Coach Sam Mitchell's direction for the club and 2024 news

[Strapping Young Lad]

If anyone wants to have a listen about what the data is saying in regards to whether we have actually gotten worse this year have a listen to this from the 9:15 mark.

I know a few people have already touched on it, but the data is also showing that our results this year have been slightly better despite actually putting out a younger team and dealing with some injuries.




And here.

 

[Brishawk]

While the game v gc was particularly disappointing, the team is travelling slightly better thn this time last year. We re not going as well as we were at the end of last year but we also have more injuries. We need the mids to find some form and we need lewis and a few others back in the side to be at our best, but things are not as bad as they feel. Lets hope for a response.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Hoyney is spot on here and in the media he is the most unbiased of anyone as he bases his observations on data. I know who he barracks for as well

What alot of these reactionary Muppets seem to be missing is when your in a full scale rebuild you can't afford to have some of your best players on the sidelines as you don't have the depth to cover for them. That's what we're seeing ATM which Hoyney was pointing out. Cornes has also pointed this out too but gets shutdown from others because they desperately want him to be wrong about us. We will look better once we get closer to a full strength side. Round 5 FFS.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

Why is the baseline of performance this year being compared to the same low starting point as last season. Yes we have had injuries this season but how many began this season by using the same low baseline from the start of last season.

No progress?

 

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

Why is the baseline of performance this year being compared to the same low starting point as last season. Yes we have had injuries this season but how many began this season by using the same low baseline from the start of last season.

No progress?

I think we are actually younger than last year in average age for each round

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

I think we are actually younger than last year in average age for each round

Don’t know what the figures are but I don’t think the variance would be enough for it be a genuine reason.

I expect and hope the team improves in coming weeks as some of the injured players return

Not sure what happens if it doesn’t though

 

[The hands of stone]

Don’t know what the figures are but I don’t think the variance would be enough for it be a genuine reason.

I expect and hope the team improves in coming weeks as some of the injured players return

Not sure what happens if it doesn’t though

Your probably expecting and wanting improvement from game to game , season to season .

This rarely happens in any sport with young teams as improvement isn't linear, as much as people want it to be.

Your relying on every single to player to improve at the same rate for that to happen.
Your also relying on other teams not getting better.

If that happened it would be extremely rare and we would be an outlier as far as team performance goes.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Why is the baseline of performance this year being compared to the same low starting point as last season. Yes we have had injuries this season but how many began this season by using the same low baseline from the start of last season.

No progress?

I guess if we are comparing it against four or five specific games from the end of last season, in isolation, then we have gone backwards.

But I think it's fair to say almost everyone understood that the entire season as a whole gave us a better picture of where we are at.

 

[Brishawk]

Why is the baseline of performance this year being compared to the same low starting point as last season. Yes we have had injuries this season but how many began this season by using the same low baseline from the start of last season.

No progress?

Early last year we were also missing mitch lewis. So its a better comparison than later in the year when we had him back.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

Your probably expecting and wanting improvement from game to game , season to season .

This rarely happens in any sport with young teams as improvement isn't linear, as much as people want it to be.

Your relying on every single to player to improve at the same rate for that to happen.
Your also relying on other teams not getting better.

If that happened it would be extremely rare and we would be an outlier as far as team performance goes.

Well I think everyone would have come into the season expecting some improvement, and not expecting the same baseline of early 2023. Sam in two separate press conferences this year has stated we should be passed the stage of getting uncompetetive beltings. And yes I understand all the points you have made about progress but it doesnt explain why some have regressed on performance especially in what was a strength area.

We can keep comforting ourselves with reasons or excuses on why we arent that bad (and also in comparison to last season) but surely some of our players could be showing something amongst the down periods. There has been minimal sunshine this year to date.

Early last year we were also missing mitch lewis. So its a better comparison than later in the year when we had him back.

So this year by comparison, is worse because last season Lewis didnt play a game until later in the season and we have also have Chol who has been reasonable in comparison to Greene.

 

[The hands of stone]

Well I think everyone would have come into the season expecting some improvement, and not expecting the same baseline of early 2023. Sam in two separate press conferences this year has stated we should be passed the stage of getting uncompetetive beltings. And yes I understand all the points you have made about progress but it doesnt explain why some have regressed on performance especially in what was a strength area.

We can keep comforting ourselves with reasons or excuses on why we arent that bad (and also in comparison to last season) but surely some of our players could be showing something amongst the down periods. There has been minimal sunshine this year to date.


So this year by comparison, is worse because last season Lewis didnt play a game until later in the season and we have also have Chol who has been reasonable in comparison to Greene.

You asked for reasons and you've been given reasons .
At the end of the day its up to you whether you see and accept them as reasons or not .

I would think it's obvious that the midfield being a strength opposition would absolutely go to school on it to negate it and exploit it .
Geelong practically spent their whole prep preseason and week before the game against us on this .
We also haven't adjusted to the new ruck rule .

In AFL or any high level team sport playing the youngest or one of the youngest teams ensures one thing - team and individual inconsistency
Add in an injury toll that's hard to cover for us and the above .......well that should give some reasons if you want to take them or not

 

[HedgeFund]

Amazing how quickly people forget this from 2023.

Hawthorn

9

1

0

8

540

900

60.00%

4

We had a much better run injury wise and yet still sat 18th with 1 win after 9 rounds.

Do people just assume we would play March/April/May 2024 just like we did June/July/August 2023?

 

[ahhhhhh]

Amazing how quickly people forget this from 2023.

Hawthorn

9

1

0

8

540

900

60.00%

4

We had a much better run injury wise and yet still sat 18th with 1 win after 9 rounds.

Do people just assume we would play March/April/May 2024 just like we did June/July/August 2023?

Yes? Why would we regress at the start of every year.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

Yes? Why would we regress at the start of every year.

This is the natural progression curve it seems by some strange logic.

I accept that progression is not linear. But it seems we have to turn a blind eye when things are worse because the opposition teams plan and focus on the strengths of the 16th side, whilst we ……ignored?…..the opposition strengths. Not sure I follow the logic.

 

[HedgeFund]

Yes? Why would we regress at the start of every year.

Young / inexperienced teams need confidence to play well regularly. That confidence comes from winning games. They go hand in hand.

We played North in Rd 3, and won, then had some close losses to GWS and Adelaide but were still languishing 1-8 (as above) before we completely destroyed West Coast. That’s what kickstarted the improved collective effort.

From 1 - 8 and 60% we then had a confidence boosting win and finished the season with 6 - 8 and 95.4%.

Amazing what winning a game can do for the group.

I expect it will start this Sunday.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

This is the natural progression curve it seems by some strange logic.

I accept that progression is not linear. But it seems we have to turn a blind eye when things are worse because the opposition teams plan and focus on the strengths of the 16th side, whilst we ……ignored?…..the opposition strengths. Not sure I follow the logic.

Rob McCartney telegraphed the slow start to both last year and this year in two separate podcasts.

I hope you’ve listened to them.

 

[FB19]

We had a blessed run with injuries last year we are very young and we are missing important players and our list has some key holes. It’s not the results that worry me I forecast we would likely be 0-5 with our draw. It’s has been the poor efforts for sustained periods that had been disappointing. All I wanted from this year was to see progression of players and performance defined more by % than wins. I don’t see us getting close to 7 wins this year and that doesn’t matter, just need to be more competitive for more minutes. We were incredibly lucky last week to only lose by 53 it could easily have been 3 figures.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

Rob McCartney telegraphed the slow start to both last year and this year in two separate podcasts.

I hope you’ve listened to them.

I did. As strange as the second season one was.

He didn’t say anything about the following players performance going backwards this season though

Sicily
Nash
Newcombe
MacDonald
Lewis
Reeves
Breust
Ward

That’s a lot best 22 stock from 2023 treading water.

And yet most of the newer additions have had some impact.

I honestly don’t think we know where to lame the blame except for the easy out of the “injuries”. And I don’t think it has all to do with injuries.

Last year we could see the skeleton of a fast moving game plan even during the gloomier start of the season. It evolved during the season even when some injuries occurred.

I believe in Sam but this year seems way off. Very little cohesion all over the park, lack of hunger, soft efforts etc. our teamwork is almost non existent. That is the most alarming thing. Relying on some individual efforts to get us going.

 

[Hot Cheese Rioli]

Amazing how quickly people forget this from 2023.

Hawthorn

9

1

0

8

540

900

60.00%

4

We had a much better run injury wise and yet still sat 18th with 1 win after 9 rounds.

Do people just assume we would play March/April/May 2024 just like we did June/July/August 2023?

This gives me painful Harley Reid flashbacks!

 

[xmarksthespot]

Amazing how quickly people forget this from 2023.

Hawthorn

9

1

0

8

540

900

60.00%

4

We had a much better run injury wise and yet still sat 18th with 1 win after 9 rounds.

Do people just assume we would play March/April/May 2024 just like we did June/July/August 2023?

I posted a similar sentiment in another thread:

I just had a look through our first 10 rounds last year. Hoo boy, there were some stinkers there.

Some of the key (cosmetic) differences however, we played (and beat) North in round three, so we had a win on the board early, and we absolutely smashed the Eagles in round 10 by 100+ points.

We had some terrible results in between however. Essendon in round one (59 point loss), Sydney in round two (81 point loss), Geelong in round four (82 point loss), Fremantle in round 8 (69 point loss), and Melbourne in round nine (54 point loss).

There were some good results scattered in between, and if not for a Himmelberg mark in round five and a Fogerty goal from the boundary in round six, we could have snuck a few more wins.

I appreciate that it's not all about the scoreline, but the manner in which we're playing, but compared to last year, we HAVE made improvement.

It's never as good or as bad as it seems....

Apologies for quoting myself!

We were in a far worse spot, with much a much healthier injury list. I'd argue that there are definitely areas we need to address (1. Midfield 2. Midfield 3. Midfield), but it can turn around quickly (look at the impact a few changes to Adelaide's midfield made last week for example).

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I can buy into arguments of improvement not being linear, that there are incremental improvements in facets of our game, that our start to the season this year is better than last years because of etc etc etc. I think what has possibly alarmed people was that last week’s attitude was just so deplorable. A handful of players played like the jumper meant something to them - the rest looked like they didn’t want to be there. And look, I get it, the Gold Coast is an absolute cesspit and I’d hate to be there too - but it was as if the vast majority of the squad just didn’t want to fire a shot, didn’t want to do the hard work, didn’t want to get their hands dirty and barely wanted to run in defence or attack. Last year when we copped a few absolute pantsings to begin the season we were just heavily inexperienced so that’s to be expected. In those games though I never saw players not trying.

So I can take the skills not being there yet, the gameplan still developing, 10-20 game players not being world beaters - all that is understandable. But I don’t ever want to see that attitude from the Suns game ever again from this squad.

 

[onthemoney]

I can buy into arguments of improvement not being linear, that there are incremental improvements in facets of our game, that our start to the season this year is better than last years because of etc etc etc. I think what has possibly alarmed people was that last week’s attitude was just so deplorable. A handful of players played like the jumper meant something to them - the rest looked like they didn’t want to be there. And look, I get it, the Gold Coast is an absolute cesspit and I’d hate to be there too - but it was as if the vast majority of the squad just didn’t want to fire a shot, didn’t want to do the hard work, didn’t want to get their hands dirty and barely wanted to run in defence or attack. Last year when we copped a few absolute pantsings to begin the season we were just heavily inexperienced so that’s to be expected. In those games though I never saw players not trying.

So I can take the skills not being there yet, the gameplan still developing, 10-20 game players not being world beaters - all that is understandable. But I don’t ever want to see that attitude from the Suns game ever again from this squad.

Yeah that's it. Which was reflected in Sam's post game press conference when he said paraphrasing, those type of games should be behind us.

All of the stats may point to it being a better start to the season, and/or meeting expectations for our squad... but as emotional supporters, it feels horrid because we are craving the improvement of individuals and team and our eyes are drawn to the stagnation or regression of individuals and the lack of attitude we want the team to consistently show.

 

[MasterSamurai]

I'm going by what Eddie McGuire and Bartel have said about us for a few weeks now, we WONT just explode out of nowhere, they believe the Hawks will gradually get to where they want ( finals type team) and " unfortunately" stay there !!! I'm a believer.

 

[ahhhhhh]

I am not thrilled with Mitch's explanation for the midfield domination on the weekend:

i) Couldn't handle the sustained pressure
ii) Couldn't handle the conditions

Not very introspective at all. Hopefully, a proper analysis is being done within the club.

My faith in this administration is waning.

 

[BIGHAWK23]

I am not thrilled with Mitch's explanation for the midfield domination on the weekend:

i) Couldn't handle the sustained pressure
ii) Couldn't handle the conditions

Not very introspective at all. Hopefully, a proper analysis is being done within the club.

My faith in this administration is waning.

Radio interview

Relax

 

[ahhhhhh]

Radio interview

Relax

Hope so. I don't really enjoy the light touch and unauthentic tone, though.