Autopsy Round 5, 2026: Hawks kick the Dogs

[Bedi]

Not A-grade pixies but fit for purpose.

Their most poppy, but it's a Doolittle classic

 

[Stottzy]

Blake Hardwick

15

Blake Hardwick

Age

29

Ht

183cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.8

4star

K

9.7

4star

HB

6.1

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

2.7

4star

MG

264.7

4star

D

13.8

3star

K

9.8

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

3.2

3star

T

1.7

3star

MG

264.7

4star

D

15.0

4star

K

8.8

4star

HB

6.2

4star

M

5.0

5star

T

1.4

4star

really doesn't get enough credit. He was brilliant last night. The guy is going to be one of those players who'll never win a individual accolade, but you just love having on the field.

 

[Slainte]

The number of one-on-ones Chol wins and his elite tackling make his hole difficult to fill. He generates a lot of shot at goal. But we have a very nice like-for-like replacement waiting at box hill.

Yep - Dear plays a pretty similar game to Chol.

 

[fairdinks]

Good to get the win, even when it’s winning ugly! Good to see so many Hawks finding touch!

Not a game I’d watch again. You’d think it’d be Scrim or Dear in for Cholly.

Port next week at Marvel!

perhaps scrim comes back in, but only if being managed is really due to having some niggles.

On form, I would not be so sure he is automatically back. Our defence probably looked at its best last night and Perez does add a bit more pace to the lineup.

 

[joe444]

The hawks emblem on our jumper last night looks like a sawn-off shotgun. I defy you to unsee it,

Surely it doesn't take a Geelong fan to remind Hawks of their own history. Here is your logo during the 80s. I always thought it was awesome.

 

[I got the outside word]

Anyone else already doing ladder predictors?

I'm not sitting there going through game by game, that takes too long. But I just did an 'autotip' that had us finishing TOP, 18-5, playing Brissie in the first final.

We’ve been premiers on mine for four months now.

 

[grumbleguts]

Surely it doesn't take a Geelong fan to remind Hawks of their own history. Here is your logo during the 80s. I always thought it was awesome.

View attachment 2579933

Um... I am very well aware of every emblem we have ever had as well as every single player we have ever had starting with Jim Jackson. Bit of a club historian in fact. FFS it just looks more like the sawn-off shotgun on the darker background on the jumper itself.

 

[Bedi]

Surely it doesn't take a Geelong fan to remind Hawks of their own history. Here is your logo during the 80s. I always thought it was awesome.

View attachment 2579933

Yep it's still the best

 

[JRH]

Yep - Dear plays a pretty similar game to Chol.

I’d be saying to calsh don’t worry about anything other than making contests and laying tackles. Let wiz and gunston find space, let Mitch go find the ball, let the rucks swing forward. Just half everything you can and trap it in 50.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I only venture on here to praise.

Whomever your forwards coach is, give them a raise. I am super impressed by the way your forwards stay out of each other's way. Yours, atm, is the most functional forward line in the league and quite comfortably so.

I'd even say it's noticeably different from last year; everyone seems on the same page now. Cult hero he may be, but Chol's absence won't be an issue in this regard, as you could argue he's the loose cannon.

Am I off base here?

I don’t think Chol’s a loose cannon at all. Seriously underrated outside of the four walls at Hawthorn, but his team play is top level.

 

[joe444]

I don’t think Chol’s a loose cannon at all. Seriously underrated outside of the four walls at Hawthorn, but his team play is top level.

rephrase: he's the one most likely to fly against others, but the main point was how super-impressive the structure is.

 

[TassieGrown]

Blake Hardwick really doesn't get enough credit. He was brilliant last night. The guy is going to be one of those players who'll never win an individual accolade, but you just love having on the field.

Agree had him in the top 3, flies under the radar for some reason

 

[BlueWaterHawk]

Surely it doesn't take a Geelong fan to remind Hawks of their own history. Here is your logo during the 80s. I always thought it was awesome.

View attachment 2579933

Aaah the old triangle cut sandwich logo

 

[Billyc]

Superb win. Incredible atmosphere at Gather Round too - strong recommend for any footy fan.

Ginnivan and Newcombe hard to split for BOG. Despite Newcombe’s career best clearances, I’m going Ginnivan. Think he delivered the ball for 6 direct goals. He’s become unbelievable.

Overall very strong team performance. We are purring nicely. Loved the response to the flat end to third quarter

Ginnivan, Newcombe, Sicily, Lewis, Meek, Reeves, Hardwick, Watson all great.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Don't want to upset the apple cart & loved the win, but MacKenzie's progress ...??

Both he and Ward had quiet games. Mind you the only midfielder to get over 20 touches was Newcombe.

 

[joe444]

Aaah the old triangle cut sandwich logo

All the 80s logos were pretty awesome. Even our bizarre fat hungry cat.

 

[Flamin Joe]

Gunner shooting himself in the foot with his accuracy so far this year.

Has kicked 19.12 compared to King 21.3 - should be dominating the coleman thus far having played some seriously tough teams compared with the Suns' soft start.

It's a team wide thing which I thought we finally turned the corner on in the 1st qtr but as the game progressed we reverted back to wasting shots on goal.

Hate to sound like a broken record but I'm worried it's going to bite us on the ass one day. Hopefully it's something which will be corrected as the season progresses and we can really start putting teams to the sword.

 

[Billyc]

Great win. How's David King:
"It's not who you play, but when you play them"
Fk off campaigner.
Throw English in and we still win. Also give us Chol back.
Onto next week. Get a feeling Dear gets the call up.

King said same thing when we beat Swans. Hasn’t mentioned Day in either instance despite saying pre-season Day was our best player and we couldn’t challenge without him and naturally no doscussion last night about us being down a rotation from the first quarter onwards. His hawks attitude is all just part of a petty little ego thing he has with Kane Cornes on their show.

Would English have made a difference ? Sure. So would have Day. But fact is we have Bulldogs measure and consistently beat them when English plays. The Dogs don’t bring pressure and only intense pressure sides like Geelong, Brisbane really trouble our game style

The bulldogs are pretenders. They have a couple superstars who make them look great beating up bad sides in free flowing games. But they don’t measure up in high stakes games

 

[grumbleguts]

Did anyone else feel like when Watson ran around Khamis, they were watching a cartoon. It looked exactly the way cartoonists animate characters that they want to depict running ridiculously fast, but so fast it would be impossible to film in live action mode.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[The Gulden Child]

Had a footy reunion last night. Had the game on a big screen and it was just emphatic by the Hawks. It's just poor conversion preventing big scores/blowouts atm.

The whole crew bagged Kingy. What a douche. Nearly as bad as Dermott's pre-match rambling but at least that was a health message.

Just a quick question. Has holding the ball changed? Just for context the Hawks nailed the doggies in tackles time and time again with the dogs just flopping to the ground making no attempts, at all, to move the ball on.

 

[fairdinks]

Another great professional game by the Hawks. The only problem I have now is the expectations are so much higher as is my blood pressure

Lots has been said about our ruck dominance and Newks colossal clearance work, but I'd like to really praise the defence last night. Bulldogs had almost as many inside 50's as Hawks but really struggled to score due to how well our boys played.

Every player was sensational. Hardwick once again showing his poise and class racking up possession at will. He sure is a beauty. Impey continues a dominant season start, Barrass doing his thing and Battle in a season best performance. Naughton is his bunny it seems.

Perez keeps growing and looks comfortable at the level. Just needs to one grab his marks more often. Amon got more of it as the game progressed. Beautiful user.

I thought Ward had his worst game for the year with too few possessions and some bad disposal. He needs to consistently elevate his game to mid-twenties disposal week to week. Frenchie was OK but not as effective as he could/should be. Needs to stop doing u turns. Chol injured but was average before he went off. Hope he is OK, but suggest it may be a recall for Calsh. I think Shuey is still a bit raw for the big time. It would certainly be exciting if he did get a call up though.

Something a little amiss with Weddle. Seemed in two minds most of the game which badly affected his disposals both by foot and hand. He was not timing his jumps for marks very well at all. Too early most often. Maybe he just needs to be settled in one position for a while. It is hard for a young player to be moved around so much this early in their career.

The others have been praised plenty with earlier posts, so no need to go there again.

The umps were giving players a lot of time in the tackles. I don't mind this if they are being consistent, which I thought they generally were.

edit: it is great to see Mas recovering his 2024 form. A big plus moving forward if he keeps this up.

 

[Gaston]

Blake Hardwick really doesn't get enough credit. He was brilliant last night. The guy is going to be one of those players who'll never win a individual accolade, but you just love having on the field.

It's only taken 200 games for the media to finally recognise his talent and toughness.

 

[matey]

I know where we are on the ladder but this morning I’ve gone back to have a look a number of times because it bloody looks good!

 

[fairdinks]

Watched as much as I could while at a party

Positives

We are being very cohesive as a team. If we had a FIFA rating right now it would be 90 team chemistry

I've been very critical of Mitch Lewis however he had a fantastic game. He will need to continue that with Mabior out for a bit

Watson is genuinely starting to remind me of Rioli where he might only get 10 to 15 touches a game but they are all impactful. Close to our most important player.

Reeves has shown enough to convince Mitch to play 2 rucks. Dare I say Meek might even be in trouble if we only picked 1 ruck rn.

Did as well as you possibly could against Sam Darcy. With the chopping of the hands rule they're really isn't too much you can do if he's given it on a golden platter

Ginni really becoming a good player and not just an immature larrikin. He's not fast or strong but he would have one of the best footy minds in the game


Negatives.

Jai has become so good that I hate to think what we would be like if he got injured with Day still out

Chol injury. Hopefully only a couple of weeks. Interesting who we select to replace. Schubert might be performing in the VFL but he comes across as too raw right now. Dear would probably have the most impact imo. McCabe also a chance

I feel like Weddle is at risk of becoming one of those guys who doesn't end up excelling at one position and becomes the jack of all trades but master of none. I love how we can just throw his magnet anywhere on the board but he hasn't had a fantastic season thus far.

i don't see us dropping the two-ruck combo anytime soon. I reckon Meek has been great with the help from Reeves. 16 possession, 5 tackles and a goal shows me he is enjoying a bit more freedom. He is going well ATM.