Adam The God

I would have taken a potential compliment like 'I'm really impressed with your improvement' or some such line from a Hawthorn fan as patronising. Lol, I had completely forgotten about Hodge. All those guys will be out in a year or two anyway. The Hawks are aging and may well just fall off a cliff in the next year or two. As Geelong will and North.

I think our midfield played a big role in locking the ball inside forward 50. We needed frenetic pressure from Kent, Harmes and Garlett. For the most part we didn't get it.

Yesterday was a very clear example of Dawes doing this a number of times. We had a very good view on it from the forward pocket. He kept being caught on the wrong side of the ground. Like I said in my earlier post, if it was under instruction, okay, but if not he wasn't where he should have been, that is, up the line to provide a contest. Of course, he was there often, but he just seemed not to understand where he should be multiple times in the new game style. I found it quite worrying. Let's agree to disagree. But if we get more of the same from him next week, I'll be calling for his head again. He should only play when Pedersen is injured and Weideman and Hulett remain non match-ready.

Sorry x, what I meant by my thick comments were if you'd seen the game and drew that conclusion. Hawthorn were cleaner and more efficient going forward, despite (I thought) our midfield dominance. But a lot of scores came from rushed behinds or pressured kicks from tighter angles. Our midfielders and defenders did a really good job of pressing the opposition and ensuring they didn't get an abundance of easy shots at goal. Although there were a couple of what I would call 'soft' goals conceded on the day.

Dawes is 27 year old premiership player, who despite coming back from injury and playing in difficult marking conditions, has demonstrated now over a period of time at Melbourne that he can't take marks overhead, runs to the wrong places and get consistently gets burnt off on the rebound. He's had more than ample chances to improve his game and he hasn't. Oscar McDonald on the other hand is a young KPD who needs time to develop and is improving with every game. His flaws are still present, but he's already a better kick than his brother. He needs to work on his decision making and core strength/strength in the contest. I'd argue Dawes does the exact opposite to our structure. He hampers it. When Pedersen plays he takes the second ruck duties, when Dawes plays Watts still has to take second ruck duties. This takes Watts away from our forwardline. The guy who's kicked the second-most goals for us. Dawes doesn't offer enough. He's in a similar mould to his ex-team mate Travis Cloke. He's too one dimensional - he's not multi-positional, which is something Roos has tried to breed in this group. I would have agreed previously when posters would say Roos clearly likes him and would pick him first. However, with the game style we have now, we've no room for a one-dimensional leading forward who can't mark and rarely hits the scoreboard. The 'Dawes straightens us up' rhetoric is also another example of flawed group-think.

He made a number of good spoils and given the slippery conditions managed to help clear the ball from defensive 50 effectively at least a few times. He can get pushed off the ball too easily at times, but so can his brother.

He'll learn. Give him a run of games back there and he'll be able to limit these errors soon enough.

The Demonland group-think surrounding Omac's form is a little perplexing. The rhetoric continues to be that he looks 'way off it'. He's not winning every contest and he makes a few errors here and there, but so does Jesse Hogan. If you compare Omac's start to Frawley's start, you could plot a similar trajectory I'd reckon. Playing Oscar in the 2s isn't going to speed up his development, it's going to slow it. I'm glad the FD seem to agree, as they continue to play him at the highest level.

I'm surprised he's not copping more heat. He's a lazy, lazy footballer. You watch his game today and you'll note his lack of second efforts.

I was really impressed with Frost's ability to sprint at an opponent and lay a crunching quick tackle. Most of the time he managed not to give the free kick away, but was unlucky once or twice. I know it was wet, but I was arguably most excited by Frost's game.

Agree with everything but 'we are a mile off it down back'.

I thought we were really inefficient going forward in the first quarter and we played some pretty dumb footy. But inexperience will do that. We needed to adjust our game to wet weather play. That's why we were leading the CPs and clearances but failed to lead on the scoreboard or even convert that dominance to scoring shots of any kind. If you were to look at the scoreboard today, you might be forgiven (if you were a little thick) for thinking the Hawks poor kicking meant the result was a lot closer, but I actually think we were a lot closer on the day than a three goal margin.

Oliver will be A grade, as will Tyson, as will Petracca. Love him, but not entirely sold on Brayshaw becoming an A grader. Not sure where Salem sits, but I did have high hopes for him. Viney will become an A grader if he can shrug a tag. There's still not enough elite midfield talent on the list though. Vince and Jones can play elite games, but they're not elite players IMO. Both solid B+ graders. They can't be the front line every week. It worked pretty well today due to the sluggish conditions. Vince and Jones' high, often directionless kicks worked, because we just needed to get it moving forward in the wet and put the opposition under pressure inside forward 50, but they both lack the time that an Oliver does. I think our younger players showed some really positive signs today though. Hunt, Frost, Oscar McDonald, Wagner, Oliver all showed some more glimpses of what they will become. I can see Hunt becoming a better version of Lumumba. Electric pace than enables him to break the lines, but he also exhibits a really good defensive game. Some of his spoils are brilliant for a player of his size. I think Stretch will better for today's game. He panicked for mine a bit today, but that was against a high pressure opposition and at the end of the day he wasn't completely shown up. Petracca the same. We need to get high pressure games into these young kids, so they know where they have to get to. Jeffy has probably played his two worse games for the club two weeks in a row. He was so unclean today, in conditions that would normally suit him. Hate losing to that mob. Their supporters have always been so smug, even before the 2008 flag. Didn't help my fiancée was sending me 'Go Hawks' text messages throughout the game as well. What a piece of work.

It's a credit to our structures and team pressure around the contest today that we were close. The midfield of Jones, Tyson and Vince (who all worked really hard and got a heap of it) is pretty much our 2014 midfield. Granted guys like Oliver went in occasionally (though he looked sore today, but it was basically our B midfield. This brings me back to the midfield issue that we keep debating on Demonland. As soon as Viney goes down, we look thin in there for class. Oliver, Tyson, Vince occasionally. Desperately need more A graders to compete with the better midfields.

No, that was my opinion. And others around us. So let's not act like he had a good game, because he didn't. And to say he broke even at every contest is a simplistic view of contested footy. He didn't get to enough contests. The main contests he got to were stationary contests, where the ball was kicked on his head. That makes it tough to mark, particularly in the wet. I lost count of the number of times Gawn or Hogan looked up the line and Dawes was on the other wing. Now unless this was under instruction, it means Dawes wasn't where he should have been. Why is it that Hogan or Pedersen rarely seem to have balls kicked on top of their heads the whole time? It's usually just Dawes. He doesn't cover the ground well enough. He chases hard and does his best, but that doesn't mean it's good enough.

Everyone around us thought he was ordinary too. I go every week, mate. Sit down.

Oh and Dom was terrific.

I thought Frost was excellent though and the McDonald brothers were solid too.

We're watching a different game then, mate. We desperately needed someone to take the pressure off our defenders a number of times coming out of defence. They kicked to Dawes and even when he had the clear height advantage a number of times he never looked like marking it. He took one good mark at half forward when it was kicked perfectly to his advantage. His failure to get to contests and provide an option down the line time and again is a massive issue. He'd be at those contests from kick outs, because everyone else is stationery. I'm not saying he has to be the greatest player, but he needs to be able to take the pressure off his team mates every now and then. And when players kick to him one on one in the forwardline against an undersized opponent, he needs to be able to mark it occasionally. Never looked like it.

Chris Dawes cannot play again. His inability to take marks directly resulted in 4 goals that I counted. Absolute disgrace.

There's far more competition for midfield spots than there is for KPD.

Hey Demonlanders. Does anyone know which bays Melbourne supporters and/or the cheer squad sit in at the SCG for our round 13 clash? Thanks in advance, legends. Still trying to get tickets.

I hope Hardwick keeps his job. An ordinary, ordinary coach. They have been going nowhere for five years now.

Newton has no semblance of defensive game. He didn't last season and he clearly doesn't this season. A liability as a midfielder and too slow for half forward.

Omac hasn't been too bad for mine.