Toast Welcome to Hawthorn, Finn Maginness “absolute Hawthorn nuffie” and a Hawk to 2025

[lyger]

His last two weeks score involvement wise have been really good.
He’s scrappy and fights for those loose balls and follows up heaps but he’s cleared some serious congestion down there at times to create scores.

Had a couple of flying shots today too his work rate is so good that he probably doesn’t even mean to be in the positions he’s in a lot of the time. I like that he just has a ping in those situations as poor as his disposal is at times rather than the over possessing and hand balling too.

Agree I’d like Finn to keep having shots and we keep working on his conversion, rather than any plan to discourage Finn from taking shots.

 

[Flamin Joe]

Do we finally have a good ‘son of a gun’ on our hands???

I hope so but time will tell. I thought we finally had one with Langford after 2014 but it wasn't to be.

 

[Roddy]

I hope so but time will tell. I thought we finally had one with Langford after 2014 but it wasn't to be.

Yeah me too. At least Will showed his absolute best form when it counted.

And yeah, there's still a 'jury's still out' feel to Finn...

 

[Brishawk]

He shows some absolute raw strength to shrug off opponents and get the hands out. If like to see him work on getting a little bit of separation before he takes the ball. Learn to use change of pace and or push off his opponent to get a little bit of extra time to dispose before being tackled. Would make him a very difficult match up.

 

[TylerDurden]

He shows some absolute raw strength to shrug off opponents and get the hands out. If like to see him work on getting a little bit of separation before he takes the ball. Learn to use change of pace and or push off his opponent to get a little bit of extra time to dispose before being tackled. Would make him a very difficult match up.

He's an inside mid for mine. His time will come.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

He shows some absolute raw strength to shrug off opponents and get the hands out. If like to see him work on getting a little bit of separation before he takes the ball. Learn to use change of pace and or push off his opponent to get a little bit of extra time to dispose before being tackled. Would make him a very difficult match up.

Dare we say it.... JPKIII like

 

[Judd2Sewell]

He's an inside mid for mine. His time will come.

Definitely. His strength in the contest is proving to be great. He really stands up in tackles and works through traffic well.

His ability to get the ball out or at least forward when under immense pressure is a huge plus. Especially pairing it with Newcombe's ability to shrug tackles.

 

[parsons nose]

Still has a long way to go.

 

[Slainte]

I have been on the fence with Finn - but the last two games have won me over.

 

[Howe Amazing]

Newcombe, Ward and Finn could be starting 3 mids next year with Jaeger and MacDonald coming off half forward flanks to pinch hit in there, and Nash as rotation. All have decent size plus first rounder to come

 

[Alite]

for mine, Fin is the archetypal tagger. He is big, can tackle, can run all day, has speed enough in most situations, is better than good in close and gets the handball out without panic.

He may improve his kicking… and that would be great… but there is no player on our list so well suited to nullify an opposition player than Fin.

Sam Mitchell knows how effective a good tagger can be (knees aside )

Howe was tried as a tagger but, while he did a few good jobs, was too slow.

I watched Cousins nullify Merrett… but Cousins was too slow for the role.

I think Fin is our tagger. And I think he could nullify, or at minimum reduce the impact of, just about every afl player bar 3.

Agree or not… it just makes sense. (Sorry Keka… I stole your line)

A third great tagging job was done by Finn... though the heavy corky on Kelly slowed him.

And Finn’s disposal was much better.

A commentator in one of the games that I watched said that the influence of the “stand rule“ means that the tag is best deployed on the release player and not on the in-and-under player. Finn’s best 3 games have been against Langdon (wing), Dawson (wing / HF) and Kelly (a burst mid).

The pieces are falling into place. We have a player who can nullify the oppositions best hard runner and / or effective player.

In the the way the game is evolving with fast transition, Finn‘s stopping ability could be critical.

(Aside: I know that it is bad form to reply to one’s owns post. But I could not be effed to re-write the posts intro)

 

[Blackhawk42]

A third great tagging job was done by Finn... though the heavy corky on Kelly slowed him.

And Finn’s disposal was much better.

A commentator in one of the games that I watched said that the influence of the “stand rule“ means that the tag is best deployed on the release player and not on the in-and-under player. Finn’s best 3 games have been against Langdon (wing), Dawson (wing / HF) and Kelly (a burst mid).

The pieces are falling into place. We have a player who can nullify the oppositions best hard runner and / or effective player.

In the the way the game is evolving with fast transition, Finn‘s stopping ability could be critical.

(Aside: I know that it is bad form to reply to one’s owns post. But I could not be effed to re-write the posts intro)

Sam Mitchell also said it makes more sense to tag the opposition player who generally ends up having the most score involvments. Essentially stopping the 'problem' at its source.

 

[Slysh]

Newcombe, Ward and Finn could be starting 3 mids next year with Jaeger and MacDonald coming off half forward flanks to pinch hit in there, and Nash as rotation. All have decent size plus first rounder to come

Not going to lie i would be surprised and worried if that was our starting mid rotation. That would be the worst midfield in the comp by a long way.

Newcombe is amazing but still struggling to run out games, Ward is tracking well but has a long way to go and i think it is still 50/50 on whether Finn makes it as a regular best 22 player.

 

[Dewnior]

Thread title change??

Bump

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Has certainly improved over the past 12 months so on an upward tragectory. Has ticked the box on the run with/shutdown role, now to get more of the pill and use it better.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

He stands up in a tackle better than most.

Have sat up a few times in games when the ball is over the other side of the ground when a bloke has stood up in a tackle and shrugged it off and assumed it was a senior player...only to see it was Finn. Going to be a beauty.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

He's an inside mid for mine. His time will come.

See I hope due to his endurance he can become a contested wrecking ball winger like Dipper. He has had shots at goal regularly too. Pretty excited.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

Not going to lie i would be surprised and worried if that was our starting mid rotation. That would be the worst midfield in the comp by a long way.

Newcombe is amazing but still struggling to run out games, Ward is tracking well but has a long way to go and i think it is still 50/50 on whether Finn makes it as a regular best 22 player.

One of Worpel Tom (if he stays) or Jaeger will surely be playing as a 2nd tier mid alongside a combo of those three I'd imagine.

Moore Amon (if) Nash and even Morrison will likely chop out too. Decent enough experience and size in there I think, just need to get the mixes right and not run it too hard on the younger mids

 

[daniel23]

He's a slow burn but some of his contested work is starting to come together.

 

[MrPremiership]

Has played 14 games.

14.

Again, that's 14.

His development has been good and is tracking as well as other 14 gamers. Let's keep going

 

[TheFourPillars]

Finn this season is completely different player to last year. Saw it in pre season. Saw it in his first game this year. Continuing to see it each game he plays. Gaining in confidence after each game. Getting more consistent and more offensive. His kicking and composure is improving. Its looking good trajectory is upwards

 

[Flukey!]

Has played 14 games.

14.

Again, that's 14.

His development has been good and is tracking as well as other 14 gamers. Let's keep going

Thanks for highlighting that.
Otherwise its easy to think he he been around for some time and should be further progressed.
It puts perspective to his progress.

 

[TylerDurden]

Finn this season is completely different player to last year. Saw it in pre season. Saw it in his first game this year. Continuing to see it each game he plays. Gaining in confidence after each game. Getting more consistent and more offensive. His kicking and composure is improving. Its looking good trajectory is upwards

Kicking has improved, which is exciting.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Trajectory is so important to consider. And patience.

Think about the game he played on the weekend vs the half he played against Adelaide last year where he only recorded 3 handballs. That's a measly 13 games ago.

 

[Argy]

He shows some absolute raw strength to shrug off opponents and get the hands out. If like to see him work on getting a little bit of separation before he takes the ball. Learn to use change of pace and or push off his opponent to get a little bit of extra time to dispose before being tackled. Would make him a very difficult match up.

He reminds me of Sewell a bit.