Round 8 – Melbourne v Hawthorn
MCG
Pre Match:
• Short and light week on the track due to short [6 day] turnaround from Fremantle game.
• Big focus for this game was showing our maturity as a team. This time last year we came off a tremendous win against Adelaide only for Hawthorn to catch us on the hop and beat us comprehensively. They got into us physically and thrashed us at the clearances. Not allowing this to happen again would show that we are now more able to keep our focus after a strong win, an important component of mental toughness. Our playing group was very motivated by this challenge.
• Pleasing that we were able to go into this game with no changes to the team that defeated Fremantle, the first time we have been able to do this for the season.
• A real key to victory would be containing Hawthorn’s dynamic on ball trio of Crawford, Mitchell & Hodge. Not allowing Everitt to dominate the taps would be critical to this. If we could achieve this outcome it would make it difficult for Williams to get enough clean supply to help the Hawks kick a winning score. Conversely quick and regular supply to our dangerous forwards would cause the young Hawthorn backs considerable concern.
• Expected the Hawks to come out aggressively and try to rough us up. Our aim was to keep our attack on the ball, not get sucked in and just get on with the game.
During the Game:
• The Hawks jumped away early but we showed good composure to soak in their pressure, steady and have the lead by quarter time. Early on they had the ascendancy around stoppages but we gradually reeled them in to give our forwards some decent supply. Pleased with our ability to maintain concentration when the game got a little physical. This worked to our advantage. A highlight of the quarter was Adem Yze’s block on Campbell Brown – it made a strong statement about our intentions.
• We really dominated play in the 2nd quarter but failed to take all our chances in front of goals. Dunn, Yze & Greeny [twice] all missed shots they would normally put away. Despite this we persisted with our efforts and by half time had a handy 5 goal lead. The obvious highlight of the quarter was big Neita’s record breaking goal. It was a great moment which I’m sure he’ll look back on with pride in years to come. He is a magnificent champion and an outstanding person. It is a sign of his modesty and selflessness that he didn’t realise it was the record breaking goal until it came up on the scoreboard after he kicked it.
• The 3rd quarter proved to be an arm wrestle as Hawthorn desperately tried to work their way back into the game. We made a couple of mistakes which resulted in early goals to the Hawks but from this point on we took control, regained our 5 goal lead and made a victory more than achievable with a solid final quarter. We had overused the ball a bit, relaxed defensively and lowered our colours in the clearances. If we could lift in these areas then a positive finish was on the cards.
• Very pleased with Q4 as our work rate was up, we won the disputed ball and continued to put our body on the line despite the fact that the game was in our control. Keeping Hawthorn scoreless was just as pleasing as the 7 goals we scored to run away with a 73 point victory. I was also pleased with our composure as the game threatened to get out of control on a couple of occasions. Davey’s effort to chase down Bateman and Green’s courage to back into a pack to spoil typified the focus of the group. Maintaining this approach is the key to keeping our good form in the weeks ahead.
Post Match:
• The win demonstrated we are maturing as a team.
• It was fantastic that our skipper David Neitz was able to kick 6 goals and break the late & great Norm Smith’s goal kicking record. It would make his Testimonial Dinner on Saturday night all that more enjoyable. He also contributed strongly in the 1%er areas with several strong contests and some great tackles. There is no doubting his importance to our team.
• Although the stats say that Hodge, Mitchell & Crawford had a bit of the ball it would be fair to say that their influence on the game was minimal. The jobs done by Brucey, James McDonald, Simon Godfrey & Clint Bartram to keep these guys under pressure was excellent as was the competitiveness of Jeff White & Mark Jamar in the ruck. Spider Everitt wasn’t able to dominate as he has in previous encounters. Nathan Carroll performed exceptionally well on Mark Williams which was also critical to the outcome of the game.
• Our ability to finish games strongly in 2006 has been a highlight. We have won 7 out of 8 final quarters which is a credit to the determination of our playing group and reflects positively on the work done by our Fitness Department – Glenn Turner , Brentan Parsons & Adam Paulo to prepare our players.
• Very pleased with the spirit and togetherness of our team at the moment. We play for each other and have become increasingly team orientated over the past 6 weeks. For the second week in a row we had 10 goal kickers and this shows just how much we share the load and don’t rely on individual players to get us across the line. Maintaining this approach is essential as we take on West Coast at Subiaco next Sunday.
