Hawka's Hawks: Birch Versus Suckers

[Hawka]

Bored again so im going to do a stats war of Birchall and Suckling then write a bit cause of my boredom (all stats are from 2011 unless otherwise stated)


                                      GRANT BIRCHALL                        MATTHEW SUCKLING
Age                                              24                                                    23
Height                                          193cm                                              187cm
Career Games                               138                                                 35
2011 Games                                 21                                                    20
2010 Games                                 21                                                    5
2011 Total score                          1883                                                 1815 
2010 Total score                          1625                                                 256
2011 Average                              89.6                                                 90.7
2010 Average                              77.3                                                 51.2
Tons                                          11                                                     6
Highest Score                              129                                                  141
Lowest Score                              58                                                    55
Scores Below 70                           3                                                     4


What we can see from these stats is they both improved a lot.Birchall's was expected but Suckling came out of nowhere.There seasons were very alike as they averged so close and rarely had bad days .Birchall was the more consistent of the two but Suckling pulled out some big socres at times like 141.Both guys roles should stay the same as last year however we could see Suckling with more midfield time on the wing and if we see signs of this in the NAB then he is a must.I gather a fair few teams will have either Suckling or Birchall, for me im going Birchall I just think he will improve yet again.I would love to pick Suckling but i can not fit them both in.However if Suckling does move into the Midfield he is a lock for me.Though there is still a chance for inconsistency i think we will see enough tons by both these guys and both should get there averages over 95 IMO maybe higher

Who are you guys going for?? or are you staying away from both and why?

[MajorLazer]

Birchall is in my team right now and not going to get Suckling in.

Have a feeling he may be given the subs vest occasionally because teams have wored out that he is a bit soft and I think he could easily get tagged out of the game, whereas Birchall seems to be able to both defend his man and then rebound when we get the ball setting up a lot of our attacks. Birchall is taking over Hodge's '08 role as the general.

[Hawka]

Birchall is in my team right now and not going to get Suckling in.

Have a feeling he may be given the subs vest occasionally because teams have wored out that he is a bit soft and I think he could easily get tagged out of the game, whereas Birchall seems to be able to both defend his man and then rebound when we get the ball setting up a lot of our attacks. Birchall is taking over Hodge's '08 role as the general.

It would be hard to tag Birch out because of his size.
Though you do make a good point on Suckling ;)

[Colliwobblers]

Hawka another great post, have to slow them down i cant cheer so often apparantly :)

I have neither atm, was never sold on birchall and suckling leaves me feeling exactly as you and the others say a little inconsistant, a little new(soft) and the tagging is an issue, plau you have to remember a lot of DT points were scored by hawks in the backline chipping it around, if suckling goes to the wing his scoring could very well slow down with less possessions, he has a great left boot and a long one, so on the wing he would be great feeding the ball into the fwds but would he score better or worse out there? ashamadley i just dont know birchall enough to have him over my 4 gun starters in goddard, delidio, shaw and heppell....... for now

[Hawka]

Hawka another great post, have to slow them down i cant cheer so often apparantly :)

I have neither atm, was never sold on birchall and suckling leaves me feeling exactly as you and the others say a little inconsistant, a little new(soft) and the tagging is an issue, plau you have to remember a lot of DT points were scored by hawks in the backline chipping it around, if suckling goes to the wing his scoring could very well slow down with less possessions, he has a great left boot and a long one, so on the wing he would be great feeding the ball into the fwds but would he score better or worse out there? ashamadley i just dont know birchall enough to have him over my 4 gun starters in goddard, delidio, shaw and heppell....... for now

Cheers Colli to kind  :)
all good points mate
I never thought bout that and suckling moving to the wing you could be right

[Swallow12]

I'd go Suckling, he smashed it for the first half of the season and only started getting subbed when he started getting sore.. Now he has a full season behind him, and potential mid time he is a very attractive prospect.. worth noting he still out averaged birchall  despite the vests

[Lions01]

Suckling big score came early on in the piece, understand people theory about him being soft and running out of legs a little. But coming into the season their wasn't too much known about him and i think he would have caught a few teams off guard, his kicking was highlighted may of time during the year and teams would have adjusted to be more negative towards him.

He'd definitely getting more attention if hes on the wing, after a few weeks of bullet passing to Buddy something would change up.

Swallow 12 i can remember him getting the vest in the finals but these wouldn't have counted towards his average, did he get any earlier on in the piece.

Looking to the season coming up i want one or the two, I'm going with Birchall, Suckling getting attention will help him out as the Hawks will try and get it in his hands more often

[elephants]

I don't have either unfortunately :(
If I was to choose I'd go after Birchall over Suckers...

[bowyanger]

Clarko does change his game plans around a fair bit but I cant see Suckling going into the midfield.

I did read Clarkos write up on Suckling, but he pretty much said the same thing about Sizzle going into the middle a few weeks ago also.

So who would they replace?

I think Clarko maybe going massive rotations through the midfield, like the Collingwood plan under MM.

Birchall gets plenty of ball out the back because of Hawthorns chip around style, Birchall also coughs it up a lot with his rediculous 10m kicks.

Suckling is more of a long kicker.

So therefore, for DT....I would go Birchall because he gets so many cheap possessions

[picker_man]

great write up hawka 
its prietty much a flip of the coin for these guys and i reckon with a couple of tough games 2 start there will b alot of chipping around in the backs so id go birchall for that reason but on the other hand they need sucklings penetrating kick to break the top teams midfield and backs press so he does have alot of upside aswell but id go birchall

[Football Factory]

Dont know why im not putting either of these guys in Hawthorn have such a DT friendly gamestyle. The Birch seems to get moved around doesnt help his scoring sometimes and Suckling getting subbed/injured ? and scoring bugger all in those last few games worried me. Think i might use em as upgrade targets if they go nutty ill have to look at getting them in.

[AndrewY]

Suckling again this year for me. Got him rd 1 last year...was a great pick up. Hope this year and his sensational foot skills hold up.