Post Match. Pies thump Hawks - all comments please

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

not the most satisfying win but a win nonetheless. Really thought we should've buried them.

I don't give a crap about their injuries, we had BJ, Didak, Beams, Mcaffer and N. Brown out. Still plenty of upside, I fear them not

What did your brother think of the game, Emu? Or did he leave before he could tell you what he thought?

Not much choice, I was his lift home. He was pretty quiet mate. Very frustrated with their inability to get the ball past half forward

[jack_spain]

In reality our real test will be in two weeks time.

That game will be a must win as to lose would fill the scum with the belief that they can beat us come finals and claim the flag.

Win it and I can almost smell the silverware.

I agree with you too swoop. Believe it or not, Carlscum is our real challenge this year. They, more so than Geelong (who might run out of legs) and Hawthorn, are trying to adopt our game plan.

A Collingwood-Carlton grand final would be an AFL dream. But unless we iron out some of our deficiencies and laziness in the midfield, it could be a nightmare for us.

[Dark Lord]

The much hyped Hawthorn game plan- one designed to beat the press was smashed to pieces by Collingwood's press. Next!

Spot on. So much for their much vaunted "precise kicking" game. Pressure is pressure is pressure, and they turned it over.

[AN_Inkling]

An excellent performance. Would have been brilliant had we finished the last quarter better.

Cloke continues to dominate - should have kicked 4 or 5. Our midfield did the job, with a nice even spread. Our defense was super. Not a poor performance amongst them, with Reid playing the best game of his career. We kicked the ball well all day, and showed up the supposed best kicking team in the comp. Jolly did very well in his return. And most importantly, our intensity was right up there, with wins in both tackles and contested ball.

Did the minimum required to beat a Hawks reserves side, nothing more.....second gear all day.

Massive exaggeration. They really had three significant outs today: Roughead, Lewis and Sewell. Hardly irreplaceable, and not the difference on the day. Yes, Rioli is a big loss, but he's out so often he's more of a bonus when he's in than a loss when he's out. Their tall outs will be out for the season, and other than Roughead are not overly good.

If they were good enough, they should have been more competitive with the team they had on the park. We've had, N.Brown, L.Brown, Jolly, Johnson, Thomas, Swan, Dick... out at various stages, and have covered them better than the Hawks did today.

If you can't cover injuries to mid-range players, you're not a contender.

[Brenny]

^ We smashed it. I was so happy we stuck it up them.

It's a boring game of footy to watch I tell you.

[Dark Lord]

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.

[Duff Soviet Union]

^ We smashed it. I was so happy we stuck it up them.

It's a boring game of footy to watch I tell you.

No kidding. Absolutely shitful.

[AN_Inkling]

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.

[jack_spain]

It's hilarious the players getting votes on Nick's today.

Swan might have racked up a few possies but often he just kicked it willy-nilly (some gave him 3 votes). Pendlebury was almost unsighted after half-time (he got votes). Someone even gave Daisy 3 votes.

Perhaps we're getting the reverse-Brownlow effect here. Swan, Pendlebury and Thomas attract votes on Nick's even when they play poorly by their lofty standards.

Reid and Cloke were the obvious standouts all day.

[stui magpie]

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.

[jack_spain]

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.

Well then he has to live up to his nickname doesn't he. He needs to toughen up and find a way (like Cloke has) to take pack marks. Carey did it. Brereton did it. Jonathan Brown does it. Cloke is doing it. The ball is in Dawes'court now. Is he going to just be an average player or actually become a star?

[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.

Take Dawes out of the team and you can be sure Cloke will find the going all the more difficult.

Dawes attracts multiple opponents often, without him they'll be free to concentrate all there energy on Travis.

Dawes has been solid to good the last 3 weeks, giving us a marking target coming off half back and allowing Travis to remain closer to goal for longer periods.

Time for people to look at the big picture of our overall structure and not make rash decisions on the back of one poor performance.

[Damien]

On the negative side (and we need to clear these up before the finals).

* Time for Sidebottom to have a rest (he's turned into a lazy footballer).
* Our midfield was smashed today (with the exception of Luke Ball). Even more damning when Jolly was doing so well in the ruck contests. Swan is a million miles off his best and Pendlebury drifted in and out of the game. Wellingham ditto. Blair gave us a bit of grunt but seems to have fallen off with his finishing. Sidebottom must be dropped.
* Leigh Brown doesn't do enough.

* Harry O. I don't know what to say. He is a mirror of play at the moment. He can do some amazing things but lairises far too much. Too many turnovers and often beaten in the one-on-one contests.
.

Jeez mate you are a harsh critic.

Leeroy is slightly off the boil but I'll take 2 goals from my second string ruckman every week.

Harry O - if you want the flair then you have to take the good with the bad. I reckon the way he runs off his opponent and plays on at every opportunity is worth its weight in gold.

I'd hardly say we were smashed in the midfield. I thought they were all serviceable without anyone standing out.

Our players need to be challenged or they get lazy and start lairising and thats what happened today after half time.

The skipper took a massive step froward today. Is just starting to warm towards the finals I reckon.

Cloke is a Bohemiath. The Cloke Dawes combo is scary and for that reason Dawesy should be entitled to have a lean patch otherwise the system will be threatened.

Tazza just love the way he is playing. Obviously the good work up the ground helped his task today but he was good on Buddy.

[OEP]

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.

I think Dawes greatest weakness at the moment is he doesn't mark the ball out in front of himself often enough and gives the opposition defender a chance to spoil. There were a number of times he had his direct opponent beaten but allowed him back into the contest trying to chest mark the ball. It's a flaw that can be easily changed during the offseason but hard to change during the season.

Also it should be noted he was tasked with keeping Birchall out of the game, and he performed this task perfectly. This was a major reason the Hawks struggled coming out of defense, without Birchall's ability to kick accurately over the zone our forward press easily bottled them up.

All-in-all I'm pretty happy with his progression given his age and lack of games (not yet even reached his 50 game milestone). He chases hard, is very intelligent, is a team orientated player, has a massive frame and engine, is a beautiful kick for goal, and has many other good traits (including giving us a much better structure up forward, and is a major reason Cloke is having an AA year). His best football is still a number of years away, so if this is his low ebb then I'm a happy camper.

[AN_Inkling]

^^No doubt Dawes plays a bit of a decoy and defensive role at times. And, as I say, not playing badly enough to be dropped. But his offensive work is down. He's not taking many marks and not kicking many goals. Has looked a bit slow on the lead at times.