Snap Shot is a weekly column taking a look at the lighter side of football.
Hawthorn caused a bit of a stir when they used pick No.76 in the 2016 national draft to select tall forward Mitch Lewis just a month after they traded out club legends Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis.
Mitchell Lewis (main) arrived at Hawthorn just weeks after the departure of club greats Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis.Credit: Getty/The Age
But the coincidence in the Hawks drafting a player named Will Day with pick No.13 in the 2019 national draft barely rated a mention.
The fact Will was the grandson of Hawks premiership player Robert received the coverage it deserved, but it occurred to few people that the Hawks had drafted using the same playbook they used when drafting Mitchell Lewis.
That is, that a name means something.
Will Day celebrates the Hawks’ win over the Lions. He is on his way to becoming a Hawks star. Credit: Getty Images
Because the Hawks had used a selection on Will Day in the past. However, it wasn’t the Will Day who polled eight coaches votes for his performance against Collingwood on Saturday.
That selection was made back in the 2004 national draft just a month after the Hawks scooped the pool with Lance Franklin, who was drafted alongside Jarryd Roughead, Jordan Lewis, Tom Murphy, Matthew Little and Simon Taylor.
It was in the rookie draft that they chose Ruory Kirkby and Clinton Young before they faced a selection with pick No.34.
Their choice?
A little known tall from Perth, Thomas Willday.
Being selected came as a bit of a shock to Willday because he was more interested in his engineering studies in Western Australia than travelling across the country to play in the AFL.
However, the Hawks thought he was a smoky that West Coast or Fremantle were hiding and called his name only to realise that he’d been completely upfront and honest about his intentions.
They tried to convince him to come to Melbourne but eventually gave up with no hard feelings on either side.
Thomas Willday, who played good amateur football with Trinity, is still working hard over in Western Australia and politely declined to offer his thoughts on Will Day to Snap Shot as he hasn’t seen much of the emerging Hawk.
The playbook seems real. We even discovered a Shaun Bergin had been added to the rookie list in 2003 years before they traded in Shaun Burgoyne, and we all know S.Mitchell has quietly appeared on the team sheet 14 times in 2023.
The lesson, of course, is that if your name is Rough Ead, Frank Lin or Lew Is then expect a call from the Hawks’ recruiting department at some point as they build their next premiership list.
Tackling the tackle problem
While extolling the leadership virtues of his housemate Charlie Curnow, Carlton midfielder Matt Kennedy revealed on 3AW on Sunday that the Coleman Medal leader made the Blues’ playing group make a pledge ahead of the season-turning match against Gold Coast. Their challenge was to lay 75 tackles.
Charlie Curnow has been one of the game’s most exciting players in the past two seasonsCredit: Getty
“It was the Gold Coast game [when he] spoke to the group beforehand and made everyone write 75 on their wrist meaning we wanted to get 75 tackles,” Kennedy said.
The message was warranted as the Blues had only laid 33 tackles the week before in their loss to Essendon.
The Blues laid 69 tackles to fall six short of Curnow’s target, but nonetheless thrashed the Suns, and established a standard that has carried through since then.
Carlton has now won seven in a row, and their tackle count has exceeded 60 in each of those matches even though it had only got to that mark four times in their previous 13 games.
The funny thing is, Charlie must be a do-as-I-say kinda guy rather than a do-as-I-doer when it comes to tackling. Of the 10 Blues players who have played in each of those seven wins, only Jacob Weitering has laid fewer tackles.
Of course, Curnow could always argue it’s not so easy to tackle when you have the ball and are kicking goal in bulk.
On the coach’s whiteboard
Before you go, here are five current players AFL chairman Richard Goyder might be interested in adding to the AFL Commission after reports the league has approached Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield:
- Sam Frost because he will keep everyone guessing.
- Caleb Daniel because he would have to look up to him.
- Oleg Markov because they need to inject some speed in their decision-making.
- Max Gawn because thhey could do with a sense of humour.
- Nat Fyfe because he’s from Fremantle, so Goyder’s guaranteed to have heard of him.
For the next six weeks Craig McRae will have to get used to life as a coach without Nick Daicos on the field.Credit: Getty Images
They said
“This is not the end of the world. We’re not wearing black armbands for this loss,” Collingwood coach Craig McRae after the Magpies’ loss to Hawthorn.
But they forgot to say
“This is not the end of the world. We’re not wearing black armbands for this loss, but wait until we break the news tomorrow about Nick Daicos being out for the next six weeks.”
