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Game Day Final Round Game Day vs Hawks

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Is opening the season at home that much of an advantage? I suppose it’s a better chance of getting off the mark early but got to be pretty marginal in the overall scheme. We still get 12 games a season at Optus
No I just get jealous when round 1 comes around and I see all my mates interstate watching their team live knowing I have to wait another week to see them.
 
Is opening the season at home that much of an advantage? I suppose it’s a better chance of getting off the mark early but got to be pretty marginal in the overall scheme. We still get 12 games a season at Optus
Not much other than a small psychological advantage when mapping out the season. It is definitely best to get it sometimes when young, inconsistent and looking for a fast start.

Closing the season at home however is definitely an advantage in the run homr for finals in terms of qualification and positioning and is another area we are genuinely getting screwed on (for no real reason considering neither WA team seems to be at home).

One way or another: Getting neither of these over a period of multiple consecutive years is genuinely quite disadvantageous and is something that needs urgent rectification.
 
Hawks will be a good barometer of where we are at next year. A historically successful club with a winning culture that we would love to replicate. Started their rebuild after us in about 2020. Even though they kickstarted the rebuild by grabbing Will Day with pick 13 in 2019, a player you’d be delighted to get with a top 5 pick starting a rebuild. They were still in contention then and Clarko was all in on trying to win the flag. I think they were even top 4 in 2018. They did burn pick 6 on DGB though in 2020. Probably balanced out by pulling one out of the box in 2021 by getting Newcombe for peanuts. Have bottomed out hard over the last 2 years and made ruthless calls on players like JOM and Mitchell.
Now the narrative has switched to topping up with mature agers like Ratugolea and Mckay in the upcoming trade period.
There’s nearly universal belief around the game that these guys are on a serious upward trajectory starting next season. Their coach has a swagger and self belief in their chosen pathway like not many I’ve seen before.

Next year will be very interesting to compare us to the Hawks. If they were to bypass us and surge up the ladder while we are still stuck in no man’s land, that will reflect very poorly on JL, who will be in year 5 by then. They are younger and less experienced than us and I still think we have more talent than them however.
On paper, on list management timelines, on rebuild timeslines etc, there is no way the Hawks should be finishing ahead of Fremantle in 2024.
It's not like for like though. The reason they're closer than they otherwise might be is because that absolutely jammied Lewis at pick 70odd and Newcombe in the MSD (great recruiting really). Their 28-32 also contribute more than ours. Specifically, their best defender and best non-key forward are in that range.

They got 45 goals out of Bruest this year. We (rightly) think Sonny is going to be hard to replace with 31.

People just lowered their expectations for the Hawks this year because everyone just assumed losing Mitchell and JoM was going to be a big deal. If you watched them last year, you would have seen that neither was going that well (which is why I campaigned against getting JoM). They've treaded water essentially - 7 @ 81 this year vs 8 @ 89 last year.

So when you factor in the flat form line year to year, suddenly they are not some unstoppable juggernaut destined to be top within 3 years.


That said, if they do go past us, I think it has much more to do with how good S.Mitchell is rather than JL not being up to it.
 

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If we play like we have in the last month we should win.

But not liking our chances given our track record in these types of games.

Also winning means we have a chance of avoiding bottom 4.
 
Because all the Victorian teams have to compromise their fixture to play their marquee games 🙄

I think we would rightly get upset if we played Home, Home (Anzac day), Away, Away. Collingwood can play Home at the G then Away at the G and then Away at the G and then home at the G
 

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We weren’t allowed to wear the purple shorts as they said it would clash with the brown. So it was either purple up top, white gown the bottom, or all white. Oh yeah, and the hooped socks. I would say this combo looks like poo, but hawthorn have that covered.

Who’s sub?
 

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We weren’t allowed to wear the purple shorts as they said it would clash with the brown. So it was either purple up top, white gown the bottom, or all white. Oh yeah, and the hooped socks. I would say this combo looks like poo, but hawthorn have that covered.

Who’s sub?
Ras
 

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Game Day Final Round Game Day vs Hawks

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

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