mjonc wrote:
The usual "Hawthorn was missing X Premiership players" article in the HS today.
I wish these idiots would do some research and realise no Premiership team will ever play together again, if so it's extremely rare. All clubs have a 20-30% turnover of best 22's each season, even Grand Final teams.
Crawford has retired.
Croad is missing half the year with injury.
Renouf was lucky to get a game and hold his post late in the year.
So in real terms the Hawks missed Hodge, Franklin, Lewis, Ladson, Dew, Ellis and Osbourne. Still a strong list obviously but only 3 of those IMO are stars you can't replace. The Hawks do have good depth in the midfield with Tuck and Kennedy coming through but I can see the season starting 50/50 for the Hawks in the first 2 months with no defence to speak of and many suspensions the first few rounds.
As for us Blues, Scotland, Warnock, Kreuzer, Yarran, Walker, Carrazzo missing, none are really stars that can't be replaced as this stage, although the talent is obvious in 3 of them that could see them rise to star status quite easily in 2009.
I guess what I'm saying is it's a new season and I hate the way "some" media portray results based on lasts year form. Both teams had players missing yesterday, both teams had important structural players missing, we won on the day in a pre-season game and our kids showed more than their kids, yet we don't hear about it other than Hawks missing X Premiership players.
To give the HUN some credit (*shudder*), the article about the match did include this as the third para:
Quote:
To dwell on the Hawks' dwindling player numbers would be an injustice to the Blues' ability to overcome a ragged start and eventually coast to a 24-point win.