Likely Hawks gameplan

[hammo]

Hawthorn's Richard Vandenberg unashamably admitted after their win over Freo that their gameplan was to slow down the play as much as possible - forcing stoppages, forming packs by diving on the man/footy etc wherever possible to stop the Dockers' run.

As it has been an effective tactic against us this season I guess we can 1) expect an ugly game of football on Sunday and 2) struggle to win again unless we figure out how to counter this tactic.

At least Roosey has a week to work on something. Thoughts??

[floppinab]

My memory is flagging but I seem to remember that the sort of game that beat us in Sydney last year was pretty much based on getting it in quick to their forwards.
They're in a different situation now though of course than they were then but I'd have thought given the exposure of our defense in recent weeks that they would do that again, particularly if we play hands off in the midfield like we did against the West Coast

[Rob-bloods]

Re: Likely Hawks gameplan

Originally posted by hammo
Hawthorn's Richard Vandenberg unashamably admitted after their win over Freo that their gameplan was to slow down the play as much as possible - forcing stoppages, forming packs by diving on the man/footy etc wherever possible to stop the Dockers' run.

As it has been an effective tactic against us this season I guess we can 1) expect an ugly game of football on Sunday and 2) struggle to win again unless we figure out how to counter this tactic.

At least Roosey has a week to work on something. Thoughts??

Interesting to read this. Yesterday I was thinking how much Freo looked like us recently. They looked very good at times, like they could have won it at many stages but simply did not kick on. Given Hasleby and Bell are probably a cut above our midfield at present surprising they did not drive them home.Hawthorn just hacked away bombed the ball longish and all goals were kicked by smalls, (oh yeah, I suppose all their talls are injured)!

Bazza should eat Joel Smith alive, and he owes him from last year. Mark Graham also looked out of touch. We should play Ball and Doyle, Everitt is dangerous. Their defence will struggle to contain our forward line but their midfield at least ran and tackled hard yesterday. Bateman burst well from the defence and Vandenberg through the centre. They may regain Thompson but will still be small-ish up front. Our midfield simply has to stand up against a team who have struggled even more than us!!

[Barry Schneider]

My recollection of the last time we played them at the SCG was that Everitt dominated in the ruck,Sam Mitchell had 1000 clearances,Joel Smith totally blanketed and frustrated Barry by taking his arms at every marking contest, and that Crawford pulled Kirk away from the ruck contests.
Hawthorn are awful this year and if we can't beat them we are headed for priority picks.
Barry will have learnt his lesson and will push off Smith before leading to give himself some space.
Mitchell is not in great form and hasn't coped with being targeted by the opposition at the clearances.
Crawford is playing with a bad back so his influence will be reduced.
Micky is dangerous around goal but his opponent's instructions will be to run off him every time ala WC game.
Just a stream of consciousness.

[dread and might]

Re: Re: Likely Hawks gameplan

Originally posted by Rob-bloods
Everitt is dangerous.

is he ever. crawford seems to be below peak fitness which works well for us, but i fear the spider may tear us up. do we have an obvious matchup for him when he drifts forward?

[Go Swannies]

Vandenberg had a ripper at the weekend - we have to limit him. And recent reports are that Crawf's training better as his back improves.

At least this game won't be straight after the team of the century festivities.

[Bart]

Re: Re: Re: Likely Hawks gameplan

Originally posted by dread and might
is he ever. crawford seems to be below peak fitness which works well for us, but i fear the spider may tear us up. do we have an obvious matchup for him when he drifts forward?

Yeah this is my fear. I see Everitt rucking for maybe ten minutes each quarter rotating with Campbell or Thompson if he is selected, leaving Spider to soend considerable time up forward

[dread and might]

everitt i such a good contested mark as well, i remember both hawks games last year watching him take a few marks inside 50 where as a fan you just had to shake your head and say:" well there's not much you can do about that" problem is, he was doing it about once a quarter.

[hammo]

Re: Re: Re: Likely Hawks gameplan

Originally posted by dread and might
do we have an obvious matchup for him when he drifts forward?

No!