The Box Hill Hawks continued their unbeaten start to the season, posting a 64-point win over Sandringham on Saturday.

The Hawks maintain their position at top spot on the VFL ladder with the victory, sitting four premiership points ahead of the second-placed Collingwood.

Read below to see head coach Chris Newman’s review of every AFL-listed player’s performance.

Read: VFL match report - Box Hill v Sandringham

 

Jonathan O’Rourke

35 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles and 2 goals

“He used his legs out of stoppage really well out of stoppage. He played on-ball pretty much the whole game and he was pretty clean with his ball-use throughout the day and he worked really hard, with 23 of his disposals being uncontested. So, that’s a couple of good games in a row now for him.” CN

 

Kaiden Brand

27 disposals, 13 marks and 4 tackles

“The most impressive part of his game was his ability to take marks off the opposition’s boot. He finished with four of those. He was quite instrumental in providing some rebound for us. He fought hard all day and his positioning behind the ball was quite good. He was one of our only tall defenders at the moment, so I thought he did a pretty good job in that regard. He looked like he was covering the ground quite well throughout so it was a pretty impressive game from him.” CN

 

David Mirra

21 disposals, 12 marks and 4 tackles

“Mirra was our second tall for the game. But, along with Brand, they did a really good job on the Sandringham tall forwards. Similar to Brand, he had three marks from opposition’s boot. He could have had the right to feel disappointed at missing out on senior selection but he didn’t show it and his attitude was terrific. He was another one of those guys that provided really good rebound for us.” CN

 

Marc Pittonet

21 disposals, 5 marks, 1 tackle and 23 hit-outs

“Pittonet’s numbers were quite high. I’m not sure he has had 21 disposals before. It was a great effort by him to be able to get around the ground and get the footy as much as what he did. His opponent on the day St Kilda’s Billy Longer is quite a good player, so for him to be able to negate Longer’s influence as much as possible was quite good. I thought Pitto’s presence around the ground was probably as good as what we’ve seen from him. His follow-up work has been a focus of his and I think that was telling.” CN

 

Teia Miles

19 disposals, 8 marks and 2 tackles

“Miles just kept doing what he does. The great thing about Milesy is his efficiency with ball in hand. Very rarely does he waste a possession. He provides something different to our team. I think I say it every week but he does draw the opposition to him when he’s got the ball in his hands because he will just take the game on. So, he played his role really well as a high half-back. It was a pretty solid game from his perspective.” CN

 

Conor Glass

18 disposals, 2 marks and 2 tackles

“Conor Glass’ ability to use his legs with the ball in hand. He was just taking the opposition on and every time he got it, he just looked to play on. His ball-use was terrific, which was probably the case for all of our half-backs, they rarely wasted an opportunity to rebound. But Conor was really impressive.” CN

 

Mitchell Lewis

18 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles and 1 goal

“Mitch was quite solid. Although he only finished with one goal this week, he had a couple of other opportunities that just slightly slipped through his fingers. He’s getting to some really good spots and he is quite confident in taking contested marks around the ground. He is in pretty good touch at the moment. He has had 12 contested possessions of his 18 so that is a pretty good indication that if he is not getting it in the air that he can follow up at ground level as well.” CN

 

Ryan Schoenmakers

16 disposals, 7 marks, 1 tackles and 1 goal

“If he had have kicked straight, his game might have looked better (he kicked 1.3). He missed a couple of goals that he would normally nail. But his physicality to crash packs and take contested marks was really good. His attitude is really great at VFL level and he provides some strong leadership for our forwards.” CN

 

Connor Nash

15 disposals, 2 marks, 1 tackle and 2 goals

“Conor Nash was the same. He finished with two goals which is a great contribution for a tall forward. Again, he was busy crashing packs, he’s a really physical player. He uses his rugby background to tackle and harass. He can also use his wheels, because he is quick. He’s still got a lot to learn but we are really happy with how he is coming along.” CN

 

Dallas Willsmore

12 disposals, 4 marks and 2 tackles

“Willsmore probably looks a bit quiet from the stats sheet. But he actually quite a few contests where he killed the ball really well with some good spoils. Out of his 12 possessions, he is using the ball pretty well. He’s had nine kicks where he went at nearly 90%. We’d like to get him a little higher up the ground, he probably got caught a bit deep at times. He also got caught on the bench for about 20 minutes as well in the third quarter, which impacted his game-time.” CN

 

Jonathon Ceglar

10 disposals, 6 marks, 4 tackles, 24 hit-outs and 2 goals

“Along with the other talls, he looked really strong in the air. He took a couple of really strong marks in the forward 50 but also took a couple around the ground off the opposition’s boot. He played about 60% over three quarters. He had an influence in the ruck, but he still feels like he can improve obviously. He didn’t look out of place at all though with the tempo of the game. I’m sure he will look to build on that performance. He finished with a couple of goals and when he kicked his first goal the boys rallied and got around him, which was good to watch.” CN

Images courtesy of Kadek Thatcher Photography