Game Day match sim: Hawks v Bulldogs @ Whitten Oval 7:10

[Hodgey 15]

Is see it's the usual practice match sky is falling bullshit.
Never change Big Footy.

 

[CobberRodgers]

Is see it's the usual practice match sky is falling bullshit.
Never change Big Footy.

Well to be fair to anyone that has gone that route, they can only go off what they saw.

The fact that majority of the issues came from lack of effort/intensity actually puts me at ease, as surely that’s not us

 

[CobberRodgers]

Have the Dogs released who got the BnF votes

 

[Simon Crawshay]

All we needed from this game and the Geelong game was for our young mids to show they are ready to step up.

It didn't happen. If they don't we are so Newcombe dependant its scary.

Meek with the new ruck rule is a watch and see. Some of his efforts at centre bounces were comical.

It also struck me tonight how light weight we are. Ward, McKenzie, D'Ambrosio, Morrison. Ginni and Croc aren't defensively physical. Watson and Moore are terrific but are genuinely small and you could add Amon(who I think we badly missed)

I think Sam can see it. Those who are adamant Weddle won't play mid might have to re asses. I'm not sure he's the answer but at least he has size and speed.

We know we are better than that. We should beat GWS given their injuries and Essendon. Hopefully we get our tails up and with it our young mids confidence.

Based on tonight I’m thinking we might miss Worps a bit more than we thought.

We all know Worps had his (well documented) deficiencies but he is a powerful unit and I’m still not sure how are going to replace his grunt (especially with Day out).

 

[Ka Norkers]

scary weak midfield, Newk then nothing.
Macdonald is a forward, Nash a decent defensive midfield stopper, Butler the same, Mackenzie and Ward not up to it against the best.
Mitch would be scratching his head tonight

 

[CobberRodgers]

scary weak midfield, Newk then nothing.
Macdonald is a forward, Nash a decent defensive midfield stopper, Butler the same, Mackenzie and Ward not up to it against the best.
Mitch would be scratching his head tonight

Forward pressure was a bit of an issue too.

 

[SSSSSS]

scary weak midfield, Newk then nothing.
Macdonald is a forward, Nash a decent defensive midfield stopper, Butler the same, Mackenzie and Ward not up to it against the best.
Mitch would be scratching his head tonight

We actually won the clearances and pretty much even on the contested possessions.

This was the one stat we got absolutely dominated.



I don't think our midfield was the problem tonight. It's not a strength of ours but they held their own against their mids. We just kinda sucked all across the field.

Our rucks were destroyed. We were beaten on transition. We couldn't slow their ball movement down and they scored pretty much every time it went inside 50. We also couldn't hit a target to save ourselves.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

All we needed from this game and the Geelong game was for our young mids to show they are ready to step up.

It didn't happen. If they don't we are so Newcombe dependant its scary.

Meek with the new ruck rule is a watch and see. Some of his efforts at centre bounces were comical.

It also struck me tonight how light weight we are. Ward, McKenzie, D'Ambrosio, Morrison. Ginni and Croc aren't defensively physical. Watson and Moore are terrific but are genuinely small and you could add Amon(who I think we badly missed)

I think Sam can see it. Those who are adamant Weddle won't play mid might have to re asses. I'm not sure he's the answer but at least he has size and speed.

We know we are better than that. We should beat GWS given their injuries and Essendon. Hopefully we get our tails up and with it our young mids confidence.

The mids were the least of the problem. Ball use maybe but thought the midfield competed well. Actually won clearances.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

scary weak midfield, Newk then nothing.
Macdonald is a forward, Nash a decent defensive midfield stopper, Butler the same, Mackenzie and Ward not up to it against the best.
Mitch would be scratching his head tonight

Yeah no.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Love good overreactions from a pre season game.

 

[CobberRodgers]

Mackenzie failed his HIA

 

[Stranglers]

scary weak midfield, Newk then nothing.
Macdonald is a forward, Nash a decent defensive midfield stopper, Butler the same, Mackenzie and Ward not up to it against the best.
Mitch would be scratching his head tonight

With all due respect, really? So you're saying that Worps was the difference between us being a preliminary final team and scary weak? Because that's literally the difference between the midfield that rolled out in the PF last year and tonight. Something must have been working for us to get that far.

It's a practice game, it means nothing. Wait until the real season starts before starting to proclaim the sky is falling.

 

[Ka Norkers]

We actually won the clearances and pretty much even on the contested possessions.

This was the one stat we got absolutely dominated.

View attachment 2537654

I don't think our midfield was the problem tonight. It's not a strength of ours but they held their own against their mids. We just kinda sucked all across the field.

Our rucks were destroyed. We were beaten on transition. We couldn't slow their ball movement down and they scored pretty much every time it went inside 50. We also couldn't hit a target to save ourselves.

good point, but I count Meek in the midfield. Dominated by English, Chol was a much better option.
new rule certainly does not favour big Lloyd

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Mackenzie failed his HIA

Would have played too. Which means Morrison likely gets the nod or they go for the dual ruck or extra tall. Cant see any other mid options that would be breaking down the door yet.

 

[StackedHunch]

Result not a huge concern. Losing Newcombe and Frenchie is FUBAR. Way too much effort for a poor performance, with consequences to show for it.

We won't be winning next week.

 

[Ka Norkers]

With all due respect, really? So you're saying that Worps was the difference between us being a preliminary final team and scary weak? Because that's literally the difference between the midfield that rolled out in the PF last year and tonight. Something must have been working for us to get that far.

It's a practice game, it means nothing. Wait until the real season starts before starting to proclaim the sky is falling.

err, the midfield in the prelim was a disaster, lost us the game. Danger tore us a new hole in there.
we won every other facet of the prelim

 

[Dewyyyyy]

With all due respect, really? So you're saying that Worps was the difference between us being a preliminary final team and scary weak? Because that's literally the difference between the midfield that rolled out in the PF last year and tonight. Something must have been working for us to get that far.

It's a practice game, it means nothing. Wait until the real season starts before starting to proclaim the sky is falling.

The difference is literally Worpel goes out, Ward, Mackenzie get more CBAs, Mackenzie is the one that comes in. MacDonald and Weddle get a fair bit of midfield time especially CMac and I still think Hawthorn are better off with that.

You add Day in half way through too.

Doubt the midfield will be as big of a problem. The ruck rules will be interesting, need to get the cohesion going across the ground and raise intensity - that’s the game.

 

[Siri]

Apparently McKenzie failed his conclusion test. Oh my!

 

[To the Hawk]

Ward is a good or slightly better than good player. Mackenzie I think will be a good player. CMAC looks OK as a mid, but I'm not convinced. He's much better as a forward.

When you see a pick 3 like Jagga Smith, it feels that's what's missing in our list build.

Finn Callaghan and Harry Sheezel went pick 3s when we landed Ward and Mackenzie at pick 7. It's a big difference between good and star quality.

We will need to land a star in trade or FA for our midfield mix. Unless Day can stay healthy.

 

[Stranglers]

err, the midfield in the prelim was a disaster, lost us the game. Danger tore us a new hole in there.
we won every other facet of the prelim

I beg to differ. We will see what happens once the actual season gets underway.

 

[Lickmesocks]

Garry Lyon is the main reason I don’t watch AFL 360 anymore, though not a fan of Bias Cat Whately but could tolerate him when Robbo was on

Robbo and Gerard worked well as the nerd and bogan act

 

[Bedi]

Have the Dogs released who got the BnF votes

i actually don't mind that concept as there's FA to play for otherwise.

 

[Bedi]

Apparently McKenzie failed his conclusion test. Oh my!

shit so does that mean he misses against GWS?

 

[twentythree]

I'm worried about our midfield too.
Losing worpel is huge in my opinion, remember this guy is a best and fairest winner and he's still relatively young.
And he had an interrupted season last year.

We will miss his grunt and it leaves too much on Dukes shoulders to get it done.

I don't see C Mac as THE guy , he just flashes in and out of the games, and he doesn't have that grunt.

Sammy's gonna have to get creative.

I know it's just a practice match but felt this concern on our midfield since trade week.

 

[killerspud]

He was a mad Hawks supporter growing up and I can't really think of too many times he's been hard on us.

If I was totally blind to footy I'd say Dunstall has the biggest hard on for us and he's a Hawk through and through.

His dad was on the Hawks list - might have played a game or two