Strapping Young Lad
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- Apr 19, 2006
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Preliminary Final Hawthorn v Collingwood, 7.45pm, Friday 23 September, MCG.
V
Collingwood
B: Alan Toovey, Ben Reid, Heritier O'Brien
HB: Nick Maxwell, Chris Tarrant, Heath Shaw
C: Dayne Beams, Sharrod Wellingham, Dale Thomas
HF: Ben Johnson, Leigh Brown, Alan Didak
F: Steele Sidebottom, Travis Cloke, Luke Ball
Foll: Darren Jolly, Scott Pendlebury, Andrew Krakouer
I/C: Leon Davis, Dane Swan, Chris Dawes, Jarryd Blair
Emg: Tyson Goldsack, Cameron Wood, Alex Fasolo
In: Dale Thomas, Ben Reid
Out: Tyson Goldsack, Alex Fasolo
Hawthorn
B: Thomas Murphy, Josh Gibson, Benjamin Stratton
HB: Grant Birchall, Ryan Schoenmakers, Paul Puopolo
C: Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Isaac Smith
HF: Luke Hodge, Lance Franklin, Liam Shiels
F: Chance Bateman, David Hale, Cyril Rioli
Foll: Max Bailey, Shaun Burgoyne, Brad Sewell
I/C: Brent Guerra, Michael Osborne, Brendan Whitecross, Matt Suckling
Emg: Jordan Lisle, Shane Savage, Luke Breust
Milestones: Brendan Whitecross - 50 games
They don't come much bigger than a Preliminary final against the great unwashed, and harliquin has penned his very own thoughts on just how we will and should be entering this big game.
harliquin said:Well, it's been a long time coming. Some might say overDew.
3 years to be precise, now we're only one step away from the Grand Final. We can nearly taste the wonderful concoction of booze that will be sipped from our 11th premiership cup.
Unfortunately, before we get to enjoy some of gods sweet sweet nectar, we have to get past last years premiers. Whom, if you were to believe some of their supporters, are a sure thing. Thankfully, the majority of their supporter base can be likened to that irritating sibling, best to be locked in the basement and fed scraps so that they don't annoy the rest of the family.
I'm perhaps a little more realistic, even optimistic. It's a big game, no doubt. But, no game of football has been decided before the bounce, just ask the Cats the last time they were a sure thing. Hawthorn pride themselves on doing things the hard way, and this will be no different.
Things haven't been easy for us this year. We've been reminded more times than I can count that our backline is too small, we've had too many injuries and our game plan doesn't work. Yet, we find ourselves on the eve of our first preliminary final since 2008.
Buddy's blown off his colon-cobwebs, Puopolo is to tough for a hamstring injury and we're going in unchanged from our bout with Sydney.
FB Stratton Gibson Murphy
HB Puopolo Schoenmakers Birchall
C Smith Mitchell Lewis
HF Shiels Franklin Hodge
FF Rioli Hale Bateman
R Bailey Burgoyne Sewell
I Guerra Osborne Whitecross Suckling
Emerg. Lisle Savage Bruest
Collingwood are bringing in Daisy and Reid, whilst omitting Goldsack and Fasolo.
I expect this game to be played like every other final. Hard & fast, with alot of contested ball. Thankfully, we are every bit as good as the pies in this regard. Clarkson has recruited and developed this team for games like this. There are no weak links in our team when it comes to getting the hard ball. He has this team honoring the age old Hawthorn tradition. Everyone will go when it's their turn.
This game will ultimately be won and lost in the midfield, and whilst I could crap for several pages regarding matchups, I'm not going to. Instead, I'll cut to the cheese.
* Buddy. I'm not sure he had as much attention from the media in 2008, as he has the past couple of weeks. After a miraculous recovery from a Larkins-diagnosed ACL he had a relatively quiet first half against Sydney. During the 3rd quarter he blew the cobwebs off his knee and seemingly grew in confidence with every stride, resulting in a match saving final term, that left many thinking 'vintage Buddy'. This week he's had the media camp outside hospitals awaiting breaking news on the texture of his latest stool, and had a spattering of his teammates and coaches laugh at his regular visits to the mens. But, that won't have distracted him. As long as he leads, and leads again thereby disallowing players like Maxwell the easy ball, I think he's in for a big one. He loves finals, he has runs on the board, and I don't think this is going to be any different.
* Gibson (or Stratton) must be unaccountable. We saw last week just how damaging this man can be, when he's allowed to roam the back half, sending incoming footballs into orbit. I suspect our relatively inexperienced back half will resign him to playing on Cloke. However, I hope Clarkson will back in one of our smaller, or less experienced defenders for the job, allowing Gibson to send Collingwoods attacks back into the 3rd tier. Alternatively, Stratton is also capable of this job. Our backs work best when working together, we can't let them isolate us. This lesson was learnt against Geelong.
* Finals Football. Most might consider it a disadvantage that we have played every week so far, whilst Collingwood should be very well rested. However, several changes were made to both our personnel and game plan, that have made significant improvements to our side. Additionally, several of Collingwoods players have played only a handful of games over the last 8 weeks including Shaw, Maxwell, Thomas, Dawes & Reid. These are players critical to their structures, that haven't played a whole heap of finals football in 2011.
* We are Hawthorn. We are BRED to win finals. Losing this game is not an option. Expect our inspirational leaders to lead from the front, and our youngsters to follow suit. Make no mistake people, we aren't here to make up the numbers. We're coming for the silverware.
Hawks by 18.
GAME ON!
