We are closing in!

[PieNSauce]

He's a troll. A really piss poor troll too. I've never seen anything positive come out of this guy before; all just pathetic attacks on our players, coaches and club. When shown facts in some other threads that rendered his arguments bullshit he basically ignored those posts and kept attacking.

​

Side by side, THATSGOLD. Otherwise you can GTFO, mmmkay.

Pretty obvious isn't it. Thought he was Wayne Carey for a while!

 

[MyManLynch]

He's a troll. A really piss poor troll too. I've never seen anything positive come out of this guy before; all just pathetic attacks on our players, coaches and club. When shown facts in some other threads that rendered his arguments bullshit he basically ignored those posts and kept attacking.

​

Side by side, THATSGOLD. Otherwise you can GTFO, mmmkay.

I had to google that one...just an old fart.....I am....

 

[DThomas]

I had to google that one...just an old fart.....I am....

 

[gutsroy]

So if you match them physically and still lose comfortably what does that tell you?

Tells you they are a superior skilled side and we don't have the 22 to beat them in 2013.

Can't argue in terms of the overall skill level, but for me the encouraging sign was that we matched them physically and I think our errors in disposal by foot going forward were of the inexplicable sort, they weren't just due to being pressured into making mistakes by the Hawks.

Probably guilty of viewing it overly optimistically and happy to admit it, but for me it wasn't so much reverting to some of the average form seen against GCS / GWS, but a continuation of the style of football played against Essendon and the Swans, just with too many skill Errors on the night to beat a side like Hawthorn.

 

[jackcass]

Just got home from the game. As far as I'm concerned:

We've shown we can beat Geelong and Sydney. Hawthorn however is a different kettle of fish, whatever gameplan we go in with simply doesn't work. Their midfield looked average last week against St Kilda, but tonight they towelled us up in the first half.

To me it felt like the same thing all over again: as soon as it gets on the outside and they have the ball, they kill us. How many goals did they get just running into space and basic crumbing?

On the plus side though, there were times when we dominated them, I think if we can brush up the skills we may be able to compete with them a little better. Cloke wasn't able to influence the game all that much - maybe that had to do with him being molested by Gibson and Lake more than anything else.

Oh and also:
Grundy

I read in the weekend papers that 30 of the 35 points differential came directly from turnovers, that is we gifted them 5 goals by poor use of the footy (ie: Goldsack kickin). So not quite as bad as it seems, we just need to use the footy better.

The flip side of that however is that the conditions probably reduced their efficiency and ball movement.

 

[jackcass]

It is the case if you watch the players without the ball our players could not keep up with them, when they broke to spread from congestion even when standing shoulder to shoulder they couldn't get near them, same on leads Hawks players could all get 1-2m gaps on our players.

Ball use can make you look faster but Hawks were burning us on the spread which is a foot race to space.

As much application as pace although several of our worst defensive runners (Sidebottom, Dwyer, Macaffer, Maxwell) also happen to be average paced. The Hawks got a massive spread advantage from the matchups with these guys.

 

[Pie eyed]

Can't argue in terms of the overall skill level, but for me the encouraging sign was that we matched them physically and I think our errors in disposal by foot going forward were of the inexplicable sort, they weren't just due to being pressured into making mistakes by the Hawks.

Probably guilty of viewing it overly optimistically and happy to admit it, but for me it wasn't so much reverting to some of the average form seen against GCS / GWS, but a continuation of the style of football played against Essendon and the Swans, just with too many skill Errors on the night to beat a side like Hawthorn.

Agree fully.
Especially in regard to"inexplicable" errors.
Many WTF moments in that game even from our best in Swan and Pendlebury.

 

[jackcass]

Midfield GRUNT or SETUP is where we are deficient against these guys. They were constantly getting centre clearances or stopped us from breaking free when we got first use opportunity.
As for REID I'm for playing him forward as it maximizes potential for scoring from FWD entries as opposed to Cloke alone.

I think MM would play REID back and that shows the difference in philosophy compared to Bucks.

Could we back our midfield depth, by playing 2 stoppers - one on Mitchell and one on Sewell?
I thinks its worth a try at least in the 1st QTR of a game to eliminate heavy scoring like Friday night.

Neutralising their inside game is critical to beating them in the future and we need a strategy otherwise, I can't see us winning against them in the finals.

According to the stats, we won the clearances 41-35 and the centre square clearances 17-12. Difference was in the use of the footy from the clearances, not the actual number.