Earl Hood

Lyon and Watson agreed this morning there wasn’t an issue with the endeavour of the players, it’s all about execution and I agree. So this not about playing for the jumper or commitment, it is about basic ability, game plan, and how we execute the game plan. Does the game plan work, does the GP suit our skill set, are we selecting the right people to play? They are questions for the coaching hierarchy. Not sure they have any answers.

What revolution we just don’t have the $ to move Goody on I am afraid. And that situation goes straight back to the board who signed off on Goodwin’s contract extension on the back of one good season. Why do that? he wasn’t about to be poached for heaven’s sake. Just add it to the list of incompetent decisions on top of the numerous non decisions made by our boards of directors for decades! Too many old school tie time servers, I suspect? I don’t know but they are at best mediocre.

Not much, the club can’t afford to pay out Goodwin after resigning to extra years too soon! If they hadn’t he would be out of contract this year I believe. in hindsight our drafting is looking like a shambles. I noted last week in Egan’s summary of the seconds run against Geelong that he described Jackson’s ruck work as outstanding “that’s obviously why we drafted him”!!! That hit a raw nerve as why would you cough up pick 3 for a backup ruck when you have Max and brought in Pruess as backup? At draft time MFC were talking more about his athleticism and his ability play forward or as a midfielder.

It is not easy to improve skills and decision making mid season or maybe at all but I do believe skills and decision making improves automatically when players have more time and space to work in. you may have noticed how much time and space the Cats players had last week as they played keepings off. Our game plan doesn’t seek time and space it encourages contests and rapid ball movement, players banging it forward to the next contest or attempting low percentage passes that get intercepted. Every loose ball yesterday seemed to go to a Tiger on the outside, where were our players positioned? I need to watch a replay to try and work out what our players are doing off the ball.

6 Gawn 5 Hibberd 4 Petracca 3 May 2 Fritsch 1 Hannan

Yes there were at least two Dusty miraculous ball releases while being tackled that should have been penalised. Hannan’s was diabolical, then there was the obvious blocking for Lynch marks! Interesting.

You did note that Townsend opportunistic goal came off Smith’s smothered kick after he made position to receive a 7 meter handball from Oliver that should have gone straight to his midriff but instead dropped to his feet. He did well to scoopthe ball up in full stride but then it got smothered. Who do you blame?

The trouble with demanding excellence is you will only have a very few lining up, Max, Tracc.......the rest are mortal and need coaching and guidance.

Well the AFL did announce that they would reward the tackler if the ball carrier did not release the ball when tackled. He had to make a genuine attempt to release the ball and if he did that would be play on. So as usual on the first week of the new interpretation they got it wrong. The free against Petracca in front of goal was ludicrous! Then there were two similar frees for us that were just play on. But that is footy when you keep changing the interpretations.

But I don’t think Jennings did either!

The Rose in Fitzroy? My local.

Why blame Jones or Jetta for today’s debacle?

Think about it for a minute. Jones in next week might just provide some on field leadership but even more importantly Jones so often provides an option, a release for a player under pressure. That was a real problem today, players getting the ball surrounded by Tigers and either coughing it up or going for a laser like pass to a player that was often covered. Why did so many 50/50 chaos balls in contention that were slapped, punched or kicked to no target nearly always go to a Tiger on the outside? Says a lot about our game strategy.

On a related note I intend to watch the replay to count the number of times Reiwolt blocked a Demon defender, usually Smith to let Lynch take a mark unopposed in the forward 50. I thought with 3 umpires they were cracking down on this stuff but not this week.

Well I was saying that Goodwin should make a statement so I would drop Oliver myself. Brayshaw and Viney are limited players but trying hard. I am sure Oliver is trying but he is potentially elite but not getting better, something is not right, maybe he needs a wake up call? Give him a rest to reflect and get some hunger. We are shot for the season, let’s face it so I would be trying some new talent and maybe even Jones comes in because our on field leadership is rubbish.

Didnt have a great game and the smothered kick out of defence that resulted in an opportunist goal wasn’t all his fault, he made position for an Oliver handpass. Oliver was under some pressure and managed to give off a 7m handball to a running Smith’s feet that he gathered well but the delay was enough for Tigers to intercept. Not sure what was going on with Oliver but he had a 27 possession shocker! Repeated kicks and handballs to no one at best and opposition at worst. But OK he still gets to the contest, that is something Viney used to do, but he seems to have dropped off.

I think I would make a statement and drop one of Oliver or Brayshaw and bring in one of the young mids, Dunkley, Jordan or Sparrow and we have to bring in Weideman, let’s see what he has got.

Well I thought TMac did do that last week on a number of occasions and watching the game again he did. But he needs tall support to spread the defence, he was double teamed all day but was competitive. Our mid sized forwards struggle because our delivery is poor and they aren’t exceptional in the air or on the ground. Melk crumbed a couple for snaps but only kicked points. Kossie looks dangerous but needs more games under his belt and I wonder if we are better to have Bedford up forward for the chaos ball rather than one of Hunt, Melk, Hannan, AVB?

Interesting I watched the game again to look at our ball movement and we do seem to have a problem seeing the best loose man option down back and obviously up forward. I thought one of our problems for years is players who don’t present as an option forward of the ball carrier and I believe it is still not perfect. However watching the replay we often had players running into space but were ignored by the ball carrier who then kicked down the line. I noticed Lockhart repeatedly running into space to be an option only to be ignored by the carriers. Is it that hard to see free options at ground level? It’s too long since I played and back then you just kicked it forward so I can’t remember. Reminds me of when we used to see Jack Watts alone on the half forward line yelling out for the ball only to see Maloney or Jones bomb it long to a contest. Things don’t change much.

Christ remind me not to go to Wellsies place, how many doors are there?

Come on who amongst us hasn't got on the spirits, walked out the wrong door and found themselves naked in the street and then picked up by the cops? Well I might have but then that was a long time ago when streaking was all the rage and I wasn’t VC of an AFL team in COVID lockdown!

Why did we only have 14? We have 4 long term injured so have about 40 available. Of the 18 reserves did we have 4 emergencies for the ones?

Should be playing up at half forward not so deep and TMac has to contest deep if we are not playing a second tall. Hard to tell on TV but Fritsch is playing deep and Mac just trying to make a contest to every inside long bomb!

A Hawks friend said they are tending to minimise any changes and sticking with players who have played together a lot in previous seasons. It may be a bit unfair to those trying to get a game but it is due to the limitations of training this year. Makes some sense to me and we are going with 5 or 6 unforced changes each week playing newbies who may have ability but don’t instinctively know how their fellow line players play. So let’s limit the changes next week. I would say bring in Weid for forward structure and Bennell.

Indefinite! Osteo pubis I suspect.