Adam The God

Fevola will probably be too old for even Carlton, when they get into their premiership window, let alone when we do. Would have been a horrible, horrible idea. I'm glad they've gone with the youth policy.

They've been nothing but efficient in my dealings with them.

I think I'll be there.

You honestly think that there are people out there who went to the football because they have a about a one in 10-20,000 chance of winning $5,000?

As strange as it sounds, all these things help.

wot da fek. grimes does not having foot skills remotely comparable to wheately. Grimes is criticised for his kicking skills whereas wheately's boot was the sole reason he made a career for himself.

It's a bit of a stretch comparing his kicking to Wheately, admittedly, but from what I've seen of him so far and particularly the other night he might be that player.

It's disappointing to hear our fans holding them up, but we need to start up something like this with Hankook or Kaspersky. I've mentioned it in another thread, it might just get a few more Dees along to the games.

He is not very quick. He couls still play in the midfield but I can see him playing a josh drummond type role. His fantastic kicking skills could free up Davey for a more attacking position.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. In a way he'll kind of be taking Wheatley's half back role. Obviously, Wheatley's strength is his long, accurate kicking. The next Wheatley?

Personally, I think what we'd get for him wouldn't warrant letting him go. He'll be a better player at MFC than anywhere else, and has shown tremendous loyalty. Unless it was a first rounder, there'd be no point in letting him go, so he stays.

McLean is one of those in and under players that all sides need. We almost have too many of them, as they sometimes lack leg speed and ours certainly do. BUT, put a star midfielder next to Brock, for example a Judd (our best bet is obviously the unproven Scully) and all of a sudden he becomes a wonderful asset. Brock still needs to work on his disposal and decision making, because he could still let the side down with those traits, even with great players around him. There's also a guy called Morton who could play in and out of the midfield too. We need the Brocks, just as we need the Judd's.

Is a lot quicker than rivers who i think is better suited ot the floating back role!

I'd agree with that as well. That said, I think Rivers did a fantastic job on him in the final term. The tackle was first class, in a pressurised situation.

I've read a few topics now that posters have ripped into Robbo, there is no question that our forward line is better with him in it, he is a hungry forward that wants to kick goals. One brain fade but if it goes through we stand up and cheer. He will be our leading goal kicker this year.

I'm sick of hearing week after week that the team we play was down or took the foot off the pedal, one or two weeks you cop that but every game give me a break. Has anyone thought maybe we are causing these teams to play badly.

I'm with you for the latter part of this post, but the first bit on Robbo, he certainly straightens us up and we do look better with him on the ground, that said, his selfishness and lack of team awareness often gives me the shits. In some ways, I would rather them give a young bloke a go and see if they can't present a focal point up forward.

In the first quarter I don't think there was much Chip could have done to stop Buddy, the ball was coming in that quick. Players like Scarlett etc would have struggled to contain him.

Agreed, but I would have been interested to see how Garland would have dealt with it.

Totally agree, These Twilight games are designed for Foxtel TV. When we are winning & kicking larger scores these timeslots will be hand balled to the Kangaroos & Tigers! Over the past 3 years i am amazed our crowds have been so large considering the type of football being played. Granted 2009 is vastly improving but we are still 1-9. (Imagine if the Kangaroos were on 1-9, & there games were twilight at the 'G)..Be Patient & the masses will Roll up. Those wearing a brand new scarf looking for the Gents!!

It's funny and hypercritical, because they're the ones that give me the shits, but in saying that I'd love to see them everywhere. Hawthorn have about 40,000 of them.

Look its simple. The Game was on at a very un family time (unless you were at Home watching Fox at Home with Dinner on the Knee)

We as a club have not won a flag since 64 & after 45 years are still on the Bottom. Not all supporters are as passionate as the people on here. Start Winning & the numbers will return.

There were 8-10,000 Demons there last night.

It was a [censored] to get Home so Connex take some blame.

Look, I see what you're saying, 'why you little', but it doesn't make it right. We've got too many of these soft 'supporters'. It's not even really about being passionate. It finished at 8.30 for christs sake! How early are we getting to bed in these parts? And as I've said already, we can't use the family thing as an excuse. I saw plenty of Hawthorn families. Granted they're doing well and won a premiership last year. Still, it's not acceptable. Get along to the games everyone.

And Stan Alves on 774 gave him 3 votes - best on ground (Dermy gave him 1 vote over at SEN).

But of course Stan's a mature head

And Dermy's a Hawk...(granted Alves is probably a Demon:P but far more objective than Derm)

AdamFarr - When we were doing well in 2004-2006, I'm pretty sure we were a top 5 team when it came to crowd averages. Something in the 45k range. We almost got 40,000 at the G on a Saturday afternoon when we played West Coast in 2005. We can pull big crowds. Had we been up a flying, there'd had been 50k there last night. At least.

I was definitely at that game, was that the game where Sampi took that mark? I don't remember there being that many. Perhaps, it's just been too long between drinks?

I don't disagree, but at the expense of whom? Once you include the injured Garland, our backline is chockers at the moment.

Yeah, he wouldn't get a game down back in my team.

Yeah, I read this yesterday morning, before the game. Interesting read, I know a couple of people who know him and they say he's a freak too. If it's the same Holly Bradshaw I'm thinking of, I know her too.

IMO, Frawley really struggled on Buddy. Buddy kicked three on him in no time at all. I'm not sure who played on him for the 3rd term, but Rivers killed him in the final quarter. We missed Garland I reckon. As for the manning up, it's frustrating to me as well, but it seems that we're playing more zonal, rather than man on man. As for Hawks taking their foot off the pedal, maybe but I think that's not giving our boys enough credit.

I think long term, if he's going to make it, he needs to play in the middle... I don't think he's going to feature in our forward line, and the queue is a mile long to get a game down back... Any reason with another pre-season or two he couldn't play in the middle?

A question... I was overseas when Ricky made his debut, and the reports were all very positive positive. He played across half back I believe. What did he do down there to get everyone so excited at the time?

For me, he never showed anything particularly outstanding, except a tremendous piece of courage, when he got his punctured lung. Apart from that, perhaps we were just hoping for a star?

Agree completely guys. My voice is just about done after all that shouting. And how about those Hawks supporters. Precious little Buddy. Can't go near him without the crowd going up, winging for a free. I remember vividly, at one point Buddy pushed one of our blokes square in the back and absolutely nothing. It'd be great to be a galmour side wouldn't it?

With all due respect, 10,000 of those members are in Tasmania, with another few thousand interstate.

Melbourne would probably have 25,000-28,000 members in Melbourne. Consider that probably only 60-70% of members attend games, even when the club is up and winning, and that brings you down to 15-18k, plus probably 2-3k casual fans. That's when we're doing well. +30,000 Hawks members/supporters Add on roughly another 10k if we were a top 8 side. We're not, so obviously less people are going to attend.

I don't entirely agree with this either. We were up and running throughout the early and mid 2000s, yet we still weren't drawing the numbers. I'm still not convinced we'll pull big crowds when we rise to the top 8 either. I agree, though that the numbers certainly increase when a team is winning, which is so disappointing.

Jimmy and his team have done a wonderful job so far, but so much is still to be done. Now that we've managed to get these members on board, we have to try and get them to matches. One thing I noticed tonight was that Hawthorn do a hell of a lot of competition/giveaways on game day and as strange as it might sound, that might just get a few extra thousand along to games. I know they've been doing that sign crap for a couple of seasons now, but perhaps we should look at doing something like this with our home matches? Over the past year, there's no doubt our club has become more professional. We have seemingly a proper training base, with top class facilities. We've formed a number of little subsidery fan clubs, if you like, such as 'Mates of Melbourne' and so fourth. They're doing a fantastic job, but on game day, we need to think about having something a little bigger than a match day raffle.

Don't know where you were sitting today Rusty, but i was sitting top level Olympic stand, and saw a decent amount of red and blue, considering it was an away game. Certainly a lot more [censored] and poo colours, but i'd like to think it was about 1:3

Oh, there's no way it was a 1:3 ratio. They easily out numbered us, even in the MCC they probably outnumbered us. As I was driving in there were hoards of Hawthorn supporters going in and many with young families and so fourth, s owe can hardly use that as an excuse either.

To be honest, I don't think he has one. I know it's early and I know he's young, but if you stick another tall in the forwardline, along with Watts, when he finally comes in, when Wonna, Jetta and Jurrah are taking up small forward positions and Maric, Morton and Bate are patrolling the rest of the forward half, I don't see him figuring in our long term plans. Unless, he can put on a bit of weight and perhaps play across half back, but again, we're already looking pretty good for our back half.

Personally, I think he started the year reasonably. His attack on the ball was good and his tackling was hard, but the last few weeks he's been very lucky to get the recall. As for tonight, some of his tackle attempts were pretty poor. If we're talking about defensive pressure as well, he completely lacked it tonight.

Starting with Cale Morton's game, there's no doubt he wasn't as effective today, but it's a sign of a good player that even though tagged, he still found the football, with 23 touches. I think what was most notably missing tonight, in his performance, was correct decision making. I don't mean to say all the time, but a few times he got the ball, I thought he used the wrong option. In recent weeks, one of his strengths has been his ability to assess the situation and sum it up quickly. This has enabled him to make the right decision, however that skill let him down tonight. That said, he's still a young player and still learning the game. He's a beauty.

Obviously, Sylvia's game was easily the most pleasing and exciting aspect from the Hawks game, but there were many positives we can take from the game. Firstly, Grimes played another very promising game, having the better of Rioli in the first half. His kicking today was "centimetre perfect", as was Sylvia's excluding his shot on goal earlier in the night.

Watching FOX SPORTS NEWS, I was annoyed to hear something along the lines of "Hawks produce impressive display to easily account for the Demons". Were they watching the game? They only won by 22 points. That's not easily accounting for an opponent. I thought Hawthorn's second half was pretty pathetic really, especially considering they are the premiers....they didn't play like it. And how about the last 5 to 10 minutes? That was some of the most negative football I've ever seen, even worse than the days of Essendon and Kevin Sheedy. Surely, they had to back themselves to win one on one contests, against the side sitting at the bottom of the ladder? Instead they chipped it 'round and eventually turned it over. I thought some of the Hawks skills were terrible tonight. I think Bailey has his zones right and the team did him credit and the last 5 minutes or so was proof of that.

We did, however let ourselves down early on with our kicking. Had we kicked straight like the previous two weeks, we probably would have come closer. Still, 22 points is not a blow out by any means and once again our defense did its job, with an honourable mention to Jared Rivers. He was fantastic down back and was in our top 5 tonight.

Maric also showed what he can deliver with sublime foot skills, pin pointing 50 metre passes on more than one occasion. Bennell showed bits and pieces too. Johnson had another solid game and I thought out rucked Campbell for most of the game. Robbo's decision making and kicking let us down again tonight though. I know he's a fan favourite, but his selfishness often hurts the team. On at least two occasions he could have shepparded the ball through for a goal, but instead attempted a mark that was not on and was spoiled. Need I mention his brain freeze on the goal line? As a senior player, he needs to pull his head in next week. If Watts was available next week, I'd play him ahead of Robbo, on Robbo's performance tonight. I'd almost give Newton another try next week, instead.

Now back to Sylvia's game. If he can show this sort of endeavour consistently, for 4 quarters, for 22 games, he has the game to become an absolute superstar. I just hope he follows this performance up, with another impressive display next week, against the Saints. His attack on the ball and man tonight was fantastic. He really looked hungry and it was the first time I've ever seen him play four consistent quarters. Remember, he might have had five goals, had he kicked properly early in the peace. Furthermore, there were certainly glimmers of leadership in his game tonight.

Finally, another pleasing thing about the game was we weren't blown out of the water. That is becoming a theme when we loose these games. Even when we were down by 55 points, we kept at it and with that we came reasonably close in the end. Had Hawthorn had the balls to play the game out for the last 5 minutes, who knows what could have happened.

Another round gone, another major stepping stone in our development. Let's hope next week, we really take up to the Saints and give them a scare. Go Dees!

PS. Where the heck were all the Melbourne supporters? I read threads about wanting to play at the 'G and not Ethihad, yet when we have an MCG game, no one turns up! It was embarrassing to be out numbered so easily. Especially, when you think, just over ten years ago Hawthorn were in a financial crisis, just like us.

I think this thread is a bit unfair to be honest. Davey still had an important impact today, he may not have been as damaging as usual, but I'm glad he played. He still put on tackles, ran to receive and set up play. Some people don't seem to realise his importance to the team. If you don't have someone running by for the handball and setting up play, the style of play we play, then it's never going to work. Despite the close attention thrust on Aaron, he still managed 17 touches (14 of them kicks) and set the play up numerous times.

IMO Davey has the best defensive pressure in the side, easily. He's the one chasing every time.