Hawks - Is it all in the head?

[kafka69]

Ahhh...the hawks...what to do?
I was on the hawks site the other day and even if the hawks players are not passionate at present, the supporters definitely are! There are many opinions flying around at the moment about who should be dropped, and who should be given their marching orders from ever playing football again.
To me this seems like an above the neck problem and throwing around threats may not be the answer, maybe the backed into the corner hawk will raise its talons and fight out of the corner, but when confidence is down do you lay the boot in? When confidence is down you need support, and therefore wouldn't it be better to build team spirit?  Doubtless players are down and out now and they are not trusting each other and possibly only playing for themselves? But how do you 'team build' in season without taking a trip to kokoda? I don't know!
Would dropping players and blooding new players do it? This may inspire some hunger to get back in the firsts, or just make the Box Hill Hawks a great team in the VFL.
Hopefully it would inspire hunger. Maybe each young blood should get a senior player as a 'minder' on the field. This minder could be an out of form senior who cannot be dropped as the list is not that deep, and therefore put responsibility for the youngster in the hands of the seniors who then have a responsibility to not only lead the way forward but also re-instil a care about their teammates.
Bring in Lisle as half back flanker, rotating through the ruck and put Roughie at CHB as his minder (although I doubt Roughies ability down back as to be honest I cannot remember seeing roughie running and kicking? Maybe my memory eludes me and he is good running kick?) Roughie is hearing footsteps right now, so maybe he needs to be placed at chb and back back into a few contests to make him realise that he is strong and capable?
The back line has to be the focus, and even though the wizened commentators keep saying you 'cannot rob peter to pay paul', you do not rob anybody by putting underperforming players in the backline. If they cannot play their own game, make them focus on stopping someone else's. Put brownie back there.  Then to top them up and give them some pace also JKT and youngie who can then give pace to link with the midfield. Then we bring in Breust in the forward line and make rioli his minder.

Therefore the team would be
B Brown Gilham Guerra
HB Lisle Roughhead Ladson
C Young Mitchell Shiels
HF Birchall Franklin Bateman
F Breust Shoenmakers Rioli
Followers Sewell, Renouf, Hodge
Int - JKT, Moss, Lewis, Stratton

IN Mitchell, Lisle, Breust
OUT Murphy, Whitecross, Osborne

Strategy: To win games at present Hodge plays lose man down back. Lisle rotates with Renouf through the backline. Wings push back into back half to give run from the back. Forward flankers push onto the wings, to provide an open and accurate pass to the open forward line. Buddy, shoenmakers lead into the corridor whilst the small forwards sneak off into the pockets after shadowing the tall lead.
The back kick in is taken by hodge and the set-up is two huddled groups on each flank, with most kicks going to the talls in this group (Roughie and Renouf). Small runners lead off the pack to the pockets on occasion and the groups are subtly pushed closer to goals and the kick goes over the pack to the running smalls. The tall forwards run the corridor as the kick hits the 'kick in' pack as preparation for the quick play on. If the ball is marked by the opposition Hodge is back to stop it and we have a tall on the mark. Mix this up with one huddle to three huddles on occasion and loose players should be found by our best kick Hodge.
Maybe implementing a rotating interchange with position and many players would potentially break tags, out position opposition players, and bring back more a resting on field situation.
JKT rotates with Young, Ladson and Bateman through back flanks, wings and forward flanks. 
Stratton rotates with birchall and gilham at full back and half forward flank.
Lewis and moss rotate through the middle and forward pockets with shiels, sewell, and mitchell.
Anyway...just want something to be tried.
Questions I would like an answer to if anyone happens to know.
1. Where is dowler?
2. Why didn't we pick up curnow as rookie?
3. Will hooper be back this week?

I am looking forward to seeing the hawks this weekend as they have hit rock bottom and must fight from here.

Hodge for brownlow!

Mark

[Justin Bieber]

Pretty decent stuff you wrote up. But reckon the backline is still fairly weak no matter what. Would rather have roughy rotating ruck to get out of his lazy ways. Can rotate with Renouf, Lisle and/or Schoenmakers. Let Lisle and schoenmakers stay back while roughy up forward. When renouf is benched can use the other guys or even rest him up forward as a tall forward to take a player out of the action. Schoenmakers isn't a real ruckman but does give it all he can when he was up in there last round.

Dowler still in the 2's. From what i've been reading around, he's still in pretty average form and hasn't done much to stand out. Still think he is a good defensive Backman the hawks need in.

Not sure Bruest should be in but I've never seen him play!

[kafka69]

There you go...the hawks team has been named and no newbies. I do think Lewis is tough not be given the nod but maybe he is still shaken and this is the best way for him to regain some confidence. To be honest after that brutal knock I have been suprised that he hasn't been doing the 360 look before touching any ball coming his way.
Ossie needed to be dropped as did murph but I was a little suprised jkt didn't get the nod, athough I hear he is playing for himself at the moment, which suprises me a tad as he was voted clubman last year at his club in WA.
So the team is set and by positions marked on the team sheet nothing new is being tried...I hope that the team sheet is only the first salvo in the war, and is literally a random group of names thrown on paper without any permanence.
I am still rather peeved with Brown and Roughie in the forward line to be honest. Both players have heart and brawn and should be giving the heart down back where we most need it. Brown no doubt will be going to GC next year as he has not managed to cement himself in a key position and coaches put these players in pockets and hope for the best. I really feel for him as his chest hardly contains his ticker but where do you play him? Too short to play a big forward, to slow to play a small forward and vice versa he is to short to play a tall forward and to small to play a small forward. Top this off with to slow to be a midfielder and he is suddenly not an afl player! As a magnificent tough nut though maybe he should be playing the stoppages? Can you have a specialist tough nut tackler whose role is purely to target in on the ball at stoppages and remove whatever stops him from achieving his target. Could be very interesting to watch! I joked with some mates doing a fake pre match preview that one of the outs was brown who had taken filou's spots in the nrl, but maybe not such a joke?
Yes hellopplz the back line is way weak whatever way you cut and dice it and this is why I hope Roughie, hodge and brown are put back there to at least ruffle some eagles feathers. Roughie cannot ruck unfortunately as he just does not know how to do the vertical leap without getting his knees in the way, which will get him injured real quick, which clarko will therefore not do.
We need help in the ruck and if Clarko has renouf as sole ruck again I will be very dissapointed with his lack of imagination. pls no third man up this weekend, not against nicnat and coxd. We will have to have a spare man at stoppages and man up all others to vaguely win the clearances. Good job for brownie maybe :)
Anyway I have rambled enough...I just hope we see some fight and imagination shown by the hawks this week. Good, honest, tough footy remembering the basics and showing creativity with the kick ins would see me happy.

Carn the hawks.

Hodge for brownlow.

PS - Dowler has not played a game in the seconds this year from all the info I could see? Curnow is dominating in the vfl...why didn't we get him? Maybe lisle and breust are still lads and not ready for the mans league yet? Think Stratton has it if we give him time.

And lastly we have to shake up the moves around ground and throw some of our backs forward and forwards back and see what happens...

Mark

[HintT]

Short version of what I think, I'd like Roughie to spend some time in the backline. Shoes need more time developing his game.

[kafka69]

Short version is good...I should try harder to keep it brief too! Roughie down back would be interesting hey, and I agree shoe' at the moment needs time on ground to understand the precepts of the game and see what is required of the CHB before being thrown into the position before ready and potentially destroy his confidence to be a key position player. As well as making too may mistakes and therefore losing games...

[kafka69]

PS - currently living in Nepal which is 4 hours behind so even though it looks like a late post it actually isn't.

[Justin Bieber]

PS - Dowler has not played a game in the seconds this year from all the info I could see? Curnow is dominating in the vfl...why didn't we get him? Maybe lisle and breust are still lads and not ready for the mans league yet? Think Stratton has it if we give him time.

Dowler has played the last 3 weeks in the VFL. Has scored 4 goals between the 3 games and has been listed in the backline last round (not sure on the others). Should be playing again this week.

At least suckling is brought in to cover murphy out.

[HintT]

Going to see them play today, I'll give a wrap about them when I get back.

Sad that Buddy can't play, you bknow hell always play his best when he comes back over here.

[Cruiseon]

It is in the head, it is in the bodies, it is everywhere. Hawthorn are poor and I don't just mean the team, I mean the club. Stay with me for a minute or two.

The single minded culture that brought Hawthorn its success does not allow for a genuine diagnosis of  where the team, the list and the club is at. Let me shed some simple stats on it "2 wins from 12 games"!!! Most other clubs would see the crisis that this really is, in fact it is a disaster.

Until Kennett and Clarkson realise they actually have an average list (lets exclude Hodge, Mitchell, Franklin, maybe Sewell and it would be generous saying Roughhead at the moment) the others would be lucky to get in most sides. Rioli is obviously injured (bad management again) but after that it just drops away. In addition to that the club desperately needs a ruckmen and tall backmen so they recruit someone who was long term injured for their midfield?? This does not make sense when Jolly was on offer and they did not even make a play for him.

Some examples of very average footballers include Brown, Ladson, Guerra & Lewis. None of these guys would get near being picked in a decent side.

Don't take this personally Hawks fans but just want to see if you have the reality check within you or have I got it all wrong?

[Big Lance]

Congrats you can recycle media information to us, do u have anything original to add?
Any Hawks supporter that thinks our club is currently a good or top 8 team are living in the past. We're an ordinary team and its gonna take time to fix that. 2008 was great but its over and the club has gone dramatically backwards since then. A change of mindset and alterations to the gameplan will begin to rectify the horrible performances we have been seeing.

[Cruiseon]

Big Lance, I don't think you are ordinary that is my point.

Ordinary gets you 8th, 9th or maybe 10th not 2 wins in 12.

[Big Lance]

obvious bait is bad

[HintT]

Um not quite there on the trade in Burgoyne when we need other positions covered business.

Have you heard of Wade Skipper, Rhan Hooper?  Oh and Josh Gibson in defence.  Guess what has happened to them all season? Please, get the full picture before you leap to conclusions. 

[Cruiseon]

Wade Skipper? Please don't tell me that is the full picture. A C-grade ruckman who could barely get a game at his club of 5 years?

If that was a trade to bring Hawthorn back up to an elite team in the comp then maybe the picture I'm seeing is not complete afterall. 

[Big Lance]

Interesting to see a wobbles supporter so passionate about the hawks.