Autopsy Round 8, 2021: Hawks stretched by Eagles

[MinerBoy]

Thread title should say Hawks beaten by WAFL side they had that many out.
Last year was not an anomaly and just us not coping with Hub life.

We are actually a really poor side.

Look the constant reminders by the comms of the WCE outs was kind of tiring when they kept failing to mention Gunston (best forward), Sicily (best back), O'Meara (best mid) and Day (best young player)....and Burgoyne on top.

Massive lack of balanced commentating. I know which side could less afford that degree of talent out.

Mind you yeah, we are a poor side. No arguments there.

 

[Bardo State]

About what I expected all up.

I thought Mitchell, Impey and Worpel did quite well.

Howe, Morrison and Phillips on the wings just kept ticking over and didn't do much wrong. But it's not a group with the speed or kicking to break a game up. You could tell a similar story across most of the ground.

Jeka and Kosi's lack of experience showed and they were out-bodied all day. Shiels made a lot of errors but he can find it, which should be enough to stay in with this group.

I think Jiath coped well with extra attention. I want to see Frost taking the game on more from half back like he did earlier in the season. Hartigan held Kennedy well and Hartley tried hard against a hot Darling but is a limited defender.

More midfield Scrimshaw please.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

8 goals in the perfect sunshine....2 of which were Worps late ones when the game was just fizzing out to its conclusion.

Not going to put ourselves in many winning positions despite how respectable we keep the final margins if we can't find a way to apply some scoreboard pressure.

in saying that, we only 35 inside 50's, so we were quite productive.

If only we could get it in there quickly and with precision.

 

[kenneje]

Thank christ we aren’t a middle of the road side and are genuinely very poor.

Much prefer a few years of this resulting in access to the more likely parts of the draft.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

About what I expected all up.


Howe, Morrison and Phillips on the wings just kept ticking over and didn't do much wrong. But it's not a group with the speed or kicking to break a game up. You could tell a similar story across most of the ground.

yeah I thought all 3 were okay today, all got involved to varying degrees and apart from that one Howe and one Harry shank were steady with ball in hand

but you're right in that they provide no real drive and run from the wings. They're defensive wings. Most teams only need 1 — we have 3. We will need to find our next Issie and Brad Hill before we're able to really run back up the ladder

 

[satan1]

Not sure what to take from it.

Lewis played better, still no pressure without the ball but I like someone's description of "a special breed of laconic" so I will go with that over the other L word.

CJ, Impey, Scrimshaw and Worpel were all good, Scrim and Impey can probably role through the midfield more with Wingard.

Mitchell showed he is as prolific as ever, just needs to be more creative with all this handpasses.

McEvoy has endurance.
Hardwick tried hard.
Jeka is young and tall.
Moore harassed well.

We aren't very good.

 

[MinerBoy]

in saying that, we only 35 inside 50's, so we were quite productive.

If only we could get it in there quickly and with precision.

Yep it certainly isn't a flat out assessment of the forwards. It's the whole thing. How and how often we get it in there a large part of it.

 

[Billyc]

Thread title should say Hawks beaten by WAFL side they had that many out.
Last year was not an anomaly and just us not coping with Hub life.

We are actually a really poor side.

Surely nobody is still going with the hub excuse? That’s like still thinking our junk time end of 2019 wins meant we were good. We have been poor and getting worse for years now. Not convinced we have hit the bottom yet

 

[Kuuz]

A few points:

• Impey and Scrim continue their good form out of the backline. Dimma was really solid too.
• Good to see Worps, Ollie and Lewis getting some form back into them.
• Jeka probably a bit overawed but understandable, he'll learn from the AFL experience and develop.

Two broader rebuttals against some poor takes I've seen lately:

1. Clarko and GW recruitment has been awful in the last few years: Rubbish argument. Hindsight recruitment is the easiest and equally most useless argument to make. We have used the same recruitment strategy we used to deliver us multiple premierships. Unfortunately, the recruitment of late had to compensate for bigger gaps in our list than they did during 2008-2015 (i.e. replacing Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis and Roughie). I don't blame Clarko trying to setup the list for another crack post 2015, and it didn't work. However, seeing the poor ability in the midfield now, I think Clarko runs out of excuses if he doesn't switch to developing youth.
2. Our forward line coaches are rubbish: They have an uphill battle. Make no bones about it, our biggest hole in our list is quality disposal midfielders. We have never truly replaced Sam Mitchell or Lewis, and add the loss of Smith, we lack real penetration into the forward line. Add to that our forward line makeup is now largely inexperienced players, the forward coaches don't have much to work with. Our midfield setup is the biggest issue and looking at this game, our gameplan is pretty dire too. It's so slow and wide, it allows decent opposition to easily setup behind the play, making it near impossible for our forwards to find space.

Sidenote: I also can't tell if having Tom Mitchell in our midfield helps or hinders us long term. He accrues lots of the ball, gets clearances but his disposal goes largely sideways. JOM to me is the more important midfielder as he's dynamic, powerful and gets us impactful clearances to the forward line. Worps too as he's damaging going forward (and young!). Questions, questions.

 

[hfc70]

Was worried when Mum dragged me to the ‘bullring’ 15 mins into the 2nd quarter !

Sadly that’s where we stayed.

 

[robiecampbellbrown]

That will be when we lose to North

Surely nobody is still going with the hub excuse? That’s like still thinking our junk time end of 2019 wins meant we were good. We have been poor and getting worse for years now. Not convinced we have hit the bottom yet

 

[Wingnut19]

Pick 2, 20 & 21!!

3 skilful mids plus DGB, Day and Mitchell should make us better to watch. This is probably rock bottom considering we don’t have our past 2 top picks playing plus our best player out with a Knee. Is what it is. Have to look at getting extra picks in as well. Hopefully 2 picks in MSD

 

[Off The Couch]

Not much to say really - we weren’t flash at all

Jars had a good day

Was surprised to hear Mitchell had 40+ possessions - I obviously drifted off because I can’t say that I really noticed him

Did you know that the Eagles were seriously undermanned and it was a good win against this premiership contendering hawthorn outfit

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Shiels woeful today.

Jeka needs to stay in box hill. He needs to lead, and his teammates at afl level don't kick to leads often enough

Peahearted efforts all around the ground after quarter time.

No longer defending Howe. Doesn't even prevented to run anymore.

 

[Yardie]

Lewis played better, still no pressure without the ball but I like someone's description of "a special breed of laconic" so I will go with that over the other L word.

Do you think that Lewis needs to be more vocal on the field......

 

[Ridingthebumps]

We don’t lead at the ball and kick to space to run onto At All and west coast did it all day. On the odd occasion they do lead up they go way too early and have to stop and have the ball kicked on their heads whilst standing still.

 

[hawkheart]

No TOB no Hawthorn

 

[grumbleguts]

I haven't been seeing every game but I'm a little surprised he's not in the team.

One possession in an entire half of VFL football? If he were any one of the whipping boys there's be six separate threads wanting his head right now.

 

[On Topic]

Mitchell, Worpel, Scrimshaw, Impey and Hardwick were all good.

Really need O'Meara and Gunston in the side next week. Hopefully Brockman showed enough yesterday to get a call up.

Scrimshaw backed up his work last week which was good to see. Impey may have just had his best game.

 

[thehardway]

Expect the media heat will be on us this week.

Yes and I don't mind that but we are where we are - a bottom 4 team. If we lose to North batten down the hatches.

 

[Jazzfan]

Sadly, it's just not going to get any better. We are not even at the worst of our free fall.

The club smells. Playing a s**t brand.

Wingard is a nowhere, people defending him must forget we paid like he was an All-Australian talent. Blerg.

 

[hawkman]

Margin was flattering

Too often our defensive decision making is awful. The running forward to pressure the 1st man on an overlap does work as there is no structure to eventually stop the ball which leads to too many end to end goals

 

[lethalselbow]

Crowd size tells a story.

Struggling to find a single positive from that rudderless effort.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

i disagree with people saying we haven't hit the bottom yet

last year post-relocation was infinitely worse than this year. infinitely. i don't care if we don't win a game for the rest of the year, that was by far the least I've ever enjoyed watching and supporting the club and probably ever will

 

[PhatHQ]

Geez it would be easy to pot players and go on a rant.
We have a bunch of blokes that have thrown in the towel or are just not up to it. Extremely poor performance.

Worps needs to be set free to play. I don’t care how the midfield structures up but you have to let the future captain lead the team by hunting the ball and the man.

Really happy to see someone reads BF and got Scrimshaw a run in the middle. One thing that has to be tagged to Scrimshaw is “you look lazy mate! Find an edge and another gear and work harder” I’d persist with midfield minutes and see where that goes as he has the tools to be in there. “It’s just further up the ground and a bit faster”.

I just feel sorry for the three talls. You are hung out to dry by poor gameplay. Sort it out Clarko.