Autopsy 2025 Preliminary Final: Hawks get rolled

[Fastback]

Proud. Disappointed, but proud.

Thought Nash was a standout tonight. Anyone with more acumen/insight know if this was a by-product of Geelong midfield tactics targeting others, or just Nash being the bloody beast we know him to be? In any case I loved his game.

Didn’t lower colours, and got a great taste of it. Onward and upward.

He played well, stood up and was hard at the footy.

 

[EightyNineChamps]

Need two more mids. Worps will be addition by subtraction. I still don’t believe Cats are dumb enough to offer him a contract.

Has already bought a house in Bannockburn

 

[Sleutheren]

Disappointing but not entirely unexpected. Contested ball and clearances have been our Achilles heel and it was badly exposed tonight. You won't win many prelims with a mid level on ball group. But still, I'm super proud of the season and the interstate finals wins. It's great progression for them. See who they can get in the offseason and come back hungrier and finals hardened.

 

[Hotham Hawk]

Tonight stings a little but I'm proud of the team of how far they took it this year and how they are building nicely.

It would have been sweet to make the grand final but hopefully we can go a couple better next year. Our window is wide open and the future is bright, just need to grow and learn from the gains we made this year and the harsh lessons along the way.

 

[Cleavy]

I feel sick, who else feel's sick?

 

[hawkmang]

Ah that hurts

 

[barbster]

Will be a much better team with Worps, CJ and Lewis out of this team next year.

Lewis had a great game, don’t know what you’re smoking.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

The same thing as all our losses this year - no leadership on field.

Theres noone identifying trends on the run and making onfield adjustments like Sam and Hodge did during their playing days. Theres noone reading the play consistently (although outside of the geelong game battle had been doing well at zoning off to give himself time to read the ball in flight)

Thats got to be our off-season target. Onfield leadership

 

[Jethro!]

sighs..................................

what will happen to Chol do you think

i am so over football

Nothing.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Lewis had a great game, don’t know what you’re smoking.

He had a great half.

 

[EightyNineChamps]

Going to be tough finding 5 players to get votes.

If CJ hasnt played his last game for us I just dont know what Mitchell is thinking.
One good use of the ball across 3 finals.

Chol will get 3 weeks now. Easy decision for the AFL with us losing.

Having played so well last 2 games we shat the bed easily 30 times when under no pressure. Just poor.

I dont care about ball use. We need Petracca.

i'm not his biggest fan but he didn't play all that bad...

 

[bungholes_premiers]

The Watson to defence move was the most shocking case of over coaching I've ever seen... cats it Mitch's head bad...

I just can't understand how a completely different hawks team still manages to do dumb sh1t against this mob.

I wish we didn't play like globetrotters one quarter and the generals the next

 

[Buttonsticher]

Need two more mids. Worps will be addition by subtraction. I still don’t believe Cats are dumb enough to offer him a contract.

Would want to renegotiate the deal after tonight effort.

 

[2008wasoverDEW!]

We had two outstanding finals victories, but tonight was a bridge too far.

The cats were too quick, strong, and clean. We probably ran out of petrol tickets in the end.
Our midfield has to improve. Go get Merrett AND Petracca. We need both.

Well done to the boys on an outstanding season. It hurts, but that's what helps drive the team to achieve more.

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

Umpires let the Cats back in and Dangerfield did the rest leading the cats to the win.

We let ourself down early, yet really proud that we fought it out into the 4th qtr.

To make a prelim from 8th spot, we really had our work cut out for us to make the GF.

Our boys will go and have a well deserved break, whilst roughy and co work on improving our list.

Come preseason training the boys will look to improve and will aim for a top 4 in 2026.

Over to you now Sleepy & Roughy!

 

[Tall poppy Syndrome]

Well I’ll start with 2 things that I normally wouldn’t.

First, we were really reamed by the umps tonight. Geelong were too good regardless but Jesus!

Second, I really love Jason Dunstall but he really got to me tonight. Just so incredibly negative on everything we did.

Geelong won’t get beaten next week.

Thought we fought hard tonight at least. Outclassed and we really really need another quality midfielder plus Day.

Thought Weddle might be a point of difference for us but wasn’t to be, needs a big preseason and more luck with injuries to take the next step.

Finally a big shout out to Nash and Gunston, both brilliant tonight. And a big tick to CJ ( thought he was good and really put in tonight) and Mitch Lewis.

Overall a good season, took another step. And I actually think Watson kicked goal of the year in the second quarter, will probably get lost among everything else.

 

[VandoHawk]

We tried a lot of moves tactically but Geelong’s moves strangled us to a significant degree.

O’Connor clamped Weddle on the wing/forward and we had to shift things around to accommodate. Rucking him was an effort to break that tag.

Mullin just followed Wizard around and Wiz still struggles with those close checks.

Atkins on Newcombe was brutal. Newc couldn’t win the ball, and Atkins (credit to him) is a tackling beast. He also got involved in chains but that was more due to Geelong’s mids dominating ours.

We’re not a very young team but our key playmakers weren’t experienced enough to handle it.

 

[I wanna pash Nash]

Proud of that effort, didn't roll over and kept fighting. A significant improvement on last year. We had a much more mature season and look set up for a sustained crack at competing. Lots of natural improvement still to come.

Was great to see Lewis get amongst the goals and Moore have a good final.

 

[Worth a Kick]

Been a great finals campaign. Tonight was always going to be the toughest test. The growth from last year is evident, the win over the giants showed real grit, which I wasn’t sure was there yet. And to bury the past short comings in Adelaide the way they did was amazing. Gives me confidence for next season.

 

[Cheersquad71]

Petracca, Merrett and a bionic foot for Day would be handy. But hats off to Dangerfield for a brilliant game. Have seen better umpiring at Auskick. Hope someone wipes the smirk off Bailey Smith

3

Bailey Smith

Age

24

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

’s face next week.

 

[HairyO]

Would want to renegotiate the deal after tonight effort.

Or let him know he wont be needed. Danger will go around again.

The Cats can Pendlebury him and keep him home for the long trips.

 

[Buttonsticher]

Big question is .... is this our 2011 or 2001?

2007

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Positives
1. Gunston was total class all night. Pity we couldn’t get him more looks as he had his opponent on toast.
2. Nash tried his guts out. Not subtle is big Connor but he smashed in hard all night
3. Lewis’s first half was great to watch even though he did seem to run out of tickets in the 2nd

Negatives
1. Watson, Wedds and Ward all having off nights was difficult to compensate for
2. Absolutely destroyed at the contest (especially centre bounce) all night
3. So many fumbles and dropped marks. Always same story against bloody Cats!
4. Got the rough end of the pineapple form the umps (as per usual when playing the Cats)
5. Watching a 36 year old Dangerflog year us a new one (yet again) was not pleasant

Still great effort to make a PF from 8th.

Get Day back healthy and one of Trac/Merrett and we are in it up to our necks next year

 

[Bugs1977]

First of all I just want to say how proud I am of this club. Unfortunately for us we ran of petrol tickets during the 3rd quarter onslaught and after playing in NSW and then SA I think it just took it's toll in the end.

The next thing I would like to say is I would really like to see everyone here keep things classy and not pot shot any players. I truely believe it is just not our time but even though were that one midfielder short we gave it a damn good crack with who we had available.

IMO I think the biggest learning for this group is that ladder position is oh so important and the rd18 + rd 21 games we let slip vs Freo and the Crows cost us the shot at top 4.

Finally this coming offseason is going to be so important for this club as hopefully it will be the final pieces to the puzzle. It really never is nice to get that close and miss out on a GF but make no mistake this is just the beginning.

 

[Jethro!]

We just didn't get enough midfield footy to challenge their undermanned backline.
Fumbly. Hopefully better for the experience but never any guarantees we'll be back there.
Hopefully solid preaseasons help for Lewis, Daysy, Dear.

Boys should be proud of their year but work to do