Box Hill bounced back from its Round 10 loss with an outstanding showing at Box Hill City Oval, securing a 63-point victory over Frankston last Saturday.
Senior Coach Zane Littlejohn said he was pleased with the performance across the board.
“It was obviously a really pleasing response to bounce back how we did on the weekend. We looked much more like us and how we want to play the game, which is really pleasing,” he said.
“Ultimately, off the back of that, we got a result, and a lot of guys got back into some good form after a disappointing week last week.”
The Hawks will tackle Coburg on their home deck this Saturday ahead of their mid-season bye.
“Big game this week leading into the bye against Coburg. They’ve won five of their last seven, they’re not the Coburg that our fans would know of the past, they’re a lot better football side with some really great players," Littlejohn said.
“We’re going to have to be at our absolute best, especially playing them on their home ground. They’re in great form so it’s going to be a great test, and we’re going to have to make sure we come with the right attitude going into the bye to put in a really great performance.”
Littlejohn summarised each AFL-listed player’s performance below.
Henry Hustwaite (32 disposals, 21 contested possessions, 13 clearances)
“Probably the best player on the ground, finished with 32 (disposals) again, being a really dominant player, four score assists. He's building a really strong connection with Noodle (Ned Reeves) and he’s giving some really nice service around clearance, so Hus has been really dominant around that and finished with 13 clearances, which is again a great return for Henry.”
Cam Mackenzie (One goal, 28 disposals, five marks)
“Cam’s second half was really dominant, he looked like the player we know he is and started to see some really good front-half ball use from Cam, but the pleasing thing in the second half was his ability to continue to work both ways and help defensively as well. He finished with 28 (disposals), really solid performance from him. Involved in kicking a score as well, which is a great return.”
Bailey Macdonald (25 disposals, seven contested possessions, four intercept possessions)
“Baz has been a really consistent performer at this level now, which is great and it’s about now continuing to do that obviously. But what we’re really pleased with Bailey is defending the ground as well, had some really good moments defensively this week and then he also gets rewarded offensively as well. He’s finished with 25 disposals and three tackles as a sort of high defender, which is a really good return.”
Cody Anderson (18 disposals, eight tackles, seven clearances)
“Great to have Cody back to his best again, 18 (disposals), eight tackles, really tough inside. But I think the pleasing thing we’re seeing with Cody is his game understanding and development, and this will always take time with new draftees and especially a ball hunter, but he’s now starting to find a real balance between the trust of teammates around the contest and what he can do to help support that when it’s not his turn to win the ball. So really looking forward to him continuing to grow in that space and continue to become a really damaging player at the level.”
Ned Reeves (45 hitouts, 17 disposals, one goal)
“A really dominant performance from Ned, 45 hitouts, eight clearances himself, hit the scoreboard again. His ability to take some crucial marks around the ground and get back into D50 and take some intercept marks to help stop their chains and start our chains was great. So a nice dominant performance from Ned, he’s working really hard with David Hale and Andy Collins to ensure he can stay in some really good form so when his opportunity comes, which I’m sure will be soon, he’s ready to step straight in and perform at the next level above.”
Will McCabe (Four goals, 17 disposals, seven marks)
“I know the people at the ground will agree, probably one of the best games we’ve seen Will play for us. He got the reward this week with four goals, but it wasn’t about the four goals, what we really liked from Will was the ability to get up between the arcs, help link the play from D50 to forward 50 and run some good defensive patterns. And then the toughness he showed, he was a lot better over the ground ball, really tough and clean, which is what we want to see from all our players but an area Will has been working really hard on. A great reward for Will to kick the four goals.”
Jai Serong (17 disposals, four intercept possessions, three score involvements)
“As we know with Jai, he played his traditional spot across half back, we thought with both Bodie (Ryan) and Shammy (Seamus Mitchell) out, we’d want to shore up our back six/seven so we put Jai back there this week and he was really solid. As we know Jai can do, he was really reliable and I think that’s what you want to hear your teammates say, and they speak a lot around Jai and this space, he’s just so reliable in what he can do for us and what we know he can do, he’s a leader. So, great return, 17 disposals, eight rebound 50s, really solid game from Jai.”
Noah Mraz (15 disposals, nine marks, six intercept possessions)
“Way better than his first game back last week. He was tougher, working really hard on his positioning, had some really good 1v1 wins, good intercept possessions, so a solid return to some form for Noah. Used the ball well this week and had a great match-ups with some of their key forwards which he’ll learn some great lessons from.”
Sam Frost (14 disposals, six marks, six intercept possessions)
“We’re so lucky to have this guy on our team. His leadership, his competitive nature, that stuff is invaluable, really happy with what Frosty is able to give our whole group and his attitude to continue to not just make the AFL boys at VFL level better, but his buy-in to our Box Hill players has been exceptional and just goes to show the person he is. He’s just got to continue to stay really positive and be ready for when that opportunity comes at the next level.”
Luke Bruest (Two goals, nine disposals, two marks)
“Great to have Punky back after a little bit of a layoff with the back. Hit the scoreboard as we know Punky can do and like Frosty, his leadership and attitude around our group is first class. People who know Luke know the human he is and he’s no different in our environment and like I said around Sam Frost, his ability to not only want to help the AFL boys but his buy in to help the VFL boys is elite and we’re a better football side and a better football program, for those type of people. Obviously not the pressure game he would’ve wanted to have, so we spoke a bit this week around making sure he’s able to have the offensive side of the game but also bring pressure which is a really important role in our forward half. So he’ll look to bounce back in that area this week.”
Calsher Dear (Three goals, nine disposals, four tackles)
“Great to see Calsh start to find the footy again, get up the ground and hit the scoreboard. He kicked his three goals and also had the four tackles. I speak about it every week with Calsh, one of the real abilities he has as a key forward is his ability to give pressure at ground level as well and he was able to do that which is great and gets great reward. He’ll be managed this week and have a week off, but that’s part of his program, we’re really excited for him, he had a big year last year and we just want to make sure he can get through this year as well.”
Jasper Scaife (Three goals, nine disposals, five contested possessions)
“We’re seeing great improvement with Scaifey, his attitude to want to compete more and give better contests has been great. He spent some time in the ruck but to kick three goals, I know people will look at that from Jasper as our key forward but his attitude to compete, and he doesn’t get a stat for this but he provided two or three other opportunities to score as well through his contest, bringing the ball to ground and letting our small forwards go to work and ideally bring pressure when it’s not his turn to win it, which is really pleasing. He’s working really hard in that space and doing a really good job, he’s still got a lot of areas to improve but he’s working hard to continue to grow which is great.”
Matt Hill (Six disposals, two marks, two contested possessions)
“First game back for Hilly off his ankle so a bit of a quieter day and it can take a bit of time to get back and when you’ve had a few weeks out, especially someone who hasn’t necessarily grown up playing the sport it can take a little bit of time just to get back in to the swing of things. He was fine, he had some really great moments where he was tough again, first game for us that he hasn’t hit the scoreboard for us actually so he’ll look at getting back into that this week to make sure he gets back to good form heading into the bye.”
James Blanck (Four disposals, three intercept possessions, three contested possessions)
“We know Blancky doesn’t have huge numbers. Their main forward kicked five goals in the first half, we sent Blancky to him in the second half and he kicked two for the second half, which was great, one of those had nothing to do with Blancky, it was just a breakdown further up the ground which unfortunately cost Blancky. His attitude post halftime to get a job done and lock away one of their forwards was invaluable. So great effort from Blancky and he’ll look to continue to grow and be really hard to play against and he leads that area for us as a whole footy club, when he’s hard to play against it sort of filters through the whole group.”
A few VFL player shout-outs…
Blake Simondson (One goal, 16 disposals, seven marks)
“Blake’s a new player to our footy club this year at Box Hill. Just super reliable, can play a variety of roles, spent some time on the wing this week and then also played across half forward. A really good runner, got some great power in his run and has just really bought into our program. He’s able to do things on both sides of the ball, defensively and offensively, and we love having him amongst our group.”
Kye Declase (Two goals, 20 disposals, seven contested possessions)
“We know what Kye can give at this level, he’s a really experienced player but his attitude to buy into our program since he’s come in, his attitude to connect to the AFL and VFL group has been sensational, he’s a really valuable member of our team. He plays a role as a wing really well, hit the scoreboard again, four inside 50s, two goals, just some great smarts, he’s been really solid.”
