Hawks Gameday Thread

[erica]

Only highlight was I got to meet the lovely Erica today. Thanks for coming over and saying hi Erica.

Blush.

It was great to meet a fellow RWOer!

[erica]

I didn't get to the game until about 2pm because I had 7 yr old Precious Princess with me. My seats are in Row N 91-94. That is the last row in the front section immediately above the food/alcohol mezzanine level.

I caught up with Big Al at half time because my son has met him before and wanted to say hello to him. Such is the magnetism of this man!!!!!!!

Normally on a kids free day, I'll sit with Big Al watching the ressies.

I'm in P132 and usually get there about half time for the ressies. Maybe next time...

[erica]

"The fact that we're still a fair way off [the top four] and we need to get better," Longmire said when asked what he learned from the 46-point loss.
Really John?

(Full story here:
Long way to go: Longmire - AFL.com.au)

[neilfws]

Lovely sunny Sunday arvo, coming off 2 wins, good crowd of 33 000, closely-matched on the ladder. Had all the hallmarks of a classic game. What could go wrong?

As it turned out, pretty much everything. Enjoyed the goal-for-goal first quarter. Q2 was just weird. I saw one news report call it a "classic arm wrestle." It was nothing of the sort from where I was sitting; more like both teams went missing. 4 behinds for them, 2 for us. If they'd been more switched on, the trouble would have started right there.

Presumably both teams received stern instructions at half time and it was a matter of who came out fighting. Not us, that's for sure. I think Hannebery was perhaps our only player worthy of a positive mention. Seemed inevitable that when Franklin switched on, we'd be swept aside and so it came to pass.

Are we now so desperate for real forward targets that LRT is deemed a full-time forward? I can understand giving him a good run around the ground last week to test him out, but that mark/goal last week was a fluke. He was getting some stick from the crowd today but it's not his fault, he's not a full-forward! Get him to centre half-back where he belongs.

Everyone else: tired, flat, poor skills. Mumford seemed very flat - the responsibility taking its toll? At least Mal's knee looks good, he had some good run early on but kept getting flattened later in the game. Parker seemed to cop a hit about 2 minutes after coming on and was never quite right after that. Goodes all over the ground as usual, but nothing quite came off for him today. McGlynn seemed to be in a bad mood, saw him spraying team mates a couple of times.

So basically: we have no forward structure at all, most of the midfield went missing and the back line, whilst generally solid, can only withstand so much continual pressure before cracking. Hacking blindly into the forward 50 to nothing, hoping for a goal might get us over the line with poor/mediocre teams but for top 4 opponents, if that's all we have, we may as well not turn up.

Just disappointing. Have to admit though, I do enjoy watching Franklin, he is an awesome talent.

[Bas]

I've got a theory for our losses.

We lost against Carlton because that magnet of all losers Peter Garett was out on the field before the start of the game. All that negative losing vibe rubbed off on the players.

As far as today was concerned. The players may have believed this.........Rapture deadline passes, world still here

How can you play when you're waiting for the heavens to part and have a white dove ascend on you. Today, the SCG parted and a big Hawk ascended on them instead.

[Lucky Knickers]

I
The Hawks played superior football and anyone who saw them demolish St Kilda last week would not be surprised by the result today. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks we can improve but then North will be very hungry for a win after last night's loss and then we hit a J. Brown with 2 games under his belt.

\
I'm just so disappointed that there is even an cursory illusion of the swans to the saints. We were soft strawberry centres today. I'm not going to be harsh on our forwards or our backline because the issue was the centre. Sad, soft and sorry.
BTW whoever that cointosser was today was awesome.

[Cheer_Cheer]

However, if we play like we did today then we will be giving the Suns another victory for the season.

That was my thought at 3/4 time...

[Bas]

I'm in P132 and usually get there about half time for the ressies. Maybe next time...

That would be great to meet another RWO'er. I will sadly be missing the Tigers game, as "she who had to previously obeyed" has granted permission for me to take the kids down to Melbourne for the King Tut exhibition.

Come down and join us (Big Al and me) during the ressies game from Big Al's grand seating view.

[stellation]

Poor performance from basically everyone today it seemed, you have games like that I guess but doesn't make it a whole heap more palatable for a fan. There's a lot of guys lucky that the magoos weren't playing today, because I think some solid performances there would have made a compelling case come selection time next week. Inexcusable, awful disposal from too many people.

Forward line looks awful, looks like structure and delivery to me more than just the cattle available (obviously a Franklin would help). Lucky that Reid and Everitt were in the team this week over White since they both mark and kick goals...

[Nico]

I think that showed we are just not good enough.

People say our forward line is non existent. It appears that way but none of them appeared to lead or make any space. They were statues for most of the game.

Everitt showed me today why the Bulldogs let him go. He was insipid. No leads, no contest and looked disinterested. Lewis Johnston must p[lay next week in place of him.

If Reid presented it was on the wing.

My hobby horse, the centre bounce clearance work. The Hawks belted us out of the centre for 3 straight goals in the 3rd quarter, and again in the last quarter. Something is drastically wrong in this department. The only midfielder who did anything on the day was Hanners.

Is there any chance Bird will get his kicking right. He rolls the ball over when it leaves his hands and results in a tumbled kick whether he is static, on the run and free, under pressure etc etc. Just horrible disposal.

Did anyone notice that we were trying to finesse rather than get off the first option. They gave Hawthorn every chance to tackle and spoil. Whereas Hawthorn were quick with hand and foot at the first option.

Jetta is dead set as soft as margarine.

I thought the coaching left a lot to be desired. Why was Goodes left on the wing when we were getting slaughtered in the midfield. It allowed Hawthorn to sit a player on him and nullify any run. It appeared it took Goodes to put himself in the guts after 3 quick goals in the 3rd quarter. Goodes was ineffective off the wing in the first half and should have gone in the middle at the start of the 3rd quarter to at least make Clarkson think about something.

McGlynn and ROK to the midfield perhaps? Swapped Bolton and Kennedy to the forward line maybe.

LRT as a ruckman? He should have been put back early when Franklin was putting Grundy to the sword. With LRT back there the side looks much more solid.

Our field kicking is a disgrace. The tackle stats favoured Hawthorn because we kicked short to a target, usually poorly, allowing Hawthorn to sweat on our mistakes and always a second player backing up the tackler.

[Bas]

Can someone explain the rationale at the moment why a player has to run off after kicking a goal? What is that all about?

Unfortunately, we didn't have too many having to do this today.

[stellation]

Since when are you allowed to shepherd ion the ruck contest??
several times today, it seemed Mumford or LRT were up against 2 or more "ruckmen".

Directly in front of us towards the end of the 1st or 2nd quarter there were 3 boundary throw-ins in a row where Burgoyne and Hodge contested the ruck contest as a duo with Mumford. It was really quite odd, I thought that the contest could only start with 1 per side and a 3rd man up had to come to the contest after the ball had reached its apex, and not infringe on the opposition ruckman? They both were definitely bodying up to Mumford, which I'm sure is a no no.

[Big Al]

Come down and join us (Big Al and me) during the ressies game from Big Al's grand seating view.

Yep, the more the merrier...

Although I sort of wish my seat was behind pillar in the back row. Really hate front row seats to a horror show.

[ScottH]

Directly in front of us towards the end of the 1st or 2nd quarter there were 3 boundary throw-ins in a row where Burgoyne and Hodge contested the ruck contest as a duo with Mumford. It was really quite odd, I thought that the contest could only start with 1 per side and a 3rd man up had to come to the contest after the ball had reached its apex, and not infringe on the opposition ruckman? They both were definitely bodying up to Mumford, which I'm sure is a no no.

That's probably the same ones I recall. Hodge stood in front, and kept turning to check where Mumford was, and Burgoyne played the ruckman.
When the ball was tossed in, Mumford had no where to go.

[Nico]

Can someone explain the rationale at the moment why a player has to run off after kicking a goal? What is that all about?

Unfortunately, we didn't have too many having to do this today.

I think this is called the Williams Theory. I noted that it seemed to start with him in 2005, and they deemed it so successful that it was now deemed superstitious to not continue the practice. It is too far fetched to think that when one of our players kicks a goal, it is the exact moment before it is his time to come off on the rotation.