Autopsy Round 9, 2021: Hawks get bounced

[The hands of stone]

I'd argue most ppl have been saying this since the middle of last year. Many a year or two that b4 that.

Losing 2 the worst team in living memory is them just saying how did our club not see this be possible?

How did a 4 time premiership coach not know if his club is good or bad at the start of the season, his words not ours as supporters.

I don't know the answers 2 any of that but I do expect blokes on 100 of thousands and in Clarko's case closer to a million to know.

If we are going suffer tell us, if u think we're going well tell us. If u you don't know move on don't lie to us move on. I'd rather u were wrong than say I don't know.

When a coach comes out and says he doesnt know what to expect before a season from their side, its a pretty good indicator that the expectations are pretty low .

I dont agree with everything he has done but he isnt stupid .....he isnt going to torch the group before the 1st game.

 

[Zack]

You think the club were lying when they said he had a hip problem and they just rested him?

I think the club had worked out where we really were. Today when he was the least worst of our midfield they put him at FF. Chad who was our best part time midfielder got taken away too.

Our club has lied about injury timeframes 4 years. Its one of the things our club does. I don't know why but we do.

Its a given under Clarko and was even when we were winning premierships. I was annoyed with it back then and still are today.

 

[Topiary]

They are clearly tanking

 

[TylerDurden]

They are clearly tanking

You referring to the JOM and Worpel playing forward moves?
I must admit it has crossed my mind. Despite how s**t we actually are.

 

[Linda CRS]

Yep play has beens hartigan and frost your tanking, have ur next apparent senior coach moved from the box to the bench just in case he undermines you your tanking and have just one ? of your draft picks of the past 3 years play today your tanking and god knows what else, your tanking! Just a mess.

 

[kazzooka]

A lot of talk here about the state of the list etc. I just want to go on the performance of the 22 that played today and most of them have many of these critical flaws in their game. Its okay to be below afl standard in 1 or 2 and still be a good player but some of them are bad at 7 or 8 aspects.

1. Cannot stand up, literally. Most of our players fall over even without contact. Losing your feet in a contest used to see you dragged and delisted. Clinton Young still cops it for an incident and he was a much better player and clubman than most of this lot.

2. Cannot pick up the ball, fumble fumble fumble. Two hands pick up and go.

3. Cannot catch/mark. O'Brien..... So many opportunities and guys drop handball receives or loose balls.

4. Cannot kick. This is most. Too high, too slow, too one sided. Phillips has been criticised for not using his right foot and getting into trouble. Today he showed why, never kick with it again please. But also stop running onto that side when you clearly can't kick on it. Hardwick, kosi, bruest, wingard the few who can kick and are nothing on guys like duryea, suckling, Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis, Roughead, shoenmakers, Gibson.

5. Cannot handball. Handballing behind players, too their feet, looping so they have to stop. Not good enough. Some of our best players are terrible handballers and we have a handball heavy game plan.

6. Cannot Shepard, no protection for teammates.

7. Cannot tackle

8. Cannot run, either too slow or not enough endurance. 3 minutes left 11 points down Mitchell, O'meara and McEvoy watching on and casually walking through the center square as north stream off half back up the wings and inside 50 to score. Also we rarely get the ball into space.

9. Cannot make decisions with the ball.

10. Cannot get the ball enough.

 

[Gaston]

This will be his last year I think, doesn’t matter he is contracted for next year, I think there will be a mutual parting of ways.

I think the board need to really look at where things are currently at, having business people in these positions
is great but someone with real football nouse needs to be blunt and objective with feedback.

Hell I was like many seeking a Neil Balme type figure but we have cleaned out our asssitant
coaches and still dish up the same tripe. Other clubs changes assitants and you can see positive change.

I'm with you, this year should be his last, what is the point of next year? Really, ask youself, serves no purpose.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

You referring to the JOM and Worpel playing forward moves?
I must admit it has crossed my mind. Despite how sh*t we actually are.

also look to Finn tagging Steele (I'm sure we knew how that would work out), Chad missing a game for DOMS of all ******* things, titch not playing as a clearance, contest player etc.

a lot of strange decisions that seems like experimentation...with the added benefit of getting closer to finishing last

not sure its necessary though, we'd probably be losing without it

if I'm being honest? it sounds to me like the club is trying to decide which midfielders it goes fwd with for the rebuild. whether that's in reference to Cousins/Phillips/Morrison, or more like Titch/Worps/JOM i don't know, but I think they're trying to make a call

 

[Lickmesocks]

Ok can we get Jason Horne?

 

[kingofthebags]

Simpkin and cunnington - 13 clearances each, LDU - 11 clearances. Our best? Big boy with 4....

 

[Liverbird]

Tsnking call may make us feel better but the fact we have to tank is another reflection of the list.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Jordan Lewis loves Hawthorn with all his heart.

LISTEN TO HIM CLOSELY.

Don’t listen to spin from the club.

Yep. Everything he says in the media has a hidden meaning behind it. The overly critical stuff is because he does not like seeing us where we are. Alot of it is directed at Clarko. Make no mistake about it. He is trying to light that fire that triggers the change in direction we need.

Wow we have the pies board easily covered for hysterical rants today

 

[hawker79]

Ive been a hawks support for over 35 years. Im not blaming Clarko at all, no other coach would improve this lot by much as at all. What does stand out that has been the poor recruiting over the last 5 years, ok, we havent had top draft picks and what higher draft picks we had weve traded them thinking we can stay a top team. Geelong have managed to do it, and brought in young players and recruited experienced players way way above what we have. I see younger talent coming through their side and theyre playing still as premiership favorite without bottoming out. Take a look at Sydney, they havent bottomed out, havent had top draft picks but jeez ok at the talent coming through their side and then look at what we have go playing today. Cant compare at all. Why have these other teams recruited really well without having top draft picks but what i see in our younger players is very little to fill me with any confidence. I just dont see the majority of these younger players bar one or 2, forming what would be a top 8 side or premiership contender in the next 5 to 10 years. If the next 2 to 3 years are gonna hurt, then so be it, but we need to face the facts and start recruiting top level draft picks and young kids who are going to build the framework of the future of the club over the next 10 to 15 years. Alot of the blokes playing today, theres huge room for improvement, but lets not kid ourselves, if youre at this age and this level and you keep fumbling the footy and making poor decisions time after time then you dont have what it takes to be an AFL player. Start recruiting smarter Hawthorn and pick kids that have sound skills and a passion to play for the Hawks jumper. Too many of these blokes, just dont have what it takes. Sure, if we get 2 or 3 young guns then we can build a base around them and become a genuine contender again.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

You referring to the JOM and Worpel playing forward moves?
I must admit it has crossed my mind. Despite how sh*t we actually are.

Combine it with how we literally refused to lockdown the centre bounce.

I played a fair bit of bush footy and the rule once the opposition got a bit of momentum was that you locked down in the middle and stood on your opponents toes.

We let them have entire quadrants of the centre circle to themselves.

If it wasn’t tanking it was by far the worst coaching of a midfield I have ever seen.

 

[Pessimistic]

Why has Sydney recruited really well? Not sure if serious

 

[savagelunchbox]

Watching the Port/WB games, I could help but notice how often when the ball was in transition, the players were always looking to center it to a loose man often standing in wide open space... or at least enough space to be able to take the mark before getting hit. This was followed by 1-3 runners running past to keep the ball centered. North even tried this on numerous occasions and found some success from it.

This running down the wings or long kicking down the line is a huge factor in why we're so s**t and look unskilled. We never look to center the ball and often do the opposite and look towards the boundary, which indicated strongly that it's a coaching directive as if we're going the safe route.
We rarely, if ever, have runners running past a player who marks the ball with their back to goals. We rely on the quick turn and seeing the open player up the field, which often breaks down because it's too slow and allows the defensive zone to setup.

Because of these two strategic faults, we make things extremely hard for ourselves because we have to execute a highly skilled, highly disciplined gameplan based around quick handballs to stationary targets and quick short kicks in such a narrow section of the ground. To take it over to the other side of the ground, we always go back and allow the defense to setup. We don't have the players to execute that. Worpel is a wayward kick; Mitchell's kicks are slow and airy; JOM's lack penetration; Morrison's lack penetration and accuracy under pressure; Phillips is a shocking kick under no pressure; and so on. Chad is the only player who has the skillset who can play midfield for a majority of the game.

Twice we ran the ball up the middle and kept it central and it resulted in 2 goals. Why? Because it opened up the entire F50, instead of only half of it, and it's the quickest, shortest route to the goals. Didn't happen because the ball was in the hands of Chad the whole way. A few handpasses to moving targets running towards the F50.

We're playing to a gameplan instead of developing a gameplan to suit the players. Richmond are not an elite skilled side. They do, however, when fielding a near fully fit side, have a team that can bring pressure that can withstand the pressure and duration of the finals and beat almost anyone, as has been see over the past 4 years. They don't try and pin-point kicks between [zone] defenders keeping to 1/3 of the ground. They just get the ball down to their end of the ground and pressure to force errors and make the opposition pay. That's playing to your players' strengths. It's not unbeatable, but it's giving your players the best chance of beating whoever they're playing.

 

[Jazzfan]

Thoughts we tanked today are just really people wanting to not accept how rudderless we are at present. Unwilling to accept that our all time, hall of fame, coach could be this bereft of ideas.

But. It's truly not rational. It's round 9. There's 14 more rounds to go.

We literally replaced or didn't play kids, and played our most senior side possible. We clearly rushed O'Meara back.

The club is coping it from all angles. And most importantly, from the fans. They know this. They know they needed to get this win.

We didn't tank in round 17 against the suns last year. It gifted the swans two picks in the top 5.

It goes against everything we know logically about Clarko.

It might make it easier to think we deliberately lost today, but it's really just ignoring the reality of where we are as a club right now.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Careful Tops, by criticising the HFC you are instantly wrong. The Hawthorn Big Footy Mafia will come for ya!

Things is Tops has pretty good inside info about the goings on at the club so for him to say things are in an appalling state says to me there could be a few people either in the club or outside that could start a few rumblings in the not too distant future and with good reason. Clarko needs to be given an ultimatum. Get fair dinkum about what your plans are with this list or piss off. What was achieved in the past is irrelevant now if your driving the club into the abyss. I mentioned a while back he has lost the players and it is absolutely clear as day to ne they just dont care. Thats on the coach for concocting a game style that the guys cant execute so inevitably they lose interest. Heads will roll soon if this utter tripe continues. I can handle losing if i can see some sort of method in what we are doing. Its a disorganised mess with players not putting in right now.

 

[dipper86]

Don't place Sydney as a comparison....they have a whole recruiting zone to choose from.
Different set of rules which has made their list rebuild easier.
They also saw the writing on the wall instead of clinging onto dear life... made the necessary trades and went youth.

 

[Xtreme]

At least we are not North Melbourne.

I was wrong, things are worse!

 

[Slow Love]

Yes, sorry for not being clearer, but that is what I'm saying. I think other than Mitchell, Hodge and Williams, the young talent cupboard was quite bare. I think you're massively overrating players like Ladson and Osborne for example. I also think the fact that only about half that list of players was there 4 years later on GF day says we needed a fairly thorough clean out. Of those that did go on, a lot were average at best, and the fact that Hodge and Mitchell started performing at superstar level shortly after 2004 doesn't change that. Basically I'm saying our 2021 situation is IMO not much worse than 2004 (before the draft of that year), and could in fact to be argued to be better.

And you don’t feel arguing that. At all.

 

[hk89]

And you don’t feel arguing that. At all.

I'm not sure what those two sentences mean in the context. Please explain.

 

[Buzz Hawk]

Yep we’re s**t.
Every club playing against us must bank itas a win,
That really galls l
me

 

[user33]

Anyone blaming the whipping boys like TOB for this loss should have a look at where the game itself was lost. We got bent over in the middle of the ground, they had 3 players register 10+ clearances and we didn't get one register more than 4.

O'Brien is no star but maybe he's not the problem considering we were beaten by 20 inside 50s by North ******* Melbourne.

10000% this.

We don’t lose because C graders like TOB, Hartley and Hanrahan play like C graders. We lose because our ‘best’ players and ‘leaders’ constantly put it horrible performances but mostly escape consequence.

 

[Slysh]

You referring to the JOM and Worpel playing forward moves?
I must admit it has crossed my mind. Despite how sh*t we actually are.

It is not tanking, our midfield is seriously average and constantly getting hammered.

He is trying to find a spot for them because playing them all in the middle for 80+ % game time is not working