FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Took a look at the highlight reel and I would have to say Fremantle was dismantled by the Hawks.

Yeah, Hawthorn's work rate was through the roof. Running hard both directions. Repeat efforts. Off the ball hard running. It was an exceptional finals-quality effort.  And the tackle pressure was immense. Freo had no free space and they panicked with ball in hand. Poor decisions. Skill errors.

Meanwhile, Hawthorn's offensive running created a bounty of options and Freo just didn't commit to the gut running needed off the ball to shut the hawks down.

The aspect of Aussie Rules I most like is the aerobic extreme it demands. Winning a game is almost entirely determined by a team's commitment to push through the pain barrier and run harder for faster for longer than the opposition. And in finals that gets turned to 11. The more players you have willing to out run their direct opponent sets the win up. And hawthorn had a balanced, gut running effort that went 23 players deep yesterday. Freo were smashed.

Now we've got two weeks to recover and will be playing one of Adelaide, the Bulldogs, Sydney or Brisbane at the MCG in a Prelim Final.  I can't wait to be there for that. It will be a packed house of 96k and the atmosphere will be electric.

[art76]

I kind of alluded to this earlier this summer, but this is a very strange start in the MIAC this year. All ten teams are playing the first week to get in their non-conference games. None of them opted to play their non-conference game the second week. However, the Oles play the Cobbers a week ahead of everyone else's first week of conference play during that second week for a non-conference game. My guess is that something is going on up at Concordia the following week, or that the Oles have somewhere to be the third week. Anybody got the skinny to know what's shakin' that second week?