just watched a replay of the 4th quarter. Bill Laurie did a few nice things for sure

3 minutes ago, Fork 'em said:

Murdoch like Trump living rent free in so many heads  😅

Yeah, I reckon you pounced on that one a bit hard, my friend. 

9 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

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

Huge weekend coming up

We will probably know what is required by the time we start our game, or at least soon after.

Brisbane Saturday game, Port a 12.30 start on Sunday, us, a 3.20 start on Sunday.

Edited August 20, 20231 yr by kev martin

1 hour ago, —coach— said:

If we win and port loose we move to third so it’s not a dead rubber 

I've taken into account that Tigers won't beat Port at AO but if you think they will, good for you,and our game is after their's.

 

No Riewoldt and Lynch and nothing to play for,Tiges ain't winning!!!

 

You should put $100 on the Tigers,it's paying $6.70

 

Good luck,Gamble Responsibly!!!

Edited August 20, 20231 yr by Jack7

14 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

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

The selection decisions around the last 2 talls (prob one forward and one back) are going to be very interesting...I honestly have no idea what they can do. Tomlinson I am not sure is up to a big final...and I am sure we cannot put McDonald out there in a big final with his lack of ability to contest in the air or on the ground. We've just seen it too many times.

Think we'll end up going with a pretty small forward line with Fritsch coming back. Also if we do select Tomlinson I really want Hibberd in the 23 so we have a really strong one on one competitor in the mix for the back 6.

1 hour ago, demon3165 said:

Only in your lowly opinion but you are entitled to it.

You can't really have an opinion on whether someone's possessions lead to goals or not. They either do or they don't. You said you thought every possession lead to a turnover or goal against. Nonsense.

Bowser was run down from behind as a result of a Rivers handball, both players lacked awareness there.

And the other goal Bowser gave up was a coughed up handball from a midfield press via a centre stoppage win out the front of the stoppage, with little midfield pressure (read no midfield pressure) applied to Hawthorn's players.

I'd like our defenders to be tighter and not give up any goals, but mistakes are going to happen, particularly when Rivers, Bowey and Salem are being given plenty of licence to try and create play from back there.

The issue we're going to have with our back 7 is Tomlinson is too slow to play in the zone. Smith may have to go back and Melksham stays in alongside Fritta...

38 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Thought Laurie showed some nice moves. He looked as though he knew it was his last chance to impress and did OK

Rivers was outstanding.

Coaching moves were really good and i though we played a smart game and never panicked. Kudos to Goodwin

I reckon it was a goodbye game, for a good bloke Laurie.

 

On 7/11/2023 at 10:04 PM, kev martin said:

I was sitting above the interchange area during the game.

With less than 5 minutes to play, Goody spoke for a while with Woey when he was on the bench. There also appeared plenty of positive emotions towards him.

My guess is, Goody gets around to everyone, in his time, and with a natural, authentic, and unforced manner

 

A good win against a team that has improved markedly over the season.  Mitchell is an outstanding young coach.  Hawthorn have some excellent players and as maddening as it is, they will become a very good team quite quickly.  We did what we needed to do.  Our defence, in particular Lever, Rivers and McVee were outstanding.  No great influence from Petracca and Oliver and nothing at all from Pickett only enhances the win.  I wish Goodwin had let the Maginess question go through to the keeper.  His response was churlish.  The game has a place for everyone and taggers have been around for a long time.  Oliver was beaten, accept it and be better next time.  Nicks' presser last night was the template for class under pressure.

2 minutes ago, bluey said:

reckon it was a goodbye game, for a good bloke Laurie.

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? 

 

 

When Joel Smith is taking a shot at goal from the pocket/boundary, I have every confidence he’s not going to miss. He’s a lovely set shot 

4 minutes ago, Swooper1987 said:

A good win against a team that has improved markedly over the season.  Mitchell is an outstanding young coach.  Hawthorn have some excellent players and as maddening as it is, they will become a very good team quite quickly.  We did what we needed to do.  Our defence, in particular Lever, Rivers and McVee were outstanding.  No great influence from Petracca and Oliver and nothing at all from Pickett only enhances the win.  I wish Goodwin had let the Maginess question go through to the keeper.  His response was churlish.  The game has a place for everyone and taggers have been around for a long time.  Oliver was beaten, accept it and be better next time.  Nicks' presser last night was the template for class under pressure.

Yes the Hawks were very quick in the first half by foot and ball movement, made us look very cumbersome at times. I think we will need to draft/ trade in some serious leg speed at the end of the year to stay in contention in coming years. 

Kudos to Lever. I thought his first quarter was terrible. But after that he was magnificent. Just marked everything that came his way, spoiled everything and controlled that backline. 

 

4 minutes ago, bluey said:

I reckon it was a goodbye game, for a good bloke Laurie.

 

I'd be annoyed if we got rid of Laurie based on what I saw today. He's building strength in his tackling and at the contest and he has genuine tricks that can work. A few stuff ups but a couple of lovely spins and fakes today.

Right now he's too slow and doesn't have enough power to make up for it. There is a genuine chance he'll always be too slow. But the tank and the build are seemingly heading in the right direction - just how much speed can he gain with another preseason or two? And more games to get his intensity up.

I thought he came in because they wanted his off ball running to go side to side with the Hawks kicking game and whilst he wasn't perfect defensively due to lack of speed I thought he did a solid shift of work

Rivers is fast becoming a superstar. What a player!

1 hour ago, speed demon said:

I didn’t love Tomo’s game - gave his opponent too much space - but I did love Lever’s.
Tomo’s presence facilitated Lever’s performance. I’d stick with him. 

lever's game was excellent when smith went down back to replace tomlinson too

his reading of the ball in flight is superb

Anyone else notice May barely took a kickout today and we did a few different things inseatd of kicking it to Max on the wing. 

1 minute ago, dees189227 said:

Anyone else notice May barely took a kickout today and we did a few different things inseatd of kicking it to Max on the wing. 

Rivers kicking out is 10/10

37 minutes ago, layzie said:

Kozzie will be back. Mark my words..

He came back two weeks ago. The thing he has to do is STAY back. 

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.

Lever, Rivers, Smith, Melksham, JVR, Viney early, Sparrow, Gus and McVee were our best. 

It was good to win comfortably in the end, without our midfield playing particularly well.

Really interesting and evident at the ground early was our forward structure. On slow plays, we held a 25m high line and kicked it on top of Hawthorn defenders heads, which gave Melksham, JVR and Smith a spot to hit up, and either take the mark or bring the ball to ground.

It was very effective as it nullified Siciliy, who I thought was a non entity today, after all the mid week build up to how well he'd been playing. He was so ineffective, that he was moved into the middle.

Melksham didn't always go to him and interestingly Laurie started on him at the first centre bounce of the match, but I felt he had his colours lowered today. Good coaching and good play by Melksham and our other forwards.

On faster plays we held a deep forward, usually JVR, and had the rest of the forwards push high up at CHF.

I noticed another set play off a free kick to us at CHB. It was like a good old fashioned cluster in the middle of the ground. Tomlinson had the kick and simply kicked long and wide to the wing and hit up one of our guys. Be interesting to see if we try something like this again in finals. Perfect day to test stuff like this, I thought, and a fair bit of experimentation went on today.

I'm hoping that win and locking in top 4 releases the shackles a bit and we can play with more dare and attack next week.

Playing in a hostile territory in Round 24 could he a very good dress rehearsal if we end up finishing higher than 4th.

And that's 3 top 4 finishes, in 3 years. I wonder when Goody will start to get a bit of credit? I hope when he's holding up his second premiership cup in a few weeks time.

Edited August 20, 20231 yr by Binmans PA

1 hour ago, wobbleguts said:

Was it just me or was Oliver really proppy at the end of the game? He looked sore.

I noticed that too 😬

7 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Rivers is fast becoming a superstar. What a player!

First player picked on the team right now. 

After about 5 obviously.

I just do not want to see Melksham and Kozzie flying for the same mark again. Just stay down and crumb the ball. 

But Melksham is a handy player up forward and was a handy contributer. 

3 minutes ago, Mel Bourne said:

He came back two weeks ago. The thing he has to do is STAY back. 

He plays the most difficult role in the game in terms of consistency. It’s just not possible for small forwards to have great games every week.

Kosi is one of the most consistent in this role, on track for another 40 odd goals. Cyril only managed to do that twice in his entire career. Just for some perspective. 

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Used it well but defensively was poor. 
 

A bewildering call to sub Schache on for Tomlinson. I understand they didn’t wanna not use him, but FMD we are lucky it didn’t cost us. 

Tomlinson played well. Schache has no urgency. 

I thought Tomlinson was a liability on many occasions. Took a couple of good marks, but was constantly trailing his opponent because he's not an elite reader of the game, and he's certainly not quick.

I think today gives our MC a tough conundrum. Do you play Smith back now and play Melksham forward, alongside Fritta? If it were me, this is potentially the way I'd be leaning. And this is from someone who believes Smith is a worry in defence. But at least he's got pace to get across and impact. Tomlinson was a constant concern out the back.

Schache was considered insurance for Max, I'm sure. It would have allowed JVR to go into the ruck and for Schache to take JVRs place and potentially give him a chop out in the ruck too.