AFL Autopsy Loss to the Hawkes

[DERO]

3 weeks for scrimshaw

Good.

 

[jannissary]

Good.

as far as i can tell it's going to be standard practice this season for head knocks (especially one's like that where it's reasonably deliberate)

 

[DERO]

Yeah, I dunno. I didn't think it was as bad as has been made out given it was our first proper hit-out for the year and Hawthorn had played round one. The effort was there and you'd expect a bit more from both senior and younger players. Caldwell was dynamic.

 

[Beerfish]

as far as i can tell it's going to be standard practice this season for head knocks (especially one's like that where it's reasonably deliberate)

Yeah but standard practice for Essendon victims? Huge if true.

 

[ant555]

The effective kicks from Friday.

Caldwell 9/18
Durham 6/8
Duursma 8/10
Jones 8/11
Martin 9/16
McGrath 11/15
Merrett 6/14
Perkins 8/13
Hobbs 1/3
Prior 9/10
Redman 10/12
Roberts 9/12
Shiel 7/14
Tsatas 5/9
Gresham 4/7
Bryan 5/7
Caddy 1/9
Draper 3/9
Kako 4/8
Langford 4/5
McKay 4/5
Ridley 5/6
Reid 7/10

So a few usual suspects need to be a bit better but on the night Caldwell and Merrett going as 50% and 42% respectively did not help our cause. Both can and need to be better. Nick Martin as well.

 

[Donflicted]

The effective kicks from Friday.

Caldwell 9/18
Durham 6/8
Duursma 8/10
Jones 8/11
Martin 9/16
McGrath 11/15
Merrett 6/14
Perkins 8/13
Hobbs 1/3
Prior 9/10
Redman 10/12
Roberts 9/12
Shiel 7/14
Tsatas 5/9
Gresham 4/7
Bryan 5/7
Caddy 1/9
Draper 3/9
Kako 4/8
Langford 4/5
McKay 4/5
Ridley 5/6
Reid 7/10

So a few usual suspects need to be a bit better but on the night Caldwell and Merrett going as 50% and 42% respectively did not help our cause. Both can and need to be better. Nick Martin as well.

Love your info and takes but i feel like this info can be misjudged

Take Prior for example most of his kicks were safe corridor 20-40M passes

Good data to look at still just food for thought

 

[ant555]

Love your info and takes but i feel like this info can be misjudged

Take Prior for example most of his kicks were safe corridor 20-40M passes

Good data to look at still just food for thought

The data is what it is. There is a margin for era in it that can not be ironed out but the real point is two of our best players on the night still had a poor game by foot and it hurt. Not sure how often you would see Merrett go at 42% by foot but on the night it did hurt us. I posted everyone's data more because I did not want to leave anyone out. You are right on Prior . Different pressure situations for a lot of his kicks.

 

[Donflicted]

The data is what it is. There is a margin for era in it that can not be ironed out but the real point is two of our best players on the night still had a poor game by foot and it hurt. Not sure how often you would see Merrett go at 42% by foot but on the night it did hurt us. I posted everyone's data more because I did not want to leave anyone out. You are right on Prior . Different pressure situations for a lot of his kicks.

Yeah true that

Reckon we will beat the crows lots to like from the game against the hawks just need more polish reckon if we played GCS in round zero as well that would of been a closer game as well

Still i saw heaps of improvement especially within one of our biggest weakness stoppage clearances that has been day and night improvement

 

[faible]

Love your info and takes but i feel like this info can be misjudged

Take Prior for example most of his kicks were safe corridor 20-40M passes

Good data to look at still just food for thought

It's all in context; Merrett over his career has gone at 71.9% DE (includes Handballs), Friday was 57.7% with 9 turnovers versus an average of 4 - 5. Caldwell similarly down. Both guys you'd expect to use it better based on a large sample size. Hawthorn are a good transition side so they have the ability to punish turnovers.

You're right that comparing a midfielder to a defender is usually unhelpful because Defenders tend to have a lot of safer disposals.

I don't think Friday night was at all a disaster; we've got some obvious upside in terms of capitalising on the contested ball and i50s we were able to generate. Adelaide will be a good test, as they should be side around our level. Squiggle has it as a 50:50 game.

Also, amusingly, given we basically got the exact result (margin included) that squiggle predicted, we didn't even move on their model.

Squiggle 2026

live.squiggle.com.au

 

[Agronomus]

The effective kicks from Friday.

Caldwell 9/18
Durham 6/8
Duursma 8/10
Jones 8/11
Martin 9/16
McGrath 11/15
Merrett 6/14
Perkins 8/13
Hobbs 1/3
Prior 9/10
Redman 10/12
Roberts 9/12
Shiel 7/14
Tsatas 5/9
Gresham 4/7
Bryan 5/7
Caddy 1/9
Draper 3/9
Kako 4/8
Langford 4/5
McKay 4/5
Ridley 5/6
Reid 7/10

So a few usual suspects need to be a bit better but on the night Caldwell and Merrett going as 50% and 42% respectively did not help our cause. Both can and need to be better. Nick Martin as well.

Prior?

 

[jmoo wan]

Prior?

there was nothing prior - this was our first game

 

[pazza]

15 minutes of footy separated the 2 sides. That's it.

 

[Lore]

All the stats from champion data for this game. 1 game barely qualifies as a sample size but still interesting.

The Bombers dominated stoppages and earned more than their fair share of forward-half opportunities, finishing +10 for inside-50s, +19 for total clearances — their third-best return in the last 10 years, per Champion Data — and +23 for stoppage clearances.

They managed 15 scoring shots from those 19 total clearances, though they kicked an unfulfilling 5.10 (40) in what is a separate issue.

Further, there were no qualms winning the Sherrin at the source, going +24 for contested possessions — Essendon’s eighth-best return in the past 10 years.

The charge was led by emerging midfielder Jye Caldwell, who finished with a game-high 36 disposals (17 contested), 11 tackles, 11 score involvements, 10 clearances, seven inside-50s and a goal.

However, Hawthorn, particularly from its defensive half, was able to carve Essendon up on numerous occasions — which, for supporters, is not a foreign reality.

The Bombers surrendered 31 points from their opponent’s defensive 50; their eighth-worst return in the past five years.

And after ranking 15th in the competition last year for rate of scores allowed per inside-50 at 46 per cent, Essendon allowed a leaky 54 per cent clip in Round 1. Hardly a ringing endorsement of its team defence.

Another issue for the Dons was their inability to fully capitalise on the territory they did have. While they won the inside-50 count 58-48, they kicked 12 goals from 25 scoring shots and were 8.3 per cent less efficient than Hawthorn going inside 50.

And while Scott had commended Hawthorn’s defensive structure which forced lower-quality inside-50 entries, he acknowledged his side had to do a better job scoring.

Essendon has spent years trying to fix its biggest flaw. Nothing is working — Champion Index

‘Game over’: Bombers’ fatal flaw exposed again — and why there’s no excuse for not fixing it

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Mr Bultitude]

Happy to see the ban upheld, but didn't realise that a game missed due to injury/concussion counts towards the overall ban. That's dumb, ban should start when the player is fit to play.

 

[cobra land]

Happy to see the ban upheld, but didn't realise that a game missed due to injury/concussion counts towards the overall ban. That's dumb, ban should start when the player is fit to play.

Also if the AFL is fair dinkum about head knocks, why didn't Josh Battle go off after his head clash with Scrimshaw??

That was as hard a collision as there's been for a while and both should have been assessed, very confusing in my eyes..

 

[Old Campaigner]

All the stats from champion data for this game. 1 game barely qualifies as a sample size but still interesting.

Essendon has spent years trying to fix its biggest flaw. Nothing is working — Champion Index

‘Game over’: Bombers’ fatal flaw exposed again — and why there’s no excuse for not fixing it

www.foxsports.com.au

Probably goes some way to explaining why certain guys get games e.g. Hobbs. We're probably desperate for the defensive efforts they bring

 

[ant555]

Probably goes some way to explaining why certain guys get games e.g. Hobbs. We're probably desperate for the defensive efforts they bring

It does explain why Hobbs gets in for sure. If someone with better kicking skills was available to play with similar pressure then they would be in the side you would think.