Autopsy Round 5, 2024 - Suns destroy hopeless Hawks

[Spursfan]

Was t this board praising Ward last week

He was good last week

 

[The Chad and I]

Midfield needs to step up.
Defenders and forwards are ok if they have better support and supply.

 

[PlayHard]

Can't get over how bad our basic skills are, nowhere near AFL standard. Suns were hungrier and much harder at the footy and we look so slow and sluggish, especially in the midfield.

Not sure what this mob did in the off-season but it doesn't look like much.

 

[2008wasoverDEW!]

In general I try to remain positive and understand the rebuild is a long process, looking for small wins along the way... but games like tonight leave me a little concerned.

Our midfield was not competitive at all. One of the worst performances I can remember from our midfield unit. (Meek tried his guts out and gets a pass)

We have no talls. We lacked leadership. We showed very little fight at all. A very disheartening performance from the team tonight.

 

[NewkTheLot]

CJ, Day, Chad, Breust and Lewis are ready to play.
Gunston is fit.
Watson not far off.

Gunston shouldn’t be anywhere near the (on field) team.

I live in Brisbane and he was cooked as last year. Only time I saw him show any interest was at the pub cheering on his horse. If he can coach the forwards fine but he’s got no place on the field

 

[matey]

Did I hear we haven’t been 0-5 since 1970? …… character building!

 

[Maybloomer]

My sincerest apologies to Port, Freo fans & the wider AFL audience. That tripe was not worthy of free to air coverage. A sad indictment of what we've become. A rabble.

Hawthorn is broken & each week I'm less convinced that Mitchell is the prodigal son.

Listening to Sam talking to the players, it’s like a teacher preparing kids for an exam. In a perfect world, A+B=C. Formulas mean ****-all when the ball bounces this way and that, the umpires are clueless and the opposition want the ball more than you do.

 

[peetoo]

No one will be surprised. Goals coast recently is Death Valley for us

 

[Kuuz]

In 50 years I can't remember seeing a worse Hawthorn performance. That is all.

Not sure

Our performance against this mob, in the same place, last year was about as bad, if not worse. We barely got it out of our backline.

Moreover, still remember getting absolutely flogged to an inch of our life in the early 2000s by the monster Lions side, in multiple years. Literal men to boys

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I had all the faith in the world in Mitchell and in the rebuild. Tonight is the beginnings of me questioning both. That’s the first game in the last 2 and a bit years with basically zero to take away from. Only one of our players had over 20 possessions. Despite playing defence for what felt like 95% of the game the highest tackle count of any player of ours was 4. For a midfielder it was 3. Other than Worpel not a single midfielder had more than 2 clearances. This was as ugly as any Clarko 2017-21 performance.

All of those talking finals - at this rate we will be ecstatic if we see finals before it becomes a 19 team competition.

Sam is going to have to show a hell of a lot over the coming 4-5 months to demonstrate why the hell he deserves any kind of extension - and as it stands if he’s given anything more than a year then I’d love the club to be explaining why.

 

[SSSSSS]

We are only 1 month younger and 8 games less experienced than the GC.

This wasn't a young side getting shown up by a professional experienced mob. This was one young side dominating another.

Gold Coast is a team that we are hoping to consider our equals on the ladder in a few years time.

The gulf in talent is massive.

 

[Lickmesocks]

My sincerest apologies to Port, Freo fans & the wider AFL audience. That tripe was not worthy of free to air coverage. A sad indictment of what we've become. A rabble.

Hawthorn is broken & each week I'm less convinced that Mitchell is the prodigal son.

Sam has taken over a rabble of a list.

Each year we fly home with a few soft wins and drop further down the draft order.

We badly need a few A grade stars to hang our hats on during this tough period.

So many players all at once have gone backwards and this is hard to put a finger on because there has been times this year where in games, it looks as tho the spirit and fight are missing.

 

[Linda CRS]

Can’t believe how Chol forgot how to play in the humidity!

It wasn’t that humid, should have stopped at forgot how to play. He is no good, Damien Hardwick must wet himself laughing someone else gave him 4 years.

 

[Tall Tales and True]

There'd be a case to suggest that was, arguably - statistically speaking - the worst midfield performance by any team in the modern era, especially the first half.

On SM-S916B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Max Powers]

Two things that bugged me tonight:

1. Our inability to do basic football things...again

2. Letting GC niggle and push us around all night and just sitting there and taking it.

 

[hardway]

I had all the faith in the world in Mitchell and in the rebuild. Tonight is the beginnings of me questioning both. That’s the first game in the last 2 and a bit years with basically zero to take away from. Only one of our players had over 20 possessions. Despite playing defence for what felt like 95% of the game the highest tackle count of any player of ours was 4. For a midfielder it was 3. Other than Worpel not a single midfielder had more than 2 clearances. This was as ugly as any Clarko 2017-21 performance.

All of those talking finals - at this rate we will be ecstatic if we see finals before it becomes a 19 team competition.

Sam is going to have to show a hell of a lot over the coming 4-5 months to show why the hell he deserves any kind of extension - and as it stands if he’s given anything more than a year then I’d love the club to be explaining why.

He is driving a lemon. Unfortunately he has the keys.

 

[Harper_Hawk]

Sam became coach July 2021. Over two and a half years later and we are at our lowest ebb. We have no structure or game plan of note. Nearly every player having their worst season and our bodies look weak.

Agree. Team in reverse.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Encouraging performance.

We just need a few tweaks here and there.

You can really see the game-plan coming together now and with the boys really playing hard for their coach it's only a matter of time before it all clicks.

 

[Kanga Commando]

Inbound

 

[SA HAWK]

Expected a 10 goal loss.

Still disappointed how we played though.

 

[Tall poppy Syndrome]

Wasn’t expecting a win but was hoping we could at least build our percentage from 68 with a respectable performance. Dropped 4% to 64%. Damn!

Now that they’ve found the right coach Gold Coast will be scary good soon.

 

[Cheersquad71]

Hard to win games without a functioning midfield or spine. We desperately need a key forward who can demand the ball and provide a contest and some structure.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[xmarksthespot]

Full Time Update:

THE GOOD:
Finn - Potentially another string to his bow? Three goals is a great return.
Scrimshaw - Stood tall tonight.
Weddle - Again showed some glimpses of what he's going to become. More please.
impey - Was (too) harsh on him in the first half. Was strong all night.
Frost - Continued his great run of form.
D'Ambrosio - LOVED his hardness at the ball. He already bleeds for this club. Fast becoming my favourite player.
Ginnivan - Tried hard all day. I thnk we need to accept there's perhaps a different set of rules. At least in the short temr.
Meek - Franked his form with another strong performance. Definitely something to build on.

THE BAD:
Croc - Not sure what his role was tonight? Saw him a bit in the back half, which was surprising.
Chol - Struggled tonight. Struggled to take a mark, but to my eye, he was held often?
Umpiring - I'm loathe to blame the umpires for any result, but gosh there were some stinkers called (or not called).

THE UGLY:
Midfield - Good god. I can't even. That was possibly the worst performance I've seen for quite some time. Not sure what happened here, but collectively they were all down. Newk, Ward, Nash, Worpel all had nights to forget.
Coaching - I understand the desire to set tasks and see if players can turn things around, but at 3/4 time, it's time to throw the magnets and see if you can unlock something.

I'm not sure what's happening in the midfield this year. It's gone from a relative strength to falling into a gapping maw. My fear is that we walk into next week's game expecting a win, but receiving a belting.

Reading through the game day thread, I'm not sure i agree with some of the narrative that we don't have elite talent, I just feel that there's a lot of learning going on (perhaps too much?). I wonder if we need to take a few things back to basics.

Onwards and upwards to next week...

 

[earthworms]

We are improving. People are forgetting how badly we got smashed last year, and the expectations this year are too high for a rebuilding team, especially one which has had a lot of injuries.

This year: Two ~50 point losses
, 1 ~30 point loss,
1 ~20 point loss,
1 5 point loss.

Last year: Two ~80 point losses.
1 50 point loss.
1 2 point loss.
One win (north)

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Really not even angry any more.
It's hard to care about the loss when the players don't care