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Hawthorn match - some observations

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dogwatch

dogwatch

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Jun 17, 2009
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Some random observations from today's match against the Hawks:

  • We were still a bit scratchy but won a hard fought game as a top 4 side should. Hawthorn were good too.
  • Boyd, Cross and Griffen great games - Boyd all day and Griff after quarter time.
  • Cooney quiet in the first half but sensational in the second.
  • Harbrow getting better each week.
  • Murphy not a lot of touches but every one is gold. Always feel like he's going to find a target when he has it in his hands.
  • Everitt looking more comfortable, confident and constructive each week. Serviceable game today.
  • Gilbee, Aker and Hall all played good games. In recent years we might have lost this game as we had no target like Hall.
  • Lake thrashed Buddy and had a lot of good possessions (as well as the odd clanger). Buddy might even get a bit of video scrutiny for a raised elbow but not a lot in it.
  • Renouf beat Hudson and Minno in the first half but couldn''t sustain it. They lifted after half time and ended up having reasonable games. Minno's 50m penalty a bit soft but he still needs to smarten up.
  • Kicking into the 50 and decision making in the first half was woeful - much better in second half. We seemed to lack composure until half time.
  • Goal kicking was poor in the third but we didn't drop our heads, just kept coming.
Overall very pleasing but we play Brisbane and St Kilda in the next three weeks so we will need to keep on improving.
 
Liked Everitt's game. Apart from missing an easy mark, improving nicely.
I am so happy for Picken, thought he may have second year syndrome, But he is tough and playing great footy. Hope his ankle is ok.
LOVE seeing Barry Hall in the forward 50!
Eagleton for Moles next week maybe.
 
Agree with all points, we still haven't got our free flowing running game up going properly yet either and we need to stop being so Hall focused we kicked ass in that 3rd quarter because we were kicking to other targets and Hall got free in the last and ended up with 6, Cooney's and Murphy's touches are absolute magic, Griffen played a good game great to see him playing like that again.

Williams had some really poor disposal and cost us a couple of goals which was disappointing, we need players like Picken in the team to match it against tougher sides like Hawthorn he had a really good game and kept Bateman out of it for the majority of the match.

Everitt should have a spot in the team every week too.
 
We don't have the kicking accuracy for goal we had last year. Could be the Barry Hall effect. But i'm glad we have him. 6 goals got us over the line.

Having said that we got lucky against a very tough hawks outfit. Losing Hargrave upset our backline. Don't think Roughead would've imposed himself like he did with Hargrave playing.
 

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Good points dogwatch.

To add..

From the little time I've seen Moles play, the confidence I have in him doing the right/smart thing majority of the time is stunning. Not that you want injured players, but very glad he's getting game time while the likes of Eagle/Ward/Johno etc are out.

Lake's "odd clanger"... by "odd" do you mean "frequent" :p He's a complete paradox Lakey. Will do the most amazing things, and the most unbelievable, all within the same minute.

Everitt and Williams continue to show improvement, Everitt taking on the man on the flank to set up a goal (mark to... I can't remember who :confused:) was fantastic to see. He has talent, and it's good to see him believe.
 
Did anyone see Picken smack Bateman behind the play? I saw Bateman lying on the ground for a long period and assumed Picken may have given him one.

When Bateman got to his feet, he went and had a go at Picken.
 
How good was Cooney's clearance and round the body pass to Hall.

Think Boyd needs some work on his disposal. Was very bad by foot at a few stages today and apparently leading the comp now in disposal errors (of course having lots of disposals in total doesn't help this).
 
Thought Skinny was very good today. The dance around Buddy was very nice.

Higgins is class. When things were all over the place the only time I felt assured was when the ball ws in his hands. I actually thought he was close to our best.

I thought Akers disposal was very poor today. Didn't use the footy well at all.

Cooney is a star.
 
Some of the guns were on today:

Griffen
Cooney
Murphy
Gilbee

All on fire. Very good.

Moles was solid as well. He's got amazing hands.

I liked Hill's work - some tackling and good grabs.
Harbrow is a jet - never shirks.

And Kudos to Lake. Buddy is quickly becoming his b1tch.
 
Good performance in the second half. Hall won the game in the last quarter when it was there to be tacken. Cooney was class. His ability in traffic is amazing. Griffen i though was close to bog for us.
Boyd had a similiar game to mitchell but mitchell had 4 clerances to boyds 11 with about 5 mins to go.

Both williams and everitt seem to continue to improve which is great.

Hopefully hargrave, aker and picken will all be ok for next week. Picken shut down bateman.

Also i though we were getting pushed around abit but picken and cross stood tall and harbrow got a great hit on lewis.
 
we were so so frustrating before half time. slow ball movement, second guessing, match ups seemed all over the place at the bounces.

however.....

after half time, we took the game on, backed ourselves in and started hitting moving targets much much better. whilst it was still frustrating that we kicked 2.9 in the 3rd and could have ended it then and there, i still thought that while we were creating that many opportunies to score and moving the ball that quickly the game was safe.

credit must go to boyd, griffen, cooney, gilbee, picken, lake & murphy.

also thought everitt did some very nice things,

and dont forget.............

SETTLE DOWN BARRY!!!!!!!!!!
 

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Agree with most of the posters,

1) Eade dragged Hill after not chasing Hodge( who set up a goal). Fair call, however he spent too long on the Bench..... Replaced Hill by rotating Minson & Hudson in the forward line....BIG Mistake......allowed Hodge to run & carry too often

2) Gia is either terribly out of form or carring an injury

3) Higgins was great considering he was hampered by his calf

4) Picken was great shutting down Bateman

5) Williams & Everitt are getting better & better, confidence is a wonderful thing.

Hope Aker & Picken are OK, looks like shaggy has done his ribs
 
It was a relief to beat a fellow Top 8 team in a close game. There were a lot of clangers on both sides and our kicking for goal wasn't good enough again but the four points were well deserved - and could be handy around late August!

J.Akermanis. Contributed before injury. C+

M.Boyd. Was everywhere as usual. Some poor kicks means only an A-

A.Cooney. Characteristically stood up when it was there to be won. A

D.Cross. See Boyd. A

A.Everitt. Solid, developing nicely. Starting to nail a HB/wing spot. B

D.Giansiracusa. Another good game without getting near votes. B-

L.Gilbee. Reliable. Such a good start to the year. A-

R.Griffen. Got lots of it, gave us some run when the game was getting boggy. Still needs to improve disposal. A

M.Hahn. No where near his best. D

B.Hall. Match winner. Showed why he was recruited. Lucky to have his opponant injured early and was well held for 3 quarters but dominated when it was there to be won. A-

J.Harbrow. 23 important disposals. Back to his best. Adapt at defending and setting up attacks. Should poll in this game. Knocked out Lewis too (Y). A

R.Hargrave. Injured early.

S.Higgins. That word again... "classy". Ended up with a deceptively high 31 disposals. A-

J.Hill. Solid. One chase and tackle (on Hodge I think?) is what we need to see more of. B-

B.Hudson. Decent, not spectacular. C+

B.Lake. 25 disposals from FB. So happy we retained Lake. A-

W.Minson. Too many clangers once more. Did some things to redeem himself but remains frustrating and is fast becoming a whipping boy of our support. I wonder if Rocket and co are quietly contemping giving Wilbur a spot in the 2s? C-

B.Moles. Fitted in nicely again; looks an AFL player. Looks assured with the ball. Did enough to give the selectors something to think about re: bringing Eagleton back. B

D.Morris. Always there to spoil when needed. Like Gilbee, such a consistent player. B+

R.Murphy. Only 13 possessions but always useful with it. Kicked two important goals. B

L.Picken. A required player in a tough match such as this. Always hard at is. B

T.Williams. Did some good things but still needs to adjust to pace of game. Made some costly errors. Persistence needed. C
 
Astro_ said:
Did anyone see Picken smack Bateman behind the play? I saw Bateman lying on the ground for a long period and assumed Picken may have given him one.

When Bateman got to his feet, he went and had a go at Picken.
Click to expand...

No I didn't see this.

Picken is an unbelievable tagger. One of the most underrated going around.

Your #44 will be good. Moles? Miles?

Congrats on the win:thumbsu:
 
Rocket was just on Fox Sports and on Brian said he did very well but sometimes does his own thing instead of following coach's instructions and said something about Willy but I missed it
 
PSP18 said:
It was a relief to beat a fellow Top 8 team in a close game. There were a lot of clangers on both sides and our kicking for goal wasn't good enough again but the four points were well deserved - and could be handy around late August!

J.Akermanis. Contributed before injury. C+
Click to expand...

Bit harsh here. Though he's not getting a tonne of it, he's still using it well. Worth at least a B.
 

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Fossie 32 said:
Rocket was just on Fox Sports and on Brian said he did very well but sometimes does his own thing instead of following coach's instructions and said something about Willy but I missed it
Click to expand...

Maybe this ... (from the AAP yarn)

He said ruckman Will Minson, who gave away a costly 50m penalty in the opening round against Collingwood, could be dropped to the VFL, after giving up another on Sunday and also botching a simple set shot in the third term.
 
This was on AFL website too.

Eade also threatened Will Minson with relegation to Williamstown if the big ruckman doesn't pick up his form after another few costly brain fades

Did Willy play this weekend? How did Roughy go?

Very good win today by the boys i thought, was such a tough game. Next week will be a cracker.
 
Anyone calling for Minson to be dropped are simply mistaken.

Will was a big contributor in the 2nd half and particularly in the last where he won probably the first 4 hitouts and all to advantage. He also passed to Hahn for the goal that put us in front and was directly involved in Barry's 6th.

Hudson was below his usual standard today.
 
Hangzhou Dogs said:
This was on AFL website too.

Eade also threatened Will Minson with relegation to Williamstown if the big ruckman doesn't pick up his form after another few costly brain fades

Did Willy play this weekend? How did Roughy go?

Very good win today by the boys i thought, was such a tough game. Next week will be a cracker.
Click to expand...

They beat Collingwood. Roughead was fairly good - hurt his knee but came back on and seemed ok.
 
Bulldog Joe said:
Anyone calling for Minson to be dropped are simply mistaken.

Will was a big contributor in the 2nd half and particularly in the last where he won probably the first 4 hitouts and all to advantage. He also passed to Hahn for the goal that put us in front and was directly involved in Barry's 6th.

Hudson was below his usual standard today.
Click to expand...

I agree - I thought Will had a poor first half, but was instrumental in the second half. Hudson also gave away twice as many free kicks I think?

I note that Minson is in the best list according to the afl.com.au website.

Easy target, boring topic really.
 

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Hawthorn match - some observations

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