Thought it was a good win. People were saying before the bounce that anything less than a 50 point win was pathetic and all that shaz but I thought this was a good win against a team that was playing very hard.

Jake Lever marked everything. Someone said his first quarter was pathetic and I think that's harsh. So consistent even when we werent going well.

ANB was another who put his body on the line when others simply weren't. He made some excellent plays which helped get us going. Trent Rivers excellent again and you love seeing him go through the middle. 

Jake the snake milkshake kicked serious tail today. Could have had 6.

Gus was brilliant and even the naysayers have to be taking notice

Bottom line is we did this with second tier players stepping up, it is not a case of stopping a few and stopping is. Unleash the fury!

lmfao once a fool always a fool but keep going.

4 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Told you pre-game we'd win comfortable.

Somehow we still lost in your eyes 

Unable to see the game live so watching the replay.

A very formulaic Melbourne win. Tested for a half then we start strangling the oppo and pull away in the last. 

We know our game inside and out, back to front.

Bring on finals!!!

4 hours ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Guess we don't know what last week took out of us, Carlton were not much better yesterday.

I think that is a very important issue. Many of our fellows looked buggered

1 hour ago, Binmans PA said:

He seems to have lifted Clarkson's tricks IMO. The way they moved the ball today from half back intercept was very Hawthorn 2012, which makes sense. Mitchell would know it well.

Hold on. He had most of his best players out! In my opinion, a very mediocre win by the Dees

1 minute ago, Farmer said:

Hold on. He had most of his best players out! In my opinion, a very mediocre win by the Dees

Okay, thanks mate. Not sure why you're replying to what I said.

The way they moved the ball is not Jai Newcombe or even Lewis dependent.

3 hours ago, forever demons said:

ok where is he playing now,just some collingwood hack we got lumbered with

Seriously, the worst post of the year

Get a grip

2 hours ago, kev martin said:

Thought Laurie offered a bit. Though, too late in the season to get more time in AFL, so as to continue his needed development. 

Cannot imagine him being delisted, there are other fringe players who would go before him. Is his contract up for negotiation? 

 

 

Contracted for 2024 I believe

1 minute ago, Farmer said:

Hold on. He had most of his best players out! In my opinion, a very mediocre win by the Dees

Hawks have beaten 5 of the top 8 sides this year. 
I swear we can win by 100 points and someone will still say it was a mediocre win and we are no good. 
 

The only side with a flag and 3 top four finishes in the last 3 years. How about some f’ing appreciation for how hard that is to achieve?! 
I swear this place is full of sad sacks. 

17 minutes ago, layzie said:

Thought it was a good win. People were saying before the bounce that anything less than a 50 point win was pathetic and all that shaz but I thought this was a good win against a team that was playing very hard.

Jake Lever marked everything. Someone said his first quarter was pathetic and I think that's harsh. So consistent even when we werent going well.

ANB was another who put his body on the line when others simply weren't. He made some excellent plays which helped get us going. Trent Rivers excellent again and you love seeing him go through the middle. 

Jake the snake milkshake kicked serious tail today. Could have had 6.

Gus was brilliant and even the naysayers have to be taking notice

Bottom line is we did this with second tier players stepping up, it is not a case of stopping a few and stopping is. Unleash the fury!

Was a professional win for sure! Hawks are in really good form and playing at a standard well above 16th place. 27 points seems about right.

2 hours ago, kev martin said:

Thought Laurie offered a bit. Though, too late in the season to get more time in AFL, so as to continue his needed development. 

Cannot imagine him being delisted, there are other fringe players who would go before him. Is his contract up for negotiation? 

 

 

Agree entirely. He was good in the first half when very few were 

2 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

With our Healthy % it is still possible to reach 2nd

Huge weekend coming up

....and Geelong will beat Bulldogs now id say and finish 9th, oh the joy.

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

If his job was to be completely pantsed by a young ruck and converted key defender then yeah, he did his job.

We've got a tricky decision to make about that spot come finals.

Played well in second half IMV

9 minutes ago, Farmer said:

Hold on. He had most of his best players out! In my opinion, a very mediocre win by the Dees

I think you and a few other are underestimating the Hawks.

They've beaten Brisbane and Collingwood and given a few teams in the top half a run for the money.

Whilst they had the likes of Lewis and Newcombe out, we also had Fritsch and Petty who pretty much make up our forward line.

I think more positives out of this game the negatives purely because Petracca, Oliver, Pickett all were well held yet we still found a way to win.

My honest opinion? I think we are well placed far better then 2022 and I can certainly see us going all the way to a preliminary final, even a grand final. 

43 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I like the Fritta idea a lot. Although he often tries for too much by foot when higher up the ground and is intercepted.

There's a risk of that but I think every player makes bad decisions going inside 50 from time to time and often Fritsch has been marking as the deepest forward and has barely anyone to kick to. If we can get it to him quick at CHF with some of all of Melk/JVR/Chandler inside 50 he might pick out targets. It's not like he hasn't produced some lovely kicks at times.

44 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

I like Disco, but I don't think he's big enough, nor strong enough to play lockdown, which ideally the Tomlinson role is, so it frees up Lever and even May.

The way I see it all of Smith, Tomlinson, Hibbo or Turner are probably giving away 2+ goals through some faults. 

I thought Tommo had a stinker today and gave up far more than 2, getting beat on the lead, getting beat in contests and so often getting caught up the ground not handing over to a winger or half forward and getting back to occupy bodies to help the interceptors. At his best he's a good rebounder but in finals pressure and pace it's hard to see him running the ball out.

Smith's good for 1 howler and a couple of other brain fade errors that threaten goals and he doesn't provide a lot of rebound.

Hibbo lack of speed and size.

If we expect that Disco will give up a couple from lack of strength, not great one on one defensive traits and inexperience then he's not worse than the others and he has an intercept marking game and ground ball tackling/handballing game that I really like. Kicking's not perfect but he'll get some kicks too.

It might be as simple as match ups. Tommo for a lumbering tall. Hibbo for a medium forward. Smith for a quick athletic forward. Disco for a skinny tall. 

 

Some facts

We did everything we needed to do to win, nothing more.

People don’t understand what Kozzie does and why he is so invaluable

Our defence is the league standard and virtually unbeatable, exactly what finals require

Our midfield is the equal or better than our main flag competition. Only PA may have a better one but they don’t have Max and they ain’t winning the way they play. 
 

As it stands Brisbane is our main threat and all going well we won’t face them til the GF, plenty of time for our forward line to find its mojo.

10 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Hawks have beaten 5 of the top 8 sides this year. 
I swear we can win by 100 points and someone will still say it was a mediocre win and we are no good. 
 

The only side with a flag and 3 top four finishes in the last 3 years. How about some f’ing appreciation for how hard that is to achieve?! 
I swear this place is full of sad sacks. 

While I agree with you Jaded, maybe you could also take a leaf and withdraw from constantly using words like “embarrassing” and “putrid” when referring to us during game day threads when things aren’t going our way….

6 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I think you and a few other are underestimating the Hawks.

They've beaten Brisbane and Collingwood and given a few teams in the top half a run for the money.

Whilst they had the likes of Lewis and Newcombe out, we also had Fritsch and Petty who pretty much make up our forward line.

I think more positives out of this game the negatives purely because Petracca, Oliver, Pickett all were well held yet we still found a way to win.

My honest opinion? I think we are well placed far better than 2022 and I can certainly see us going all the way to a preliminary final, even a grand final. 

If the Dogs don’t make finals, we will be the only premiers of the last decade to play in finals this year (thanks for the stat @deanox). 
Just goes to show you how difficult it is to keep backing up every year and we’ve done it better than any other premier in recent years!

Just now, Beetle said:

While I agree with you Jaded, maybe you could also take a leaf and withdraw from constantly using words like “embarrassing” and “putrid” when referring to us during game day threads when things aren’t going our way….

I called the umpires putrid and Hawks players embarrassing today. Both are correct calls and I will die on this hill!

 

14 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I called the umpires putrid and Hawks players embarrassing today. Both are correct calls and I will die 

lmfao 

25 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I called the umpires putrid and Hawks players embarrassing today. Both are correct calls and I will die on this hill!

 

I respect and appreciate you’re as passionate as any Jaded….but let’s not go through the archives…

We sewed up a top 4 spot today by beating a team who gave it their all and kept us really honest, so it was a solid win…

Yet there’s such a weird vibe around here. I thought people would be thrilled with our effort the last 2 months. If you can’t be proud of what we are serving up at the moment I don’t know when you ever will be. We are the most consistent team of the last 3 years. We haven’t been this good for 60 years! Our average losing margin for the year is 10 points. 

I’m super proud of where we are at as a football club. I can’t ask for much more as a supporter, and if you feel entitled to more you might need to ask yourself what your expectations are, and why you feel entitled to them?

Go Dees.

3 hours ago, Deeoldfart said:

As good as Mitchell might be as an emerging young coach (according to the media, at least!), I thought Goody clearly out-coached him today.

Yes, but it's a team of coaches working together, not just Goodwin calling the shots. Apparently Uze has a big role on game day in terms of strategies, both reading and responding to. Not to mention that Uze worked at the Hawks, and would know plenty of these players and their strengths/weaknesses.

3 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I wonder if Disco Turner isn’t without a chance of replacing Tomlinson. I think he’s worth considering. 

Not big enough to handle big KPF's, yet alone resting ruckmen. He's more a replacement for Lever.