Rnd 9 Match Day Thread. Hawthorn V Sydney. MCG. 19.50 pm.

[bloodspirit]

I've also been meaning to comment further about Hanners giving S.Mitchell a tongue lashing after he copped a 'careless' elbow in the throat or whatever exactly happened.

At first I was pleased Hanners was sticking up for himself but thought little of it except that Mitchell is a cunning grub. But, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It was so disciplined - and effective! It drew a lot of attention to the incident and to Mitchell but looked restrained. It made Mitchell look bad and Hanners look good. It made me think that is real leadership on Hanners' part. Normally Hanners leads mostly with his courage and actions (like marking in front of Hale in the 2012 granny). But this was a different kind of leadership on display from Hanners. And it is really important. He didn't give away a free kick. He lived up to the Bloods' "Hard. Disciplined. Relentless." mantra and he really stood up and let Mitchell know it was not on. Big kudos, Hanners! Another reason he will be deserving of all Brownlow votes he gets: "best and fairest".

[stevoswan]

Poor old Brererton ... mate of Warne says it all ... sulking about umpiring but supposed to be a commentator who actually watches both sides ... a couple of genuine complaints late in the game ... but the Laidler no prior farce, the Tippet strangle, and the Buddy trip seem to have deluded this poor little rich boy! All were critical moments that took away momentum and all were obvious!

Classic! He should have been happy, he tipped us to win by 10pts! I was shocked when I saw that.... He's a knob, I'm ashamed he ever played for us!

[dejavoodoo44]

I've also been meaning to comment further about Hanners giving S.Mitchell a tongue lashing after he copped a 'careless' elbow in the throat or whatever exactly happened.

At first I was pleased Hanners was sticking up for himself but thought little of it except that Mitchell is a cunning grub. But, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It was so disciplined - and effective! It drew a lot of attention to the incident and to Mitchell but looked restrained. It made Mitchell look bad and Hanners look good. It made me think that is real leadership on Hanners' part. Normally Hanners leads mostly with his courage and actions (like marking in front of Hale in the 2012 granny). But this was a different kind of leadership on display from Hanners. And it is really important. He didn't give away a free kick. He lived up to the Bloods' "Hard. Disciplined. Relentless." mantra and he really stood up and let Mitchell know it was not on. Big kudos, Hanners! Another reason he will be deserving of all Brownlow votes he gets: "best and fairest".

Yes, Hannebery has been superb of late.
But I suspect that the match review committee/tribunal, will view psycho Sam's deliberate whack to Hannebery's throat, as yet another of poor Sammy's unfortunate accidents.

[Mug Punter]

This week will be the hardest ever to pick players who most deserve TLM votes. I can easily think of a dozen who I'd like to vote for.

I am surprised at some of the criticism of Sinclair. Sure, it would be nice if he could hold a few more marks, but he got himself in the right spot at the right time on lots of occasions and neutralised contests even when he couldn't win them. I thought it was one of his better contributions so far this season.

Another player who won't earn votes from me tonight but who I want to comment on is Heeney - and specifically his tackling. Last week he gave away at least four free kicks in our forward fifty for head high tackles against Richmond players. His enthusiasm was commendable but his technique was poor and resulted in us just handing back possession to the Tigers. It just shows how smart he is (and his determination to improve) that this week he came out and executed a handful of really important tackles just as vigorously but with perfect technique so as not to make high contact or get in a player's back. It's truly exciting to think how complete a player he looks like developing into.

Agree completely. I didn't think Heeney really worked his way into the game last night. He wasn't poor but he wasn't in our best IMO and that's no criticism, you just can't be in the best players list every week. But it's really really rare for him to have a week where he doesn't contribute in some form and his trajectory is going up quickly

[Industrial Fan]

You don't think Heeney contributed?!?

[56-14]

[QUOTE=Primmy;696981]I had a fine time last night. Have read about ten pages of your comments and apart from the troll we all know about, it is patently clear that there no passengers on the ground. A lot of that is due to McVeigh being the general and organising everyone (don't some of you understand what he does?)

I understand what McVeigh does - it's what he doesn't do that I don't like. On the other hand - K. Jack has a red-hot go - which I prefer in a captain.

[Mug Punter]

[QUOTE=56-14;696997]

I had a fine time last night. Have read about ten pages of your comments and apart from the troll we all know about, it is patently clear that there no passengers on the ground. A lot of that is due to McVeigh being the general and organising everyone (don't some of you understand what he does?)

I understand what McVeigh does - it's what he doesn't do that I don't like. On the other hand - K. Jack has a red-hot go - which I prefer in a captain.

Ha ha, re the troll you are referring to, never has one man posted so many times and said so little......

McVeigh has been a fine servant to our club and yes his best days are probably behind him but I still think he does a role for the team and is definitely in the team on merit. Some of the references here to him, such as calling him McHack, are downright insulting and disrespectful and do not come from a true Swans fan in my book

[gumby_bolts]

As Primmy mentioned and others have mentioned Kirks influence can't be discounted. Or specifically does anyone remember how he used to pretty much shut that grub Mitchell down every time they matched up. I liked to think he got in Toms ear and gave some pointers.
He was my favourite player for a long time and it's just glorious that he is back.
I bet Freo wishes he was back there.

[rojo]

It looks to me like Macca is battling with no confidence in his body. In retrospect he was silly not to play a few games in the NEALF to regain that confidence and touch. I heard him admit that being physically fit to play is not enough to prepare you for the intensity of the game. It must be so frustrating for him to be so below his best in tackling, kicking, getting involved in the contest and generally making an impact. I hope he is able to work his way through it and that it is not a sign that his body/knee is not going to allow him to get back to his best. At the moment for me he is a definite starter in the best 22 but he is struggling to get back to where, as a captain, I am sure he would like to be.

[blackdeathmetal]

Thank you Sydney for the awesome night out. Downed a few pints at PJ O'Brien while watching the game. Noticed a few similarities to last years match at the MCG including: Gary Rohan kicking the first goal of the game, Sydney scoring the first 6 goals unanswered, the Hawks being held goalless in the first quarter and plenty of inaccurate kicking in front of the goals (by the Hawks) as well. The only thing that would have made this sweeter was keeping the Hawks goalless for the entire first half. Nonetheless it's a good achievement keeping them to only 7 goals for the entire game on their turf. Our pressure was immense, particularly in the Hawks forward 50. Play of the game for me was Buddy kicking the ball into our forward 50 and Rohan burning off the Hawks defense to score his 2nd goal.

[Nico]

We won the game in one main area, tackling. We had 80 to 54, hence Hawthorn players caught with the ball and us calling for more reward from our tackles. At the game you could see early on that Hawthorn was rather concerned with our physical approach. After match comments in the media were that it was an error riddled game. They forgot to mention it was Hawthorn making most of the errors, such was our tackling ferocity.

I also noticed something about how we cut off their run through the centre. Many times when they got possession either at the back of the square or across centre our midfielders were positioned about 5 metres right in front of them, on our defensive side that choked any run through the guts. You could the Hawthorn minds saying, "what do I do now".

Ludwig, you are a good judge. I was thinking Hewett was a bit slow but he was pretty special last night. Hewett, Jones and Lloyd had great last quarters. LLoyd was good all game but kept running to contests in the last stanza. I thought Jones was on Bruest all night so if he was he did a great job, but he ran really hard in the last quarter and broke the lines a few times with hard running and risk taking. Hewett willed himself on the game from mid third quarter.

I too thought Parker was having a quiet game until I checked his stats in the 3rd quarter. No doubt he was carrying an injury and he didn't seem to man up or have anyone tagging him. What he was doing was strolling to each stoppage and getting in and under for his stats.
As good as Hanners was he was terribly wasteful. eg across goal shocker and turnovers. Also couldn't miss Beny's woeful field kick when he spotted up a Hawthorn player 20 metres away from our man.

And Kieran Jack; if anyone doesn't value his work have a look at his last quarter. Always there for support of a player. When the game was in the balance he excelled.

I just love Mill's 1%ers.

How exciting is Rohan when he is on song. I thought he would be underdone, and he probably was, but lets hope from now on he really makes a name for himself. The forward line is absolutely his position. Buddy, Heeney and Rohan; pretty hard to stop.

And how good was it leaving the ground with not a whimper from the arrogant Dawks supporters. Many glum faces on the train.

[giant]

I guess the world didn't end last week in quite the way many on here thought it did.

Looked ghastly for the first 10 mins, like watching a replay of the 2014 GF, but thereafter was a really strong team effort. Fantastic win, should set us up for second half of the year.

- - - Updated - - -

Parker is obvs carrying a knee injury, it's heavily strapped. He's lost is vertical leap and sidestep. He was better than last week but wonder if he will have to play with it all season.

This definitely appears to be the case. Still fought on bravely but had limited impact compared to the rounds 1-6 version.

[neilfws]

Normally I'd say Clarkson summarises the game pretty well, but reading this:

Hawthorn v Sydney: Alastair Clarkson laments the Hawks' uncharacteristically sloppy skills

which goes something like "we should have won, it's just we were slightly worse than the Swans", I wonder if all the success has finally made him delusional, as so often happens in which case it will not be the Hawks year.

[Hotpotato]

It's the year of The Bloods , I can smell it .

[Bloods05]

I find Bruce's homo-erotic man crushes mostknowledgeable crushesreally wish he'd knock the top off it before coming on air because his commentating tonight was nothing short of embarrassing

That's pretty cheap. He's an enthusiast, that's all. He's also very knowledgeable and well-prepared. His style can be a little grating at times but he doesn't deserve that.