Match Preview and Team Selection - Semi Final

[Wilson7 2,680]

 

[kev martin 9,951]

1 hour ago, hells bells said:

 they have absolutely owned us.  

 Countless beltings of the team and 31 years of their arrogant supporters giving it to us.

I want nothing more than to knock them off this weekend.  

I want them to fear the Melbourne Football Club. 

It is their arrogance that will undo them. If they don't take us serious they will be hammered. 

We are ready for them.

Hoping they see us as easy beats and probably believe tbey have won already.

We are a different team to how we started the season. We have learnt how to win and play smart, hard football. They should fear us.

As for their fans. The most arrogant of the lot. Most other teams want us to "do them". Lets take the smirk off Sicily, Smith, Breust, Roughy and Clarkson. Oh yea and Fawley. 

[monoccular 17,432]

9 hours ago, BigFez said:

Every single news article is about us.  Hawks flying under the radar.  They didn't finish top 4 without reason.  I'm nervous about this build up.  The gloating Hawks supporters will be unbearable if we lose this.

ALERT!!

Showers only,  and remove the plugs!

[Jaded No More 68,966]

Do we know who the umpires are yet? 

 

*please not Nichols, please not Nichols*

[dl4e 5,851]

This final will be much tougher on the team. In the elim we were bouyed as a side to be in the finals again as indeed were the supporters. Again we will learn alot about this side. If they can play to a high level of intensity they have come a long way. Will the support be as ferocious as last week ? It is all hard to say. Both these factors counted last week.

I hope we smash those ^&%#@$

[Redleg 40,974]

I think it is pretty simple.

Play our best footy and we can win. Don't and we probably lose.

[At the break of Gawn 4,460]

On 9/11/2018 at 10:24 AM, Thehardtackler said:

There was a Hawks fan who phoned Gary Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN this morning. He said he thought that Melbourne and their fans were getting ahead of themselves. His justification was that some of the fans had already booked flights to Perth and that the Hawks would not play as badly as they did against Richmond, playing Melbourne. He also implied that the Hawks have our measure. Anybody else hear it and have an opinion? Gary deflected it. 

Hawks fans are forgetting they had one of the easiest draws to finish off the season. Let’s look at who they played from round 15 onwards:

Giants - L

Bulldogs - W

Lions - L

Carl - W

Freo - W

Ess - W (4 pts)

Cats - W (fell over the line)

St.Kilda - W (4 pts)

Sydney - W (SCG where Swans have been bad all year)

Their record against top 8 teams are 5-4 but those wins came against Us, Pies in rnd 1 when they were no good. Geelong twice, and Sydney at the SCG.

I think their top 4 finish has really flattered them. They lost to Brisbane twice, and 8 of their last ten wins came against teams in the bottom 8 with the only two wins being Sydney and Geelong.

Obviously none of this history matters when it reaches 7:50pm on Friday night, but it’s why I’m confident in tipping the Dees to an 8 goal win.

Hearing Lewis speak on 360 last night, you can tell the Hawks won’t be taken lightly at all. Also the team wasn’t overly impressed with the Geelong win with lots of areas for improvement identified.

 

[What 18,810]

17 hours ago, DavidNeitz9 said:

 

Thats great stuff.   John Northey is the best Melbourne coach since the glory years of Norm Smith.

What separates his teams from the Daniher/Balme era was the toughness and ruthlessness.

Our current team reminds me of the Northey era sides, but with more raw talent.

 

[Clintosaurus 7,852]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

Do we know who the umpires are yet? 

 

*please not Nichols, please not Nichols*

Haven't seen anything yet. The article on the AFL website with the umpires last week appeared at 11.38 on Wednesday going by the timestamp under the headline.

Please not Nicholls.

[BigFez 1,462]

They're saying Stevic on the Hawks board.  No Razor.  But didn't mention all the umps.

[drdrake 3,178]

Hawthorn has treated our club with disrespect for the last 30 years, round 1 2008 sticks in my mind as the start of the our clubs worst period in some time.  They just absolutely smashed us.  Their supporters are arrogant, they are arrogant when they play us.

Time to wipe their smug smiles off their faces.

[What 18,810]

53 minutes ago, drdrake said:

Hawthorn has treated our club with disrespect for the last 30 years, round 1 2008 sticks in my mind as the start of the our clubs worst period in some time.  They just absolutely smashed us.  Their supporters are arrogant, they are arrogant when they play us.

Time to wipe their smug smiles off their faces.

Identical to Geelong basically ...... up until last week.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Petraccattack

[Diamond_Jim 12,598]

19 hours ago, DavidNeitz9 said:

 

Can anyone forget being in the rooms listening to Northey addressing the players before a game.

Amazing to think how easy it was to access the rooms in those days. And of course our rooms were painted red and blue. Not the antiseptic white one sees on the TV's these days.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Diamond_Jim

[Copuchas 763]

some speculation on the Hawks Big Footy board that O'meara might not come up.....

[BigFez 1,462]

5 minutes ago, Copuchas said:

some speculation on the Hawks Big Footy board that O'meara might not come up.....

No source quoted from the speculator and a couple of other posters have since said he was at training with no strapping and moving well.

He'll play.

[BigFez 1,462]

Does anyone know where I can find the average ages of the Hawks and Demons sides that played last weekend?

Just for interest's sake.

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

28 minutes ago, BigFez said:

Does anyone know where I can find the average ages of the Hawks and Demons sides that played last weekend?

Just for interest's sake.

Click on match stats in both ours and Hawks game.

https://afltables.com/afl/seas/2018.html

[BigFez 1,462]

3 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Click on match stats in both ours and Hawks game.

https://afltables.com/afl/seas/2018.html

26y 104d - Hawks

24y 283d - Demons

For those interested.

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,862]

Only 6 teams since 2000 (when the current finals system was implemented) have gone out in straight sets.

That's a 16% strike rate.

The games were as follows:

Port lost to Hawthorn in 2001

West Coast lost to Collingwood in 2007

Geelong lost to North in 2014

Freo lost to Port in 2014

Sydney lost to North in 2015

Hawks lost to Bulldogs 2016

Edited September 13, 2018 by Bring-Back-Powell

[Wollongong Demon 182]

Hope Harmes isnt rucking again . So glad Riolli has retired. 

[BigFez 1,462]

24 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Only 5 teams since 2000 (when the current finals system was implemented) have gone out in straight sets.

That's a 14% strike rate.

The games were as follows:

Port lost to Hawthorn in 2001

West Coast lost to Collingwood in 2007

Geelong lost to North in 2014

Freo lost to Port in 2014

Sydney lost to North in 2015

Didn't Hawks have a straight sets exit in 2016?

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,862]

7 minutes ago, BigFez said:

Didn't Hawks have a straight sets exit in 2016?

Certainly did. Thanks.

Will edit.

[binman 43,137]

57 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Only 6 teams since 2000 (when the current finals system was implemented) have gone out in straight sets.

That's a 16% strike rate.

The games were as follows:

Port lost to Hawthorn in 2001

West Coast lost to Collingwood in 2007

Geelong lost to North in 2014

Freo lost to Port in 2014

Sydney lost to North in 2015

Hawks lost to Bulldogs 2016

Yes, an important point.

Given that history it is interesting that we are such short priced favorites as i suspect almost every side listed above that lost the first week would have been favorites in those games.

I think the anomaly this year is that Hawks were a tad lucky to be have finished top 4 and we probably should have finished top 4 and the points difference between us was small (and we had much better percentage). Most years the top 4 usually are a fair bit better than the 5-8. 

We certainly have been in better form in the last six weeks. And i think we are a more talented side.

The other variable is the bye between the end of the home and away and the finals. Not sure of the impact but it may level things out a bit in terms of resting weary players or getting them back from injury - Tyson  But of course the same is the case for the higher finishing team.

 

 

 

[hells bells 2,023]

Key Defensive Match-Ups. Who gets who?

[What 18,810]

Got the feeling we are going to hand out an absolute hiding to the Hawks.    Anyone else feel it?