Preview Round 7, 2020: Hawthorn v Melbourne, 19 July 2020, 3.35pm @ Giants Stadium

[thejockey]

I copped a bit of flack the last couple of weeks brining up that our form was attributed to playing on Giants Stadium. Well the Hodgey seems to agree with me.

Luke Hodge analyses Hawthorn's concerning Friday night performance

Luke Hodge isn't as concerned about Hawthorn's forward line as others.

www.sen.com.au

I think its a ground , gameplan and skill issue all rolled into one.

Clearly the MCG suits us , we defend it beautifully but the extra space allows our not so good ball users to still hit targets and keep the ball moving along with the extra space and width.

On a small ground teams lock us down and dare us into a tough kick to open the game up , we play safe and stagnant and end up going down the line or making a turnover.
Our back 6 on Friday night I wouldnt back to consistently make a 20m kick let alone something that breaks the line for us.

So we are slow , sidewards, backwards and not threatening .

Different story with Impey or Scrimshaw back there . They are good enough to make a tough kick that opens the ground up.

We need our best in , and we need to further add skilled , creative ball users to go from a mid level side up the ladder imo .

 

[lethalselbow]

Stratton has clearly declined as a player, that was evident last year.

Probably came with weight of the captaincy. Some are lifted by it and some weighed down. I reckon Stratton looks less at ease with it... at least on field.

Totally unsure what happens off-field in regards to the captaincy. He's probably amazing.

 

[TylerDurden]

I wish "catastrophic change" did happen in 2017 when Clarko made the bold call.

Instead we're 3 years later, older list and further from the next serious premiership assault.

I think the money ball experiment is over.

I remember that game. Lost to Saints in Tassie by 75 yeah?

I'm with you. We had to take the medicine back then. Now look where we are. Still refusing the meds.

 

[The Offerman]

Probably came with weight of the captaincy. Some are lifted by it and some weighed down. I reckon Stratton looks less at ease with it... at least on field.

Totally unsure what happens off-field in regards to the captaincy. He's probably amazing.

I think the less you know about his off field behaviour, the better

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Clarko is 100% responsible for the state of our current list trying to pinch a flag before the old players retire when we are nowhere near it.

It has been my fear for the last 3 years he will walk away a legend and leave us a rabble.

I don't believe he'd leave us a rabble.

But I agree with the first part. The tactics, selection and state of the list is on him. Hopefully he can turn it around.

 

[cryptor]

Clarko teased it a few times earlier in the season, but it’s time to unleash his secret weapon on the comp...

FULL FORWARD FROST

 

[spudmaster]

Clarko teased it a few times earlier in the season, but it’s time to unleash his secret weapon on the comp...

FULL FORWARD FROST

I'm waiting for Poppy into the ruck so we can throw Ceglar to FB to help McEvoy out...

 

[Gralin]

Clarko teased it a few times earlier in the season, but it’s time to unleash his secret weapon on the comp...

FULL FORWARD FROST

Need someone down there. Without Breust we've really only for Chad who can be trusted.

Gunston hasn't been reliable in front of the sticks for a long time, he needs an opponent but he's got to start kicking straight again.

We don't have enough dangerous forwards at the moment to really worry opponents, add to that how bad our entries are and yeah

 

[Nick the Pig]

Clarko teased it a few times earlier in the season, but it’s time to unleash his secret weapon on the comp...

FULL FORWARD FROST

Its an interesting question because how Clarko re-jigs the forwatd structure next game is anyone's guess.

Pre-season both Lewis and Patton would have been central to our plans but now are both out. Jeka is an 18yr old kid so not likely to be anywhere near ready. TOB and Gunston are very lightweight as a key forward pairing and we would be outmarked downback by the 3rd man at ease. McEvoy would give his everything at FF but he is first and foremost a ruckman so not really the answer. And all our other talls are key backs or average rucks.

Hope Clarko likes a challenge. Mind you if the delivery doesn't improve the forward structure wont really matter.

 

[Bugs1977]

Size of the ground aside, the condition of the ground is appalling. Couldn’t believe how bad it looked on Friday. You could see clumps coming up under foot.

The sooner we get to SA or WA, the better.

Oh I agree. When there was talk of a WA hub I wanted us to be in it because we are like 3-0 at Optus. Kind of makes you think wether the powers at be wanted us at Giants Stadium.

 

[Mrzohs]

I have been watching some footy over the weekend and the refusal for us to move the ball on at all cost is hurting our scoring ability.
We use to be so good at this i dare say we practiced it, I hope we can go back to this against the Dees
(more instinctive less instructive)
It was all the hype over the pre-season quicker ball movement, i don't see it latley.

 

[WWSD]

How many players listed below will we see play over the next few weeks who aren’t best 22?


Minchington
Hartley
Brooksby
Nash
Glass
Walker
Maginness
Moore
Ross
Jeka
Jones
Hanrahan
Greaves
Cousins

 

[The Offerman]

Maybe Maginess. Wouldn't expect much else

 

[Brant]

New blood..new ideas. New direction. Did you watch the last two games. Even if we beat Melbourne.
2015 was our last finals win....another 5 years and it will be a decade.

Another 95 years & it will be a century!

 

[Gralin]

Another 95 years & it will be a century!

Holy s**t 100 years without winning a final!

 

[Brant]

Holy sh*t 100 years without winning a final!

Yeh, that's like essendon bad...

Maybe AFL will stop paying blatant free kicks against us for a few years & cheat us a flag?

 

[savagelunchbox]

Since this is a middle of the road team vs. a middle of the road team, I'd like to see us play a style of play that is more conducive to how modern footy is being played as opposed towards keeping the defensive structure at all costs to minimize the chance of being blownout and seeing that affect our ability to play attackingly.
e.g. Handpass to running/moving players instead of stationary players not facing towards the goals.

Good chance to see where the list is really at.

I fear that those who are in the "it's not as bad as it looks" camp are being misled about the state of the list by the defensive structure's ability to hold on for long enough even though once we're down, we'll almost never come back. It's a 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' type scenario, me thinks.

 

[Brishawk]

The handball was on and Wingard would've strolled in for an easy goal. You've claimed I totally made that up. Good luck to you.

Gunston was lucky his low-percentage snap went through for a goal in the final quarter, because the handball was on to Chad in the goal-square

Pretty clear what you wrote. You are just being revisionist to defend yourself.

 

[Turly]

Move on old players and stop living on past glory Clarkson!!
Time is now to act and play the youngsters and see who we got going forward. Or Clarkson..move on and target Blake Caracella as our next coach. There is no room for sentiment anymore...one soldier in..are his words. He delivered what he could..the next six months will see if we have the same coach in 2021.
It may sound harsh on our so called media genius. But that Collingwood game on Friday night was bereft of anything. Just anything. Spark, creativity....It's time and its now..even at 3 and 3.

Blake Caracalla

This thread is fast becoming laughable if it wasn’t already.

 

[Nastyfish]

Its an interesting question because how Clarko re-jigs the forwatd structure next game is anyone's guess.

Pre-season both Lewis and Patton would have been central to our plans but now are both out. Jeka is an 18yr old kid so not likely to be anywhere near ready. TOB and Gunston are very lightweight as a key forward pairing and we would be outmarked downback by the 3rd man at ease. McEvoy would give his everything at FF but he is first and foremost a ruckman so not really the answer. And all our other talls are key backs or average rucks.

Hope Clarko likes a challenge. Mind you if the delivery doesn't improve the forward structure wont really matter.

Given the players out I reckon it will be the resting ruckman up forward, with Gunston and TOB the other talls. For the smalls it’s anyone’s guess. I’m glad we played Morris, he showed endeavour, but not a lot of class. Need to see when there is more supply, but Hanrahan looked better. Puopolo is so low on confidence it’s sad, even his pressure game is fading. At least he can hit a target. But it all starts around the ball, need to get on top around the clearances or else we are rooted.

 

[SA HAWK]

Blake Caracalla

This thread is fast becoming laughable if it wasn’t already.

He is very highly rated as an assistant.

I am sure most of us didn’t know who Clarko was before we appointed him.

 

[LuckyHawk]

Need those caffeine tablets we were using a few years ago. That should do the trick!

 

[theiaofseed]

People are far too spoilt, we're 3-3 and people already screaming the sky's fallen, given who we've played did anyoen see us doing better than that?. We outplayed GWS we just had no forward structure, see how the season pans out before we get carried away.

We got a midfield core that will be together for another 6 years(Omerea, Mitchell, Worpel, Wingard) and large portion of our backline set for most of the next decade(Hardwick, Frost, Sicily, Scrimshaw, Day*). We're only 3-4 year into a rebuild, no idea what people expect.

 

[The Offerman]

People are far too spoilt, we're 3-3 and people already screaming the sky's fallen, given who we've played did anyoen see us doing better than that?. We outplayed GWS we just had no forward structure, see how the season pans out before we get carried away.

We got a midfield core that will be together for another 6 years(Omerea, Mitchell, Worpel, Wingard) and large portion of our backline set for most of the next decade(Hardwick, Frost, Sicily, Scrimshaw, Day*). We're only 3-4 year into a rebuild, no idea what people expect.

We were spoilt with those three goals in prime time footy. The rebuild hasn't even begun yet, two weeks ago we put out one of the oldest sides in history...

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

idk why there's literally a brigade of users on every thread talking about how s**t our list is, how we're a bad side, how we're ****ed and 10 years away from a premiership, that clarko and our gameplan is inept, we need to get rid of all our players over 28 and finish last 5 years to rebuild properly etc. (and vice versa is true too)

can we just talk about the Melbourne game and changes we'd like to see to our 22 and gameplan on Sunday and save all the 'end of the world' stuff for either the list mgmt thread or until the season's over when there's actually merit to discussing list changes?