Autopsy How the flag was won

[Harry Reems]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/21581403/how-the-flag-was-won/

Hawthorn yesterday launched Playing To Win, a book which detailed how they won their second flag under Clarkson.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson killed off Fremantle's famed defensive aura less than 48 hours after the Dockers mauled Sydney in last year's preliminary final, according to the inside story on the club's 11th premiership.

Playing To Win also revealed the selfless job 2008 premiership captain Sam Mitchell performed while being tagged by Dockers star Ryan Crowley.
Crowley was superb all season and finished fourth in the Doig Medal after constantly shutting down the opposition's best midfielder.
He restricted Mitchell to just 12 disposals - his lowest tally since round two in 2009.
But the book revealed that Mitchell played as an annoying decoy on grand final day.
"The Hawks had done their homework on Freo's Sandilands, and Mitchell's task was to take Crowley into the giant ruckman's 'hit zone' at stoppages and so restrict the ability of Freo's other on-ballers, Nat Fyfe, Michael Barlow and David Mundy, to get clean possessions and easy exits," it says in the book.
"He performed it with cool efficiency, laying almost as many tackles as he won kicks and having a positive impact in some 30 contests without actually getting the ball."

 

[slicedndiced]

We didn't win because we didn't do enough of this...

 

[scon]

Carlton training under Emperor Malthouse.

 

[purplefrog]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/21581403/how-the-flag-was-won/

Hawthorn yesterday launched Playing To Win, a book which detailed how they won their second flag under Clarkson.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson killed off Fremantle's famed defensive aura less than 48 hours after the Dockers mauled Sydney in last year's preliminary final, according to the inside story on the club's 11th premiership.

Playing To Win also revealed the selfless job 2008 premiership captain Sam Mitchell performed while being tagged by Dockers star Ryan Crowley.
Crowley was superb all season and finished fourth in the Doig Medal after constantly shutting down the opposition's best midfielder.
He restricted Mitchell to just 12 disposals - his lowest tally since round two in 2009.
But the book revealed that Mitchell played as an annoying decoy on grand final day.
"The Hawks had done their homework on Freo's Sandilands, and Mitchell's task was to take Crowley into the giant ruckman's 'hit zone' at stoppages and so restrict the ability of Freo's other on-ballers, Nat Fyfe, Michael Barlow and David Mundy, to get clean possessions and easy exits," it says in the book.
"He performed it with cool efficiency, laying almost as many tackles as he won kicks and having a positive impact in some 30 contests without actually getting the ball."

Interesting. So had we kicked straight this whole theory and master plan would have failed.

 

[slicedndiced]

Carlton training under Emperor Malthouse.

Try getting through that forward press!

 

[Harry Reems]

For those with Foxtel, this "tears to the eye" story is the subject of a documentary about to be aired on Fox Footy.

"It takes us inside the Hawthorn camp and show's us how they as the underdogs rose up and beat Fremantle in a classic David Versus Goliath story."

WTF!

They were odds on favourites to win and rightly so.

Was this supposed to come out the year before but Sydney unfortunately pissed in their punchbowl or something?

Jeeze Hawthorn, Brisbane at least waited until they won three flags in a row before they realised their documentary.

 

[MIKE85]

'scuse the intrusion, but I had to reply to this. heck the Hawks think they are the shit don't they? If You guys had won, we would all be saying what a good job Crowly did to restrict Mitchell and how it went a long way towards winning the game, but instead it was some sort of "master" plan by Clarkson to have one of his better players do little in the biggest game of the year and somehow by getting totally tagged out of the game, he restricted Fyfe and the likes, it just doesn't make sense. Does it say somewhere in it that Clarkson somehow ruined your goal kicking? That would have been something, as it stands, and I'm sure you all read the article last weekend about it, stats show that with better kicking you would have won, so I really can't see how the hawks used some master stroke of genius to have less shots on goal & still win.

 

[Righteo]

For those with Foxtel, this "tears to the eye" story is the subject of a documentary about to be aired on Fox Footy.

"It takes us inside the Hawthorn camp and show's us how they as the underdogs rose up and beat Fremantle in a classic David Versus Goliath story."

WTF!

They were odds on favourites to win and rightly so.

Was this supposed to come out the year before but Sydney unfortunately pissed in their punchbowl or something?

Jeeze Hawthorn, Brisbane at least waited until they won three flags in a row before they realised their documentary.

Please tell me this is your own embellishment here and that wasn't actually the line used? That's some epic revisionism.

 

[jackkkkk]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/21581403/how-the-flag-was-won/

"The Hawks had done their homework on Freo's Sandilands, and Mitchell's task was to take Crowley into the giant ruckman's 'hit zone' at stoppages and so restrict the ability of Freo's other on-ballers, Nat Fyfe, Michael Barlow and David Mundy, to get clean possessions and easy exits," it says in the book.
"He performed it with cool efficiency, laying almost as many tackles as he won kicks and having a positive impact in some 30 contests without actually getting the ball."

lol because none of them had any influence and were all completely shut out of the game

 

[MIKE85]

lol because none of them had any influence and were all completely shut out of the game

That's what makes the whole thing so stupid, had Fyfe kicked a goal or 2, even if you still lost, he probably would have won the Norm Smith, although after Judd got booed in 05 it almost seams they just pick a player from the winning team to keep everyone happy.

 

[pokerspiv]

Mundy was BOG, Fyfe would have been if he had kicked for goal better. Barlow was a bit down on his usual output but to suggest their masterplan worked is laughable. We smashed them at the clearances and Hawthorn got most of their possession from our missed shots at goal.

 

[Simmofreo]

Ok I'll tell you what wins flags, and it's something we need to work on. Watching the Sydney game, they do not miss !! They kick goals from everywhere. We are nervous every time someone kicks for goals. That didn't look much better on Tuesday. Hope they really really improve on that. Sydney don't even have buddy, Tippett or Goodes and everyone is dead on goal kicking. Especially Reid !! /)

 

[pokerspiv]

Hawthorn are also typically very accurate.

 

[Simmofreo]

Yep

 

[Dockernut]

Oh I thought it was due to 3 spurious free kicks that resulted in goals. Oh and of course Balla.

 

[Simmofreo]

Honestly if you are watching the Sydney game you will see what accuracy does. Giants doing well possession wise but Sydney just don't miss. Don't even have their 3 key forwards in

 

[se17enteen]

No excuses from me, the best team won. The Hawks players showed up and did their job perfectly.

Especially these three players.

 

[Freo88]

We didn't win because we didn't do enough of this...

That is the weirdest flash mob ive ever seen

 

[clogged]

'scuse the intrusion, but I had to reply to this. heck the Hawks think they are the shit don't they? If You guys had won, we would all be saying what a good job Crowly did to restrict Mitchell and how it went a long way towards winning the game, but instead it was some sort of "master" plan by Clarkson to have one of his better players do little in the biggest game of the year and somehow by getting totally tagged out of the game, he restricted Fyfe and the likes, it just doesn't make sense. Does it say somewhere in it that Clarkson somehow ruined your goal kicking? That would have been something, as it stands, and I'm sure you all read the article last weekend about it, stats show that with better kicking you would have won, so I really can't see how the hawks used some master stroke of genius to have less shots on goal & still win.

Thanks for this, exactly what I think. Freo fans saying the same thing would be written off as sour grapes, so a non-Freo perspective is welcome.

Fremantle got within 15 points. The only area of the ground the team won conclusively was the midfield. The idea that a tactic Hawthorn employed there won them the game is nonsensical, considering that Fremantle's best players were clearly the midfielders and Hawthorn's best were their key defenders and forwards.

But that's how it goes with grand finals - the premiers get to tell the story, even if it's completely false. No one cares about what the runners up did.

 

[yoong]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/afl/a/21581403/how-the-flag-was-won/

Playing To Win also revealed the selfless job 2008 premiership captain Sam Mitchell performed while being tagged by Dockers star Ryan Crowley.

This is so brilliant! Can you find a better excuse for Mitchell being tagged out of the game?

If we had won the GF I'll claim that

"Ballantyne selflessly misses his shots at goal to continue to lock the ball in Hawthorne's forward 50..."

 

[Righteo]

No excuses from me, the best team won. The Hawks players showed up and did their job perfectly.

Especially these three players.

Please use a spoiler tag in the future, I nearly threw up all over my screen.

 

[Darcy 2 Fyfe]

Hawthorn also wrote a book on the fact John F Kennedy was assasinated using his head as a human shield to selflessy protect his new cadillacs paint job.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

That description of Mitchell is the most hilarious bit of revisionism for a bad game I think I've ever seen.

Very odd they'd do something to detract from the performances of guys like Lake and Gunston who were the blokes who really stood up and proved the difference on the day.

 

[caterina]

We were lucky to get within 15 points, we were poor for more than half the game
The big question is were we poor because we got stage fright and lost our structures/game plan, or did they out think us? They say the latter, we tend to say the former, in the end it doesn't matter, we deserved to lose.

 

[Freo88]

We were lucky to get within 15 points, we were poor for more than half the game
The big question is were we poor because we got stage fright and lost our structures/game plan, or did they out think us? They say the latter, we tend to say the former, in the end it doesn't matter, we deserved to lose.

Well put - flags arent given out, you have to be consistent on the day and not show up for only a quarter. Our performance in that first half put us in a position where we probably didnt deserve to win it and it showed in the final result. I too was surprised we got that close at the end of the game after Brad Hill kicked that goal from the square in the 4th QTR, they had all the momentum. Simple facts were we just werent good enough in the first half 'when the whips were cracking' which as it turned out was the difference between the 2 sides.

I'd love a behind the scenes look at what was said at half time in the rooms for freo. Would make for compelling viewing. We were a different side in the 2nd half.