as well. Maybe Meek gets managed against Melbourne. I would expect Chol comes in and does a lot of running and takes quite a few ruck contests over the next couple of weeks too.

Overall I think this team is progressing really well and should be a massive flag threat over the next few years.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

One of the best things from a viewing aspect last night was Gunners 10 minute patch in the third quarter where he directly set up two/three goals with his precise passing and superior vision. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

He is legitimately having close to a career best year at 33, that’s such a mind blowing achievement.

 

[Bedi]

Uhhh, Impey is injured isn't he?

Absolute zero signs of limping or discomfort in the rooms after the game, so going by that and his body language he looks right to go

 

[RobHawk]

The nice thing is the other eight prospective finalists have five games to go before finals (Gold coast have six )
We only have four and can better manage loads , and if necessary use some of our great depth at Box Hill
Also not many injuries and many players still to hit their peaks for the year
We are in a very sweet spot.

 

[Bedi]

Amazed by how few people there were last night

 

[Pinoy Hawk]

Sam's response in this morning's interview at SEN when asked on why Newk was subbed off.

Jye's been, a little bit sore. He's had a, he had a bit of a tight calf for a couple of weeks. They were able to get some load off him yesterday, which we all think will be important.

So the day before captain's run, I was pretty ..., with Will coming back, I thought we had one extra sort of mid in the team. So he did a fitness test before the captain's run, and if he had have felt anything in the calf then, he wouldn't have played. So we were gonna take him out. Bbut he got through the fitness test. He actually, probably trained triple, triple what the other boys did, 'cause they wanted to really test it to make sure he was okay. And his calf wasn't sore in the game, but he just hadn't trained for a couple of weeks, and, um you know, he's probably the guy who's carried the, the heaviest load from our midfield. So if we've got him... You always have a best case scenario of who you want to rest if the game's going okay and you can make your sub, and he was, he was our first port of call.

From ---

 

[VandoHawk]

Our backs and forwards were great but our midfield has been copping some heat so I figured I'd go back and watch them specifically. There are certain factors to consider that exacerbate the stats.

• After quarter 1, Carlton pushed an extra player up to stoppage (sometimes two). This let us have a spare down back, but it also meant they constantly outnumbered us in the midfield battle.
• Newcombe going off hurt. He was still demanding attention.
• Day was blowing up. To be expected after such a long period out, and he’ll be better for the run.
• Carlton’s strength has always been their inside contested ball winning. They’ve been good at it all year despite being mediocre.
• Meek rucked against Pittonet for the first half, then had to deal with a fresh TDK. He needs support because we’re going to burn him out.
• Nash had to ruck against Cripps which took him out of the midfield rotation and added to his load. Had a good game but it meant he wasn’t able to impact at stoppage.
• Ward/Worpel had good games but left their opponent free to hunt the ball which is problematic when a) the opposition have the outnumber and b) they don't win the ball. This is something we will need to work on.

We'll need to improve but this was a game where our best mid was subbed off, our second best mid was underdone, our ruck was being double teamed, they rolled an extra or two up to stoppage, and their one wood is contested ball. It inflates things.

 

[hardway]

Listening to Sam on SEN this morning he essentially said Carlton used flooding tactics after quarter time to stifle us.

Thanks for the snoozefest Voss Lyon.

From the look on Voss’s face in the first quarter he knew it was going to be a blood bath if he didn’t flood.

 

[HedgeFund]

Agree, Chol cannot be left out after his season so far. It would be soul destroying and wrong IMO.

Meek is looking a bit weary, so I can see Chol playing and being used in the ruck a bit more to give Meek a chop out for a few weeks. Adelaide has O'Brien and Thilthorp so would be dangerous to have a lessor ruck against them when Meek rests.

Last night, in very good conditions mind you, showed that going in with two talls + Gunston in the forward line can definitely work.

Throw in the fact that Meek carrying the ruck load with Nash as back-up is less than ideal, I still think adding Chol to last night's line up in place of Bailey would still be a positive.

Have a tall regularly on the bench isn't going to rob us of heaps of run through the middle.

Might mean we end up subbing out a tall if we feel we need more run in the second half, but that's done regularly by some other teams (esp. Collingwood & GWS).

Chol could play 30% ruck, 50% forward and 20% bench
Meek would play 70% ruck and 30% bench
Lewis and Dear would each play 75% game time forward and 25% bench

So that's 1 bench spot shared by these 4 players, with ruck and the two key tall posts filled.

Simples.

 

[PenAndPaper]

Amazed by how few people there were last night

Thursday night games are not good for attendance, they are purely a TV viewership audience for the AFL.

 

[Newmo89]

"Quite underrated": Mitchell praises Hawks defender after big win

”He’s had a really, really strong year for us.”

www.zerohanger.com

An article about TB's game last night and his underrated season to date.

 

[Sonny Hayes]

Agree, Chol cannot be left out after his season so far. It would be soul destroying and wrong IMO.

Meek is looking a bit weary, so I can see Chol playing and being used in the ruck a bit more to give Meek a chop out for a few weeks. Adelaide has O'Brien and Thilthorp so would be dangerous to have a lessor ruck against them when Meek rests.

I think this is a bit dramatic, no one is entitled to a spot in the team.

If the club feels 4 talls is the best way forward then go for it i guess but i strongly feel we need to make a tough choice on one of the 4 talls.

 

[chippie]

Cal Dear changes our whole dynamic! For those old enough like me to remember “long bombs to Snake” I’m looking forward to many years of “long bombs to Cal!”

 

[badgrill]

Who's that in the back there after Ginni's celebration?

 

[BlueWaterHawk]

I hope BMac spends every waking moment studying Impey's running and disposal. Perfect mentor for the lad, he's got the speed, just tends to forgets to use the little one-two passes and hit a target when it's available.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Has a player of TB's fridge-like size been able to fly through the air so freely? NicNat comes to mind.

 

[Whats a Battle]

Amazed by how few people there were last night

Thursday night stopped me from coming. I imagine it was the same for at least a few thousand others.

 

[hfc70]

Nash keeping Cripps to 4 kicks
Hardwick blanketing Moir (Zero,Nil, Nada goals)
TDK - super average; slow ; appears disinterested (mate take the money and run because you are not worth it)

 

[Sicily]

I await the howls of protest, however, it might be worth giving Meeky a spell for a week and bringing Noodle in against the Crows - Meeky looks exhausted and Noodle has been smashing it in the magoos so would be cherry ripe after this week's VFL bye. Noodle's additional height might make a difference as O'Brien's Inspector Gadget arms have also troubled Meeky in the past

 

[badgrill]

I just watched the Kayo mini. They didn't show Calshers one hander or Days grab. Who edits those things? Was basically just a lead up to goal passage selection. Wasn't exactly an electric game but why not show the few electric bits

the BT/ Seven commentary vs Fox was night and day - they were wetting themselves with excitement that first half (King included was very bullish on Sic, Mitch & Calsh in particular), but alas in the replay they didn't show the replay of Calsh's speccy in the goalsquare where he kicked on the siren.

They were going on about it and I'm sure they played it live in the break but not on the replay.

But yeah the Fox commentary was way better (first half especially)

 

[Sicily]

Awesome to see my man the Blonde Prince return to form as he changes the team dynamic when up and about - great to see him back on the angry pills a bit and OK with the odd brain fade as mild mannered Prince doesn't seem to allow him to play with the required intensity

 

[Buzz Hawk]

I await the howls of protest, however, it might be worth giving Meeky a spell for a week and bringing Noodle in against the Crows - Meeky looks exhausted and Noodle has been smashing it in the magoos so would be cherry ripe after this week's VFL bye. Noodle's additional height might make a difference as O'Brien's Inspector Gadget arms have also troubled Meeky in the past

That’s actually not a bad idea. Meeky has looked knackered in the last couple of weeks and Obrien generally plays well against him. Probably won’t happen though.

 

[Mercy Seat]

From the look on Voss’s face in the first quarter he knew it was going to be a blood bath if he didn’t flood.

Voss was out of ideas from the moment Ginni kicked that first goal. Poor guy looked like this everytime the camera panned to him.

 

[JZedd]

I hope Butters is watching the Hawks and is thinking "Gee what a good midfield they'd have with me there. I mean look at their fwd line too. I'd have so much more fun with the Hawks.