Finals bound
Another cracking result to send us soaring into September
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ROUND 24: HAWKS 20.14 (170), KANGAROOS 7.4 (46)
📝 Main recap:
Well, it actually happened.
We got through the pre-game nerves which included a re-scheduling of times to play in Tasmania earlier in the day on Saturday. It was a blessing in disguise because even the wait through to 12:30pm to confirm the inevitable became excruciating enough.
But it didn’t take long.
It was a performance that mirrored our season. A bit slow to start (which was understandable as we adopted to the conditions) holding onto a one-point advantage halfway through the opening term. But what followed was art.
It was breathtaking, it was exhilarating, it was pulsating, and it was utterly humiliating - for North Melbourne.
A 124-point victory which was the exclamation mark at the end of a terrific home and away season. So much fun, and a truly apt way to finish one of the most enjoyable years on record.
Yes we are in the finals.
And yes, we would love to win one - or two - or three - or four of them.
But let’s pause and reflect on the journey thus far - how proud we should be of our club and our warriors that battled through every week to show up and perform each weekend in 2024.
Who through their hard work, determination, fraternity and passion have made most of our Monday to Friday work weeks so much more enjoyable.
A group of players who play for our jumper and bleed brown and gold.
Let’s just pause and reflect on the joy they have given us this season thus far and appreciate it.
And then… let’s dare to dream.
🧐 Things we like to see — Massimo stakes his AA claim
If the All-Australian selectors were somehow unsure of Massimo D’Ambrosio’s credentials to nab a spot on this year’s wing, they were hopefully watching our game. Mass was everywhere - racking up touches at will, kicking a couple of goals and linking defence through to offence all day. Another pinch ourselves game where we shake our heads knowing that we somehow got him for nothing.
🧐 Things we like to see — The Wizard in full flight
Not sure where all the doubters from draft night and from the first half of the season are, but we can’t hear them. What a player the Wizard is, and when he is in full flight there is not much better to watch. Showtime, Hollywood, Star - however you want to describe him we are grateful he’s ours, and can’t wait to see him light up the finals in 2024 and beyond.
🧐 Things we like to see — Sam Frost smiling
Every week after each win we get a selfie from the team from on the ground as they celebrate another four premiership points. And more often that not Sam Frost brings the attitude. So it was particularly noticeable on Saturday that Frosty - who did an incredible job on Nick Larkey in defence, had a huge grin on his face for the team mugshot. If anyone deserves the enjoyment and fun of footy that we are all feeling at the moment, it’s Frosty - so smile away Sam… smile away.
🕵🏻♂️ Observations from Ash:
The most pleasing part of Saturday? Foot to the throat all afternoon. The coach was displeased with some of what he saw against Richmond last week, but on Saturday they powered home. No let-up at all.
Jai Newcombe has had a magnificent month to close out the season. A big September and he might rejoin the ‘potential A-Grader’ conversation. Strong evidence he has taken his game to another level. Perhaps not Jy Simpkin level (!) but just what Hawthorn needs, especially with Will Day only an even-money bet for the first final.
I made the observation after the opening game of the season that Essendon made barely a ripple whenever Massimo D’Ambrosio got the ball. Even though he did a lot. Clearly, they thought him as vanilla as did his coach. Wonder what they think now?
The skinny on Mass was that he was a neat, but non-threatening outside mid. But his defensive work and willingness to drop into the hole and put himself in place where hard contact surely waits, is remarkable. What a player. Depending on some other list management moves, there should be some spare cash to offer him a reasonable contract extension before long.
Last thing on Mass. There could have been a world in which the Hawks pulled the wrong lever in delisting Lachie Bramble, who will play against the Hawks next week. But he is a significant upgrade. Hawk 2014 premiership teammates Taylor Duryea (playing) and Matt Spangher (coaching) also in the enemy camp next week.
Nick Watson doing Nick Watson things is now a weekly occurrence but that was Jack Ginnivan’s best outing for a month. And giving the verbals to the North blokes was the right move at the right time because it gave the Hawks the spark they needed. Craig McRae urged ‘Ginni’ to “read the room” after his pre-Grand Final visit to the races. On Saturday, he did.
One more on Ginnivan. Do you think he felt there was any real prospect at the start of the season that his new team would be playing finals and that his old club would not? He was sporting the widest grin in Tasmania on Saturday night.
Not a massive fan of the pre-finals bye, but in this instance it helps the Hawks. A few sore bodies and an extra week for Will Day and now, Conor Nash. Not the worst thing. And how about another shout-out for the genius of Peter Burge. These boys are fit and hard.
The Lloyd Meek-Tristan Xerri clash was a beauty. Thought Meek played him well, but Xerri is good player. North don’t have many building blocks, but he is one.
Beat the Dogs and Luke Breust’s 300th game will come on semi-final weekend. What a stage that will be.
Lots of time to ponder selection for the elimination final. Day, a no-brainer of course, but a fit CJ on the MCG world be hard to leave out. But he has some work to do.
Hello, Ticketek queue. Haven’t seen you for six years. We’ve missed you.
⭐️ Best on ground — Jai Newcombe
If there is one thing that we have learned over the past couple of seasons, it’s that Jai Newcombe loves playing wet weather footy. From early in the game against the Roos it was Newcombe who seemed most assured in the slippery conditions, showcasing his quality as an inside mid. Finished the game with 35 disposals at 88% efficiency, a massive 15 score involvements, 10 clearances, five marks and six inside 50’s. Just looked a cut above and given the quality we had out there that is no mean feat. Special mention Massimo…
💫 Rising star — Cam Mackenzie
Got his opportunity to play more midfield minutes with Will Day out of the side and grabbed it with open arms. A solid 23 touches at 87% disposal efficiency, five tackles, seven clearances and a host of inside 50’s and score involvements. One moment where he got caught red handed turning into traffic, but his development in 2024 has been outstanding - adding 20 matches already to his career tally. Looking forward to seeing him in a fortnight in a final.
👼 Unsung hero — Lloyd Meek
Had the flu all week and was apparently touch and go to play, but boy did the big man put a shift in against a ruckman in Tristan Xerri that many believe will be All Australian this year. Less possessions and tackles, but beat him in the hit-outs, beat him in the marks, and kicked a behind with a set shot which he would usually have drilled. Also had a higher hit-out win percentage and higher hit-out to advantage percentage and again showed why he is now one of the premier big men in the competition. Well earned break coming up for Meek - rest well big fella.
🤯 Under pressure — Damian Barrett
😑 ‘Happy?’ Brad’s early call
Get set ladies and gentlemen to see Brad unleash his fury at our LIVE Panel Show this Wednesday night. Expecting him to dish out rainbows and puppies and hugs for all 😉.
🪜 The ladder check-in
In the words of Stevie Wonder:
🎶 “Isn't she lovely, Isn't she wonderful, Isn't she precious.” 🎶
It is in fact, a thing of beauty. A wonderful way to end the home and away season - sitting inside the top eight at the end of the season proper for the first time in six seasons. And no matter what happens from here, the ride has been magical.
🎤 Sammy said what!?
“I thought the players were really good at being diligent - it was a bit of an arm wrestle early and we were just able to slowly get ahead.”
“It wasn’t all our own terms but credit to the players - they handled the challenge well.”
“So many people have been so consistent for so long to be able to get to this point where we see the player’s joy and the way they play together and support each other.”
“I look back to the start of the year when we were zip and five but whenever we had a home game I always felt like the fans were there and they were on the journey with us - and they were supportive and they knew what we were doing - so it always felt like we had the backing of a big supporter base.”
“Having a couple of days to look back and appreciate the journey that we’ve had so far will be quite good - then being able to look forward and the next challenge only gets bigger.
“But for the next 24 hours we get to reflect and look backwards and be pretty proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.”
🗣️ Final words — James Sicily
“It’s bloody amazing - pretty excited. We’ve gone through a range of emotions this year obviously not getting off to a good start and then figuring out a bit about ourselves and how we want to be as a team, and we’ve been in synch for the last 14-16 weeks - it has been amazing.”
“Credit to the coaching and the boys around the belief and just not giving up, and now that false optimism has turned into genuine belief and the feeling that if we play the way we want to play that we can beat anyone, so the snowball is getting bigger and bigger in terms of momentum and it’s exciting.”
“Even when we were struggling in the first half of the year our fans were still turning up at the ‘G and supporting us - that didn’t go unnoticed with us and it feels like a bit of an advantage when our fans rock up and give us a bit of energy - the boys love it.”
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Some of your finest work gents. Captured the joy of the season and the game.
Looking forward to you carrying your form into the finals
Thanks for another terrific summary Mick and the stats on the rolling % and quarters won - more gold from you. Quarters won is seen by many as a key indicator of a side’s overall performance and competitiveness. To have won only 4 less quarters over the season than the minor premier and premiership favourite is an exceptional achievement and is hopefully a marker of the quality of our team.
Once again, our small forwards showed just what a weapon they are, both as individuals and as a collective. What’s so good about this group is not only their current output but there is real upside – Watson is 19, Ginnivan is 21, McDonald is 21 and at 24, Dylan Moore is the ‘old boy’, this quartet has further improvement. Having watched quite a lot of Box Hill, (albeit via streaming), Jack O’Sullivan really has something to offer, but he’s just not going to get an opportunity unless there’s an injury.
The quality of our small forwards highlights the importance of competing aerially in our front half to bring the ball to ground. next week against the Dogs If we can deny Jones and Lobb intercept marks, the boys can then get to work at ground level. We also want Meeky to rip into English from the very start.
As Mick says, if CJ and Day are available, they have to be picked. As good as Harry has been, he’s had the benefit of playing in three games that we’ve won very comfortably and while he’s a good back up ‘soldier’, he doesn’t have the attributes that CJ does. While our midfield was superior on Saturday, this challenge gets tougher each week. My fear is that if Jai is tagged out of the game (which happened most recently at Geelong), without Will Day, we’re suddenly reliant on Worps and Nashy. As good as those boys have been for us this year, they’ll be swamped by Bont, Libba, Richards, Treloar etc. If Day doesn’t play, we need some contingencies for the likely scenario where Jai is heavily tagged.
Was it just me being grumpy or was it disappointing that there was no coverage at all of Liam Shiels farewell (and just the general reaction of our players and coaches post-game), as Fox switched immediately to the Richmond v GCS game. Also, was there any interaction at all between Clarko and Sam post-game, especially when Shiels was chaired off? The fanfare accorded to the three Richmond retirees and to Dyson Heppel seemed disproportionate.
That was also a nice touch from the HI team to nominate Damien Barrett as under pressure. He’ll never come out and admit that the decisions to move Mitchell and O’Meara on and, albeit reluctantly, trade Gunston and ‘retire’ several other older players, including Big Boy and Kyle Hartigan were correct. His suggestion that these list management decisions amounted to tanking was ridiculous and if that was the purpose it was quite a fail as we ‘tanked’ the season to get pick number 7.
Whatever happens from here, it’s been a magical season and we shouldn’t forget that. But right now, it's time to dream.