1. Lewis showed that he can carry the tall forward position – Having auditioned for the role late in the game last week with Chol going off early, Lewis was able to demonstrate again that he could be the main tall forward inside F50. For those who had been wondering what his worth to the team was in the first few games may now realise that Lewis was playing a strategic role in these games when we had three talls fit and firing aside from Opening Round.
2. Rucks as a tall forward option isn’t a long-term solution – With Chol going down, the magnets were flicked around initially Weddle looked to be the one pushed forward and then in the later part of the game, Meek and Reeves spent time forward. In the last quarter, the Dogs showed this set up to be a liability as they were able to go from goal to goal when we had Reeves chasing out, but three Dogs were able to overlap run to set up a forward scoring entry for them. There is no doubt that both Reeves and Meek create scoring chances from F50 stoppages, but playing as tall options inside F50 should be cameo role rather than as true supporting roles.
3. Newcombe wasn’t going to have two “poor” games in a row – Having had a case of butter fingers last week, Newcombe wasn’t going to let this happen again and was back to his clean hands in contests and in open play. His performances this season are more than confirming the faith put in him by Mitchell et al in making him a co-captain.
4. Maturity of the group was eident in the preparation this week – Last week the maturity of the group was demonstrated by the tactical nous applied in the last 2 minutes of the game; this week it was reflected in the preparation for the game. Coming off a short week and a euphoric victory, being able to apply themselves to take on the ladder leaders and not give them a genuine sniff of winning is another example of how this group is maturing into an experienced group. With 4 players under 50 games; 7 players 49-100 games; 5 between 100-150 games; leaving 7 with 150+ games – the fruits of the past 4 years of development and recruitment are being realised.
5. Weddle on the run and judging his aerial contests need some work – There is no doubt that when Weddle goes on his overlapping line breaking runs, he generates great momentum for the team, however his final disposal by foot have become a slight concern as he doesn’t regularly hit targets going inside 50. He certainly gains metres and allows for the defensive wall to be set up, but to get full return on his efforts being able to hit targets is a work in progress. In this game, he also had some issues judging his launches into marking contests.
6. The defence was able to restrict an opposition to under 80 points for the first time this season – Playing against one of the higher scoring teams thus far, being able to restrict them to 64 points was a clear return to form for the back 7. Considering that the Dogs scored 15 points in the first quarter, 22 points in last 12 minutes of 3rd quarter and 14 points in the last 15 minutes of 4th, restricting them to 13 points across the remainder of the game was outstanding work.
7. When the Dogs had dominance late in the third quarter, our kick ins were an issue again – Being unable to exit from our back half in this period where the Dogs kicked 5 behinds again raises a concern we had last year. This may have been a consequence of Chol’s absence as Lewis couldn’t push forward to assist as a marking target. At the same time, we certainly didn’t help ourselves as Ginnivan made two costly skill errors in the exit chain – allowing a Dogs intercept and giving up a lasso free missing a teammate – and D’Ambrosio overran a loose ball get from an Amon handball in congestion.
Observations:
• Some poor goal kicking again didn’t help our cause, particularly in the first half of the third quarter when we could’ve put them away kicking 3.4 before they went on their run (3.5).
• Credit to both D’Ambrosio and Mackenzie who are now more prepared to use their less dominant foot. For Mackenzie, who is more often working in close contests, he is getting the ball forward more quickly, allowing the forwards to get to work in less congested contests.
• It would be good to hear of Amon taking on a mentor role with D’Ambrosio as Gunston has to Dear, assisting him in making sharper decisions with the ball in hand, particularly after marking and encouraging him to take ground quicker when he has possession. D’Ambrosio’s first quarter was as dynamic as he played in his time with the club.
• Barrass is a very smart defender as it looked, he may be in for a tough night the way Darcy started. Whilst the mids put pressure on the Dogs’ entries after ¼ time, Barrass was also able to position himself to make it hard for Darcy to get any good looks close to goal after ¼ time.
• Perez looked more comfortable this week than last, which may place more pressure on Scrimshaw and others for a place in the team.
• Nash’s role on Bontempelli and as the enforcer in the clearances was again worthy of note. He has developed a good record against the Dogs as has the team in recent years.
• Butler’s flexibility is a quiet watch – last week he had heavy CBAs rotation whereas this week he appeared to have a defensive forward role limiting Dale’s run off half back.
• Ticked off Easter Monday win and followed up with first Gather Round win – small things matter.
Mackenzie 12/44/0 Macdonald 6/22/2 Watson 5/19/0 Moore 1/4/0 Ginnivan 1/4/0
27 CBAs/9 clearances (Opposition:15 Neutral:3)
8 player rotation but with Moore and Ginnivan only going in once, effectively 6 player rotation which was the same as last week. Mackenzie took all the work Butler did last week. There seems to be a ranking system becoming apparent with Newcombe, Nash and Ward being the starting combination. Newcombe is the leader of the group. When Watson went into the square early in the game. Centre clearances were lost, but understandable when an opposition can set up to rove off the opposition as much as the dominant ruck team. Around the ground stoppages was where the mids were able to set up more effectively (36/16). With the small forwards, they were able to hit the scoreboard in forward 50 stoppages (6.3)
Watch for the season
Gunston – 3 leads. Effectively a reflection of his footy IQ having Khamis as his direct opponent. (Kicked 19.12 for the season.)
Issue for the week:
The Chol injury provides the first opportunity for a look at the next tall forward option, given the way Gunston has operated as a deep target, there is a need to find another tall to assist with the transition off half back. Lewis has shown the capacity to play the connector role, so then it is a question as to who the better option is to provide the contested marking contest inside forward 50 unless the selectors decide the connector role is an easier role for the option. With Dalton being selected ahead of Morrison and Maginness, his form from the Swans game provides an insight/precedence. If this is accurate, McCabe would be in the mix whilst Dear would be the one with the recent experience. I’m not sure that Schubert has the experience to play either role as yet and from last year’s games, Ramsden would be suited to the connector role and is actually the closest physical comparison to Chol i.e. athletic although a bit slower.
Fantastic write up thank you Mick. There was a suggestion in something I read this morning that owing to the short break following the Geelong game, there may be some players that are managed, including Gunston as a player who may be managed. That would make sense given that we play Gold Coast, followed by Collingwood on a five day break and then have a trip to Fremantle for a Thursday night game. If Gunston weas rested, there would be two key forwards required to come into the 23, assuming we maintained the three tall forwards structure. Given that McCabe has tended to play the 'connector' role for Box Hill this season and for much of 2025, he could take that role and Calsher effectively take the Chol role. Given the lack of debutants in 2025 and Rob Macartney's pre-season comments about the importance of debuting players this season (opting for Perez and Dalton in a high pressure and high stakes game on Easter Monday was evidence of this), it wouldn't surprise at all to see McCabe get a chance. Having said that, Calsher's last quarter two weeks ago was a snapshot of his best and while only one quarter, you'd think (and we hope) that he would have taken great confidence from that.
With Chol out, applying the Gunston "managed" policy would mean we'd have a "new" forward structure which could be clunky. I see the rationale, but also they are coming off 2 games in 23 days (18 day break going into Easter Monday). Whether Gunston's hammy is an underlying issue is an unknown factor to us.
Thanks for the match review Danny and good to see you're up and about. This was a bit of a strange game and I'm not sure it was quite as convincing as it appeared to be.
1. We dominated possession yet won the inside 50s by only one.
2. We had 47 more hit outs and as Danny says, monstered their rookie ruckman, but lost centre clearances and while we enjoyed an overall clearance advantage, it wasn't overwhelming (+12 from 74 clearances).
3. The Bulldogs top line players (Bont, Richards, Naughton, Darcy, Dale) had below standard games and aside from a 10-15 minute period late in Q3, we seemed to have the game very much under control, yet on expected score, the margin was just 11 points. Had the Bulldogs taken advantage of their opportunities during this period of the game, the margin at 3/4 time would likely have been single figures.
4. Our dominance came from contested marking, where we took 19 in total and were +11 and scoring from stoppages where we scored 6.3 which is world record pace. It was great that we were so strong in these areas, but these won't typically be areas of such advantage.
5. Perhaps I'm imagining it, but we appeared to have some difficulty in moving the ball via a kick out. We generally went long to the left-hand side of the ground and relied on a contested mark, which isn't really a sustainable method.
6. There were a number of occasions where we won possession in the back half of the ground and had a short chain of possessions but had very limited / no options ahead of the ball. Perhaps this was a result of Mabior's injury but a feature of our game this year had been the ability to generally maintain some structure ahead of the ball.
7. The sum of the parts point is true in relation to our midfield, but there was an unhealthy reliance on Jai and surely the hard tag is something he'll now get each week. Among our top 10 possession winners, only one was a midfielder (Jai). The others were the hybrid forwards, defenders and Massimo. We need more from Ward and Mackenzie.
8. From an individual perspective, the performance of Lewis across the Sydney, Geelong and Bulldogs game has been outstanding, Ginnivan has continued from his exceptional 2025, and Massimo's last two games have been his best for some time. On the other hand, Josh Ward's consistency is a minor issue (it's a bit of feast or famine with him), Weddle is not yet having the impact up the ground we had hoped for and which we need and we really want Mackenzie to have a big midfield game.
9. It's nice to have won 4 straight, to be relatively injury free and to have had some good fortune in terms of perhaps playing sides at the right time (Sydney without Heeney and Gulden, Geelong without Dangerfield and Bulldogs without English and Libba).
Just on Point 2 - I'm firmly of the belief that in centre clearances, it is easier for the opposition mids to set up for a losing ruck and may actually give them an advantage over the "winning" mids as they would still have some defensive measures in place just in case.
Point 3 - you are channelling your inner Klibansky 🤣
Awesome works boys, glad recent Collingwood support convert Daz still had time to make it out and see his old team win!
Great review as usual.
A couple of comments…
1. According to the photo of the scoreboard, The Hawks won by 7 wickets!!
2. The Wizards burst through the stoppage doesn’t happen without the block of his opponent by Lewis.
Go Hawks!!
What was learnt?
1. Lewis showed that he can carry the tall forward position – Having auditioned for the role late in the game last week with Chol going off early, Lewis was able to demonstrate again that he could be the main tall forward inside F50. For those who had been wondering what his worth to the team was in the first few games may now realise that Lewis was playing a strategic role in these games when we had three talls fit and firing aside from Opening Round.
2. Rucks as a tall forward option isn’t a long-term solution – With Chol going down, the magnets were flicked around initially Weddle looked to be the one pushed forward and then in the later part of the game, Meek and Reeves spent time forward. In the last quarter, the Dogs showed this set up to be a liability as they were able to go from goal to goal when we had Reeves chasing out, but three Dogs were able to overlap run to set up a forward scoring entry for them. There is no doubt that both Reeves and Meek create scoring chances from F50 stoppages, but playing as tall options inside F50 should be cameo role rather than as true supporting roles.
3. Newcombe wasn’t going to have two “poor” games in a row – Having had a case of butter fingers last week, Newcombe wasn’t going to let this happen again and was back to his clean hands in contests and in open play. His performances this season are more than confirming the faith put in him by Mitchell et al in making him a co-captain.
4. Maturity of the group was eident in the preparation this week – Last week the maturity of the group was demonstrated by the tactical nous applied in the last 2 minutes of the game; this week it was reflected in the preparation for the game. Coming off a short week and a euphoric victory, being able to apply themselves to take on the ladder leaders and not give them a genuine sniff of winning is another example of how this group is maturing into an experienced group. With 4 players under 50 games; 7 players 49-100 games; 5 between 100-150 games; leaving 7 with 150+ games – the fruits of the past 4 years of development and recruitment are being realised.
5. Weddle on the run and judging his aerial contests need some work – There is no doubt that when Weddle goes on his overlapping line breaking runs, he generates great momentum for the team, however his final disposal by foot have become a slight concern as he doesn’t regularly hit targets going inside 50. He certainly gains metres and allows for the defensive wall to be set up, but to get full return on his efforts being able to hit targets is a work in progress. In this game, he also had some issues judging his launches into marking contests.
6. The defence was able to restrict an opposition to under 80 points for the first time this season – Playing against one of the higher scoring teams thus far, being able to restrict them to 64 points was a clear return to form for the back 7. Considering that the Dogs scored 15 points in the first quarter, 22 points in last 12 minutes of 3rd quarter and 14 points in the last 15 minutes of 4th, restricting them to 13 points across the remainder of the game was outstanding work.
7. When the Dogs had dominance late in the third quarter, our kick ins were an issue again – Being unable to exit from our back half in this period where the Dogs kicked 5 behinds again raises a concern we had last year. This may have been a consequence of Chol’s absence as Lewis couldn’t push forward to assist as a marking target. At the same time, we certainly didn’t help ourselves as Ginnivan made two costly skill errors in the exit chain – allowing a Dogs intercept and giving up a lasso free missing a teammate – and D’Ambrosio overran a loose ball get from an Amon handball in congestion.
Observations:
• Some poor goal kicking again didn’t help our cause, particularly in the first half of the third quarter when we could’ve put them away kicking 3.4 before they went on their run (3.5).
• Credit to both D’Ambrosio and Mackenzie who are now more prepared to use their less dominant foot. For Mackenzie, who is more often working in close contests, he is getting the ball forward more quickly, allowing the forwards to get to work in less congested contests.
• It would be good to hear of Amon taking on a mentor role with D’Ambrosio as Gunston has to Dear, assisting him in making sharper decisions with the ball in hand, particularly after marking and encouraging him to take ground quicker when he has possession. D’Ambrosio’s first quarter was as dynamic as he played in his time with the club.
• Barrass is a very smart defender as it looked, he may be in for a tough night the way Darcy started. Whilst the mids put pressure on the Dogs’ entries after ¼ time, Barrass was also able to position himself to make it hard for Darcy to get any good looks close to goal after ¼ time.
• Perez looked more comfortable this week than last, which may place more pressure on Scrimshaw and others for a place in the team.
• Nash’s role on Bontempelli and as the enforcer in the clearances was again worthy of note. He has developed a good record against the Dogs as has the team in recent years.
• Butler’s flexibility is a quiet watch – last week he had heavy CBAs rotation whereas this week he appeared to have a defensive forward role limiting Dale’s run off half back.
• Ticked off Easter Monday win and followed up with first Gather Round win – small things matter.
• 0 disposals quarters – 2nd: Watson Reeves
• Tackle count by quarter – 16/20; 12/12; 20/8; 13/18 (61/58)
• I50 count/score by quarter – 13/14 (4.2/2.3); 12/10 (3.3/0.4); 15/16 (3.5/4.6); 14/13 (5.4/2.3)
• TOG % Bottom 5 (plus rucks): Reeves 63%; Meek 64%; Mackenzie 71%; Butler 75%; D’Ambrosio 76%; Newcombe 76%; Ward 77%. (Sicily & Battle 95% highest.)
• Kicking efficiency (DE): Reeves 100%/2 kicks (75); Barrass 100%/10 (92); Hardwick 90%/19 (84); Sicily 89%/19 (88); Battle 89/18 (91); Impey 88%/17 (85)
Chol 0%/1 (0); Mackenzie 22%/9 (41); Butler 43%/14 (44); Gunston 50%/6 (50); Lewis 50%/12 (67); Weddle 50%/8 (73).
Starting 4: (CBA/% total CBA/CC)
1st Qrt: Reeves (16/59/0) Newcombe (22/81/4) Ward (13/48/0) Nash (20/74/3)
2nd Qrt: Meek (11/41/0) Newcombe Ward Nash
3rd Qrt: Reeves Newcombe Ward Nash
4th Qrt: Meek Newcombe Ward Nash
Mackenzie 12/44/0 Macdonald 6/22/2 Watson 5/19/0 Moore 1/4/0 Ginnivan 1/4/0
27 CBAs/9 clearances (Opposition:15 Neutral:3)
8 player rotation but with Moore and Ginnivan only going in once, effectively 6 player rotation which was the same as last week. Mackenzie took all the work Butler did last week. There seems to be a ranking system becoming apparent with Newcombe, Nash and Ward being the starting combination. Newcombe is the leader of the group. When Watson went into the square early in the game. Centre clearances were lost, but understandable when an opposition can set up to rove off the opposition as much as the dominant ruck team. Around the ground stoppages was where the mids were able to set up more effectively (36/16). With the small forwards, they were able to hit the scoreboard in forward 50 stoppages (6.3)
Watch for the season
Gunston – 3 leads. Effectively a reflection of his footy IQ having Khamis as his direct opponent. (Kicked 19.12 for the season.)
Issue for the week:
The Chol injury provides the first opportunity for a look at the next tall forward option, given the way Gunston has operated as a deep target, there is a need to find another tall to assist with the transition off half back. Lewis has shown the capacity to play the connector role, so then it is a question as to who the better option is to provide the contested marking contest inside forward 50 unless the selectors decide the connector role is an easier role for the option. With Dalton being selected ahead of Morrison and Maginness, his form from the Swans game provides an insight/precedence. If this is accurate, McCabe would be in the mix whilst Dear would be the one with the recent experience. I’m not sure that Schubert has the experience to play either role as yet and from last year’s games, Ramsden would be suited to the connector role and is actually the closest physical comparison to Chol i.e. athletic although a bit slower.
Fantastic write up thank you Mick. There was a suggestion in something I read this morning that owing to the short break following the Geelong game, there may be some players that are managed, including Gunston as a player who may be managed. That would make sense given that we play Gold Coast, followed by Collingwood on a five day break and then have a trip to Fremantle for a Thursday night game. If Gunston weas rested, there would be two key forwards required to come into the 23, assuming we maintained the three tall forwards structure. Given that McCabe has tended to play the 'connector' role for Box Hill this season and for much of 2025, he could take that role and Calsher effectively take the Chol role. Given the lack of debutants in 2025 and Rob Macartney's pre-season comments about the importance of debuting players this season (opting for Perez and Dalton in a high pressure and high stakes game on Easter Monday was evidence of this), it wouldn't surprise at all to see McCabe get a chance. Having said that, Calsher's last quarter two weeks ago was a snapshot of his best and while only one quarter, you'd think (and we hope) that he would have taken great confidence from that.
Hi Stuart
With Chol out, applying the Gunston "managed" policy would mean we'd have a "new" forward structure which could be clunky. I see the rationale, but also they are coming off 2 games in 23 days (18 day break going into Easter Monday). Whether Gunston's hammy is an underlying issue is an unknown factor to us.
Hey Mick,
Check out your kicking efficiency stats, as much as I’d love to have 2 Sicily’s playing for us, somehow I don’t think it’s possible…😉
Thanks Christopher.
I knew the cut/paste template would catch up one day!
Thanks for the match review Danny and good to see you're up and about. This was a bit of a strange game and I'm not sure it was quite as convincing as it appeared to be.
1. We dominated possession yet won the inside 50s by only one.
2. We had 47 more hit outs and as Danny says, monstered their rookie ruckman, but lost centre clearances and while we enjoyed an overall clearance advantage, it wasn't overwhelming (+12 from 74 clearances).
3. The Bulldogs top line players (Bont, Richards, Naughton, Darcy, Dale) had below standard games and aside from a 10-15 minute period late in Q3, we seemed to have the game very much under control, yet on expected score, the margin was just 11 points. Had the Bulldogs taken advantage of their opportunities during this period of the game, the margin at 3/4 time would likely have been single figures.
4. Our dominance came from contested marking, where we took 19 in total and were +11 and scoring from stoppages where we scored 6.3 which is world record pace. It was great that we were so strong in these areas, but these won't typically be areas of such advantage.
5. Perhaps I'm imagining it, but we appeared to have some difficulty in moving the ball via a kick out. We generally went long to the left-hand side of the ground and relied on a contested mark, which isn't really a sustainable method.
6. There were a number of occasions where we won possession in the back half of the ground and had a short chain of possessions but had very limited / no options ahead of the ball. Perhaps this was a result of Mabior's injury but a feature of our game this year had been the ability to generally maintain some structure ahead of the ball.
7. The sum of the parts point is true in relation to our midfield, but there was an unhealthy reliance on Jai and surely the hard tag is something he'll now get each week. Among our top 10 possession winners, only one was a midfielder (Jai). The others were the hybrid forwards, defenders and Massimo. We need more from Ward and Mackenzie.
8. From an individual perspective, the performance of Lewis across the Sydney, Geelong and Bulldogs game has been outstanding, Ginnivan has continued from his exceptional 2025, and Massimo's last two games have been his best for some time. On the other hand, Josh Ward's consistency is a minor issue (it's a bit of feast or famine with him), Weddle is not yet having the impact up the ground we had hoped for and which we need and we really want Mackenzie to have a big midfield game.
9. It's nice to have won 4 straight, to be relatively injury free and to have had some good fortune in terms of perhaps playing sides at the right time (Sydney without Heeney and Gulden, Geelong without Dangerfield and Bulldogs without English and Libba).
Stuart
Just on Point 2 - I'm firmly of the belief that in centre clearances, it is easier for the opposition mids to set up for a losing ruck and may actually give them an advantage over the "winning" mids as they would still have some defensive measures in place just in case.
Point 3 - you are channelling your inner Klibansky 🤣
And once again thank you to "the dynamic duo" of Mick and Stuart who have provided outstanding comments ... love, love ... LOVE IT!!!
14 clearances. 5 goal assists. 21 hit outs to advantage. A goal a piece for our rucks. 3.2 for both Gunston and Lewis.
Coaches' votes
5. Newcombe Newcombe
4. Ginnivan Battle
3. Barrass Ginnivan
2. Battle Hardwick
1. Lewis O'Donnell
5 week average rolling ladder
RD PF PA %
5 107 88 121.04
PF above 90 points 5 times (11 times last year total.)
1st game for the season PA under 80 points. (15 times last year.)