Preview Round 17, 2018: Hawthorn v Brisbane Lions, 14 July 2018, 1.45pm @ York Park

[Walshawk]

JOR injured you ruddy kidding me

Named for Box Hill

 

[tige19]

Lewis is behind O’Brien as a ruckman at box hill. Ceglar does not have mcevoy’s tank so he needs someone to give him a good rest. Lewis is a second year player while O’Brien has many preseasons under his belt and has shown he can play all game even if it isn’t as well as we would like. It was obvious that O’Brien was going to come in for McEvoy and frankly the right choice.

I would have played Lewis personally.. Tim could have 35 pre seasons and he'd still be a 193cm jockey, I don't think we lose anything with Lewis playing (if anything it's more game time and experience)

 

[Brishawk]

I would have played Lewis personally.. Tim could have 35 pre seasons and he'd still be a 193cm jockey, I don't think we lose anything with Lewis playing (if anything it's more game time and experience)

Lewis did absolutely * all in his two games. He isn’t ready. And he wasn’t even given ruck duties last week when Pitts went down. Clearly you over rate his ruck skills if you think he can cover for mcevoy’s absence. Lewis playing was never going to happen.

 

[wahawk]

You watch Timmy kick ass this week Tige

 

[Wesley2]

Need this game. No messing around.

 

[WWSD]

If Duryea has a place in the team it should be as a small defender. He has absolutely no clue how to play as a forward and offers nothing offensively.

I don't think Whitecross is a bad selection by any means as he can play a variety of roles. This is O'Brien's last chance to play well. If he doesn't he'll be back at Box Hill next week and might not be seen for the rest of the year.

A real shame about O'Rourke. He cannot catch a break.

 

[Off The Couch]

FFS!! This just proves how shallow our depth is. We have a relatively small injury list and what’s left is slim pickings with players barely at AFL level. Obviously Pittonet is injured and all that is left is Almost. Big Boy out is going to hurt us badly. And Cegs can’t do it alone. Still expecting a win in Tas but wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t.

And hence why people just have to stop whinging about selections and accept them for what they are and just get behind the team rather than slagging players off.

Whether we like it or not it’s going to take time to replenish the stocks- I’m sure there’s quite a few other teams that would gladly like to have this problem after having experienced a 3peat

 

[hk89]

I don't really understand why Whitecross isn't seen as a more regular option. Has his knee injuries actually stopped him being the player he was (don't remember him ever being overly quick so this doesn't seem to be it), or has he just fallen out of favour?

Plays 22 games in 2012 in a very strong Hawthorn team. Does knee in QF.
Returns from ACL part way through 2013, plays every game from round 14 until doing knee again in prelim.

He was getting a regular spot in an amazingly strong team, and stepped back into that role after his first return from ACL. Did the second ACL ruin is confidence? I thought he was playing quite well at the end of the 2016 season. Probably didn't have a great 2017 in the games he did play, but same could be said for a lot of the team.

What do folks think has gone wrong for him to be now seen as a mostly VFL player?

 

[Great 2008]

I think we all guessed your thoughts prior to your post.

Really? Your response was not hard to pick either. Whitecross and O'Brien are miles away from playing in our next premiership side. Can't believe people are talking up their selection and questioning people who are dubious. Mindboggling.

I struggle to see how we are any better off this weekend, next weekend, or in the future with those two ins.

 

[Baz_hawk]

Looking past selection, this is a danger game. Hodge and Fages know our team, players and structures better than anyone, Hodge basically organised our entire structure on field. This puts us at a serious disadvantage and they really exploited us earlier in the year. Yeah we played poorly that game but they set up in a way that countered our plans and hurt us.

Every game is important going forward if we want to make finals so we really need to go into this game with intent as Brisbane has improved significantly since last time we met also.

 

[William Wonka]

I don't really understand why Whitecross isn't seen as a more regular option. Has his knee injuries actually stopped him being the player he was (don't remember him ever being overly quick so this doesn't seem to be it), or has he just fallen out of favour?

Plays 22 games in 2012 in a very strong Hawthorn team. Does knee in QF.
Returns from ACL part way through 2013, plays every game from round 14 until doing knee again in prelim.

He was getting a regular spot in an amazingly strong team, and stepped back into that role after his first return from ACL. Did the second ACL ruin is confidence? I thought he was playing quite well at the end of the 2016 season. Probably didn't have a great 2017 in the games he did play, but same could be said for a lot of the team.

What do folks think has gone wrong for him to be now seen as a mostly VFL player?

Ive always liked him.
He really struggled with recovery from the second acl.
He did lose a bit of pace (people incorrectly remember him being slow prior to 2013.)
If he had not been injured he would be a triple premiership player and automatic best 22 week in week out.
As it is he is a fringe player but still a decent one.

 

[Thaihawk]

Whitecross to show his new prospective team what he’s made of
O’Brien bit of extra height, maybe decoy forward.


If we are serious this should be an easy victory.

Just wondering hfc70, if we get a pick in the 60s or 70s for WhiteX, does that make him better than Hodgy?

 

[MrPremiership]

Happy to see Miles get another run.

TOB was always going to get the gig, but with Schoe named as an emergency, wonder why he wasn't picked if fit.

Lovell an emergency is promising.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Whitecross wasn’t slow. Covered the ground and spread from contests extremely well. Do people forget his awesome form in 2012? A particular game against the Scum where he had over 30 playing as a inside mid then burnt them from the spread!! Very unfortunate this bloke.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

I don't want to hear excuses Fagan knows our game plan etc if we lose, at the end of the day Brisbane have won 3 games of 15 and we are the only opposition they have beat in the top 12, if they make it twice we simply don't deserve finals.

 

[Brishawk]

Really? Your response was not hard to pick either. Whitecross and O'Brien are miles away from playing in our next premiership side. Can't believe people are talking up their selection and questioning people who are dubious. Mindboggling.

I struggle to see how we are any better off this weekend, next weekend, or in the future with those two ins.

We played too many kids last time and got flodgged. Is that what you want?

 

[Bumps"N"Grins]

Lewis did absolutely **** all in his two games. He isn’t ready. And he wasn’t even given ruck duties last week when Pitts went down. Clearly you over rate his ruck skills if you think he can cover for mcevoy’s absence. Lewis playing was never going to happen.

Saying Lewis did absolutely **** all is a bit rough Bris. Lewis did more than Jonathan Brown did in his first game and in his game against WC showed that he could do some nice things, slick handballs and the like, remember in his second game he had as much impact per game as Timmy has in about 50 games, the only reason I would give games to Timmy over Lewis at this stage is as you state ruck work. Lewis has been carrying some heavy strapping on one knee for a couple of weeks so might be the reason that he hasn't gone into the ruck even when Pitto went down.
I'm not one on here to constantly flog TOB but the gap between Tim and Lewis isn't that great and closing fast. Tim was just the safe bet for now.

 

[hk89]

We played too many kids last time and got flodgged. Is that what you want?

Exactly! We seemed to have treated the last game as a no-risk chance to get some development time into players and still bank the 4 points. We played 8 blokes with under 50 games - the same as Brisbane, a side supposedly on a high development arc. We also played 5 players with under 10 games. 3 of those 5 players were in our bottom 4 for possessions in that game. Sure, we got some development into some kids, but we didn't get the 4 points, and would have taken a dint to our confidence too.

What we gain from bringing in some experience we didn't have last time is improving our chances of getting 4 points, which in turn improves our chances of making finals and getting at least one final game into players with no finals experience such as JOM, Morrison etc, and giving the team a taste of more of the same for next year. If we'd taken the same approach for the previous game against them, we might have a much smoother path into the finals than we are now faced with.

 

[Hawk Hawkins]

If Duryea has a place in the team it should be as a small defender. He has absolutely no clue how to play as a forward and offers nothing offensively.

I don't think Whitecross is a bad selection by any means as he can play a variety of roles. This is O'Brien's last chance to play well. If he doesn't he'll be back at Box Hill next week and might not be seen for the rest of the year.

A real shame about O'Rourke. He cannot catch a break.

Not whipping boy?

Oh you’re right, TO has taken that position this week.

 

[tige19]

Lewis did absolutely **** all in his two games. He isn’t ready. And he wasn’t even given ruck duties last week when Pitts went down. Clearly you over rate his ruck skills if you think he can cover for mcevoy’s absence. Lewis playing was never going to happen.

Can you elaborate on which part of Tims 3 averaged hit outs per game are so elite that we should forget about the complete ineptness in the rest of his game?

Tim has had 45 swings at the stumps and has come with **** all... I know which odds id take! Lewis should be playing, Tim is and always has been **** on a bull at AFL level.

 

[tige19]

Really? Your response was not hard to pick either. Whitecross and O'Brien are miles away from playing in our next premiership side. Can't believe people are talking up their selection and questioning people who are dubious. Mindboggling.

I struggle to see how we are any better off this weekend, next weekend, or in the future with those two ins.

My friend, you've been here long enough to know there's a sector of people on this forum who literally attack anyone who has a negative thing to say about anything regarding the HFC (selections,players). You could post 9 positives, and 1 negative and wooshka the wolves come out. Bloody funny how precious some are.

 

[Stranglers]

Great opportunity to get a game clear in the 8 and possibly as high as 6th. I hope the hawks bring the same intensity they showed in the second half last week - although passing through the arrivals lounge at Launceston seems to automatically halve your skills at AFL (Franklin must have left by the side exit that day).

 

[threesixpio]

One look at the ladder and boy oh boy is percentage important. If we go up a couple like last week we can leapfrog a number of teams if they have a loss

 

[threesixpio]

My friend, you've been here long enough to know there's a sector of people on this forum who literally attack anyone who has a negative thing to say about anything regarding the HFC (selections,players). You could post 9 positives, and 1 negative and wooshka the wolves come out. Bloody funny how precious some are.

I think BH has provided pretty good reasons rather than just suggesting you’re negative. I think that’s unfair. You just don’t agree with his views

 

[Big Bruce]

Seriously if TOB is our only answer to our 2nd ruck issues then we should be doing the same as Richmond and playing another midfielder and play them in the ruck.