Box Hill suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Casey Demons on Saturday, as the Hawks were unable to overcome the disadvantage of their slow start.

Senior Coach Chris Newman reviews each Hawthorn-listed player's performance in the disappointing loss.

Brendan Whitecross

28 disposals, 7 marks, 3 tackles

“He played across half-back. He was instrumental especially with his leadership. He took three marks from opposition kick so he plays that role quite well. He also had six rebound 50s so he was involved in that role quite a lot as well. He had a pretty good game, with nine contested possessions as well. He was damaging offensively for us.” CN

James Cousins

23 disposals, 3 marks, 4 tackles

“We love the intensity that he brings in and around the contest. He’s a great clearance player who is also always quite high in the tackles count. He stays on his feet and gives himself every opportunity. It was a good game from Cuz.” CN

Teia Miles

23 disposals, 4 marks, 1 tackle

“His run and carry was quite good, particularly late. He went forward late in the game and had a fair bit of impact when he went forward so he’s shown he’s got the ability to go both ends. It was also good to see him getting a bit more of the ball this weekend.” CN

Kade Stewart

23 disposals, 4 marks, 6 tackles, 2 goals

“He played a little bit forward and a little bit on-ball. He had a good mix of contested and uncontested possessions. I love the intensity that he brings around the contest. He had six clearances, six tackles and four shots on goal so he had a pretty good impact on the game.” CN

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Dallas Willsmore

19 disposals, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 1 goal

“His main strength is his efficiency and his disposal efficiency on the weekend was 88%, which is quite a good number when you consider how many disposals he’s had. We want to get the ball in Dal’s hands as much as possible, and we want him to be getting some exposure inside and outside so we played him on the wing and on-ball. He hit the scoreboard as well, which is what we want from him.” CN

Conor Glass

16 disposals, 5 marks, 3 tackles

“He spent some time in the midfield again, both inside and outside, and is starting to get some exposure in there, which is going to be really beneficial for him. Eight of his 16 disposals were contested so he has a pretty good balance there. His ability to change direction has been his main strength so he really takes the game on, which is what we encourage him to do.” CN

Kurt Heatherley

16 disposals, 6 marks, 2 tackles

“(Melbourne Demon-listed) Sam Weidman probably got the better of him early, Weideman started pretty well. But that wasn’t all Kurt’s fault, he wasn’t on him for all of those goals he kicked early. But he fought back in that match-up and in the game pretty well. He competed well 1-on-1 and very rarely does he get out-marked when he finds body. He will aim to improve on that game but he has probably been our most consistent performer when he’s played at VFL level.” CN

Ty Vickery

11 disposals, 4 marks, 9 hit-outs, 4 goals

“Probably had his best quarter in the last, when he kicked three goals. His contested marking at that later stage was a real highlight and we’re going to keep encouraging him to go after his marks. He’s really hard to spoil there at the top, when he gets his arms up. He’s also a solid shot at goal which helps as well. He spent a little bit of time in the ruck but played predominantly forward. But overall it was good to see him get some reward on the scoreboard, finishing with four goals.” CN

Marc Pittonet

8 disposals, 2 tackles, 32 hit-outs

“Pittonet battled hard in the ruck all day against (Melbourne Demon-listed) Jake Spencer, who is a quality ruckman. He’s still working on his craft. He finished with 32 hit-outs, which is quite good, considering that Spencer is probably a little bit taller than him. He provides a lot of pressure in and around the contest as well as some good follow-up work which has been good.”

Harry Morrison

7 disposals, 3 marks, 1 tackle

“Probably not Morrison’s greatest game in terms of his impact with his disposal but he didn’t get beaten and he did his job defensively. He knows that he can probably provide more but that’s all a learning experience for him.” CN

Mitchell Lewis

3 disposals, 1 mark, 1 hit-out

“Similar to Morrison in terms of his output. But he works really hard around the contest and his aggression is really good for a big man. Probably our efficiency moving forward didn’t help him, we didn’t move the ball as well as we would have hoped. So, we struggled to give our forwards the best opportunity. He finished with three disposals for the day, but another one who is learning with each game he plays.” CN

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Above photo taken by Kadek Thatcher Photography