Maybe getting ahead of ourselves is too much, but how about Hawkish on our prospects. Time to Restump Podcast review the hard-fought win over the Hawks.
Hawthorn is a pretty decent 13th placed team! They brought their best and ran us to the wire but 3rd quarters are our specialty, we stuck the fork in the hawk and it was done.
Did we overuse the handball? We only had 88 more than Hawthorn so…. yeah just a bit! But everyone got amongst the disposals as we ended up with a record equalling 13 players on 20 or more possessions.
But make no mistake we won the game largely because we somehow managed to consistently generate scores from minimal forward 50 entries. We set our season record of scoring 53% of the time, meaning we went at a rate of hitting the scoreboard every 1.9 forward entries. Not bad considering our season average 43%.
Andy Brownlowshaw was at his Brayshaw best but he probably got trumped for best on ground honours by secret celebratory handshake mate, Caleb Serong. Caleb’s hands are so quick they’re blurry. He’d be one hell of a pickpocket if this footy thing ever goes wrong.
Sonny Walters went up another level, back to his brilliant best. He’s turned in a Richie Benaud on Saturday, 2 goals from 22 possessions. A match high 11 score involvements tells you how team oriented the great man is.
And down back Brennan Cox was controlled the defence marking everything. He could have plucked a low flying seagull out of the air had he tried! And whatever Coxy didn’t mark, Hayden Young did, as the pair took 20% of the teams grabs on the day. Young’s signature was a handy one the other week.
The negative to come out of the game was obviously Blake Acres’ hamstring. We got a glimpse of how much this caper means to these guys as Blake was left distraught on the side-lines. The bye has come at the right time for him.
So, we put the plucky Hawks to bed and we enter the bye in ripping shape both on the ladder and, bigger picture wise, in terms of healthy personnel.
We dissect Fyfe’s return, his forward craft and look at how his reintegration into the midfield went. Bloody decent performance in isolation at least!
We secured a non-binding agreement from Ryan “Clamp” Crowley to come on the pod and it was the persuasion of everyone who helped us get him. So, thanks to all. He is in Europe so he can’t do the bye pod but he will come on when he returns.
Jojo, believe it or not, decided to extend his holiday so we’re still recording across oceans but he assures me this will be the last one. Inflation? Water off a duck's back to him!
You would think the West Coast Eagles would be able to stay out of the headlines during a bye, but no, Tricky Trevor Nisbett has presented us with a podcast closing Neighbourhood Watch.
So, while we’re off looking to secure a bye round podcast guest, feel free to give this hour of purple poxless monkey business a whirl.
