Autopsy Round 5, 2021: Hawthorn defeated by Melbourne

[grumbleguts]

During the 3 peat 80s we elevated football to another level altogether, we weren't just playing for wins we were playing to raise the game as a pure spectacle to heights it had never been before (and has never reached again in my humble opinion).

We moved the ball at lightning speed through speed of mind and an entire team of players who had beautiful skills by hand and foot. We had a perfect balance between rock hard defense transitioning into free flowing offence and we kicked over 100 140 points on a weekly basis (sometimes well over).

This is what we need to go back to. (I know it'll never happen) but that is what the game needs.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

How do we look compared to 2003-7? I reckon I'm seeing some similarities to what we were doing back then. 1/ Building from the backline - really making sure the defense was solid. 2/ He's testing and pushing all the lads to play to a game plan. They're not clicking yet, but we had similar sort of stuff happening back in 2003-07.

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but in 2003-7 I can recall seeing aspects of the three peat team coming together in terms of personnel / style of play even during the tough times.

But I am struggling to see what we are trying to create at the moment, it almost feels like this is the finished product. What is the vision Clarko is trying to create with this current team? What is our brand? What are we trying to evolve into?

Maybe I just need more patience (in fact I definitely do) but I hope we get to see the signs of the grand plan sooner rather than later.

 

[rei154]

Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but in 2003-7 I can recall seeing aspects of the three peat team coming together in terms of personnel / style of play even during the tough times.

But I am struggling to see what we are trying to create at the moment, it almost feels like this is the finished product. What is the vision Clarko is trying to create with this current team? What is our brand? What are we trying to evolve into?

Maybe I just need more patience (in fact I definitely do) but I hope we get to see the signs of the grand plan sooner rather than later.

I think we've seen elements of what we want our gameplan to look like and when we've successfully implemented it I can see the winning formula we're working on.
In terms of personnel we've built our defensive end of the ground really well (assuming dgb can come on as a kpd) and we have elements in both the midfield and the forward line. We're currently somewhat relying on ML and Gunston coming back into our forward mix to straighten it up though.
The main difference between then and now I think from that view point is by then we had a lot of what would go on to be our midfield core for the threepeat playing senior footy whereas now I think we are either yet to draft them or they're functioning in the rezzies.