There'll be days like this...
An early reality check against the Saints
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ROUND 4: HAWTHORN 73, ST KILDA 142
📝 Main recap:
Well, it was bound to happen, wasn’t it?
After an unexpectedly strong start to the season, the Hawks received a harsh reality check going down to the Saints by 69 points on a warm Sunday at the ‘G.
It was a bit of a “welcome to senior coaching” for Sammy Mitchell and a dose of reality for those supporters who thought our fast start to the season meant our rebuild was going to be fast-tracked.
While the green shoots are there for all to see, we’re still very much a work in progress and St Kilda - a side that, for all intents and purposes, should be challenging for a top 8 spot - certainly played like one. They pressured us into making errors, punished us for those errors on the turnover, and finished clinically throughout the game.
The positives were few and far between, but the continued development of Mitch Lewis as our big key forward was a shining light on an otherwise dreary day. He kicked 3.5 (a few of which he should’ve nailed), took eight marks (two of them contested) including a screamer in the final quarter. If he’d put in that performance wearing #12 in a St Kilda jumper he’d be dominating the AFL media coverage for the entire week.
The scoreline mirrored our insipid loss to the Saints last year in round 7, but the difference this time around was that we actually looked like scoring. We had 45 inside-50s compared to the Saints’ 46, but their efficiency was telling.
Make of this what you will, but in our heavy loss last year St Kilda had 17 more inside-50s and our efficiency was a dismal 33%. If anything it highlights this new attacking brand of footy that Sammy is so openly trying to implement. When it comes off (like it did against Port and in patches against North and the Blues) we look like a top 8 side. When it doesn’t, we look bottom four at best.
In other glass half full news, Jars made a welcome return; Ned Reeves put in a lionhearted performance in the ruck; we got more game time into the likes of DGB, Ward, Finn and MacDonald; and Sicily continued to pick up where he left off pre-injury. The all-action Jai Newcombe is becoming one of our most important players.
We’ll unpack the negatives soon in further detail, but there are some serious red flags around the form of our senior players, namely James Worpel, Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell, who just all happen to form our midfield contingent 🤦. Jack Gunston had his worst game since returning from injury, while Luke Breust kicked three goals but didn’t have a huge impact beyond the scoreboard.
Yes, we’re rebuilding, but it’s our senior players who need to elevate those around them, rather than expecting first, second and third year players to set the standard.
✂️ Snippet of the match:
It may have been late in the final term when the game was long long gone, but Mitch Lewis took an absolute ripper of a mark that was one for the highlight reel. With less than two minutes remaining in the match, Dan Howe booted the ball inside 50 where Lewis flew high and claimed an absolute ride on the back of Saint Ben Paton. Lewis held the mark beautifully, went back and duly slotted the goal, and the look on Paton’s face summed it up best - it bought huge smiles to his and the Hawk supporters’ faces.
🍔 Ash’s 10 key takeaways
Everybody told us there’d be days like this for Hawthorn. The altered reality was nice, but it lasted three weeks.
Take away Dylan Moore’s brace in the opening two minutes and two late goals at during garbage time, and this was almost a 100-point thrashing. Not a great day at the footy.
Winners for the Hawks? Very few. CJ (again!), Jai Newcombe and Mitch Lewis (except for the kicking). Sam Frost did better on Max King than his four-goal return would indicate. Lewis was the best forward on the ground.
Not too many others earned their pay this week. James Worpel (five touches) and Jack Gunston (three) at the top of the list. Jaeger O’Meara not much better. Even Blake Hardwick was off with his kicking and several of the nine of the turnovers inside defensive 50 came off his boot.
Where’s Worpel? And Jack… and Jaeger. Ned Reeves deserves some praise. The only fit ruckman at the club entered the game feeling sore and battled manfully against the talented and experienced duo of Paddy Ryder and Rowan Marshall.
It was the week when senior footy caught up with Josh Ward and Connor MacDonald. Both will be OK, but it will be interesting to see whether one or both will be rested any time soon. Melbourne on a five-day break in round seven would be a possibility.
Will Day can’t catch a break. Second game back and he cops a concussion, meaning he’ll miss the Cats game next week. Ryder won’t be playing next week, either. He elected to bump Day and will pay the consequences.
It will interesting to see how Sam Mitchell responds this week to the first below-par effort for the season. He clearly wasn’t happy with what he witnessed against the Saints, but this is new ground for him and we wait to see whether he drops players after one bad game or backs them in to bounce back next week against the old enemy.
30,000 wasn’t a fantastic home crowd for the Hawks, but they were up against the first day of the junior footy season and the Grand Prix. Given fine weather, they’d be hoping for double that on Easter Monday.
Jeff Kennett spoke well at his president’s lunch before the game, with degrees of contrition and humility that we don’t normally hear from him. It is time for a new Hawthorn President, and the club has plenty of listening ahead and work to do, but he is right to think he hasn’t been given an entirely fair shake with the reporting and commentary about him and the club over the last 10 days or so.
Superstar/Rising Star/Falling Star
⭐️ Superstar - Mitch Lewis
Despite the fact his radar was off, Mitch Lewis has been doing everything right so far in 2022. He has kicked 12 goals in four games this year and is behind only Max King and Tom Hawkins on the Coleman leaderboard - also boasting a significantly better goal accuracy percentage than either of them.
He was clearly the best forward on the ground taking eight marks - including six inside forward 50 which is a rare feat for a Hawthorn forward in recent years. Lewis kicked an inaccurate 3.5 but had such a presence and crashed packs to contest so well that he looked like a natural who has been dominating the position for years.
Oh - and that mark in the last couple of minutes of the game was top-shelf.
💫 Rising star - Jai Newcombe
Such a joy to behold. When you listen to him talk and watch the way he throws his body about without caution, it’s sometimes hard to believe that he is still on 20 years of age. Jai led by example for the rest of our midfield group finishing the day with 23 touches, six clearances and a huge seven score involvements.
While his disposal efficiency was low and his clanger numbers were high, he was one of the few prepared to take the game on, run, carry, and attempt to penetrate down the line. Still so much to learn, but an exciting player that is sure to form part of Sammy’s next premiership winning midfield contingent.
🤷♂️ Falling star - Jaeger O’Meara
“Hopefully we see our brand of footy on display for four quarters and then make some progress from week to week.”
That was Jaeger speaking at his press conference on Tuesday at the club. He speaks so well - and when you listen to him talk he just oozes everything you want to hear in a leader. Unfortunately he just doesn’t back that up on the field.
When we needed someone to take control in the middle of the ground where we were haemorrhaging, our captain was nowhere to be seen. And it’s not the first time. And he’s not alone.
But he was brought into the club for Pick 10 and two second rounders. His performances this year off the back of the last couple, tell us that we may have to settle for a star whose ceiling has come and gone.
Unsung Hero & Scapegoat
👼 Unsung Hero - Ned Reeves
Simply has to be the Big Noodle - earning another nomination in the Unsung Hero category for his performance against St Kilda’s big-man department.
Reeves had his hands full agains the bigger, stronger, more physically mature combination of Paddy Ryder and Rowan Marshall, but acquitted himself well in the absence of support from Ben McEvoy and Max Lynch.
Finishing the day with 10 touches, four marks (three of which were contested), 17 hit outs and a goal, Reeves shouldered a huge load and is one of the few players who could walk off the ground and truly say that they gave it their all.
🔪 🐐 Scapegoat - James Worpel
A sad and sorry day for Worps whose form is beginning to worry a fair number of supporters (if the running commentary on social media is anything to go by).
Worps finished the day with five touches, three clangers and three frees against so if anyone was going to be feeling the heat of our dysfunctional midfield unit, it would be our number five.
Granted he is playing much more of a half forward role than the inside midfield bull one that won him his PCM, but regardless, much much more is expected from him and no doubt he’d be disappointed in his output this week.
The Obligatory Ladder Check In
We have slipped outside the top eight for the first time this season, and are at the foot of a bunch of teams that have recorded a 2-2 record so far this season. The game against Geelong on Easter Monday will make a huge difference in terms of which group of teams we move up with or down to post round five.
News & Notes
Our bunnies no more - after winning eight of our nine games against the Saints from 2011 - 2018, the loss on Sunday was our fourth on the trot to the red, white and black.
It was the second successive game against the Saints that we have lost by 69 points - we also lost to them by that margin in round seven last year at Marvel Stadium - where we failed to score in the opening term.
Déjà vu. It was the first time that Brad Hill has kicked four goals in a game of AFL football from the 194 matches he has played to date in his career. Nothing worse than seeing your ex do so well against you a few years later!
No Silk / Miller Cup or armbands as part of the round four match-up so mark it in your diaries (sort of - fixtures yet to be confirmed) for the round 20 return game against the Saints at Marvel.
Kyle Hartigan was seen as a bench coach helping out with the defensive group and having a number of one-on-one chats at each break. Good to see him so actively involved despite not holding his place in the team.
Sammy Press Conference Bingo
Every week is 120 minutes of learning ✅
Not to the standard we’re striving for ✅
We’re in it together ✅
We have to look in the mirror ✅
A learning opportunity ✅
It’s never as good or as bad as it seems ✅
We’ve got 24 hours to lick our wounds ✅
What They Said
🗣️ Jai Newcombe
“There’s a lot to work on - we’re far from a finished product and that’s a pretty big realisation out there today. There’s plenty more development in this group so we’ll keep searching for that and continuing to get better.”
“I’m starting to feel a little bit more comfortable at the level and able to have impact for longer which is nice but it doesn’t mean too much when you get smacked like that today, so we’ll keep pushing and trying to improve.
🗣️ Robert Harvey
“From the very first bounce there were alarm bells for us. Where we’d been very strong in the first three games was our ability to run and ability to work, and the ease with which St Kilda were getting outside us on this big ground was really obvious early.{
“When you get exposed at this ground on the outside you get 110 points kicked against you on turnover, so when you turn the ball over they just quite simply outspread us and went back and scored really easily.
“Today there was no work so the un-pressured ball in was really easy for them to score and it was a real learning for us because we are a work in progress obviously but it was very disappointing to see stuff that we have been really good at get exposed by St Kilda today.”
“The hardest thing to fix in a game is work rate. We’re trying to get the right mix to be able to get to the outside but it just didn’t work and St Kilda just had us covered everywhere we went on the outside of the contest and we just couldn’t stop their transition.”
Good points. A "better" loss than the game last year even though margin was same. Some good signs. We have a plan. It didn't work and we got torched. Not the end of the world. Some of the boys were down but there were some good performances among the youngsters. Young sides do this. Too bad the more experienced guys went missing. We are not a Top 8 side, yet. It will come. St Kilda should be vying for Top 8 and are really good when they have Ryder and Marshall in tandem. This is a threshold year for JOM and a couple of others - need to see more or we should expect a changing of the guard. Sammy won't stand for it.