Post Match. Pies thump Hawks - all comments please

[ThePieMind]

All this criticsm of DAWES is unjustified.
He plays a pivotal role, as many have said here TRAVIS is far more influential in the game when DAWES plays.
DAWES did some great things today, and 3 that come to mind were, holding of a defender for CLOKE to mark on a couple of occasions.
His contest against 2-3 HAWK defender on HFF flank in the 3rd QTR, when he won the ball then hooked his kick to the goal square for CLOKE to mark was great.
Not sure how many "power" forwards in the comp that have developed as quickly as DAWES - from memory he has played less than 40 games.

Agree that people need to look at the big picture

[AN_Inkling]

He is a good support tall forward, no question. Doing that role better than Roughead was able to at Hawthorn. It can be difficult for the second fiddle when the first fiddle is absolutely on fire - which Cloke is at the moment. Dawes is down, but absolutely still worth his spot (though, I remember a similar argument did not go down so well when it was Cloke not having the offensive impact some wanted in recent seasons. Swoop? ).

[swoop42]

Chris Dawes was horrible. If we had a forward in the VFL, I'd say Dawes needs a stint.

There I said it.

Start flaming.

Dawes gets man-handled so much each week that he has to fill out a Victims Impact Statement after the game.

Yep. And they just leave Cloke alone because they don't consider him a threat. Dawes is out of form. Not droppably so, but out of form. No point making silly excuses.

Not a silly excuse. He is out of form but he does also get mauled a lot. Cloke gets to more ball on the run, Dawes tends to get to contests in a crowd and gets mugged. part of the reason he's out of form imo is because of the way we put the ball to him. He gets pack raped in most contests which can't be good for his confidence.

This is an excellent point.

For me the best game Dawes has played was last season against the scum.

It's probably one of the few games that he seemed to be genuinely played as a leading full forward.

To often now he simply finds himself in situations across half forward where he has the ball kicked on his head whilst in a stationary position up against multiple opponents and people wonder why he doesn't mark it.

Now I'm not sure if this is Dawes doing because he doesn't know how to lead to give himself better opportunities or he simply leads to the positons asked of him?

No doubt needs to improve his overhead marking technique and should be encouraged to go for one grab marks.

At present he seems to have got into the bad habit of just using his palms to take the impact of the ball and then try to pluck it on the second attempt.

P.S-The glove seems to have no adverse affects on Travis so why not try one again. At the very least it might provide some form of psychological benefit to his confidence.

[Pies4shaw]

Dawes is certainly worth his place in the side. He is clearly the third best tall forward at the Club. Unfortunately, the second best plays at full back.

[jack_spain]

All this criticsm of DAWES is unjustified.

Not entirely mate, but I take your point.

I'm just amazed how much Steele Sidebottom has been immune to the blow torch on Nick's.

I thought some of his efforts today were disgraceful (nigh on pure laziness). He is coasting, and has done for most of the season. I thought after the finals series last year he was going to be the next big thing in our midfield. Right now Blair gives us a lot more (and Blair's form is well down too).

[swooper]

I adore Steele - but he was really off today. Give him a spell Mick.

[swoop42]

He is a good support tall forward, no question. Doing that role better than Roughead was able to at Hawthorn. It can be difficult for the second fiddle when the first fiddle is absolutely on fire - which Cloke is at the moment. Dawes is down, but absolutely still worth his spot (though, I remember a similar argument did not go down so well when it was Cloke not having the offensive impact some wanted in recent seasons. Swoop? ).

True but the one big difference is that Travis was already a Copeland trophy winner two years earlier and at the time he seemed to be going backwards.

With the form he displayed last season and in particular this year my criticism in someway was justified at the time (though short sighted) because I knew he was capable of much more.

Travis is only 14 months older than Dawes but he's got 3 extra years of AFL experience under his belt, 3 years in which he's been involved in countless contested situations he's now reaping the benefits of.

[What'sinaname]

Dawes' biggest negative is the inability to break away from his opponent. He always leads into contests and never leads into space to take a mark on a lead, ala Plugger.

His work in contests is excellent...bullocking, knock-on's etc are first rate but we need him to be able to lead, mark, goal.

[Deja Vu]

This talk of Dawes being out of form is a nonsense. We have to understand that at the moment he is playing his role perfectly within the structure. The kick to Dawes is often the "get out of trouble bang down the line to beat the press kick" and he competes for the ball if he doesn't mark it. He also often sacrifices his game so Cloke can continue on with his red hot form.

I just thinking calling for him to be spelled is like calling for Wellingahm to be spelled because he doesn't get as many touches as Pendles, Thomas and Swan. Everyone is playing their role at the moment and Dawes is as important as Luke Ball or Darren Jolly

[What'sinaname]

This talk of Dawes being out of form is a nonsense. We have to understand that at the moment he is playing his role perfectly within the structure.

MM, is that you?

[eddiesmith]

Maybe if Dawes could lead and find space he would be fine, but doesnt seem to be capable, Travis doesnt have an issue taking marks in space

As for Sidebottom, he has to go back to the VFL, its beyond a joke now, he cant bloody kick anymore

Anyway a very disappointing result, but the boys did pretty much stop quite early, not that they need to worry about next week, but we should have made a real statement and belted them, but today was just going through the motions. Hawthorn looked shocking, they were able to get through the press but it was useless when it came to scoring, much like Carlton and Essendon earlier in the year

Hawthorn suffer from Buddyitis, always look to Buddy when going forward and were unable to do anything with him being beaten well by Reid, but was a couple of cases today of Collingwood also having blinkers on going forward, Maxwell came running through the centre and instead of seeing Fasolo standing on his own with 50m of space inside 50, he kicks to a contest with Clokey, gotta look for more options

Funny because before Dawes starting playing like shit we really shared it around, but now Cloke is on fire he is becoming the main focus most of the time

[MJ23]

This talk of Dawes being out of form is a nonsense. We have to understand that at the moment he is playing his role perfectly within the structure. The kick to Dawes is often the "get out of trouble bang down the line to beat the press kick" and he competes for the ball if he doesn't mark it. He also often sacrifices his game so Cloke can continue on with his red hot form.

I just thinking calling for him to be spelled is like calling for Wellingahm to be spelled because he doesn't get as many touches as Pendles, Thomas and Swan. Everyone is playing their role at the moment and Dawes is as important as Luke Ball or Darren Jolly

agree with this and swoop comments.
Often Dawes does not lead into space to leave the space for cloke. Dawes is a very smart footballer, often gets a tap on or shep out that goes un-noticed. He also seems to be deep more often lately attracting the second or loose defender which also frees up cloke.
Not worried about Dawes at all.
sidey is around it and making a few errors we are not used to seeing. Hell be allright.
How good is toovey at reading the play ?
Maxwell made a comment that he did not train as the loose defender all pre-season for the other blokes to see how they went.
Ben reid - genius !!!

[Deja Vu]

This talk of Dawes being out of form is a nonsense. We have to understand that at the moment he is playing his role perfectly within the structure.

MM, is that you?

Funny stuff.

If Dawes doesn't play, who plays his position?

[AN_Inkling]

^^How about Chris Tarrant?

[eddiesmith]

Shae Mac would be a far better option than Dawes