Autopsy Round 1, 2024: Hawks fail against Bombers

[Simon Crawshay]

It was as if Mitchell was doing his best crazy Bevo impression.

Throwing magnets around for the sake of it.

If I look at our entire list then (apart from Meek and Reeves) Finn is the worst suited player to be sub.

You need a sub to be a versatile high impact player, Finn is not that.

As others have already stated either Finn has a set mission (ie tag Merrett from the get go) or he doesnt play.

 

[SpanishBrowne]

as frustrating as watching was (EDIT: "at times"), i think there's plenty of good:

• we were pretty much in it up until the end, and mostly "gave it way", rather than "lost" it - due to woeful goal conversion.
  • and this was with sicily, newcombe, lewis having some pretty average games - not to mention not having Day.
• off seasons trades get a big tick - massimo, ginny & chol all great
• one draftee blooded (i only wish he had've kicked that first one.. would've been a magic first afl goal)
• forward line looking like it has some potency (again even with a quiet lewis).
  • ohh those lovely clunk & goals from Chol & Moore
• worps always finds a way to silence the doubters. i thought he really stood up today

my general questions and head-scratchers:

• midfield selection felt too "samey". really needs of Day (or HH for the time being) in there to add dimensionality. or at least rotate guys like cmac & moore in there more often
• god knows why finn was a sub. use him as a tagger, or don't use him. he's gonna have to learn other aspects of his game at box hill if he wants to lock a position in the team. otherwise he's "special team" player.
• why chol of all people to sub off?? hopefully no injury

 

[HedgeFund]

Newcombe was being tagged by Setterfield who basically followed him everywhere. It was a very good performance by Setterfield both offensively and defensively. Only Worpel compensated through winning clearances (had 10 - next closest was Reeves with 4).

Wanted to see more from the others to cover that area but Nash (was decent in transition), Ward and Mackenzie just weren't physical enough compared to their opponents.

Setterfield played a very good game. Many under rate him.

I know I’m a bit biased but when some here said Newk would easily shake him off, I bit my tongue.

I honestly wanted us to pick Will up from Carlton.

Anyhow. Hopefully Newk gets a bit more space next week, but without Day and with Nash / Worpel being limited by foot, opposition sides will continue to clamp Jai down.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

why chol of all people to sub off?? hopefully no injury

Assuming it was due to cramp and managing his body.

Had a pretty decent first run.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

That was a bit of a reality check, however, I'm not ready to throw a tantrum and call our entire list plodders as some else are doing.

Brand new forward lines will take a while to gel, and seeing both Chol and Ginni slot a couple of majors in their first game was awesome.

Sicily is such a barometer for our team, and when he is off / gets well held we don't win. Period. However, he wasn't on his own - Scrim had one mark for the game and a handful of possessions. Hardwick had a blinder against langford - as soon as he was taken off him, langford kicked a few. Not a coincidence and probably a mistake from the coaching box.

Midfield was comprehensively beaten. For all those who say Worpel "has a low ceiling" or "won't be in our best 22 in 24", he was easily the best from our team. Never stopped having a crack, easily gathered the most clearences and kicked a goal. Duke had an off game - well down on possessions and impact, and only had the one tackle.

Massimo had a great game and was a smart bit of recruiting - that left boot is lethal, and he works his butt off.

I'm wondering if Lewis needs a different forward coach? He should really be playing similarly to Tom Hawkins but doesn't seem to have the tricks in his kitbag yet. With his size he should really be dominating packs.

Ward and McKenzie will be great players and they'll be better for the run and responsibility. Writing players off in their 2nd/3rd year is pretty lame.

Anyway, getting games into the young lads is great, and can't wait to see our progress along the next couple of seasons. Go hawks!

Good point re Worps.

Based on today's showing you'd be a crazy optimist to assume that Ward, Frenchie, etc are overtaking him anytime soon.

He's a bull at the contest and that's a valuable commodity to have given how important clearances are these days.

 

[Yardie]

As others have said a very frustrating game. But you can see all the elements are there.

However, I think Sam needs to think about what are players roles in the team and to use his own words, play to their strengths.
Some examples:
Weddle is a running machine, play him on the wing. Not down back.
Maginness is a tagger, plays from the start or not at all.
Ward needs to play in the middle.

And the sub has to be a player with good skills. Jordan Lewis

Jordan Lewis

Age

38

Ht

186cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

23.5

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

11.5

5star

M

5.5

5star

T

2.7

4star

MG

310.5

4star

No current season stats available

D

15.0

4star

K

6.8

3star

HB

8.2

5star

M

4.8

5star

T

2.8

5star

said when he played sub it was the only time he felt like he could run rings around everyone.

 

[TylerDurden]

9-18 centre clearances. Good luck.

 

[Bedi]

It's the worst Lewis has played. Assuming he had a corked hip and wasn't fit. There's no other explanation for it. Was totally ineffective.

The Blair Mitch Project

 

[Mr Chuckles]

Ginnivan, Chol and D’Ambrosio looking like great pickups for pretty minimal expense. We’ll have a few decent wins this year, along with disappointing days like today.

 

[StillAtLarge]

9-18 centre clearances. Good luck.

Forget the missed shots at goal- that's the game right there

 

[The hands of stone]

Genuinely surprised how negative everyone is being to be honest.

Are you ? Its actually fairly measured in comparison to normal

 

[Brucie Buffer]

He was taking marks on Ginnivan. Our entries to F50 were bad and our kicking for goal was atrocious.

Lets wait and see how McKay goes against an average team.

Everyone is hoping this is Lewis break out year, still hoping it is, but let’s not kid ourselves that he wasn’t soundly beaten by Mackay today.

 

[Yardie]

Genuinely surprised how negative everyone is being to be honest.

I think it is because it was a winnable game and we ****ed it. We are all just pissed off.

 

[TylerDurden]

41 hitouts from a 35 year old Goldy, to 28 from Reeves, who is 10cm taller. Wow.

 

[BobHawk]

Newcombe didn't have a great game but he wasn't terrible. He is our best midfielder and given his polling in the Brownlow it is a no brainer that opposition will be putting a lot of work into him. He will need to respond (and I think he will). Although Worpel played a great game to fill the void we need some of the younger crew to step up and take responsibility. It is time. This is going to be a major challenge for the team this year but is also an opportunity as the team needs to evolve.

 

[Yardie]

Forget the missed shots at goal- that's the game right there

I'm not sure on that. Every time we kicked a goal they got one back straight away.....

 

[kirbatron]

liked croc in the middle.
moorey has a huge heart.
marbs was dangerous enough
Nash looked off the pace
McGrath & merett did as they pleased & set them up. far to easy on transition.

mckenzie & ward are not exciting me... they have time & will be solid enough footballers but I still can't see enough elite talent on the list.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

On the positive front we look to have struck gold with Ginni, Massimo and Chol.

I'm actually very impressed with Chols ruckwork, he looks good in the ruck.

Massimo I have to admit is a much better player than I gave him credit for.

 

[burton5]

For those asking re Chol being subbed off, if you were at the game you could see he was visibly cooked by 3 quarter time. Great signs from him though otherwise.

 

[phlogiston]

Was at the game, now at the pub.

TL;DR: one that got away, but lots to like.

Lots of cramping in the second half, inc Chol, so not surprised he was subbed. Frost, Hardwick, Weddle, Mass, all cramping in the final qtr.

Recruits: Thought Ginni started well but faded in second half. Mass very good but very left sided. Chol is great fun to have in the forward line. Wiz didn’t have his kicking boots on (wasn’t Robinson Crusoe there) but is a livewire. Happy with the pick at this stage.

Weddle was great, thought Reeves did well too especially with second efforts. Amon came into the game the more it progressed. Moore phenomenal. Works either fabulous or frustrating. Ward started well but faded, looked like a positional change. Mackenzie similar to Ward. Scrimshaw was ok but had less impact as a KPD. Nash and Newk both had poor games by their standards.

NFI why Finn was sub when Merritt, McGrath et al were carving us up in the middle. Potentially game lost there. We need our kids to chime in with goals, not behinds. Croc and Finn both had gettable shots that they missed.

You can see the forward line a WIP. There was an entry in the third quarter I think from left half fwd where we fluffed around with it instead of someone taking a shot. And they waltzed out with it.

Umpiring was bizarre. In the first quarter it appears as though head high tackles were no longer illegal (that went both ways). Thought overall the folks in green had a shocker; supporters from both sides around us expressed the same. My * mate agreed but thought * got the rub of the green just slightly.

Where did we lose it? In no particular order:

• starting Finn as sub
• poor goal kicking
• poor defensive efforts
• too many floaty kicks allowing oppo to get back
• Still bombing it into forward line. Ginni vs a KPD in a high ball marking contest is only going to end one way. We saw that many times today, no need to repeat the experiment.

Still there’s lots to look forward to. Bring on the rest of 2024!

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

9-18 centre clearances. Good luck.

Yeah, but then you look at the amount of scoring shots we generated and I can't help but wonder just what we might be able to do when we start to even it up a bit.

That forward line is only going to get better at working together.

 

[Billyc]

On the positive front we look to have struck gold with Ginni, Massimo and Chol.

I'm actually very impressed with Chols ruckwork, he looks good in the ruck.

Massimo I have to admit is a much better player than I gave him credit for.

The massive highlight for sure. All impressed

It was the older guard and leaders who didn’t perform today

 

[dommat]

Anyone else still think we dodged a bullet with Mackay?

He was part of a defence that conceded 28 shots on goal




Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[bigmaxi]

How come our midfielders kept letting them walk through the middle like that?

How many goals did the Bombers score from beyond the 50? With zero pressure.

Really frustrating way to lose.

They had more of the ball and more tackles. We were outworked.

That’s exactly how it looked at the game. Midfield was smashed! Group around me kept calling out to win a clearance! Mids looked sad.

 

[dermott]

Unfortunately we still bleed goals when we lose centre bounce clearances so badly. I thought our midfield was poor today in a game we could and should have won. Still, there were a few positives and we will improve but finals this year looks to be a bridge too far. Desperately need another KPF and KPD.
Good debuts by Ginnivan, Chol and D’Ambrosio.