Adam The God

I think we could play: Howes May Petty Bowey/Salem Adams Windsor

It's a hybrid of scores from stoppage with aggressive forward handball (see Round 1) and the modern transition game that sweats turnovers (with less emphasis on territory), uses aggressive forward handball to move the ball quickly, utilising leg speed to break lines and kicking to keep chains going from turnover. It's also different with and without the ball, and matters whether it's a fast play versus a slow play. With the ball on slow plays, we look to possess the ball keepings off with shorter chips across half back to either open space up ahead or draw the zone out, so we can go over the top of it, or through it with an angled kick that allows us to bring the ball quickly through the corridor. For someone who has apparently coached the sport before, you seem to have a lack of interest on tactics, structures and ball movement, or you simply view the game through an outdated lens. I agree we were terrible against the Suns, and terrible in the last quarter against North, but since you were fishing or whatever you were doing when your boy Jeffo debuted, you missed a pretty clear example of what we're trying to do this year against GWS.

The Hawks haven't won anything though, have they? As for who they've picked up, a pretty motly crew too.

If Lever doesn't get up, I hope they play Adams.

Which history suggests takes time for things to click.

Possibly, although the EPL plays fast from the middle of the park. So defensive pass, pass, pass, angled pass into midfield or wide ball to play it in behind or cut inside and reverse pass to winger or striker making a diagonal run. So it's about being able to flip the switch with speed in certain parts of the ground. Again, as Hoyne said on SEN, Collingwood in 2022-2023 knew they didn't have enough elite kickers (N Daicos, J Daicos, Sidebottom and Pendlebury), so played a forward handball game. We're trying to do the same with Windsor, Lindsay, McVee, Bowey and Kozzy. With all of those guys in the team and the power from stoppage of say Oliver and Trac, combined with the pace of those aforementioned guys, you've got an ability to play that forward handball game. Particularly from stoppage, exhibit A, all those out the front stoppage scores against GWS, which came from aggressive forward handballing.

My memory of the way they played was not to get in behind the defence, but to kick through the zone. Whereas now it seems to be about getting easier chances over the back. That was certainly the Collingwood method, but you're probably right overall

This is where I sit.

Laurie played midfield back end of last year. He did okay, but I think his pace is an issue there. I'd be more up for him playing half forward though. I think AFL teams are using the EPL method more and more. If you think about the use of chipping at the back to shift the defence and open up pockets of space in the corridor or behind the defence, this is something I think we're attempting with our chip game, that hasn't clicked yet.

Sinnema will be very handy to add to our shifting list profile.

Good post this. We've definitely upped how aggressive we are with forward handball. Very noticeable in Rounds 1 and 2, and even for patches of Round 3.

We were into Lever, May and Langdon before winning the flag. With a flag comes TPP constraints.

Langford kicks to advantage better than any of our players IMV. Bowey is one of our better kicks too

This is kind I reckon.

He was the carry over emergency, so.the FD think so.

Here we go. This is what I'd like to see this week. I know, a lot of changes, so unlikely. In. Sestan, Lever, Windsor, Spargo, Turner and Kozzy Out. Hendo, TMac, AJ, Lindsay, Sparrow and Billings Sestan May Petty Bowey Lever Windsor Sharp Oliver Langdon Chandler JVR Spargo Trac Fritta Turner Max Langford Kozzy Salem Viney Rivers Howes Sub. Melksham

What has it got to do with Hawthorn's poor start last year? Well, the fumbles, basic skill errors etc are illustrative of a lack of confidence in the system and second guessing themselves, overthinking etc. So back the system, demand better from the players, get the cattle on the park (Kozzy, Spargo and Windsor, all guys that can hit targets and in Kozzy and Caleb, break lines), fix our contest work and keep chipping away at the transition game until it becomes instinctive, and we build trust in it from there. Get rid of the honeypotting at contest, trust your team mate and no more long bombing as the first option. Be patient when it's not on to go (rather than kicking long to a contest, usually a 2v1 against), and go fast, direct and cleanly (getting it in the hands of guys who can kick to advantage) when it is on. I'd look at playing Sparrow or Sestan in the back pocket, releasing McVee to half back and giving us another good ball user higher up the field. We can still carry some ordinary kickers and decision makers in our team, providing they're bringing something else, like team first two way transition and winning their contests. No need for baby and bathwater, but we do need to look at how we bes utilise: 1) Clayton Oliver 2) Christian Petracca and 3) Jack Viney

A midfield of Langford, Lindsay and Windsor is salivating. Lindsay's tackling is insane. A bloke by the name of Lindsay had a pretty b loody good debut too a few weeks ago.

It didn't go under my radar mate 😆 But completely agree, a Judd-like debut. What I love about Langford is his ball use. Sam Mitchell wasn't quick either, but he was tough, he'd win contest and use it well. Langford's ground game might not be as good as Mitchell, but he will be an aerial threat in time. He even played from the goal square at at least one centre bounce. Judd and Mitchell. No pressure, Harvs.

Great analysis from Jeff. I'm really worried about Jones as a midfield coach. You've got players honeypotting it just like Jones used to. Some of this is no doubt a confidence thing, where you don't trust your team mates to get the job done. We need to rediscover this really quickly, but the coaches need to drill this into the players. Win your contest, back your team mate in, and support on the outside.

Gonna be a star. Thanks JT, you've nailed another ripper. And well done, Langers.

It's why I was so disappointed with the Suns match, because aside from 15 minutes or so in the whole match, we didn't try to control the ball and maintain possession on slow plays, we went for long high kicks to the contest. I think Max took one contested mark in this sort of long down the line situation, otherwise I can't remember another one. It annoyed me greatly, and I hope the coaches too, that we didn't try to maintain possession with short kicks to drag the opposition zone out, and keep them thinking. Instead we dropped simple marks, missed easy handballs and failed to hit 15m targets under almost no pressure. The internal expectations would be that with Kozzy, Windsor, Lever and Spargo back in the side, we put up a much stronger showing against Geelong. It may well get ugly on turnover on that funny shaped ground at GMHBA, but as long as we keep going for 'it', and don't go for the easy long down the line option every time, I'll be relatively happy. And by 'it', I mean on fast plays, from turnover use the corridor, hit simple targets, run, carry and show dare of ball movement and from stoppage use aggressive forward handball, blocks and run in waves (see Round 1). And on slow plays, we chip to maintain possession, and chip the ball to shift the zone of the opposition and keep them guessing. I also wonder whether we need to play Fritta from the goal square, JVR at CHF and Turner deeper with Fritta. Fritta is really the only forward who knows how to draw the ball on the lead. Our forward instruction appears to be hold back and not lead from slow plays, leaving space in front of you for the kicker to hit and you to lead into. With more confidence in the team, maybe this works. It worked much better against GWS, but we also looked to move the ball quicker. Anyway, I'd hope the coaching staff are very disappointed with the way the team went away from what they're trying to do, and even more so, I hope some of the players (particularly our leaders) hang their heads in shame a bit. Because our stoppage, contest and defensive transition game was amateurish.

Completely agree mate.

If you listen to Round 1 and 2 post pressers from Goody, they were about managing expectations. The club knows that the transition game style took a number of rounds for Collingwood to click in 2022 and for Hawthorn to click last year. I'm sure they were hoping we had Windsor, McVee and Lindsay available to us in those games Kozzy was missing, and were hoping we'd eek out 2 wins from the first three fixtures before Kozzy's return. I'd say we're below par, but we'll know more by the middle of the year. I'd say they'd want to be close to equal ledgering by that point.

I agree. Above, I've said that we have a mental fragility that we were told Darren Shand would be all over. The mental stuff is the most worrying. How much of it can be fixed by building trust in the system? I suspect much of it, so we need to play 4 quarters of footy that utilises the ball movement we've spent the summer and the previous summer practising, and give it a chance to gel, and from there perhaps belief and confidence grows. We had a similar game style in 2017-2018 that took a bit of time to gel, but by the second half of 2018 was becoming instinctive. When we shifted our game style from a super high press and repeat entries of this era to the defence first, contest first of territory, but less aggressive but repeat entries and overrunning the opposition in 3rd and 3th quarters across 2021, it took us 2019-2020 to shift that game style. Last year, we started the first part of the season playing a hybrid stoppage / transition game that was very hit and miss, but had us 6-2. We then lost to Collingwood, and lost our most influential score involvement player in Trac that was helping sustain the new game style. But the coaches (and players, I reckon) lost their nerve and went back to a territory contest game of 2021-2023. This had us in games against quality opposition like GWS and Port, but it meant we were delaying the inevitable, and wasting time practising the new model. I'd hope we could get it to click in 2025, but as I say, it took us two years 2019-2020 to get the defence first two way running game perfected by 2021, so 2026 might be the year we rocket up. It's hard to say, but first and foremost we have to stick to the plan and hold our nerve. Second, we need continuity out on the field with those guys that can transition the ball without simple turnovers. And third, we need to sort out our mental fragility.