Intent, effort but a rare loss to the Blues
My rebuild is better than your rebuild.
ROUND 10: Carlton 86, Hawthorn 63 - “Intent and effort”
📝 Main recap: We lost to the Blues for only the second time in 15 years. It hurts, especially when have a LOT of Blues fans in your life, but did any Hawks supporter leave that game thinking the Blues were miles ahead in the rebuild they apparently started under Bolts in 2016?
In that time, they’ve finished 14, 16, 18, 16 and 11 (to our 3, 12, 4, 9 and 15) and added Sam Walsh, Sam Petrevski-Seton, and Paddy Dow through the draft and marquee recruits Adam Saad and Zac Williams. Walsh was the clear difference on the day. A class above with his 30 elite possessions, hard running, and a beautiful goal from way outside 50. But considering we only officially started our rebuild in 2020, they should’ve really put us to the sword.
At times it felt like the Box Hill Hawks vs the Blues, with Cousins, Reeves, Lewis, Koschitzke, Morrison, Greaves, Jiath, Scrimshaw, Moore, Hanrahan, and Howe all playing a lot of footy together at that level. Could that be the nucleus of the team that kickstarts the rebuild, along with Day, DGB, Jeka and a probably top 1-2 selection in 2022? Looking at Carlton’s list right now, I know where I’d rather be.
This was a game where our skills with the footy could not match our - to borrow a Clarko-ism - endeavour. And that’s all we ask for as supporters, isn’t it? Our skills were not up to scratch, we turned the ball over way too many times and we gifted the Blues a win. However, compared to the Roos last week, you cannot disregard our intent. We played with heart, worked out way back into the contest, and could’ve actually stolen the points.
🚪 Sliding doors moment: Kosi playing on in the goal square wasn’t the reason we lost the game. However, it would’ve given us a massive momentum shift heading into the final quarter against a team we’ve had the mental edge over for 15 years. Clarko said it was a reflection of a young player getting excited and playing on impulse. For posterity’s sake, here’s the gif, but let’s all promise to never speak of this again.
🤯 Another pivotal brain fade: Hanrahan’s dropped mark with 10 minutes left in the last. That would’ve put us seven points behind. Credit to Olly for getting into the right spot at the right time, but he has to clunk these.
✂️ Best snippet of the match: With just over eight minutes left on the clock in the second quarter, Carlton forward Matthew Owies kicked Carlton’s third goal on the trot to put the Blues 23 points up.
Cue the resistance.
After a fantastic contested mark from Kosi outside 50, a chain of handballs released Luke Breust to kick a trademark snap around the body and bring the margin back to 15 points.
A couple of minutes later Punky was back on the scent, roving perfectly off Mitch Lewis’ hands to kick his second on the trot - cutting the lead to 9.
An Eddie Betts goal with 37 seconds to go in the half took the margin back out to 15 - before Harry Morrison finished off a scintillating move forward directly from the centre bounce.
We finished off this incredible stretch of play with another goal before the main break. Dan Howe kicked it from outside 50 on the siren before the ball bounced twice and took a further five seconds to clear the goal line. That cut the margin at half time to just three.
Ash’s 6 Key Takeaways:
The big blokes don’t get any smaller. The longer the game went, the more comfortable Ned Reeves looked, with smart ruck work and an impressive contested marks. Hawthorn had the better of the clearances after quarter time and would have to be encouraged by Reeves. The Suns aren’t great shakes in the big man department and you’d have to think Reeves has booked himself an exit row seat to Darwin next week.
Are we sure a developing Tyler Brockman isn’t a better bet as a small forward than Olly Hanrahan? Surely he shown enough over the first few weeks to deserve another prolonged spell of senior football. And Tank Morris needs to play next week as well.
Harry McKay surely played sore, but Kyle Hartigan did a pretty good defensive role on the Carlton spearhead. Cue the Benny Hill music when he had time and space with the ball (same with Sam Frost), but he did OK. Until the James Sicily and Denver Grainger-Barrass tandem is up and going, Hartigan fills the void. Not for the next three matches of course.
Daniel Howe’s goal on half-time, and the apoplexy it caused Carlton was just about worth the price of admission alone.
Tom Mitchell’s 44-possession performance brought back shades of his 2018 Brownlow season. Sam Walsh was probably best on, but Mitchell was outstanding.
That was the last Hawthorn game in Victoria for four weeks. It’s Gold Coast, bye, then Sydney away before the Essendon game on June 20. The reinforcements should be back by then and the next time most of us see the Hawks in the flesh, Jack Gunston, DGB, Will Day and hopefully Shaun Burgoyne will be playing. There’s cause for optimism right there.
Superstar/Rising Star/Falling Star
⭐️ Superstar - Tom Mitchell: It’s very very easy to forget that merely 28 months ago, Titch had one of the most significant and impactful leg breaks seen since Warnie cut Mike Gatting in half. Or that in his 2020 comeback year following a season out of the game he was the third highest possession getter in the competition pre-finals. And with chatter about through the week suggesting we should be cashing in our midfielders for draft picks, this was a timely reminder of just how good a footballer the 2018 Brownlow Medallist is. Forty-four touches, 77% disposal efficiency, eight clearances, seven inside-50s. Elite.
💫 Rising star - Ned Reeves: In the 2005 AFL Draft, Hawthorn drafted young ruckman Max Bailey with pick 18. In 2006, we drafted Premiership Ruckman Brent Renouf at 24. It’s rare we get excited about ruckmen at our club and generally we have had greater success pinching recycled big men, than breeding our own from within. That’s part of the reason so many people have been following this giant’s journey through Box Hill to his debut against the Blues - one which was all that and more. Reeves showed promise, poise and most importantly - put his hand up to be part of our ruck solution moving forward.
🤷♂️ Falling star - Tom Phillips: When we traded a bag of peanuts last year for young accumulator Tom Phillips (as part of the well documented Collingwood exodus), Hawks fans thought we had pinched a bargain. Perfectly fits the rebuild age bracket, knows how to get the ball, and with players leaving us at the end of last year, his favoured wing position slot opened up. But this game was typical of Phillips’ value so far in 2021 - with 17 touches and little impact throughout the day. These are the games we would have expected Tom Phillips to impact, but other than catching glimpses of his yellow boots, he was not really sighted at all.
Unsung Hero & Scapegoat
👼 Unsung Hero - Blake Hardwick: What true Hawks fan doesn’t love Blake Hardwick. Tough as nails. Uses it well. Does the little things right. Marshalls the backline in the spirit of the famous #15 on his back. Twenty-one touches with an incredible 85% disposal efficiency, and only second to Adam Saad with 626 metres gained for the day. He took a great contested mark early in the 1st quarter, won a 50 and gave Hanrahan a clear opportunity to put us in front early on. It’s the ‘normal’ stuff like this that makes him a fan favourite - and it happens week in, week out. We love you Dimma. Never change.
🔪 🐐 Scapegoat: Sam Frost
With Tim O’Brien back at Box Hill, Hawks fans were forced into finding a new whipping boy to blame for the loss this week. Sam Frost was the obvious first choice, with a couple brain fades, including an over exuberant run out of defence in the second quarter. He ignored an easy handball option to Hanrahan, fluffed the bounce and was chased down by Sam Docherty, cueing ‘Frost ball’ text messages from every Dees fan you have the misfortune of knowing. Unfortunately, for Frosty a couple flamboyant mistakes overshadowed a really excellent defensive game. He had 10 intercept possessions and was rarely beaten one-on-one.
The Obligatory & Painful Ladder Check-In
We finish the round staying put in 17th position - one game and nearly 19% clear of North Melbourne in last. We remain equal on points with Collingwood having each won just two games for the year, and will be looking to draw level on points with Gold Coast when we take them on in Darwin on Saturday Night.
Current forecast 2022 Draft Picks of note: #2, #20, #21 (Collingwood’s second round selection) #38.
News & Notes
Carlton are supposedly years (and years) into the same sort of rebuild we are going through now. Not sure if that is a pro or a con. They were horrible. And with so much ‘talent’ on their list having been acquired through the draft, it was proof that admitting you are rebuilding and going to the draft is not necessarily the panacea everyone is hoping for - you still have to draft right.
Liam Shiels wasn’t missed despite being a late withdrawal. He is having his normal consistent season but given our midfield issues identified throughout 2021, the question must be asked as to just where he fits in this rebuild going forward. The same hard question which will no doubt be asked of everyone throughout the year.
Youngster Josh Morris racked up another career game despite staying on the pine for all four quarters. He has added two matches to his 2020 tally of four games played - yet he hasn’t seen a minute of action in 2021. We suspect his time will come in the back-half of the year, perhaps sooner after a slashing display for Box Hill on Sunday.
With the suspension handed down to Kyle Hartigan after what can only be described as a stupid and senseless behind-the-ball act, we expect to see Michael Hartley to come back into the team to face the Suns in Round 11.
With nearly 46,000 fans at the MCG, it was not only the highest attending game for the round, but the highest crowd for a Hawks game against Carlton since Round 14, 2012.
Clarko Press Conference Bingo
Endeavour ✅
Really pleasing ✅
Lowered our colours ✅
Lick our wounds ✅
We live and learn ✅
Next piece of silverware ✅
What They Said
“The effort was great, and I think to win contested ball, clearances, ground-ball gets, tackles - all the effort indicators were there so that was pleasing. But our method probably let us down - ball use, decision making and things like that but we have got to be proud of the effort … We had our chances to win so I think the fans are going to be happy with our approach to the game.” - Tom Mitchell
“We were really pleased with the intent and the effort that we gave and we won some important statistics in the game of footy that would usually suggest suggest that you are going to be pretty close to winning the game when you win some of those stats, but we just didn't have the same polish and composure with the ball as what Carlton did.” - Alastair Clarkson
“The effort was definitely there - obviously it was a disappointing loss last week and a disappointing season so far, and the big focus was bringing the effort today which I think we did pretty well - we just lacked a bit of polish so we need to keep working and hopefully we will get there soon.” - Jack Scrimshaw
Re 2022 Draft Picks of note ... we don't have pick 38 anymore. That is now with Melbourne. We have Richmond and North's 4th rounders. Our original 4th rounder is now with Port.