Autopsy Round 8, 2026: Hawks bottle it

[Nugett]

We got lucky.

Should have been way in front at quarter time.

 

[CD Xbow]

We had them in every key stat all night, but could not score to save our ourselves.

That’s a good lesson to learn I guess.

Honestly, when I hear how well McRae coached, I just shake my head

They lost every stat, flooded their defence and even a statistical impossibility they could only ever dream of, and still couldn’t deliver a win. David King is a bias flog. I hope you do your money on whoever it is you bet on.

A few weeks I highlighted how much Cholly is under appreciated for his aerial contest. It showed again tonight.

The Scrimshaw problem reared its head again. We simply cannot play him in a 4-talls defence. We become too predictable and immobile. The Pies set up knowing we would kick out of defence, not run through the middle. We need to have that option when opposition set up that way. The only defenders with any run tonight, well the Pies made sure they were never going to be used.

Sides generally don’t win too many past 5 in a row. Mentally, they are not as switched on. Expect a better effort next week as we will treat tonight as a loss during the week.

The coaches have cooked Weddle. Confidence is shot and must regain it at Box Hill for a few weeks.

The 2 x Macs were noticeable positive contributors. I just wish Connor would stop with those one handed effforts.

I thought our midfield beat yet another midfield opposition tonight, but they should be doing well when Ned is giving them silver service.

Disappointing not to convert and win, but looking forward to next weeks football match. Tonight was more of a soccer parking-the-bus game.

How do we lobby Fox to stop that laptop flog from commenting on anything Hawthorn related

Well, he certainly does one thing well. Teaches them to kick straight and take their chances.

 

[checkraiseulite]

haven’t read the comments and I am loathe to criticise individuals but I was at the game. I don’t want to see Finn McGuinness play again.

Pay out his contract and look after him but he ia turnover merchant we can’t afford to carry:

 

[Nugett]

Kudos to Collingwood, our delivery in the forward line was poor. Where the pies were able to intercept quite easily. With better delivery our forwards could have been the difference.

Shout out to the Wizard, McDonald and McKenzie who all had an outstanding game and helped us secure 2 points.

 

[Geead]

Weddle should not see another minute i50, stick him back in Defense HB or on the Wing where he can use his run and carry

 

[Dewyyyyy]

Hawthorn unable to convert opportunities, making basic skill errors and lacklustre pressure during patches.

Still managed to be
+76 disposals
+28 inside 50s
+19 hitouts
+16 clearances
+14 centre clearances
+29 contested possessions
+9 marks
+4 contested marks
+5 inside 50 tackles
+10 scoring shots

28 scoring shots 13.15 to 15.3 18 scoring shots.

The only stats Collingwood won were
One % +12
Tackles +8
Goal efficiency 44% to 21%.
Goals +2

No one to blame but themselves, draw in the end.

Poorly umpired game generally joining the trend of the year.

Collingwood defensively very strong, and were potent in attacking transition and conversion inside 50.

Hawthorn dominated the midfield battle, territory, had patches of brilliance but too often did the pressure drop off which is a big part of the teams identity. Being top 3 in the league for pressure and tackling if not first. Forwards weren’t able to convert and at times ordinary kicking inside 50, a lot of basic skill errors. Some of this is a credit to Collingwood but a lot of this is to do with Hawthorns own tunnel vision issues for this game.

Individual statistics and summarises:

Newcombe dominant midfield game, CMac super mid-fwd, Ward and Mackenzie both pretty good, Mackenzie good when it was hot late, Ward big part of the comeback in the third.

Watson massively impactful, Hawthorn are unbelievably lucky to have him. Gun.

Lewis a strong game despite being well held at times, Amon and Impey good run and dash aswell as disposal off HB. Mass great off the wing tough and classy. Ginni again super strong HF/wing game. Sicily was good before going down, controlled the air and dominant by foot.

Moore worked hard all game, another pretty good performance. Reeves superb in the ruck, dominant. Battle pretty good.

Statistics:

Newcombe strong game again probably BOG or close. 28 disp 16 kicks 11 cp (1.2) 11 si 9 cl (6 cc) 5 tkl 4 i50.

CMac classy mid-fwd. 28 disp 15 kicks 11 cp (3 gl) 1 ga 9 si 7 mk 4 cl 6 i50

Amon off hb with Impey both had big impact
Amon 30 disp 20 kicks @ 83% 9 si 7 mk
Impey 27 disp 19 kicks @ 89% 9 si 9 mk

Mass strong on the wing
23 disp 1 gl 83% 10 si 6 mk 4 i50

Watsons Magic 15 disp 2 gl 1 ga 5 si

Reeves ruck dominance 16 disp 24 ho 11 cp 1 gl 5 si 4 mk (2 cm) 4 clearances

Lewis pretty good day out 14 disp 2.2 7 si 7 mk (2 cm 4 i50 mk)

Sicily strong before injury 22 disp 10 cp 9 mk (2 cm) 90% de 1 ga 5 si 4 i50

Battle solid 22 disp 15 kicks 82% de 8 mk 10 score inv 5 1%

Ward good 21 disp 76% 2 ga 8 si 6 tk 6 i50
Mackenzie good 24 disp 88% 6 si 3 tk 5 i50 3 cl

Ginnivan 24 disp 1 gl 1 ga 7 si 6 mk

Moore 18 disp 1 gl 6 si 5 mk

Summary of the others:
Barrass pretty good but got worked over a bit at times, had crucial moments tho. 3 contested marks is massive with 8 one %.

Thought Finn did okay but couple moments he’d like back.

I think defensively every single player would like moments back from the back six and midfielders defensive workrate. Especially early.

Weddle looked dangerous. Kicking was poor. Expect a lot more. Scrim was okay without being good, didn’t notice him much. Dear had moments but looked out of his depth at times, just messing up easy things. Meek was okay but was pretty awful around the centre bounce, Reeves much better in there and not even a debate.

Hardwick got found out a few times one out against Elliott which is a tough position to be in. Nash was okay at the coalface and defensively but his ball use I thought was poor.

Everyone had good and bad moments which about describes a draw.

My best 5 were:
5 - Newcombe
4 - MacDonald
3 - Watson
2 - Amon
1 - Impey

HM: Lewis, Mass, Reeves, Ginni, Mackenzie/Ward.

I thought there were a lot of negatives and positives. Will need to work a lot on goal kicking, continue to hone in on consistent application, backing in the skills of the side and not succumbing to pressure. Which a lot of the issues have been strengths for Hawthorn. So not a lot to get up in arms about, OTTNO.

 

[Nick the Pig]

Meek has given away CB frees all season but tonight I thought he was stiff.

You are allowed to cross the line to compete the ball up, just not allowed to block the opposition ruck. But if the opposition ruck chooses to stay down or not compete, I don't know what you are supposed to do?

You cant just stop your jump mid air to not cross the centre line. Another confusing rule

 

[seysearles]

Meek has given away CB frees all season but tonight I thought he was stiff.

You are allowed to cross the line to compete the ball up, just not allowed to block the opposition ruck. But if the opposition ruck chooses to stay down or not compete, I don't know what you are supposed to do?

You cant just stop your jump mid air to not cross the centre line. Another confusing rule

The change in ruck rules have really screwed Meek over, he is too big and heavy to jump and compete at the highest point with a proper tap ruckman. Its just impossible for him to compete without giving away frees when hes got some skinny lanky dude jumping over him like a giraffe. Thankfully we have Reeves who has benefitted equally and oppositely but its left Meek sort of lost out on the ground. I was hoping he could become those bucket hands that floats between CHF and CHB being a loose man but he hasnt seemed to be able to do that. I guess to be fair hes spending a lot more time on the pine this season but even when he is on the ground he seems to be sort of invisible out there. I think mitchell has to be more proactive with positioning him in really dangerous positions when hes not in the ruck. He is mobile enough to be that moving target up and down the ground that other big men struggle to stay with. That would make him a much more dangerous prospect. I think moving forward Reeves should be taking most of the midfield ball ups with Meek pinch hitting and focusing on both ends of the ground.

 

[marklar]

What was being posted about our percentage and how does that relate to a draw?

No Oppo Supporters Post in thread 'General AFL discussion and other club’s news - Part 10'

Apr 26, 2026

There's a chance North could jump ahead of us on the ladder this arvo and into 3rd. I would never have thought that to be even a remote possibility at the start of the season.

• Argy

• 

'tis but one example. Last 2 years around finals has been a bit wild

 

[MasterSamurai]

Fly presser was pretty good I thought. Heaped praise on Hawks few times over. Handled the Dylan match saving goal really well and didnt sook it up like the Scott bros would .

 

[smeltitdeltit]

He isnt actually breaking the rules. Hes contesting the ruck, but he misses the ball and it gets paid. Thats not the rule. The rule is that you cant cross the line to block or make intentional contact

One of them the umpire threw it up about half a metre on the pies side. Yes they’re that competent. Kind of hard to not cross the line before contesting

 

[Elhawko]

I'm a bit surprised at how down people here are tbh. Before the game a lot of posters were saying how nervous they were about this game, despite the Pies board claiming we were all predicting a smashing. The Pies are a good team and they have a difficult game plan to counter. That said we beat them comfortably in every metric there is and nobody can tell me that if they hadn't kicked the lights out and we hadn't kicked like we relying on our sense of smell for direction we wouldn't have belted them. Expected score confirms it.

If nothing else came out of this game, the resilience of this group this year gives me far more confidence than I had in them the previous two seasons. We were every bit as good as them at the end and they are renowned for their ability to find a way in close games.

The media will play up the Pies outs, but if you check on McCreery's and Membrey's stats, I'm not buying that they lost much! They chose to rest Howe and Pendles. That's not injury. Nobody will mention Chol or Day.

We've won six in a row prior to tonight. That's a decent run of form and it's hard to maintain. If this was our lapse I'll take it. Sometimes I think people here expect us to win every game by ten goals and never cede control to our opposition for more than five minutes in any given game! We are not the 2013-15 team, and we are not the 80s team. It's a much more even competition nowadays and other than the bottom two or three teams, anyone can beat anyone so far this year. And it's April! There's a long way to go whether we'd played brilliantly or lost by five goals tonight.

There are areas we need to get better at. We let Houston gain too much territory and at times he didn't seem to have anyone taking responsibility for him. Our backline was too tall; a lot of us said this pregame so it's not wisdom in hindsight. I'm not sure Scrim can stay in the side unfortunately. He'd be valued by a lot of clubs and I think he's a trade option now. He's too good for VFL footy but he needs to play as a KPD and we just don't have the vacancy.

Our kicking for goal is a genuine concern. We've blown opportunities all season (a point to note when people claim it was the Pies pressure that led to our misses tonight). Even Gunners has wasted a lot of opportunities this year compared to someone like King or Neale or Larkey. We can't afford that.

Weddle was poor tonight and Dear no better. They are kids but it would be great if they could find some form very soon!

We dont seem to defend ground ball well in defence. That bothers me more than any other single weakness. It's contributing to the number of goals we are conceding each week. It's a factor of the too-tall defensive structure too.

We blew two points tonight but we saved two points as well. Next week will be a very hard assignment so let's just hope we take our opportunities when we create them over in Perth and hope that just this one time, the other mob don't have their kicking boots on.

 

[Hawks future]

Was at the game in the members part even tho it was there home game it felt like more hawk fans... hawks are the biggest melbourne club now which is a positive

 

[tommyk72]

Expected score never says it all. Our accuracy in front of goal was nothing compared to how poorly we used the ball in our front half, both through decision-making and skill error.

Is there anywhere to find histories of this? Surely we're nearly in record territory re opponents kicking above their expected scores.

 

[unitedhawk2]

We were incredibly wasteful but statistically, that should have been a 30 point win by every metric.

Pies took their chances at an insane level, however, they dominated us across half back, and almost all their goals came from turnovers in their D50 where they were able to move the ball at rapid speed from one end to the other, and catch our defence out of position.

Continues to be one of our biggest weaknesses, but made more stark and painful when we're missing them from 25 out.

If he's not tagging, would Finn fans please explain what his role in the side is - other than being the weak link that crashes our attacking chains?

 

[KOLOKOTRONIS]

This game will be remembered as a statistical anomaly or near close impossibility for the rest of time.

We will not produce this again, and neither will Collingwood the other way.

The analysis on this thread has been correct.

The overarching theme though, is that our upside is way above any other team in the competition. There are genuine replacements for those who underperformed.

Will Day is our second best player to Newcombe when fit. He isn’t just midfield padding. He’s a proven star for us. His polish will be significant. Massive in, in the coming weeks.

Weddle will find his role. Unfortunately he isn’t the forward he could be at the moment. Struggling above the shoulders. However at 21 there is bucket loads of improvement left. Keep the faith.

Lewis must play every week. Even if he has a poor one. Needs continuity.

We all love Gunston, however he is NOT the future. Tonight was a glimpse of life without a 4 to 5 goal a week Gunston. We still were capable. Expect to see plenty of McCabe and Schu as the season continues. Not suggesting gunston’s end by any stretch, however life without his dominance of late needs to be explored.

The message this season for me has been that we are a work in progress which doesn’t lose easily. We will not capitulate. We will do it the hard way. It’s the club culture.

KOLOKOTRONIS

 

[triangulation_squared]

Finn, Moore, Scrim, Sic - zero tackles between them for the night, not a great sign.

Moore didn't do much until the very end and we need him to lift.

Great signs from Cam Mckenzie.

Wiz, Conor Mcdonald amazing and I thought Mass was good.

Anyone who is kicking straight at Box Hill has to be in the mix. Butler, McCabe, Matt Hill come to mind.

The focus has to be on conversion efficiency.

Umpires made some clangers. Nobody has mentioned Gunston's goal that was overturned. I didn't think the tape was very clear and umpires call should have been honoured.

 

[HedgeFund]

Shite, we would have beaten them by 100 points on expected score

f***

Good old expected score eh?

That why I bang on about goal efficiency being the most important stat.

 

[Wingnut19]

Weddle should not see another minute i50, stick him back in Defense HB or on the Wing where he can use his run and carry

With Hardwick, Battle, Sic, Scrim and Perez we have enough good kicks to set up our attack from the backline, surely the most obvious move is Amon to the wing and Weddle to half back. Then let him get it and break the lines.

 

[JoeHawk]

Might be a good time to rest Sicily and Gunston for next week. Take the draw and move on. It’s still better than a loss. Hawthorn play Collingwood later in the year again. We will find out how much they’ve learnt the next time they meet again.

Gunston had a rest last night. Seriously though, his poorest performance this year but he’ll fire back. Missing Chol more than I thought.

 

[indianhawks]

If he's not tagging, would Finn fans please explain what his role in the side is - other than being the weak link that crashes our attacking chains?

Fin had 24 and 2 goals last week. He must be playing out of position today or his fitness may not be there. Something was odd

 

[JoeHawk]

Also, our night was perfectly summed up by our physio going arse over and pulling a muscle. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong

I reckon our Physio would have needed some Physio after that.

 

[JoeHawk]

Have you watched Danger play at all this year?

Well that’s like many saying we’re without Day. Still a valid point.

 

[I got the outside word]

 

[chippie]

I’ve seen 2 smiles on the faces of Hawks players lining up for goal at a critical time. The first was Isaac Smith v the Cats in that final. I didn’t think he’d miss that. The 2nd was on Weddle’s face tonight. I knew he would.

Contrast that with the look on Jamie Elliott’s face when he lined up. Totally locked in, you just knew he wasn’t going to miss. I think Josh’s confidence must be at rock bottom, either a defined defensive role or a spell in the two’s. He is all over the place at the moment.