They were blocking Liam Jones from making a run at the ball as well, in fact they’ve been doing it since Round 1, when Reiwoldt was blocking Jones.

I don’t know if we’ve made representations to the Umpires dept about it, but we’re getting reamed on these, every week since, yet all the so-called 50/50 decisions are running about 80/20 against us.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Did you watch the game?

They played better, but to say they dominated the 2nd is stretching it.

It was closer to 50/50 and despite the fact they only scored once they could have scored more, I agree. But we were also much better at resisting their attacks in the second qtr and that's why we were able to extend our lead. It was far from one way traffic. It didn't really start to go pear shaped for us until the third.

Of course, if an opposition player has 40+ and we lose it's very easy to point the finger. And maybe it would have been better had we clamped down on O'Meara at some stage, but the fact is we won both quarters in the first half when O'Meara had 26 touches. He had 9 fewer touches in the second half, yet Hawthorn played much better overall.

That's why I don't think O'Meara was the overwhelming factor for their win. Of course he had an influence, but I think he could have had 50+ and we could have won, as long as we were able to keep the rest of them quiet. But we weren't able to do that, partly due to losing a couple of our guys, partly due to dropping our intensity, which was first class in the opening half. Then Shiels, Breust and, unfortunately, quite a few others were able to lift their output in the second half.

Also agree that Impey was pretty good for them all game.

They opened up a 17 point lead around the mid point of the last quarter and yet we still created opportunities to win the game.

I like Dontuie's rant that we somehow need to find a way to to win these close games and reckon it has more merit than how many touches O'Meara had in the reasons why we lost.

I do get that we're all getting tired of the so-called honourable losses, but there really was a lot of positives to take out of that game.

Actually, of much greater concern than O'Meara, is how much better we look when Kreuzer is firing. The difference in our team was stark once he was off thr ground.

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The blocking, holding, shepherding behind the play against us yesterday, in particularly the second half, was just beyond illegal. The fact the umpires let it go had me outraged. A few teams do it but Richmond and Hawthorn are just plain cheats.

There's a pretty simple solution to the above. Jump anyway and lift the knee, they won't do it again after that.

Not if you are wearing Navy Blue. What happened to McKay yesterday was just plain illegal, as you said and the umpires refused to bite because he was wearing Navy Blue.

How many times did Cripps get held off the ball. How many times did Jones get blocked. How many times did the ball get recalled back once the bounce favored Hawthorn after an illegal center bounce? Just plain corrupt umpiring!!!

Mind you I'm being nice right now as well...

Harry didn't have time or room to lift the knee. They blocked him by standing close in front and beside. He would have without a doubt given a free kick, no a 50 meter penalty if he did something illegal back to umpire lovers.

Well I have just done a check
Coaches votes , every major newspaper . Dream team etc had O'Meara as the best player on the ground.
But it's ok for Bolton not to clamp down on him because Camel says so.
Did you stop and think we could have been 40 to 50 points up in the first half if O'Meara had been shut down.


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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

I find it quite amusing that the usuals detractors are on here again talking the same nonsense. We didn't adjust, Bolton should've done something, he's not our man......blah blah blah. Take the blinkers off people and stop with the short term memory and whinging. We won 2 games last year because of injuries to key players during games, senior players making poor disposal choices with terrible execution and a team of kids who are going to be inconsistent and not always play 4 quarters of football. If you seen anything else other than the above, then you are just looking for reasons to peddle your own nonsense.
As disappointed as I am regarding the end result and win we "could've" had, I am pretty stoked with the first half and the last part of the 4th. It was something to get excited about, especially if they can string it together for 4 full quarters. Finally our team has a lot of potential and the results might come sooner that I personally expected.
Go the Blues!!

Ya know....

i've got 3 good Hawk mates...none of them
contacted me yesterday...but all 3 did
today...!

they all said they got a smidge lucky...and
Bolts is getting us primed beautifully with
a great style of football...!

i don't know...for what it's worth hey...!


kindest regards tommi




sometimes other supporters see stuff
we can't...!

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

We have a massive problem if we have to face the Roos or any team without Matty Kreuzer, he just makes our midfield stand tall, it’s noticeable.
Huge impact on the team morale , always flattens opposition were possible and paves the way to goal.
Silvagni must be cracking his brain over this , because Phillips, Lobbe nor Levi are the answers.

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Go Blue Boys

I find it amusing that somebody thinks BB is perfect and therefore beyond criticism.

It isn't OK to let a player run around loose getting 25 possessions in a half of footy without reacting. I suggest you write letters, emails, tweets or whatever to all the ex players and commentators on TV/radio/press saying we should have stopped O'Meara and tell them how wrong they are.

Even BB isn't claiming last year's results were because of injury.

We are tracking OK but nobody thinks BB outcoached Clarko last Sunday except you, judging from your comments.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Well that settles it then. Dream team had O'Meara best on ground so that substantiates the argument.
Yes O'Meara was winning plenty of the ball but it didn't translate to team dominance. We were winning the clearances easily. We were smashing them at the clearances more than 2 to 1. Not to mention we were more than double their score.
Had we changed the dynamic in the midfield in the first half, could that have reduced our effectiveness in a effort to reduce O'Mearas stats?
If we did that, the same whingers would be on here slagging Bolton for changing a winning combination.
It happens. This season, sides are getting on momentum runs and it's a matter of making the most of your opportunities when they occur. The Anzac Day match was almost a carbon copy except Collingwood fell in by a few points.

We are getting there. We had an opportunity to go further ahead in the 3rd quarter and a couple of selfish decisions (IMHO) cost us. There's small things we need to iron out but we're enormously improved from last season and when we play our best footy, it's brilliant to watch.
I understand the disappointment but I don't understand the continuing negativity. If people cant see the impending good times, they're not looking IMHO.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

everyone here can see the good times coming, and our future is bright -- from a playing list perspective. but ... the inevitable incoming good times don't necessarily equate to flags.

bolton is great in many aspects of coaching ... his gameday decisions and moves have always been suss (imo). he's reactionary (rather than proactive), and, that's if he makes any moves at all. so many games when momentum is sliding, or the other coach makes a structural change, bolton's hands stay in his pockets? imo, bolton needs to add some unpredictability to his game, and be prepared to take some risks as the next part of his coaching evolution.

Like, clarkson got towelled up in the 1st on the weekend, (bolten's biggest strength as a coach is midweek film sessions scouting the other team and formulating a plan to stop them.)


at qtr-timeClarkson made changes in the forwardline, back and midfield in order to win. this exposed bolton's biggest achilles heal -- formulating a plan-b or c to counter the other coach.


Watching us bombard the front 50 in the last two minutes hoping for a miracle pack mark while they flooded those pack areas with defenders wasn't good coaching. no one broke free of the pack and lead onto the flanks, none of the mids run and carried into the 50 while their defence sagged off and loaded up on our predictable pack mark situation.

basically we made it too easy for the hawks to diffuse us. they were spent, with everyone behind the ball, they weren't capable of rebounding, yet we kept our central zone to prevent a rebound which never came?

in that moment we still played defensive not to risk a rebound, rather than go all out run and carry and break their line?

those little missed moments within a game have been our calling card under BB.

and once the squad is elite and in it's prime,, it's those moments which are the difference in winning flags, and just being really good. yeah?

Firstly I think that with so much list turnover Boltons first task is to teach new and inexperienced players the game plan we want to execute and what decisions should be made in each game scenario. This take courage as you need to keep the structure in place that the players are being taught, even if may not be the best option during a particular quarter or the period of the game. If we chop and change the game plan that our players still aren't executing then all we are going to do is confuse them on how we want them to play and can't hold them accountable to it.

Secondly, how were you expecting Bolton to change player instructions in the last 2-5 minutes when you can't send out runners and with only 1 player on the bench?

Really? I thought they 'rewarded' players with 'sufficient' reputations and who exaggerate contact. I wish what you said were true. But it's not what I've seen.

I already posted in the game tread on the umpires and don't like blaming them for outcomes of games. By way of summary, I was questioning why we have such a large differential in free kicks after half time in games (-16)

My point is that the coaching staff need to look at getting our key forwards to play in sync with each other. If Harry is getting blocked from running at the ball and pushed into the pocket with a block on the inside, then we need McGovern and Casbolt to get in dangerous positions away from Harry so that they are the player to be hit up.

We have a talented/dangerous key forwards and need to get seperation of them to make the opposition defend each one, this will mean that each of them will need to sacrifice there game for periods of games. I think that Harry and McGovern do this, we just need Charlie to do them same.

So 10 coaching votes don't count and 3 brownlow votes coming his way won't count either
We did nothing to nullify his output. Meanwhile we have the best run with player in the comp running around the forward 50 getting the ball and gifting back to the opposition every time he disposes it.
We will never know how much further in front we could have been if he was locked down earlier.
Every football expert in the country voted him the stand out player and we did nothing

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Be nice if we took Reilly O'Brien from the Crows. Ironic in the sense that he's clearly being lined up as the Jacobs successor. If the Crows throw a huge amount at Grundy, might shake him loose.

Patrick Cripps leads the AFLCA coaches award. We've won one game. Marcus Bontempelli is second.
They've won 2 games. Team performance wins games, not individual highlights.
We'll never know how much our lead could have been reduced by altering the midfield rotation.
It's all hypothetical but what I do know is the coaches are armed with far more information and data than we have.
It was a disappointing loss but the review will provide plenty of benefit to the players looking to the future.

But I'm unashamedly a glass half full person.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I didn't care too much about OMeara at half time TBH.

I thought he wasn't doing any damage.

I thought Cripps could have received a few frees which he didnt.

Execution Efficiency was high in the first half and the kids played the Bolton game plan to perfection.

When the efficiency declined, so did our forward thrusts.

If we had got over the line, the praise of the Bolton game plan and the development of the kids would be the discussion.

Time beat us. We also beat ourselves...just look back at moments, and the luck that went Hawks way.

I'm happy with our progress ... actually had a tear in my eye after the game, whilst my 2 boys were in severe pain.

We will learn and harden up from this....IMO

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue