Training 2024 Preseason reports and discussion

[excitingnews]

How's Wiz been today folks?

Has had a few slick moments, but hasn’t seen much of the footy, has marked twice inside 50 but passed off to team mates both times

 

[Hodginator]

Gee that free against Chol to Daniel was pretty stiff

 

[SSSSSS]

How's Wiz been today folks?

Done a lot of nice things without the ball. Didn't get much of it though.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Gee that free against Chol to Daniel was pretty stiff

We're the only ones who have that paid against us

 

[Yardie]

That was the dumbest thing I've seen paid. Chol pushing player out on his side paid in the back.....

 

[VandoHawk]

Have to head off now so posting some notes early. Final score: WB 108 to Haw 83.

WB had the wind quarters 1 and 3. In quarter 4, we took off all our senior players for the young guys. Margin at 3QT was 41 points.

We struggled to stem the bleeding, letting our opponent kick 6 and 7 goals in a row. Was a problem last year and looked very casual.

When we actually had the breeze, we looked potent. Kicking wasn’t always there but we looked more likely to score. Ginni, Hardwick looked dangerous.

Bulldogs tall forwards caused a LOT of headaches. Darcy, Lobb and Naughton probably had 10 contested marks between them.

I thought a lot of our senior players weren’t going very hard. Sicily, Lewis etc. very casual and lacked intensity. Contrast this to Libba.

Standouts: Scrimshaw, Mackenzie (second half), Hustwaite, D’Ambrosio, CMac

 

[hawkman]

Gee that free against Chol to Daniel was pretty stiff

Sitting next to Hawthorn players not playing and they all laughed at that one

 

[Simon Crawshay]

I called it already but my man Scrimmers is in for a very big year in 2024.

Him and Sicily working in tandem gives us one of the best intercept marking half back lines going.

 

[peetoo]

Amon, Bruest, CJ, Day, Blanck, Moore, McCabe, Wingard are those not playing at all I think.

Dogs are playing heaps of their better players in the second game.

Wouldn't worry about the result, but I agree we should worry about the run of goals conceded, even though the wind is clearly a factor.

It was our achilles heel in 2023 - not being able to stall opposition momentum - and it's got to be addressed in 2024 if we are to improve much at all.

Bailey Dale is long term injured last time I looked

 

[peetoo]

Has had a few slick moments, but hasn’t seen much of the footy, has marked twice inside 50 but passed off to team mates both times

He was in and among up the ground early on

 

[hawkman]

Cost ourselves probably 3 or 4 goals with simple turnovers that went down the other end for an easy goal

Liked HH, Chol and Ginnivan especially

 

[peetoo]

On the whole better than I expected

 

[H00t]

There was a number of positives to take out of that game and things to work on as well.

Will be interesting to see if we play at a higher intensity next week.

 

[peetoo]

OMG lots of Kool-Aid drinkers here.
It seems if you make in any way a realistic comment, you are abused and the post deleted. F**k me, a bunch of 5 yo's on this chat forum.
In daring to suggest the Hawks won't make the finals, and will do well to win seven games, I got abused and my post was deleted. What a joke.
See you later, kiddies, but remember i WILL come back and post in early September.
FWIW, McKenzie and Ginnivan look really good and both will be fun to watch over the next decade.

Will win a flag before the doggies, but that’s quite a low bar.

So what wisdom have you brought?

 

[Lingsface]

McDonald will be a star one day.

 

[Xtreme]

Hawks still on track to win the 2024 premiership.
Practice matches are just that PRACTICE

 

[Slysh]

McDonald will be a star one day.

We need to get the ball in to his hands as much as possible because he just makes good things happen

 

[LRobbo]

D’Ambrosio plays round 1, was excellent and uses it so well.

Ginnivan, worked extremely hard, feel like he wants to change the tone around the player he is

Watson, looked a yard off of it but will be better for the run, not concerned.

Chol looked good in parts but also a few odd brain fart moments

Frost, geez it’s hard to say nice things about such a frustrating player, prefer we take our licks with Philips at full back tbh

 

[matey]

That run by Weddle was something now to do it 5 times a game!

 

[ahhhhhh]

Ginni and Massimo looked good. Hustwaite plays every game.

We looked a lot more solid with Phillips out there.

 

[peetoo]

On the whole better than I expected

Also played at their training ground. Dingley can’t come quick enough

 

[Simon Crawshay]

I'm liking what Ginnivan is bringing to the table so far. Looks very switched on.

Will be a very handy player for us this year, if he can kick 30+ goals that will be a great return for bugger all cost.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Hustwaite, Massimmo and Ginni stood out for me. Allof them got a fair bit of it but more importantly, used it really well

Scrimshaw too. Connor Mac is all class and was the best early. Cam Mac came into it and was all over it in the last.

Agree with others that Weddle is not really a defender, he is better let off the leash.


All in all, big Naughton was the difference. Both teams had control with an insane wind, the big fella was just too good and I think the 4 goal margin is down to him.

 

[Baz_hawk]

My $0.02:

Intensity of the game from our boys was off for most of the game. There was a lot of caution in some pack contests which you won't see in the real stuff. It's always hard to read anything from these games due to the structures and match ups being fluid and there is a much greater focus on individual fitness and game time than actually playing to win. Thought the miss were poor early, very fumbly and often a step or two behind. This improved as the game went on but again we seemed to be lacking any intensity here. I thought it may have been intentional as a means to practice our spread and test out our structure from quick clearances where we can't play an extra behind the ball.

Few players to highlight:
Hustwaite plays round 1. He's classy, moves well and just has time with the ball in hand. Can kick goals and offers a bit overhead also.
Phillips looked good, reads the flight incredibly well and works hard to make the contest. Took some good grabs and didn't look out of place.
Massimo found a bit of it and looked decent. A few errors and cute kicks that didn't come off but when he has a little time he definitely makes it hard work for defenders.
Chol looked good in his first game. His finishing was poor but he and Lewis seemed to work well together. Field kicking is very good for a big guy which will be a huge bonus when he's needed in the ruck or playing up the ground.

There's a few others like Croc and Frenchy who continues to build and develop which is exciting.

Good hitout in the end, result is meaningless but I don't think we had any injuries and we now have some footage and game time to go back to the track with and learn from.

 

[tommyk72]

Just to confirm - there weren’t any significant injuries, right?

If not, I call it a win!