Hawks gameday thread

[Swans500]

"....we'd be nothing better than a bottom 4 side."



So so so true.

[rojo]

• Our skills are deplorable.
• Our kick-ins are deporable.
• We haven't settled into the new game plan, causing plenty of turnovers.
• We are carrying too many passengers at the moment, who are contributing little to the team. I'm sure we all want Malceski to return to his 2007 form, but it doesn't look like happening. Thornton was contributing way more during his time in the seniors.
• Our tackling isn't as impressive as the raw stats would seem to suggest. We fall away from too many tackles. A more pertinent stat would be tackle completion.
• We weren't helped by the umpires today, but we're not helping ourselves either with our defensive mindsets at the ball-ups at the beginning of games. How many times have we seen us charge back into games chasing deficits just because we had the gumption to go after the loose ball rather than trying to tie it back in.

I agree with all of the above. Sure what BBB did was mindless and costly (were the 3 penalties really justified?) but I don't think you can lay the blame for losing the game on that alone, Jolly and Goodes missed shots after that. Is it the 'famous gameplan' that causes them to play so defensively and move the ball forward so slowly as in the first three quarters?

[Lucky Knickers]

Back a few years ago I always thought we were a chance in every game, now we just don't have that ability.

Short memories....but I know what you mean. Hawks are going to chalk this one down as the one that turned their season. Same for us but we are going in different directions right now and I am ok with that provided we genuinely rebuild.
I do want to pay tribute to Jess White. I love his game and how much he loves the contest. We must keep playing him alongside Jolly. How inspiring are Goodes, Jolly, Kirk, B1 and B2? These are the men that I want to see our young players model themselves on. They are only going to get better by playing with them.

[satchmopugdog]

I do want to pay tribute to Jess White. I love his game and how much he loves the contest. We must keep playing him alongside Jolly. How inspiring are Goodes, Jolly, Kirk, B1 and B2? These are the men that I want to see our young players model themselves on. They are only going to get better by playing with them.

Good sentiments... I agree about Jesse White. In the first quarter it washe help keep Barry away from tormenters. Good head on his shoulders for a 20 year old in that situation.

[Yianni1]

Once more, a combination of poor kicking and unfair umpiring influenced the result of the game... So frustrating..
It is easy to criticise Barry, but he is the only one with a warriors heart.. a triple 50's meter penalty.. yeah right.. who would blame you...

[Legs Akimbo]

You have to give credit to Hawthorn. With their injuries, they should not have won this game. 2 years ago we would have ground them into the dust.

The difference is our EDIT DELETE [older] REPLACE [middle tier] players are just not good enough.

Before the game they played the 1996 Hawthorn vs. Sydney Prelim Final and it was notable what a great blend of youth and experience we had then. Same as in 2005.

At the moment our core of [Edit: middle] players are just not what they should be as part of a successful equation.

Barry Hall has issues. We all know that. However, I do believe that the umpires really do provoke him by treating him differently. He's a dinosaur in the age of the mammals.

The good news, well, considering where we sit on the ladder, the rebuild is on now, no excuses.

[ugg]

The difference is our older players are just not good enough.

You must be kidding, the older ones are the players carrying the team at the moment. The top 6 of the B&F would read something like Goodes, J.Bolton, C.Bolton, O'Keefe, Kirk and Jolly. It's the middle-tier players who are letting us down badly.

[hot potato]

Loved the dummy by Kirk in the goalsquare to kick a goal, so many of the other Swans do NOT have this awareness, to dummy, to swerve, to offlead in a millisecond...
This season 1 to us, 1 to the Hawks, that seems about right, Hawks deserved this one, against all odds for them....

Swans will win a few like this too...

HP

[Bob Neil]

Yep I agree with all this

I disagree with your agreement.

[liz]

You must be kidding, the older ones are the players carrying the team at the moment. The top 6 of the B&F would read something like Goodes, J.Bolton, C.Bolton, O'Keefe, Kirk and Jolly. It's the middle-tier players who are letting us down badly.

Absolutely, plus we're not getting a whole lot from our younger players. Jack's been pretty decent all season in a tagging role, and again was successful today keeping Bateman pretty ineffective all afternoon. White has his best game of the season today, I thought, while Bird didn't get a lot of the ball but had some important touches. They aren't contributing as much as some youngish players from other sides though, and Moore/Grundy contributed little today.

[pinkemu]

Bevan was rubbish, worse than usual. He is a bloddy pet of Roosy and for that reason probably won't get dropped. Malceski improved a bit in the second and so did Grundy (though still rubbish). Im mixed on Hall. Gets sh** against him week in week out but his attitude needs to be addressed cauz he cost us the game in the end. Goodes gets the three votes IMO and thats the only positive to take out of the game. Amazingly im not as angry as I thought I would have been. We need to beat Collingwood in a couple of weeks to redeem this loss.

Hmmmm, Why target Bevan? Prior dislike of players often causes one to not see the game correctly.

[Robbo]

What Hall did was selfish. The umpiring was deplorable and Hall certainly misses out on his share of free kicks, but when has losing your cool reversed a decision?

This sums up the entire Hall situation that took place today. Well done.

[GongSwan]

For mine I think we were let down by Buchanan Moore, Mcveigh didn't look himself although better than the others. Jack goes ok but needs to skill up. The older blokes are definitely carrrying the team LRT still improving but they all at times seem to lose focus. One bad mistake by hall isn't what lost us the game. We just need a couple better players AND to take our chances when they present. Those two misses from set shots at the end ????? Kick one of them it's a different result

[Melbournehammer]

just to be the voice of the devil's advocate...

there were three turning points today.

1. buchanan running inside 50 in the third quarter with no-one within 20 metres of him kicking the ball to the advantage of the one hawk inside 50 - they kicked goals back to back from that and we went into the 3/4 quarter time break about 10 points down instead of closing the gap. (by the way his failure to mark the ball from a chest pass from bolton in the second quarter was simply embarassing)

2. goodes turning back onto his left foot after taking a good mark centre wing and getting caught with the ball leading to a pathetic handpass which led to the hall 150

3. the hall 150.

goodes deserves high recognition for getting us back into the game and keeping us there - but it was such bad decision making at a critical moment.

anyway having been at the game the umpiring was appalling - and once again showed how influential decisions can be

[Bear]

just to be the voice of the devil's advocate...

there were three turning points today.

...

goodes deserves high recognition for getting us back into the game and keeping us there - but it was such bad decision making at a critical moment.

anyway having been at the game the umpiring was appalling - and once again showed how influential decisions can be

there were about 20 on that level. pointing your finger at Goodes is ludicrous.

blaming the umpires is equally a waste of time, when we wasted so many opportunities in attak and made silly errors in defence.