13 minutes ago, Deedubs said:

True. I just think we should recognise that we aren't in form. We're playing like trash. We won't get close to Stkilda if we play like this.  People love talking about gears. When will we get into gear? If not round 7, round 10? round 18? round 23? finals? Who knows. 

Mmmm playing like trash is extremely harsh. I’d watch West Coast right now if you really wanna see trash.

We’ll hit our straps about 6/7/8 rounds out from finals and roll in with a head of steam.

Great teams follow this formula and have been for as long as I’ve watched footy. No point being in form at the wrong time of year.

Max with 2 goals, 29 touches (4th best on ground), 14 contested (equal 1st) and 35 hit outs 

Not bad at all 

18 minutes ago, Deedubs said:

True. I just think we should recognise that we aren't in form. We're playing like trash. We won't get close to Stkilda if we play like this.  People love talking about gears. When will we get into gear? If not round 7, round 10? round 18? round 23? finals? Who knows. 

This post must be a joke. 7 zip win without our coach and players out with COVID. Gears were displayed when we blew them off the park. Some supporters are never satisfied 

From where i sat today it was evident in the 1st the Hawks wanted to work us over in the defensive running. They switched quickly, then switched back and used their pace to pierce through us. Kudos to them for trying to win the game. 
When it mattered we stepped up once again, Goody isn’t wrong when he says it’s hard to win games of footy, yet we keep doing it. We should be proud of how they are defending the premiership so far. 
Bedford was very good and that was a lovely running goal by him. Thought Viney was immense early when the Hawks had a bit of momentum over us and T Mac did a lot of good things today. Onto the Saints.

It’s funny how we all see things differently. I really enjoyed that game and I never thought we were likely to lose. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we would play the last quarter slow and defend the lead we earned with a good 3rd quarter.

 We let an extra 10 points through than the high end of our average but we were missing some really important pieces of our defensive grid. They moved the ball aggressively and got exactly what you would expect. A couple of times they pierced our zone with multiple switches and quite a few times they came totally unstuck.

i thought Hunt played a good game and a great first half. Others thought Milkshake was great but I thought he looked like an old man who can’t keep up. He kept losing his feet and the Melksham of 2-3 years ago would never have missed that shot dead in front.

 What I love is that we always play the same way. What makes our game look different is how other teams try to counter us. I’m glad we banked the points with so many forced changes. We got a good look at Bedford and there is definitely something there. Weed was solid as 2nd ruck and took a ripper off a mark to kick his goal.

I also thought we had a great turn out at the game. It was a great atmosphere and there was plenty of red and blue. Our numbers are growing and if we keep winning like this we’ll win an even bigger following. 

4 minutes ago, FlashInThePan said:

It’s funny how we all see things differently. I really enjoyed that game and I never thought we were likely to lose. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we would play the last quarter slow and defend the lead we earned with a good 3rd quarter.

 

Adem Yze said that the players will concentrate on defence in the last quarter as in every other game we have played so far. Confidence that no side can overrun us.

Edited April 30, 20223 yr by John Crow Batty

I’m going to have nightmares about our forward 50 entries. Second week in a row that they’ve  been horrible. They played an extra man and we didn’t cope with it. 

3 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

From where i sat today it was evident in the 1st the Hawks wanted to work us over in the defensive running. They switched quickly, then switched back and used their pace to pierce through us. Kudos to them for trying to win the game. 
When it mattered we stepped up once again, Goody isn’t wrong when he says it’s hard to win games of footy, yet we keep doing it. We should be proud of how they are defending the premiership so far. 
Bedford was very good and that was a lovely running goal by him. Thought Viney was immense early when the Hawks had a bit of momentum over us and T Mac did a lot of good things today. Onto the Saints.

Completely agree. I think Mitchell is going to be a good coach and Hawks really took the game on. Interesting game.

We did well with so many out. Happy for Bedford, he played pretty well.

We probably would have accepted an honorable loss in the past with so many out. We did well. Great to keep banking the wins.

Noticed a little lack of defensive intensity in the last QTR. 

I wonder if so many with Covid may be affecting our overall fitness?

Great to see the boys get the job done after such a disruptive week, I too went down with covid so had to enjoy this one from the couch! Even us supporters are getting taken out

38 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

I really liked that we won.

Nutshell.

A win is a win.

I wouldn't be reaching any firm conclusions like Lever needs Petty around him on the basis of one game.

I just think Lever was a tad underdone and less certain in reading the flight and the bounce. More fumble.

That will go with match time.

14 minutes ago, FlashInThePan said:

It’s funny how we all see things differently. I really enjoyed that game and I never thought we were likely to lose. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we would play the last quarter slow and defend the lead we earned with a good 3rd quarter.

 We let an extra 10 points through than the high end of our average but we were missing some really important pieces of our defensive grid. They moved the ball aggressively and got exactly what you would expect. A couple of times they pierced our zone with multiple switches and quite a few times they came totally unstuck.

i thought Hunt played a good game and a great first half. Others thought Milkshake was great but I thought he looked like an old man who can’t keep up. He kept losing his feet and the Melksham of 2-3 years ago would never have missed that shot dead in front.

 What I love is that we always play the same way. What makes our game look different is how other teams try to counter us. I’m glad we banked the points with so many forced changes. We got a good look at Bedford and there is definitely something there. Weed was solid as 2nd ruck and took a ripper off a mark to kick his goal.

I also thought we had a great turn out at the game. It was a great atmosphere and there was plenty of red and blue. Our numbers are growing and if we keep winning like this we’ll win an even bigger following. 

Bingo - exactly how I saw it. We could not expect to run over the Hawks with the outs that we had, so did really well to grind things out. 
 

I thought Melksham did some okay stuff Q1 but unfortunately let a few tackles slip and that kick from 30, he used to do with his eyes closed.

You could see on each line that with the significant player out, the others had to lift more: Petty will make a huge difference, so will Jacko. For me, the guys we missed the most were  ANB and Sparrow: their gut running pressure in the forward line would have stymied the Hawks transition out of defence.

I thought the Hawks were good: playing the right way, they will be a force soon.

Things I didn’t like about today:

 

- Jordon constantly fumbling and making really basic skill errors

- the way Oliver played the entire match. Reverted to his style of 2 years ago. Running back into traffic. Giving unnecessary handballs 

- the form of Lever - came back underdone

Things that pleased me:

- seeing Melksham laser kicks inside 50

- the form of Bedford who finally looks comfortable at the level

- Jake Bowey and Steven May

Really looking forward to the Saints next week. They are currently struggling in Cairns.

The odds of winning with 5 forced changed is very low so it was a good win indeed. Hawthorn are no easy beats. 7 straight wins on the back of a premiership year is a great result. At no stage did I think we would lose.

Just got back. Was lucky to have a friend drive me home. I thought Hawks dominated us t he first few minutes. Had to work hard to fight back. I could see we were tiring like the Gold Coast game. I don’t think we could have held them off much longer. I’m only more convinced than ever that Brown should ever play in the VFL again. Thought we ran out of legs towards the end, but no Dogga, Petty, Kozzie, Sparrow, Bullen or Goodwin, I think we can Take it as a hard-earned well-deserved win

Edited April 30, 20223 yr by Cassiew

1 hour ago, The heart beats true said:

I sat with a lot of Melbourne supporters in an area I don’t normally sit in and I thought that on the whole they acted like a bunch of belligerent teenagers. If I have to hear one more person yell ‘man up’ at the best defensive zone in the history of the game I’m going to throw up. Sometimes at the footy I feel like people need to be reminded it’s not 1994, and we don’t win by ‘going in harder’. Would it kill people to learn the modern game?

As our successful continues, we will pick up supporters of the West Coast/Adelaide ilk who barely know that the ball is oval, let alone any nuances of the game. It's part and parcel of being a successful club. Look on it as a barometer of where we are at. The top.

53 minutes ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

Why should they ‘man up’ when what they really should be doing is ‘kick(ing) it long’? 😎😉

I believe "just kick the bloody thing!!!" is the correct terminology?

At least we got a look at what the team would look like without Jackson. We have Van Royen in the wings, but Weideman isn't Jackson (though I thought he did OK).

Just had to win, 5 changes, chemistry completely thrown, Viney and Lever clearly underdone, and game not played on our ters for extended periods. and we just grinded a win out. super impressive.

2 hours ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

Percentage losing win

Stating the obvious. I reckon we're going to have a lot of percentage-losing wins this year given our percentage is still 145.9% after a 10-point win. Better than having a percentage-boosting win when your percentage is 110%! 😁

Edited April 30, 20223 yr by Sydney_Demon
Typo

Random thoughts on what the in/outs showed.

- Sparrow brings more than Dunstan, and probably more than Jordan (though a different kind of player). Most important mid behind the big 3 for mine, and we missed him tonight.

- Ditto ANB. Missed his run and all-over-the-ground presence.

- Interesting Bedford vs Kozzi. Kozzi has that bee-in-a-bottle business, but Belford is more of a traditional small forward. I just wonder if Kozzi would have been in position for that mark that Bedford took (Petracca kick I think). 

- Weideman looks better when he's up and around the ground, gets him more involved. He doesn't have Jackson's mobility, but is more useful than McDonald around the packs.

- Playing Ben Brown up the ground was a kind of smart move as it cleared out the forward line. Unfortunately he's a real liability in general play, slow and fumbly. 

- Lever still rusty.

- Also not sure what's going on with Rivers, not as self-assured and solid as last year. If it's possible, I don't know that I'd be playing Rivers and Hunt together.

- We still don't have a real lock down, one-on-one stopper, and that's been the case since Jetta left.

- Back line looks better with Petty in it. Not sure why, but they seem to work better together. 

4 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

... If I have to hear one more person yell ‘man up’ at the best defensive zone in the history of the game I’m going to throw up. Sometimes at the footy I feel like people need to be reminded it’s not 1994, and we don’t win by ‘going in harder’. Would it kill people to learn the modern game?

"Kick it!"

"Just kick it!"

"Oh stopping fluffing around and just KICK IT!!!!!!!"

 

...

 

"Awwwww who'd you kick that to!??!?!?!"

Edited April 30, 20223 yr by deanox

1 hour ago, demon3165 said:

Flag was last year, teams move on we have got away with it for now, with amount of entries over the last few weeks we have to stop looking to kick to both pockets to deliver to, I know it's part of the game plan but sometimes you need more than plan A.

We are 7 zip.

 

34 minutes ago, deegirl said:

I’m going to have nightmares about our forward 50 entries. Second week in a row that they’ve  been horrible. They played an extra man and we didn’t cope with it. 

Spot on.... this needs some significant work in the next few months.  We were a shambles coming inside on that last kick in the last quarter in particular and not just that, our Tall forwards are sitting back far too often IMV and not making leads to the open spaces or at the ball carrier enough.

Too often looking for the cheap joe-the-goose or going up from behind with one or two other talls in the contest about 30 to 35 out.  Not willing to work up & back a bit more then double back to the carrier for the hit up.  I would say BB was probably the hardest worker in this regard tonight though but more playing between high HF and getting back again to lead out of the square.  For a big man he has a pretty decent tank when fully fit. He was also taking a few forward half ruck contests on top of this.  While i've seen him have better scoreboard days and he quite often got beaten in pack marking contests, he did work his [censored] off in these other areas tonight.

There's a few up the field tonight that need to learn to place that last kick alot better and with some more finesse.  Also get it in quicker at times.  The slow play makes no sense when you have three talls one on one waiting waiting.  That extra three to five seconds is enough to kill off their chances with the opp able to get numbers back and cover opponents and the gaps.

Great effort tonight from most though and rapt to beat that mob.  Can't stand em.  Just need to work on the craft forward of center big time.  Get that right and we would be smashing some of these pretenders more often and making our life a tad easier at times.