Who are we barracking for tonight?

[Freo Dr]

Hawthorn so nearly choked again with pressure telling on the kicking for goal.

If it had not been for the extra weeks rest and Chappy+Enright missing Hawthorn would not have got over the line.

What I do feel though is that we have the potential to pressure Hawthorn into mistakes more than Geelong provided we can get past Sydney and without any injuries etc. In many ways I think the pressure will come off us as well if that happens as we will go in underdogs into our 1st GF and the expectation will be on Hawthorn.

 

[FrancisX]

I find it so hard to analyse last night's game. Hawthorn did not look like the team which bullied a seriously undermanned Sydney two weeks back. At times Geelong made them look a bit second rate, but then the strangeness of this year I shouldn't be surprised. I mean Geelong's season has been an odd one. They just kept winning and when they lost it was by less than a couple of goals. Yet they dropped a 50 point lead against a minnow and have looked vulnerable in most their games. Yet they finished second fairly easily. And Hawthorn have looked vulnerable in some games throughout the season too.

But Hawthorn looked like they had a lot of 'carriers' and a lot of 'passengers' in last night's game, yet they managed to come over the top; I guess the rest helped that.
But on the other hand maybe the fact they were able to win with a number of their usual best being down is actually a strength rather than a weakness. It may have shown their lesser 18-22 played well, I am not sure. It was a very good comeback.

It was a very good game, don't think it reached the standard of Freo vs Geelong (or is that my bias?). In certain ways the game didn't feel like a prelim for me, I don't know why.

But really Geelong without Chapman and especially Enright was a much weaker team so it is harder to assess the game. The amount of set shots they were missing made me feel Hawthorn were on the verge of choking. And they seldom got their precise kicking game going, although it started to happen in the final quarter. I think contested possessions were close to dead even.

I wonder what a win over a team they haven't beaten since 2008 will do for a side which has generally been very good themselves along the journey. They will probably feel a bit on the invincible side now.