Post match. NAB. Pies walloped - all comments

[Piesnchess]

WHO gives a shit, hell, I don't like Wangaratta anyway !

[Albert Parker]

[Jezza]

Disappointing performance but I'm not overly concerned though in some regards.

I think the forward line looks more sharp with Reid up there and with White in the side now we look big and strong now and our midfield still has a lot of class and talent in it. Add Beams and Adams into the mix and our midfield is still one of the best going around in my opinion.

I agree with others saying that the ruck and defence is the biggest concern. Our defence looked very weak today overall. We really need Toovey, Williams (unfortunately not likely to happen) and Maxwell back in the defence sooner rather than later and while I'm loving Reid up forward he might be required in the defence though. While he did have brain fades I'm fearful that the loss of Heater will be greater than what people have anticipated.

Grundy lost the plot today but he just had a bad day at the office so I'm not overly concerned about it. I've been a little weary of the fact that we're going into the season with two young rucks in Grundy and Witts and a old ruckman in Hudson. The balance doesn't seem right in my view.

The game itself was poor. The likes of Swan, Pendles and Sidebottom all looked disinterested especially Swan who'd rather have been somewhere else the way he was playing. Cloke was decent but didn't have the best of games.

The most promising things of today was Reid with several goals up forward. I also loved seeing Ben Kennedy have a solid game and he looked more confident with himself as the game went on.

Some things we learnt today is Armstrong will be lucky to play one senior game for the whole season. Totally weak and an absolute liability to the side. It's a little mind-boggling we recruited him in the first place. Our defence needs a lot of improvement but granted we were smashed out of the midfield and I feel our next game against the Gold Coast requires more professionalism and seriousness. We seemed to be going at half pace today.

Long way to go but I'm shocked by how many predicted us to be top 4 to be honest. I've always believed that making the finals this year is a satisfying result for the club with the hope of winning at least one match in the finals as well.

Overall I'm not expecting big things for 2014 but I'd like to see us play finals football again and see a more established and clear game plan enforced and followed by the players. At the moment the game plan is all over the place and fans are struggling to establish what Buckley's game plan is. It's a big year for Bucks and if we continue to go backwards this year then questions will need to be asked at the end of the year.

[rand corp]

Not that much to say about today, we got thumped by a side who wanted it more, where harder at it and ran it out better. Smashed at the clearances, smashed at the contested ball, smashed for pressure.

They looked fair dinkum, we looked like we were out for a run around practice match.

Ried, Elliot decent games, several others just ok, a few cruised and plenty were somewhere between below average and plain terrible.

Next game will give us a better feel for where we are really at going in to round one.

Showed today how important Beams, Adams and JT are going to be to our midfield.

Grundy is going to need plenty of assistance from Lynch and Hudson

Backline looks shaky, hopes Toovey is good to go next week and we miss Maxies experience, Seeds and Shazza later in the year would be a bonus and its a bloody shame about Marley.

Would love to know what the heck is wrong with JT, Dwyer and Martin and how many weeks they are away form starting.

[Albert Parker]

[Monco Matt]

Early days, but nothing there too convincing. Would want to have a go and chalk up a win next game. Winning is a habit, so is losing, just ask the Dees.

Losing happens, but to lose without a fight is not the stuff of champions.

[Albert Parker]

I must confess, I am at a loss to know why Hawks come out to play these past 2 weeks and we were insipid with our attitude today.

Disposal, tackling, rucks, defence all a concern. Ability of Richmond to run from end to end another feature we saw too much of last year.

Not writing us off yet, but the disposal and attitude the single biggest worries for mine.

Add Marley, Toovey, Maxy to defence
Add Adams, Beams, Thomas to the mids rotations and it makes a big difference……..provided the team is switched on and hungry.

[burnsy17]

No injuries..... Tick box and move along.... Nothing else to see here!

[skaman]

Cant believe what I read here sometimes, didn't watch the game..but don't care. the way some people treat these games amuses me. These games do not reflect the season proper, some players will find form, some will be trialled with no realistic chance of playing a regular gig. All the permitations reflecting these and a myriad of other possible selection senarios and play options, may not even be used in the season proper...chillax.
No injuries and running into form is the ONLY creadance I give to these games, anything else is dillusional!

[Brown26]

Lots of people are loving the Hawks pre season and why wouldn't you, two good wins, playing pretty full strength teams and looking the goods. It's a long season though, just as Mick Malthouse era 2011 / 2012 ...

- Ben

[What'sinaname]

[perthmagpie]

I went along. Basically we got well beaten in the midfield, at stoppages and clearances. Richmond controlled the game. Our back line was inexperienced, young and incohesive. We lost in the ruck as Grundy had a poor day. His timing was out again.

To clear the ball we had three of our best clearances players in. We left out the other three: Thomas, Beams and Adams and Richmond was only missing Maric. Our back line was missing Toovey, Williams, Maxwell and either one of Seedsman or Sinclair. It looked out of sorts. There is no way at three or four of those guys will not be playing back in place of Armstrong, Fasolo, Langdon and Frost in three weeks. Maxy's last year but I'm starting to realise we need him there for a while to implement the structure and game plan. Brown and Goldy played back and looked rusty.

Swan jogged around and so did Pendles. Elliot and Kennedy spent most of their time in the middle. Young had a good game, Sidey was disappointing and Ball was just okay.

The difference in attitude seemed apparent right from the start. They were keen, sharp and focused. We looked not switched on and played like it. Never looked like winning.

I was near the race at the game and I noticed Bucks and Burnsy looked unconcerned at half time and at the end. I noticed Bucks said he was completely unconcerned with the game afterwards although admitting it wasn't ideal as preparation.

Personally it was disappointing. We were way down in our areas of strength and this could be explained by our missing numbers in the area of clearances and our lack of intensity. Richmond trained here and we rolled up for a bit of a picnic and got comprehensively outplayed almost all day.

[neil]

Based on some of the reports here the sky has fallen!!!

It was a practice match in February and still people are panicking.
Seems that some players were rusty perhaps they need some practice matches?

The usual responses from the usual posters (you can change your name but your still a wanker).

[ThePieMind]

Smashed in clearance and stoppages - that was the ball game.

Put back Beams, Blair, Adams, Dwyer, and it's a different story.

Rich midfield was at full strength.

having said that - I'm am concerned that again we have failed to add body size over the summer.
Richmond by comparison are starting to look like GEEL.

[RudeBoy]

Those worried about our defence, just remember we recruited Sharenberg specifically to shore up our backline. Hopefully he'll be playing senior footy by the middle of the season. Throw in Marley Williams, Maxy and possibly Sinclair and it s a completely different outfit to the one we had on the park yesterday.