The 2023 version of 'back-to-back'
The 2023 version of 'back-to-back'
Two wins on the trot against top eight talent has the Hawthorn faithful chomping at the bit
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ROUND 18: HAWTHORN 9.13 (67), BULLDOGS 9.10 (64)
📝 Main recap:
Back in February, Hawthorn’s Head of Football, Rob McCartney joined the Hawks Insiders for a deep dive into the season. The key takeaway? The Hawks would be better in the second half of the season than they were in the first. McCartney said:
What we would like to think is that if we can continue to develop this group, I think the second half of the year should be a better season than the first half in terms of possibly win and loss. Now what I've also seen is I've seen sides turn things around like Collingwood, who went to nearly the bottom of the ladder and then jumped within 12 months. Now I think we'd be unrealistic if we thought we were going to do something like that, but could we win games that people don't expect us to win?
Fast forward to current day and Hawthorn has just claimed it’s second scalp in as many weeks, narrowly overcoming the Western Bulldogs in Tasmania to put an unexpected dent in the Dogs push for a finals berth.
The Hawks were caught off guard early, with the Bulldogs racing out to a 20 point lead, before gun on-baller Will Day steadied the ship with a classy finish from a ruck contest just outside the Hawks attacking 50m arc.
Initially, the Hawks were the instigators of their own pain, consistently turning the ball over in dangerous positions, leading to opportunities in front of goal for the Dogs’ forwards.
The second quarter started and the Hawks mids got rolling, lead by the impressive Jai Newcombe, playing just his 50th game, and the aforementioned Will Day. The two young guns had plenty of help though, with Karl Amon prominent in his return from injury, Ned Reeves dominant (again) in his matchup against Tim English, while Conor Nash and James Worpel, who was also celebrating his 100th game, were fantastic in winning first hands on the ball.
Hawthorn went into the game with a young and relatively inexperienced side, but unlike on previous occasions this season, the Hawks were able to steady the ship when their opposition challenged, and to coach Sam Mitchell’s delight, his young chargers were able to dictate the tempo of the game for long periods after quarter time and holding off a final Bulldogs charge to hang on to the four points at UTAS Stadium.
Last weekend’s win against Collingwood could be seen as a season defining one for this young group, but Sunday’s win against the Western Bulldogs might prove to be even more important for the long term, with the Hawks able to come down off a high to record back-to-back wins against quality opposition.
Strong performances from maligned defender turned forward Jacob Koschitzke, rebounding defender Jack Scrimshaw, young half forward/midfielder Connor Macdonald, underrated small defender Blake Hardwick and vice-captain Dylan Moore were ‘very pleasing’ for the Hawthorn coaching group, and are an indication of the growing depth in this team, with the first three names mentioned having spent time out of the AFL team over the course of the season.
✂️ Snippet of the match (I):
Shark the ball. Shrug off a tackle. Sell some candy. Slice through traffic. Finish your own piece of brilliant individual work. Will Day is a Rolls Royce.
✂️ Snippet of the match (II):
What a way to cap off an incredible personal outing in Tasmania for Karl Amon - summoning his inner Jack Scrimshaw from a week earlier against the Pies. A last desperate act with 34 seconds left on the clock and Bailey Williams charging out of defence, Amon met Williams with a front on tackle that stopped him in his tracks. It snuffed out any chance the fast-finishing Dogs had to win the game as we retained possession and held on for a huge win.
✂️ Snippet of the match (III):
We just had to find room for this one. Newcombe assist to Worpel who snapped truly to snag the first goal of the all-important final term. Then the two milestone men decided to celebrate with a jump and a cuddle. Heart = full.
🍔 Prinsy’s key takeaways:
Backing up again after the incredible performance against the Pies was always going to be a major challenge for a young, developing side. The Hawks were jumped early but wrestled back control and went on with it. That takes serious character. This could be the start of something very special.
There is some talent emerging at the Hawks. Jai Newcombe is the obvious one, with the milestone man celebrating not only his 50th game, but a career performance on Sunday. It might be fair to say the All-Australian 40 isn’t unrealistic.
Newcombe’s running mate Will Day is fast becoming a star of the competition. His goal to get the Hawks on the board after being down by 20 points was one of pure class. I’m sticking to my prediction that Day is the best player from his draft class when things are said and done.
Jack Scrimshaw’s season has been anything but smooth, but this Hawthorn team just looks so much smoother with him in it. Scrimshaw played as a key defender this weekend and was fantastic, finishing with 17 disposals and 3 contested marks.
Fans can be quick to write young players off, but Sunday’s game was a statement from everyone’s favourite whipping boy, Jacob Koschitzke. Kosi was the best forward on the ground in what was arguably his best game as a Hawk. Don’t write him off just yet.
Blake Hardwick continued his ongoing decimation of the shadow of a player formally known as Cody Weightman. Hardwick is so unassuming that sometimes Hawthorn fans don’t realise how good he is, but Weightman knows. Weightman definitely knows.
He was given more nicknames than his opponents got disposals on Sunday afternoon, and the Finn Maginness star continues to rise. Maginness still has work to do when he has the ball, but he is very clearly the best tagger in the game right now.
He would not have expected to be injected into the game in the first quarter, but Bailey Macdonald again showed that he has what it takes to play at the level. Despite an error or two, Macdonald never looked out of his depth, which is a fantastic sign for a second gamer.
The tallest player at Hawthorn, Ned Reeves (not Luke Breust) was dominant against one of the form ruckman in the competition, Tim English. Reeves has had two fantastic games since returning from suspension, and his tap work is unmatched. A huge positive to see him lead the team in tackles too.
🍔 And a few from Ash:
Hawks footy boss Rob McCartney came on Hawks Insiders back in March and made one firm prediction – that the second half of the season would better than the first. There were some doubts initially, but he has been proven correct.
The evidence is mounting that the Hawks might need to move on from Sam Frost for the same reason the Demons did. His pure defensive work might be first rate, but he is a liability with the ball. The Hawks are placing a premium on swift ball movement, precision kicking and smart decision making, none of which is his strong suit and the backline is functioning just fine without him.
Enjoying the Jacob Koschitzke renaissance. He was key in clutch moments against Collingwood and powerful against the Dogs, especially with Mitch Lewis having a quiet day. And while he dropped a few marks he’d like back, DGB was really effective as the third forward and moved to all the right places. 2024 might yet be his year.
I’d also be finding a way to keep Chad Wingard at Hawthorn next year. It’s what a so-called ‘Family Club’ should do.
That’s three wins from four games at UTAS Stadium for 2023 with the solitary loss coming in the final minute and from a freakishly good kick for goal. Tasmania is the gift that keeps on giving for Hawthorn. We’re going to miss that place.
So much love for the Hawks. Nathan Buckley has “claimed” Jai Newcombe. ‘Robbo’ reckons they might be the best team out of the eight. The contrast from the start of the year when the brand was being ripped to shreds, is incredible and the coaches and players deserve all the praise and the heartfelt thanks of the supporters.
Two games at the MCG to close out the year. The Hawks aren’t going to play finals, but fans should embrace this final fortnight and support this team in numbers and voice. Nothing beats winning premierships, but watching a team grow before your very eyes is loads of fun.
And last week’s note bears repeating and expanding on. Every year the AFL and Channel Seven take a flier on a team they think are on the improve and back them in for a few prime-time slots. You’d think that with 10 Thursday nights, 24 Friday nights and as many Saturday nights to be filled in 2024, the Hawks might get a few of them. The fixture release later this year will be intriguing.
⭐️ Superstar - Jai Newcombe
50 games for the mighty Hawthorn Football Club, and this one may just have been the better than any of the 49 that came before it. What a star Newcombe has become, and just a week on from his 22nd birthday there is so much still to come. 40 touches at 85% disposal efficiency, 12 marks, 10 score involvements, four tackles, four clearances, four inside 50’s and a booming goal from 55 metres out on the run. It was the complete game from a kid whose ceiling has still yet to be discovered. Star.
💫 Rising star - Josh Weddle
Apologies to Bailey Macdonald given the role he played after coming on early in the first quarter. But the significance of Weddle’s role at UTAS should not go unnoticed. Playing as a tall in our backline, he worked so well together with Jack Scrimshaw, James Sicily, James Blanck and Blake Hardwick that the Dogs recorded their third lowest score for the season, and least number of goals in a game since round five. 18 disposals at 94% efficiency, eight marks, and five d50 rebounds - another big tick in our young star’s evolution.
🤷♂️ Falling star - Chad Wingard
Sad. After 4-6 weeks of fantastic football with most Insiders calling for an extension to his expiring contract, the worst possible thing that could have happened, did. Early days with no one within earshot, Chad went down injured - breaking down with what appears to be an achilles injury. We will find out the extent of it throughout the week but if it is serious not only does that mean his season is done, but he will be on limited pre-season duties as well. Will be interesting to see how much sentiment comes into play when discussions about his contract reconvene, but we loved the notion behind these comments from HawkMan (@HawkMan131415) on X.
👼 Unsung Hero - Blake Hardwick
Loves playing on Cody Weightman. Not only did he keep the dangerous Dog forward to only five touches, but he held him to zero marks, zero scoring shots, and zero effect on the contest. But if that’s not enough to float your boat, at the same time Dimma managed to rack up 22 touches and 11 marks and is sure to get a big haul of PCM votes as well. Making a great late-season run at the PCM podium.
🪜 Ladder check in
Nice to see more green boxes than red ones at the end of our row, as we continue to pull away from the Eagles and that other shocking team (😉). Feels like we are much better that the 16th spot on the ladder that our position suggests, and going 6-6 through our past 12 games has helped with that feeling. Should be a fun fortnight ahead!
🎤 Sammy press conference bingo
“We are certainly nowhere near our finished product.” ✅
“It was a game that ebbed and flowed.” ✅
“We weren’t able to put them away at any stage.” ✅
“We know we’ve got an enormous challenge in front of us.” ✅
“We know there have been some bumps in the road and we know there are going to be a lot more.” ✅
“Internally we have confidence in the journey we are on.” ✅
🗣️ What they said - Jai Newcombe
“It was nice to hang on - I was certainly nervous myself with five minutes left and they started to get a bit of a run on, but it’s nice - we’ve had learnings from close games in the last few rounds and to hold on was pleasing.
“It’s really good for our confidence as a group to have a game where we are five goals up and lose and then have another one against Collingwood where we are five goals up and stay that way, and then today it gets close again but we were able to hold on.
“We’ve been challenged in those times but it’s nice to see the maturity happening as we are going and turning them into wins now which is good.”
🗣️ What they said - Karl Amon
“I think we have come a long way in the year - especially in those close games and we definitely learnt a lot after the Richmond game and it was good to see some of those things that we put in place after that game and we put it in today.
“The Doggies are a quality opposition and they were coming in that last quarter so I think for the group to hold up and get the win was really good for our confidence.
“Last week was a really good win but we wanted to come out to the comp and prove that we could do it again and back that win up… the group showed a lot of improvement and to come up against a top eight opposition and get the win was pretty important.”
What was learnt:
1. The team is coachable - looking at the manner in which the team adapted to play in 3rd quarter demonstrated that the group is 'coachable" and adaptable to the conditions. We looked to effectively play keeping's off with the Dogs. At one point in time, the last three in the zone were Newcombe, Hardwick & Worpel. This is a progression from the start of the year and reflects the worth of getting games into young players.
Part of this and what I don't think has been noted in the wins over the past two weeks is that we've kept two of the top 8 teams goalless in a quarter in each game - Pies 1st qrt & Dogs 3rd qrt.
1 a) After quarter time: 8.12 to 5.7 - when you breakdown the scoring after 1/4 time, you actually see a dominance on the scoreboard across the game. This is similar to the Saints' game, however we hadn't allowed the Dogs to get as big a lead (see below).
2. Maginness and Day (swings & slides of running a tagger) - with the use of Finn for an opposition onballer, particularly an inside one, this appears to mean that Day falls back to a role off half back. It was worth noting that Day only had 1 disposal in the 2nd quarter (55% TOG). This was probably also impacted by our relative dominance in the quarter.
A late learning on this strategy - Looking back to the early part of the year, when we had Newcombe & Worpel play half forward roles, I know wonder if Sam was trialling the options as to how to incorporate Finn's role later in the season when we had the stronger team available e.g. Lewis back from injury. I think the learning from this was that neither Worpel or Newcombe had the forward craft yet to make it the better option - think of the Lambert/Martin role for the Tigers.
3. Three tall forwards - from the past couple of games, rather than two tall forwards, the three talls appears to provide a stronger structure. Last week, it was Lewis who moved up the wing as the marking outlet, whereas this week it was Koschitzke who played this role more. I suspect that this was to keep Jones away from the intercept opportunities.
DGB looks to have some good forward marking craft and is prepared to crash the packs as well as tackle. It was an opportunity for him to play on an opponent (O'Donnell) who was within his age/weight group (and experience).
4. 2nd ruck role with two "tall" ruck opponents - when the Dogs had their run on in the last quarter, there were a couple of stoppage clearances (particularly one centre clearance English/Bont) where it was evident that Kosi was outsized whilst Reeves had his break.
It may be a watch this week with the Demons (Gawn/Grundy) as to whether we go with Kosi or look at a taller option.
Watching 3 quarters of BH on Saturday, Ramsden had more centre square work than Meek, so he may be given the opportunity if this is identified as an issue, being the more mobile target as a forward.
5. Running half backs and decision making - with the game plan being a "run & gun" focus, the need for those coming off half back to have good decision making and skill execution is going to become the determinant factor as to who can claim the role between Seamus, BMac & CJ.
With Blanck not being the best disposer of the ball under pressure either by hand or foot at the moment, the need for the 5th defender to be able to make the right call and execute properly is going to be a development issue.
(Weddle on his left foot also needs to become more proficient e.g. last quarter coming out of the back pocket where he turned it straight over to the Dogs on 50m line.)
This is complemented by Scrimshaw being more predictable in his disposals by hand.
6. The milestone players were outstanding - this has been well documented. A feature of Worpel's game was 80% DE which may be a season high and similarly with Newcombe, his disposal ratio 19K/21HB was better balanced.
7. Again, the centre clearances were generally one handball to a clear teammate to kick or run inside 50. Similarly, with Reeves rucking, his hit outs were looking to hit out to the space rather than straight down into the centre circle. It appears to be a different strategy to earlier in the year.
Observations:
* Coughing up goals - when you look at the first quarter, there is an argument to say that we coughed up 2-3 goals.
i) BMac - moment of madness and evidence once again of not making a 2nd mistake in row. Why he handballed to Sicily standing still with an opponent two steps away reflected, I suggest, a VFL standard play. Similarly, with this pass to Nash, not realising that AFL players sweat on this type of kick. (Notwithstanding Blanck's handball to BMac's feet as they played hot potato.)
ii) JUH goal from the mark on the behind line after Scrimshaw couldn't handle the ball which was more a "skill" error with his hands in an awkward position to take the ball to him that Weightman picked up.
iii) JUH goal dummy past Blanck/Scrimshaw - Scrimshaw did really well in the initially marking contest to bring the ball to ground, however Lobb reacted faster than Blanck who then guarded space rather than take the next dangerous opponent (JUH) which meant Scrimshaw had to try to smother his kick getting up from the ground. IF Blanck had taken JUH whilst Scrimshaw was contesting with Lobb, who knows.
(Interesting in the 4th quarter, Blanck left his man to make a contest when the Dogs had an overlap coming into their F50.)
* Role players are valuable - looking at Morrison, when role players execute their role for the team, it does provide a sense of surety to the pattern of play.
* Metres gained by Ward (388/293 ave) & CMac (552/276) - this I think is worth a watch as these types of players look to take more territory with their kicks.
* Worth repeating: since Rd.10 vs WCE we are 6 & 6.
Dumb Decisions/Coach killers:
What was Sicily doing playing on out of the goal square with West in the area and more significantly, where was the talk from the teammates to make the Braveheart call of "Hold! Hold!"
(Another gifted goal?)
Just a thought:
* The mullets don't provide for an "air of confidence" as the players start looking around, with their mullets accentuating the head turning, to the point where you do wonder if they know what they are doing.
(For Weddle, BMac mullet may assist with votes for any awards being allocated by a non-Hawk follower.)
Thanks Danny, no better way to start the day. The Worpel goal and embrace with Jai was definitely the highlights of the day. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but this finish to 2023 is a little similar to season 2006, which was the launch pad for a return to finals in 2007, the difference this time is the quality of opponent that we're defeating. Firstly, totally agree, let's give Chad a contract now, he goes to the long-term injured list, and we have a spot on the list we can choose (or not) to fill. I think we all recognise that a quality intercepting key defender and a quality key forward to work with Mitch Lewis are two of the remaining pieces of the on-field puzzle. I've asked this a few times - if we have Sicily and Weddle in the defensive group, could Scrim play as that second key defender? Blancky takes the big gun and then Scrim takes the next tall. It would still be good to see Jeka have a big finish to the season with Box Hill. The second point is that Denver looked quite promising on the weekend - could have kicked two goals, led up well, took a contested mark and seemed to show some forward smarts. Together with Brandon Ryan, perhaps we have that second key forward on our list? As you say Danny, it's so exciting to watch a young group developing. With our last two games at the MCG, it would be brilliant to finish with two competitive performances. Selection will be interesting this week, Chad needs to be replaced (Brocky or Butler?) and you'd think that Ryan has to come back and Denver will probably be the unlucky one. Perhaps Seamus Mitchell could be the sub this week? Thanks again.