Inaccuracy Is A [redacted] But Josh Weddle Played Good Sooooooo (16/3/24)

Hawthorn plays Essendon @ MCG. Favourite timeslot, lovely matchup, what could possibly go wrong?

Okay I’m not copypastign this one so I can express my feelings about this game with a little more rest and a lot more nuance than my screaming and crying I did throughout (The crying was internal, the screaming not so much).

Hawthorn just lost their Round One clash against Essendon by 24 points. In hindsight, it was actually a decent watch. The umpiring was abysmal both ways, but the shootout nature of the game (especially in the third quarter) did keep you watching. It was mesmerisingly shit, essentially.

I missed the first quarter because I had a netball game (write up on that coming up!) and had to drop by the shops on the way home. When I return, Hawthorn had just extended a lead to 7 points off a Mabior Chol goal in the second quarter. I took one look at the score and went ‘Oh fuck’.

We had double the behinds than we did goals. And it didn’t get much better. We kept fighting, as we do, but Essendon didn’t stop clearing it from the centre immediately after one of our goals to get one back. The lead changed like 8 times from 8 goals. Horrifying.

The fourth quarter was where it blew open. Essendon kicked three, we kicked two, they kicked another three, etc etc. Our forwards struggled to keep their hands on the football (didn’t help that the entries inside 50 were mid) and even then, there was the question of the goal itself. I think we could have won that game if we had kicked straighter from the outset. It would have changed Essendon’s plan a little, I think, and we would have been able to adapt, being the ones with the scoring ability. Accuracy (or rather, the lack thereof) let us down.

Oh crap, I just realised my counsellor goes for Essendon. And I’ve got other things to discuss. Guess I have a lighter topic to talk about if shit goes haywire for me this week :(

On Individual Players:

James Sicily? Never heard of him. What was he doing???? I think putting Sicily specifically on a man for a long period of time instead of having him floating like we did quite a bit last year has had a negative effect on our backline. That’s obvious, though, ACL injuries are always bad. But Sicily was hot garbage today. Man.

Jacky Ginnivan played well until the fourth (like everyone else…….) kicking two goals and helping around lots :D

Nick Watson with like 3 behinds- he’s there, but he’s not there yet.

Jack Gunston acting like he never left man, kicked a goal and set up some others

Lewis was thoroughly blanketed by Barry McKay today, scored a goal in the fourth but was largely missing for much of the game.

We subbed off Mabior Chol for some reason???? He kicked like 2 goals but ok go off

Josh Weddle played very well and also took a sick mark :>

Good stuff from D’Ambrosio, looking forward to seeing him around Hawthorn!

So yeah basically we lost and it was shit but we can definitely find good things from it. Gotta work on that accuracy, though.

Carn Hork