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- West Coast
PREAMBLE: BOYZ II MEN
LAST TIME WE MET
R12, 2014, Hawthorn 19.9 (123) d West Coast 12.7 (79) at Aurora Stadium
Do you guys remember 2014? I don't. Back when we last played the Hawks in godless Tasmania, Dean Cox and Darren Glass were still playing, Brown and Mackenzie were both in an upright position and Jeremy McGovern was still a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an out-of-shape forward. None of that makes sense to me anymore. Anyway, it wasn't pretty. Roughhead (affectionately referred to as "that big red bastard" by one poster in the aftermath of the game) gave us - and particularly Ezy - a fair old reaming, kicking a lazy eight goals. It was our third straight loss and enough for even the more sensible among us to acknowledge that our season was probably farked. Let us never speak of it again.
FORM GUIDE
George Brandis isn't the only one who wishes he didn't get...sunburnt.
The Hawks got beaten at their own annoying possession-heavy game by a resurgent Richmond, who are at the very least probably not going to finish ninth this year. Deledio kicked three goals in the first quarter, France towelled up Roughie and Maric won the ruck battle. They were probably due for an off game but it was still nice to see something bring the relentless Victorian media hype to an end. Richmond are now Premiership favourites so we may as well not bother with the rest of the season.
Honestly, the less said about our game last week, the better. Essentially, we both came second. But you'd probably have to give the symbolic victory to the Suns given they had no Ablett, no Rischitelli and a dominant performance from Harley Bennell, who looks increasingly unlikely to come home and don the wings. At least this happened, though...
TEAMS
They haven't been announced yet. But if there's any good in this world, we'll be seeing the return of the Gov when we need him most.
I love you Gov. I think about you at night when I sleep.
If last week taught us anything else (and it didn't), it's that going in unchanged makes us complacent and bad at winning and we should at least make one token change per week.
Likely team:
IN: McGovern, Butler
OUT: Barrass (unlucky), Hutchings (WAFL/delist)
Schofield McGovern Hurn
Ellis Sheppard Wellingham
Yeo Priddis Gaff
Masten Kennedy Hill
LeCras Darling Cripps
Naitanui Shuey Sheed
Butler Selwood Sinclair
Sub: Rosa
Hawks (mostly just guessing here):
Gibson Lake Duryea
Birchall Frawley Stratton
Smith Mitchell Hill
Gunston McEvoy Rioli
Breust Roughead Puopolo
Ceglar Hodge Lewis
Burgoyne Shiels Schoenmakers
Sub: Hartung
KEYS TO THE GAME
"Elephants don't have keys."
1) Smart footy. We simply won't beat a side as good as the Hawks if we make bad decisions or use the ball poorly. In many ways our gameplan is similar to theirs so none of this should come as any surprise but the Hawks have a number of players who are excellent at reading the play and setting up loose behind the ball. They're also capable of playing fairly tall, which means we can't afford to just bomb it into our forward 50 in hope (I'm looking at you, Rosa).
2) Managing their smalls. Newsflash: We don't play well against dangerous small forwards. Hawthorn have one of the best in Rioli and one of the most opportunistic in Puopolo. Our defensive zone will likely come under more pressure this week than it has all season but we need to hold it together and not get sucked into too many one-on-ones. We'll also need big games from the likes of Wellingham, Ellis and Butler, assuming he's named.
3) Offensive pressure. This has been a strong point for us this year and we'll definitely need it this week. The Hawks have so many dangerous players in their backline - Gibson, Burgoyne, often Hodge and/or Mitchell - which makes them so dangerous on the rebound. We simply can't let Hodge float around unattended as I've seen so many teams do this year because he will carve us up. Cripps has been huge for us all season and we'll need him firing this week.
4) Converting our chances. We kicked 11.17 last week. That speaks for itself.
5)Nic Nat and the midfield. There's talk on the Hawks board that Hale will be out this week - and he was pretty shit against Richmond tbh. You'd think NN and Sinkers would come out on top of McEvoy and Ceglar but Nic will have to be on the top of his game to give us a chance, given the Hawks' midfield depth. He delivered his worst performance in quite a while against the Suns but has thrived in the big games this year. Needless to say, the likes of Priddis, Shuey, Yeo and Sheed all need to step up too.
PREDICTION
My head says we're probably going to lose, but my heart and my groin say **** that! We can't lose to these poo-and-wee-coloured pricks! Believe! Eagles by 1 point.
LAST TIME WE MET
R12, 2014, Hawthorn 19.9 (123) d West Coast 12.7 (79) at Aurora Stadium
Do you guys remember 2014? I don't. Back when we last played the Hawks in godless Tasmania, Dean Cox and Darren Glass were still playing, Brown and Mackenzie were both in an upright position and Jeremy McGovern was still a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an out-of-shape forward. None of that makes sense to me anymore. Anyway, it wasn't pretty. Roughhead (affectionately referred to as "that big red bastard" by one poster in the aftermath of the game) gave us - and particularly Ezy - a fair old reaming, kicking a lazy eight goals. It was our third straight loss and enough for even the more sensible among us to acknowledge that our season was probably farked. Let us never speak of it again.
FORM GUIDE
George Brandis isn't the only one who wishes he didn't get...sunburnt.
The Hawks got beaten at their own annoying possession-heavy game by a resurgent Richmond, who are at the very least probably not going to finish ninth this year. Deledio kicked three goals in the first quarter, France towelled up Roughie and Maric won the ruck battle. They were probably due for an off game but it was still nice to see something bring the relentless Victorian media hype to an end. Richmond are now Premiership favourites so we may as well not bother with the rest of the season.
Honestly, the less said about our game last week, the better. Essentially, we both came second. But you'd probably have to give the symbolic victory to the Suns given they had no Ablett, no Rischitelli and a dominant performance from Harley Bennell, who looks increasingly unlikely to come home and don the wings. At least this happened, though...
TEAMS
They haven't been announced yet. But if there's any good in this world, we'll be seeing the return of the Gov when we need him most.
I love you Gov. I think about you at night when I sleep.
If last week taught us anything else (and it didn't), it's that going in unchanged makes us complacent and bad at winning and we should at least make one token change per week.
Likely team:
IN: McGovern, Butler
OUT: Barrass (unlucky), Hutchings (WAFL/delist)
Schofield McGovern Hurn
Ellis Sheppard Wellingham
Yeo Priddis Gaff
Masten Kennedy Hill
LeCras Darling Cripps
Naitanui Shuey Sheed
Butler Selwood Sinclair
Sub: Rosa
Hawks (mostly just guessing here):
Gibson Lake Duryea
Birchall Frawley Stratton
Smith Mitchell Hill
Gunston McEvoy Rioli
Breust Roughead Puopolo
Ceglar Hodge Lewis
Burgoyne Shiels Schoenmakers
Sub: Hartung
KEYS TO THE GAME
"Elephants don't have keys."
1) Smart footy. We simply won't beat a side as good as the Hawks if we make bad decisions or use the ball poorly. In many ways our gameplan is similar to theirs so none of this should come as any surprise but the Hawks have a number of players who are excellent at reading the play and setting up loose behind the ball. They're also capable of playing fairly tall, which means we can't afford to just bomb it into our forward 50 in hope (I'm looking at you, Rosa).
2) Managing their smalls. Newsflash: We don't play well against dangerous small forwards. Hawthorn have one of the best in Rioli and one of the most opportunistic in Puopolo. Our defensive zone will likely come under more pressure this week than it has all season but we need to hold it together and not get sucked into too many one-on-ones. We'll also need big games from the likes of Wellingham, Ellis and Butler, assuming he's named.
3) Offensive pressure. This has been a strong point for us this year and we'll definitely need it this week. The Hawks have so many dangerous players in their backline - Gibson, Burgoyne, often Hodge and/or Mitchell - which makes them so dangerous on the rebound. We simply can't let Hodge float around unattended as I've seen so many teams do this year because he will carve us up. Cripps has been huge for us all season and we'll need him firing this week.
4) Converting our chances. We kicked 11.17 last week. That speaks for itself.
5)Nic Nat and the midfield. There's talk on the Hawks board that Hale will be out this week - and he was pretty shit against Richmond tbh. You'd think NN and Sinkers would come out on top of McEvoy and Ceglar but Nic will have to be on the top of his game to give us a chance, given the Hawks' midfield depth. He delivered his worst performance in quite a while against the Suns but has thrived in the big games this year. Needless to say, the likes of Priddis, Shuey, Yeo and Sheed all need to step up too.
PREDICTION
My head says we're probably going to lose, but my heart and my groin say **** that! We can't lose to these poo-and-wee-coloured pricks! Believe! Eagles by 1 point.
