Autopsy 2025 Preliminary Final: Hawks get rolled

[SA HAWK]

Very proud of our 2025 season. Got over some demons with our away finals wins.
Scott knew exactly where our achilles heal was and he went for it. 20 to 5 centre clearances tells the story. He shut Newcombe down and that was the game.

Going to and watching Hawks v Geelong games for me feels like a certain level of sadomasochism. Hard to explain but others will get what I mean.

Winning 2 away finals was ****ing awesome.

 

[Max Powers]

One last time. 2025 Gunners appreciation post. What a phenomenal year he's had.

 

[Elhawko]

I think this team is better than 2001.

Don’t see us trading 2 kpp’s for pick 1 this year.

And Sam is a far better coach than Schwab.

I think people are catastrophising a bit. I get it. It sucks to lose! But we lost by five goals to the team who is almost certain to win this year, who had a dream draw and no injuries while we had a hard slog to get here and our best player out. If things were reversed and we had their draw, Day didn't miss a game, Lewis and Calsher were fit from the get go, and they didn't have Holmes or Smith, it would have been much closer. We were up with them for the first half and we weren't blown away in the second even after we were starting to fatigue. Dangerfield is an all time great and he smashed us again tonight. If he'd only been born in Waverley and not Moggs bloody Creek he might have played for us and not them and then we might be the ones celebrating tonight. Sometimes you just have to dip your lid and move on.

At least we gave ourselves a chance. Sadly if you give yourself a chance at great joy you risk great sorrow if you fall short. The sun will come up tomorrow and I just get the feeling this a group will move heaven and earth not to feel like this again.

Let's hope this is another 1982, not 2001 or even 2007!

 

[Hawkk]

A bit of an over reaction in here. This was our first crack at a PF with this group. They are tough to win. The Cats had to go through 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 before they got to 2022. And had the pain of last year (like us last week) to spur them on.

In a way I'm glad this was a solid but respectable 5 goal loss and not a blow out — like it very nearly could have. The margin is the perfect indication showing the difference between us and the flag favourite (who are a 4 goal better team to the next).

If and when we address the glaring deficiencies in our squad I see a flag in our midst...in time.

 

[SA HAWK]

I think people are catastrophising a bit. I get it. It sucks to lose! But we lost by five goals to the team who is almost certain to win this year, who had a dream draw and no injuries while we had a hard slog to get here and our best player out. If things were reversed and we had their draw, Day didn't miss a game, Lewis and Calsher were fit from the get go, and they didn't have Holmes or Smith, it would have been much closer. We were up with them for the first half and we weren't blown away in the second even after we were starting to fatigue. Dangerfield is an all time great and he smashed us again tonight. If he'd only been born in Waverley and not Moggs bloody Creek he might have played for us and not them and then we might be the ones celebrating tonight. Sometimes you just have to dip your lid and move on.

At least we gave ourselves a chance. Sadly if you give yourself a chance at great joy you risk great sorrow if you fall short. The sun will come up tomorrow and I just get the feeling this a group will move heaven and earth not to feel like this again.

Let's hope this is another 1982, not 2001 or even 2007!

2007 we lost to an extremely average Kangaroos after getting ahead of ourselves.

 

[SA HAWK]

A bit of an over reaction in here. This was our first crack at a PF with this group. They are tough to win. The Cats had to go through 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 before they got to 2022. And had the pain of last year (like us last week) to spur them on.

We will get back so long as we address the glaring deficiencies in our squad. Fix that and the four years are in play for a flag.

Cats lost by 80 odd points in 2021 before winning in 2022.

Things can turn quickly but we must upgrade the midfield and have luck with injuries.

 

[Hawkk]

Cats lost by 80 odd points in 2021 before winning in 2022.

Things can turn quickly but we must upgrade the midfield and have luck with injuries.

Exactly. Its an incredible achievement to get to where we have with the roster (in the middle) at our disposal.

 

[SA HAWK]

Exactly. Its an incredible achievement to get to where we have with the roster (in the middle) at our disposal.

When we lost day initially i thought we would struggle to play finals.

When we lost him again against Adelaide i thought we were definitely done needing to beat 1 of Collingwood or Brisbane to play finals.

It sucks our best player has missed all 5 finals the last 2 years.

 

[Hawkk]

When we lost day initially i thought we would struggle to play finals.

When we lost him again against Adelaide i thought we were definitely done needing to beat 1 of Collingwood or Brisbane to play finals.

It sucks our best player has missed all 5 finals the last 2 years.

Wettle too for large parts of the season when it mattered. We've come so far since round 5 last year but we need to keep being more and more ruthless (and less sentimental) to close the gap.

Also hats off to all the Hawthorn supporters tonight. The support was enormous. Makes me proud to see how big and important Hawthorn now is to so many people…

 

[Khmerhawk]

You cannot compare where we were at end of 2001 to where we are now and what we have built last 4 years.

Well it feels like a long time ago but was actually only 17 months ago we were 0-5 and the media were talking about 10 year rebuilds and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel and having the worst list in the comp . It’s actually quite unreal how far we have come in such a small amount of time.

 

[marklar]

For anyone that hasn't, please go watch Sam's presser from after the game tonight.

We all know how much of a smartarse he can be, but tonight he really showed that he's all class.

 

[Hawks1523]

Incredibly proud of the team. Incredibly flat with the result. But if you told me two years ago we are in a prelim I would’ve laughed in your face. Sam and co have us on the right track, we aren’t there yet and we have work to do, but enjoy it for what it’s been this year.

Season 2026 can’t roll around soon enough.

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

We were simply a few a small moments away from a GF in 2025, even with our midfield being a weakness.

A top 4 spot would have made all the difference as we should have being playing at home for all the games. Reducing the travel impact from a long season.

If Day and Dear was available for all of the finals series…

Making our behinds, goals….

This is difference of being over run by the Cats and over running the cats.

1st PS we addressed our forward lines, second PS our defence. This PS our midfield.

Cats deserved their win, but keep faith Hawks… We’re in the premiership window again.

 

[Angus Young]

we came out running so hard, hard to sustain. Both coaches made good moves.

They were calm and measured and just used it better in the end. Skill errors cost us.
We were outclassed by a better team that ran over us.

Hard to swallow but been an awesome year.

Will be better for it. Can´t wait for next year.

 

[The Chad and I]

Midfield. Midfield. Midfield.
We've got everything else.
Reminds me of when we were desperate to get Brian Lake

Brian Lake

Age

43

Ht

195cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

9.4

4star

HB

5.3

4star

M

6.5

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

163.0

3star

No current season stats available

D

4.6

1star

K

2.6

1star

HB

2.0

2star

M

1.0

1star

T

0.6

3star

, and once we did, we became unstoppable.

A very good season for a rising team with two of our most important players missing.

 

[Lando_]

So proud of the boys this year. Lewis was hot early. They had a real crack last night but I think we ran out of legs. On the road from rd 24 and to make a preliminary final from 8th isn't easy.

Only concerns i have is we need to help Gunston more. We can't rely on him to kick another 70 goals next year. And a little more class in the middle.

Go Hawks

 

[chippie]

For anyone worried about paying the price for a couple of 29 year old mids - Dangerfield is 35 and look at the impact he had!! Was at both our last two losses and just destroyed in the midfield both games. Thought Moore and Ginni deserved a bit more love for their games last night and that was close to Nash’s best game for the club considering Newc was stopped from having any influence. Super proud of the effort tonight, we were just outclassed.

 

[bigmaxi]

2001

i think its our 2025.

 

[phlogiston]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the lid will be remaining for the next 12 months.

 

[hawk for 37]

Can’t deny Dangerfield. Him and him alone was why they won and we lost.
He was just incredible.

 

[Mrzohs]

Just gad no answer to Dangerfield, at stoppage or pushing fwd.

Which is that role Daisy and Newk were started to rotate and learn at the start of the season.

You need a tagger at the pointy end i hope Finn works his way back.

 

[Fleabane]

Well, that didn't go to plan. Disappointing but our hard run to the PF showed and we are not quite at the level yet. Proud of the team and what they have achieved the last couple of years though. Next year!

 

[checkraiseulite]

I was at that 2001 PF and there was a consensus that it was an honourable loss. We were all pretty confident that 2002 and beyond was our time to shine but the truth was that only two players on the list would win a flag for hawthorn and that was Crawf and Croad (both in their last games).

was there also. sunk by goldspink.

 

[Dave Id]

Has already bought a house in Bannockburn

Bannockburn boy who captained the Geelong Falcons.

 

[Blackhawk42]

We were 16 points up when I left the wedding I was attending

Were 26 points down and hadn't scored since by the time I got home.

Wish I'd stayed sitting exactly where I was.

Thrilled with the effort and to make it this far. Genuinely just gutted it was the cockroaches that advance to a Grand Final. I don't think I can subject myself to watching Smith and Dangerflop next weekend. Might do something else with the family instead.