Autopsy Round 2, 2021: Hawthorn defeated by Richmond

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Feb 6, 2004
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I think the main issue was our forward entries and too often plonking, bombing, kick and hoping, not lowering the eyes, not kicking to space, crowded forward line et al most of the time. I think Downie and or Greaves for that long penerating ' mostly accurate' kick into 50 is a necessity in the team and one of them needs to be brought in this week.
We just didn't move the ball quick enough through the middle and take the game on (although Richmond did force us to be this way sometimes). Whenever we took a mark and stopped to look for the next option Richmond just rolled two back into the forward space clogging it up and ensuring always having a 2 on 1 in their favour. The also rolled into the corridor to force us to the boundary.

One of our best entries into the forward line was a daring kick from the wing boundary diagonally into centre and then quickly kicked across goals to a leading Howe/Brockman (Howe took the mark). All the players were boundary side and the space was available to lead into. What was funny was that Richmond did this exact play earlier (although they came more through the centre) and I was telling my son how good it was how they created the space by moving the ball quickly....
 

StillAtLarge

Norm Smith Medallist
May 12, 2015
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I got a text from a mate saying the same thing at that time...I must have missed whatever it was he did wrong. Going to watch it on Kayo now, see what it was.

EDIT..Just saw it, and it actually was pretty feeble. About 3 minutes in, high ball bounce on Richmond's attacking 50; he tries to tap it while avoiding body contact with the Richmond player, and they took possession. He will no doubt have it pointed out to him in the team review
It was a pretty noticeable shirk so I dare say it would've been pointed out at quarter time. To his credit the lad redeemed himself with a number of fully committed efforts later on
 
Feb 5, 2018
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I said it at the time and I guess it's now somewhat justified

No coaches votes for Tom Mitchell. I thought he played as poorly as one could for gathering 37 disposals.

CJ, Hardwick and Frost all featured.
 

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Apr 10, 2017
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I said it at the time and I guess it's now somewhat justified

No coaches votes for Tom Mitchell. I thought he played as poorly as one could for gathering 37 disposals.

CJ, Hardwick and Frost all featured.
I have to agree...

Coaches votes - I'm ok with them, although I thought Lambert better than Prestia...

Hawthorn v Richmond
9 Dustin Martin (RICH)
7 Dion Prestia (RICH)
4 Changkuoth Jiath (HAW)
3 Kane Lambert (RICH)
3 Blake Hardwick (HAW)
2 Sam Frost (HAW)
1 Jack Riewoldt (RICH)
1 Trent Cotchin (RICH)
 
Quite Interesting when you look at the way the votes must have been cast.
See Quote for breakdown.
Think Clarko loves CJ


I have to agree...

Coaches votes - I'm ok with them, although I thought Lambert better than Prestia...

Hawthorn v Richmond
9 Dustin Martin (RICH) 5 + 4
7 Dion Prestia (RICH) 5 +2
4 Changkuoth Jiath (HAW) 4
3 Kane Lambert (RICH) 3
3 Blake Hardwick (HAW) 3
2 Sam Frost (HAW) 2
1 Jack Riewoldt (RICH) 1
1 Trent Cotchin (RICH) 1
 

PhatHQ

Premiership Player
Sep 26, 2015
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Our midfield is the worry, isn't it?

We really lack the elite specimens that a lot of teams have, and most are now north of 25.
I absolutely hate saying this but if Dusty was playing for Hawthorn we wouldn’t even be having the conversation.
I don’t believe we have that class of player available via draft or trade anytime soon.
 

theiaofseed

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Jun 17, 2019
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I absolutely hate saying this but if Dusty was playing for Hawthorn we wouldn’t even be having the conversation.
I don’t believe we have that class of player available via draft or trade anytime soon.
Martin type players don't grow on trees but who knows what player we will draft in the next 3 years.
 
All better players than Vlastuin
I have Dusty Cotchin Edwards Riewoldt Grimes at 1-5
jeebus is this still going on? stop feeding him honestly.
 

Hawk_francais

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Sep 20, 2015
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A lot of the strategy talk seems to be about our predictability going inside 50. As we saw the few times that Frost or Jiath were able to break through and give us a quick rebound, our kicks inside 50 were fine, and our forwards capable (though admittedly not extraordinary). It was Richmond’s ability to delay us downfield, while buying time for their defence to position up, which led to most of our poor entries. No defence can handle a turnover followed by a quick kick inside 50, but I can count on one finger the number of times we managed that.

To my eye it was just that our players haven’t played together enough. My favourite ever passage of play in an afl game was when I saw Pendlebury, about to be tackled, perform a lookaway kick that travelled 20 metres and landed right in the path of Sidebottom, who marked on the wing. At first it looked like a kick to no one, and though Pendles didn’t see his teammate, he knew where he would be. We’ll need a couple more seasons before we develop that level of understanding.
 

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Rushed_Behind

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Feb 4, 2009
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First mistake was going to the Richmond board for literally any reason.

However i definitely think he was in the best 3 players on the field, probably number 1.

28 touches, 1 goal and 11 score involvements... 11

Could have easily had 4 goals himself if he did not pass them off

EDIT: Just read a couple pages and lmfao... They are so headfu**ed by us for no reason? Titch barely got a mention by anyone in the media or even Hawk fans. I don't think anyone thinks he was amazing yesterday. They have won 3 of the last 4 flags and still have this massive victim complex.


It’s because they know they’re s**t and wouldn’t trouble the lions, cats or hawks. They’ve just been blessed by GWS and GC squandering the talent they had.
 

Zack

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Apr 14, 2002
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I have to agree...

Coaches votes - I'm ok with them, although I thought Lambert better than Prestia...

Hawthorn v Richmond
9 Dustin Martin (RICH)
7 Dion Prestia (RICH)
4 Changkuoth Jiath (HAW)
3 Kane Lambert (RICH)
3 Blake Hardwick (HAW)
2 Sam Frost (HAW)
1 Jack Riewoldt (RICH)
1 Trent Cotchin (RICH)
I'm rapt the coaches didn't check the stats and give votes on them like Dan cherry (age) and dan batten (hun), are all dans stupid in victoria?

I'll be honest I didn't notice Prestia enough 4 a 7 vote total but hell I would have given him 10 before I gave Mitchell a 1. So I can live with it quite easily.

We need 2 stop looking at stats and look at impact or role in a certain game. To give an example Sam Mitchell played one of his worst statistically games ever in the freo gf.

He also played a role that arguably guaranteed us winning by getting smashed by Crowley, yet standing where sandilands hits 70 % of his tap outs... so Crowley would smack him even more. He never moved to get a cheap possession that day, he took hit, pinch, scratch after scratch from Crowley never said a word just did his role.

That is what football is about, not possessions.
 

Slainte

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Oct 10, 2008
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There were times when Richmond looked like they had a couple of extra players. They seemed to be able to find a player that we could not cover. I guess it comes down to being well organised and knowing exactly where to position.

Overall, we put in a creditable performance aside from a very fumbly patch early and some haphazard forward entries. I am encouraged that we can be competitive against decent teams.
 

TylerDurden

Mischief. Mayhem. Soap
Mar 5, 2007
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There were times when Richmond looked like they had a couple of extra players. They seemed to be able to find a player that we could not cover. I guess it comes down to being well organised and knowing exactly where to position.

Overall, we put in a creditable performance aside from a very fumbly patch early and some haphazard forward entries. I am encouraged that we can be competitive against decent teams.
We put a spare back to stop the bleeding early, which gave them a spare.
 
To see what CJ can produce live is just phenomenal. He is an unbelievable athlete with a huge workrate. The kid is a star in the making. He is worth going to the footy to watch.

Hardwicks kicking stood out. One of our few really damaging kickers with the ball. I liked that he was positioned a bit higher in defence at times as his kicking can open teams up through the middle of the ground. Would be close to his best game for Hawthorn.

Scrimshaws footskills also really stood out. We need him in the side.

Impey was back to his best.

Frosts 2nd half was huge. One problem he does have is when he commits to a contest in the air and doesn't influence it he always seems to end up on the ground and out of the ground ball contest.

Howes best game for a long long time. Wow.

Brocky is as calm as you can get. A great find.

Tom Phillips gee he is a bit of a battler. Certainly hasn't found his groove yet. Needs to improve. His last quarter was better but some really poor errors before that. His stat's will look OK no doubt but not the player I thought he was. Maybe a tad lazy.

You sit back and think if we had Buddy and Roughie up fwd the game would have had a completely different complexion. Whilst not dominant the two Richmond talls were the difference. We had our hopes on a 2nd gamer who shows signs and TOB who gets pushed around too much. Needed 2 strong battle hardened bodies up there which we didn't.

Our system looked good. Our effort good. Decision making and execution the downfall.
 

Gaston

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Sep 27, 2014
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One of our midfield issues is that we don't have a killer midfielder who we can allow to do as he pleases.
Martin, Bontempelli, Neale and others simply run forward of the ball with others to watch their opponent
when the ball goes the other way.

Imagine Wingard didn't have to waste energy laying tackles and was cherry ripe to hit targets every time
the ball was in his hands.

The team ethos culutre of yesteryear worked well but we need to consider the marquee player scenario
that other top teams have adopted.
 
Hawks were over-awed. Tigers just did what they do and pushed hard.

We were fumbly and nervous like it was our first date.

Exactly how the first quarter looked. Horrible nerves.
 
Aug 31, 2008
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jeebus is this still going on? stop feeding him honestly.

This guy.

If you have an issue, speak up. Don't be a coward dropping snide remarks because you can't comprehend that other people have different opinions to you. It's pathetic. Educate yourself on what trolling is whilst you're at it.
 

seysearles

Supreme Leader
Oct 5, 2008
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Anyone think Mitchell is a chance for Brownlow votes today? Highest possessions on the ground with 37.

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Interesting from the coaches. 37possies and no votes. Very telling.
 

seysearles

Supreme Leader
Oct 5, 2008
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It was a very inside game where he didn’t take much ground.

Yeah i probably agree with their votes. I think that given we aren't likely to play finals I'm just looking for other aspects of the season to get excited about and I thought a second Brownlow for Mitchell would be a nice little consolation prize. It's really cool to see CJ in there two weeks in a row. he already represents a real positive from the season.
 
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