Preview Hawks vs Crows - Gameday Thread, Preview & Bartos Report

[grizzlym]

Round 12
Hawthorn vs Crows

Above: Neil Craig mingling with the locals in Rundle Mall


Where and when: Aurora Stadium, Sunday, June 12, 2.10pm

Head to head: Hawthorn 12 wins, Adelaide 17 wins

Last time: Adelaide 13.16 (94) d Hawthorn 9.13 (67), round 20, 2009 at MCG

Hawthorn v Adelaide Crows, Aurora Stadium, Saturday 2.10pm (EST)

Hawthorn
B: Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham, Thomas Murphy
HB: Rick Ladson, Ben Stratton, Grant Birchall
C: Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Xavier Ellis
HF: Shaun Burgoyne, Lance Franklin, Michael Osborne
F: Carl Peterson, Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli
Foll: Brent Renouf, Luke Hodge, Brad Sewell
I/C: Beau Muston, Ryan Schoenmakers, Wayde Skipper, Brendan Whitecross
Emg: Jordan Lisle, Garry Moss, Matt Suckling
In: Franklin, Muston, Schoenmakers
Out: Chance Bateman (susp), Clinton Young (quad), Liam Shiels (quad)

Adelaide
B: Graham Johncock, Ben Rutten, Brad Symes
HB: Michael Doughty, Nathan Bock, Simon Goodwin
C: Rory Sloane, Nathan van Berlo, David Mackay
HF: Jared Petrenko, Taylor Walker, Richard Douglas
F: Patrick Dangerfield, Kurt Tippett, Scott Stevens
Foll: Ivan Maric, Scott Thompson, Brent Reilly
I/C: Jonathon Griffin, Tony Armstrong, Jason Porplyzia, Ricky Henderson
Emg: Myke Cook, James Sellar, Chris Schmidt
In: Bock, Symes, Henderson
Out: Phil Davis (shoulder), Andrew McLeod (knee), Tyson Edwards (retired)

FORM
Hawthorn: LWWWW
Adelaide: WLLLW

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/96024/default.aspx

Stoned Crows

Freakin' Big Footy decides to go down like a cheap you-know-what just when we had Mr Bartos cornered and a fine preview written by Roger C. Big game for the Hawks at our 'homeground' that really offers no advantage.


We've speculated on the team changes here.

And discussed the merits of the actual team selected here.

Go Hawks.

But first thank Roger C and that Bartos character for their previews.

 

[grizzlym]

Thank you Roger C, the preview is great.

HAWTHORN vs ADELAIDE: Aurora Stadium, Launceston - 2.10pm Saturday June 12

Hawthorn vs Adelaide brings back some great memories. The two most remarkable games in recent history were the 2007 Elimination Final – Buddy’s game – and the last gasp win at Football Park, almost two years ago to the day, when Hodge made time stand still with the goal that won the match.

But perhaps the most important one was at York Park in Round 4 of that same year. At that stage nobody knew how our year was going to go, and we’d only beaten a couple of 2007 cellar-dwellers plus North – a game in which we came from behind after struggling to get any traction at all. Adelaide had already beaten two top-four teams from 2007, and their only loss was a nail-biter against the Bulldogs at the MCG. It screamed danger game for us, but even with Mitchell, Lewis and Boyle missing, we accounted for them comfortably. Nobody appeared to notice, though. It wasn’t a memorable game, merely a significant one.

That game established two things. One: we were contenders in 2008. Two: when we don’t have to go to Football Park, we actually play very well against Adelaide. Ignore the Football Park games, and we’re actually 5-3 up in the past ten years, against a side that only missed the finals twice in that era. We lost in 2009 (we were fading fast at the end of the year), 2005 (we were still finding our feet under Clarkson, and Adelaide were 2nd, yet we only lost by 10 points), and 2004 (the less said about that year the better).

But enough history. Let’s look at this match. We lose Bateman, Young and Shiels, and gain Franklin, Schoenmakers and Muston. Franklin outweighs anything else, so even though Shiels and Young are slightly more valuable than Muston and Schoenmakers, it’s probably a break-even over all.

Whenever you see the name Muston, you know we’ve tipped over into our reserves. But on the wide expanses of Aurora, he may be an asset. I’ll be very interested to see how his stint at full-back with Box Hill has improved the defensive side of his game, but frankly it’s his attacking work we’ll need most. If we can get him bombing it into the forward line, we’ll give Adelaide’s defence a big fright.

Adelaide’s ins and outs are more damaging for them. Out go Edwards (retired), McLeod and Davis, replaced by Bock, Symes and Henderson. Bock’s more than handy – his most dangerous role is mop-up guy in the back line, but he can play a defensive role too. We don’t much like defenders who can hurt us the other way, so we’ll need a plan for him.

That said, their fans appear to be very happy with the side – Henderson is tall and fast, which could pose some problems. And Symes is no slouch. The Adelaide team as a whole looks well-balanced, despite them missing a few high-profile names.

Adelaide have one of the most unpredictable forward lines in the league. Depending on the day, Petrenko, Walker and Tippett could be anything or nothing. We don’t have Burton or Knights to terrorise us, but this lot plus Porplyzia and Douglas (who is really racking the stats up) will be more than enough for our improving defence to contend with.

At the other end of the ground, I expect Osborne to go to Johncock. Ossie’s in rare form at the moment, and I think he’ll relish the challenge. Rutten will probably go to Roughead. So that leaves Bock for Franklin. If we can exploit that, we’re halfway home. If he closes Buddy down, we’re in trouble.

The midfield looks good for us. Assuming Burgoyne plays (and there’s no guarantee of that), most of our midfield blocks are in place – Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Burgoyne, Ellis, Lewis is a great combination. Adelaide have Thompson and Reilly, but not a whole lot after that. McKay’s pretty good too, but with Vince still missing and Edwards gone, there’s scope for us to dominate the middle. I suspect we won’t, but we’ll still have that talent to deploy around the ground.

Adelaide showed signs last week that they’re getting their mojo back. Some of that performance may have been them lifting for Edwards, but the previous week they gave St Kilda a scare too. On the other hand, they’ve won three times at home, and have kept losing away over that period.

We’ve shown a new appetite for winning, and a lot of steel under pressure. As long as our forward line remains as effective as in recent weeks (scoring shots per inside 50, which has been a dominant stat for us lately), and as long as the likes of Gilham, Stratton, Guerra and Murphy can do a shut-down job on the Adelaide forwards, I’m confident.

I think we’ll get up, but it won’t be pretty. I'm glad it's in Tasmania frankly, because it's one venue we like playing Adelaide at.

Hawthorn by 15 points.

 

[grizzlym]

He's been unleashed on the Apple Isle and he's busy making cider...

The Bartos Report - Tassie Rampage III

It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since we last ventured across the straight to witness Travis Tuck win more hit-outs than Simon Taylor and Dr. Zac Dawson's dental work on Buddy Franklin. Unsurprisingly the football was actually the forgettable part of last years trip and the litres of brew that passed through our digestive system helped formulate a wonderful little memory-loss potion that Professor Snape would have been proud of.

So we're off to Launceston to see the Hawks try to make it 5 on-the-trot! People have been talking about our 4 wins in-a-row as if it was surprising yet if you read the fixture at the start of the year you would have expected us to be coming off our 7th consecutive win after accounting for a key forward-less Essendon, belting the re-building kangaroos down in Tassie, Buddy going beserk to belt the Weagles in front of their own fans and obviously the 4 recent wins to make it 7. Obviously what we thought would happen at the start of the season and what really happened were further apart than Lance Picoane's eyes.
Miraculously Hawthorn finds itself inside the top 8 after our mates from Windy Hill & The Gabba sooked about the umpires and lost. As of a result we are equal on points yet ahead on percentage with the Scum, the Paddle Pop Lions, Team Choc and the world's most annoying little club.

So this week's game admittedly becomes pretty important and despite being a bunch of soft gutless pretty-boys early in the season, the Crows beat Freo last week and will be looking to knock off another team that Trent Croad played for this week down in Inceston. I'm outrageously excited about heading down to the game this week considering I've seen 4 Hawks wins in a row for the first time since 2008 and I've spent all week furiously fighting my man-flu to ensure that my body is in peak condition as I fill it with enough beer to kill most fat Bavarians. This year we've slightly mixed up the itinerary by flying into Launceston first then flying out of Hobart on Monday as we plan to include a viewing of Deutchland's annihilation of the Socceroos on Monday morning. Apart from that the only plans is to visit as many pubs stupid enough to let us in while showering as infrequently as possible to allow for maximum drinking time (should shower beers be impossible).

Last week I started a thread (a failed poll actually) to decide which Banner we should make for the game and although most of them had the comedic intelligence of a 10 year-old James Brayshaw and some of them were probably too rude to be displayed in front of conservative Tasmanian families, we're pretty confident that the one we selected will get a good laugh and hopefully inspire the Hawks to a massive victory. If you're at the ground you should see it but if not I'll let you know which one was selected next week.

In terms of the actual football this week, I'm not expecting Adelaide to be much chop. They forcibly retired Tyson Edwards last week and all the players who weren't loyal to Andrew McCleod really stepped up to plate to ensure he finished on a high note with a win over Freo (even poor Fitzroy couldn't enjoy that). Fortunately for us the man who looks like he played one of the german soldiers in "Saving Private Ryan" was a regular 30+ possession BOG performer against the Hawks and we won't miss him this week.

This will be one of those games where each team's strongest 3rd will line up on each other as Adelaide's tight defence looks to stop Hawthorn's outrageously flair-driven forward line. Nathan Bock might have been rushed into the team to try to curb a VERY angry Buddy Franklin and we'll see if he's fit enough to keep up with Buddy now. Bock has done some great jobs on Franklin recently and with Rutten standing a massively out-of-form Roughead goals might be hard to come by for the Hawks big men.

At the other end of the field, Adelaide's forward line which was rated VERY highly at the end of last year has come crashing down to Earth with the Tip-rat returning to Spud status while the Porpoise has caught himself in some tuna nets and isn't dominating like he did last year. Hawthorn's defence looks like a conconction of blood, vomit, dirt and saw dust on paper yet has been as tight as my a-hole if I ever went to Prison over the last 4 weeks. Tom Murphy has been g... gr... gre.... great (not easy to say) while man-of-the-moment Jesus Christ has done a ripping impersonation of Ben Stratton at centre-half-back. Even Birchall, Ellis and Ladson have worked out that your arms can extend above your head and that's how you're supposed to spoil.

Will this game be won in the middle? Probably but read a real match preview for a real analysis.

So I'm off to Tassie, hoping it will be a f***ing belter of a weekend like in previous years. Check out last year's report (if you can find it) to see what I look like and come say g'day to me at Lloyd's, LQ's (formerly Lonnie's) or Irish Murphy's or New York bar. I can be contacted at this location after 2am.

GO HAWKS!

 

[HAWKS HEROES]

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/photo.php?pid=30755457&id=1105554792&fbid=1328503248401

taken this morning

 

[Willie_Rioli]

The midfield looks good for us. Assuming Burgoyne plays (and there’s no guarantee of that), most of our midfield blocks are in place – Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Burgoyne, Ellis, Lewis is a great combination.

really?!

 

[Mystical Mac]

Great previews!

I think the Hawks will win by 10 goals.

 

[eldorado]

I think the Hawks will win by 10 goals.

Win by 10 goals?

History says we'll be lucky to score 10 goals.

But I'll take it if it happens

 

[Man Mountain Dew]

Win by 10 goals?

History says we'll be lucky to score 10 goals.

But I'll take it if it happens

So we are going to keep them scoreless then? Cooool.

 

[King Elvis]

Jesus, look at the frost!

 

[macdaddio]

The midfield looks good for us. Assuming Burgoyne plays (and there’s no guarantee of that), most of our midfield blocks are in place – Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Burgoyne, Ellis, Lewis is a great combination.

really?!

is there anything we need to know about burgoyne?

 

[bards]

Jesus, look at the frost!

Pretty sure Ben Stratton would have seen it at training already!

 

[illnino]

HAWTHORN v ADELAIDE
Hawthorn
B: Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham, Thomas Murphy
HB: Rick Ladson, Ben Stratton, Grant Birchall
C: Ryan Schoenemakers, Sam Mitchell, Brendan Whitecross
HF: Wayde Skipper, Lance Franklin, Michael Osborne
F: Carl Peterson, Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli
Foll: Brent Renouf, Luke Hodge, Brad Sewell
I/C: Beau Muston, Jordan Lewis, Shaun Burgoyne, Xavier Ellis
Changes to the selected side
Nil

No late changes but some random placements...Schoey on a wing, Skipper on a foward flank with Lewis, Burgers and Ellis on the bench. Doubt they will line up like this though.

 

[grizzlym]

is there anything we need to know about burgoyne?

He's an A-grade midfielder?

He completed the warm-ups, and will play. Suckling is the emergency.

Well, that's my mail...

 

[macdaddio]

With the Poos winning and if all of Lions, Scum, Port win today and we lose we could find ourselves back down to 13th, this is going to be a very tight finish to 2010, we need to win every game or hope those above teams lose more than we do to have any chance of making the 8..

 

[macdaddio]

He's an A-grade midfielder?

He completed the warm-ups, and will play. Suckling is the emergency.

Well, that's my mail...

Thats good, thought for a minute he was a late withdrawl...

 

[Brant]

Burgoyne going to run riot off a Back Flank - Clarko will have to rotate him onto the ball to rest him!!

I think we will win the midfield battle today & that will subsequently help out both our forwards & backs.

Buddy to bring it all together today & kick 6 with good (& smart) delivery. Roughie to play out of the square & do some nice things; including big defensive pressure around goal.

Wishful thinking maybe but we are pretty much due.

 

[macdaddio]

Burgoyne going to run riot off a Back Flank - Clarko will have to rotate him onto the ball to rest him!!

I think we will win the midfield battle today & that will subsequently help out both our forwards & backs.

Buddy to bring it all together today & kick 6 with good (& smart) delivery. Roughie to play out of the square & do some nice things; including big defensive pressure around goal.

Wishful thinking maybe but we are pretty much due.

Hopefully he is too conscious about bumping and just play as normal, other wise it could ruin his game.

 

[illnino]

Nearly forgot, great work Nev....Some of your finest. "You can find me at this location after 2am" LMFAO mate

 

[Leather Poisoning]

First two goals, great start hawks!

 

[Hawker_Ant]

Nice to Roughie pick up an early goal

 

[Baz_hawk]

Adelaide get the next 2. Looks like our defense is going to have to prove itself today. Our midfield need to win today

 

[Leather Poisoning]

Scores level.

KB sounds throaty.

 

[Baz_hawk]

Roughie might be back! 2 goals early

 

[Yaelius]

Just heard we're winning the clearances 10-4, that's gotta be a first this year?

~ Yaelius

 

[Leather Poisoning]

2 goals to roughy now!