Broadview Hawks Football Club

Hawks Served Second Straight Loss July 20th, 2009

Post a comment

What the f*%&? Those are the words that were no doubt going through the heads of the Broadview Hawks players following Saturday evening's devastating loss to the Central Blues. The Hawks are reeling after two losses to a couple of teams who are looking to move up the ladder in the OAFL in 2009. Broadview has now doubled the number of regular season losses they had in all of 2008 and are definitely now viewed upon by the other teams in the league as beatable. It will take solid efforts the rest of the way for the Hawks to secure a finals spot in the 2009 season.

The Hawks came out of the gates with a not uncommon, slow start. The 1st quarter was not pretty with both sides having difficulty finding a handle on the ball. The Hawks knew it was going to be a tough evening when they lost two key backmen early. Danny "my knees just can't handle what I squat" Walker was lost to leg injury just a few minutes in and Kevin "bones get brittle with age" Bridgman followed soon after with a busted beak. The Blues were able to capitalize on a couple of opportunities and led at the end of the 1st, 20-8.

The quarter time huddle was calm but the Hawks were aware they needed to pick up their game or they could find themselves in deeper by half. Unfortunately, the second quarter went very much like the first. Despite the best effort to date from Fraser "can't close" Nicholson-Bliesner and Aaron "can't chug beer" Gaulke, as a team, the Hawks were not on. The point differential at the end of the half was widened in favour of the Blues and they would not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game.

After a lacklustre third quarter, the Broadview boys finally showed some desire to win the ball in the final quarter. Not wanting to pack it in, they put forth a decent effort to get within striking distance of the lead but ran out of time at the end. It was a storyline too familiar to the previous week's loss to Hamilton.

I caught up with a Hawk player following the match and was able to get some very candid statements. The player wished to remain anonymous, but his message was clear. "We need to get around each other as a club now more than ever. I sense division within our players and our coaches and it is ultimately going to tear us apart if we don't fix it now. We don't lack talent or desire to win. We lack confidence in ourselves, and confidence in our teammates. There are 18 players a side in football and 18 players need to make a contribution. There is no need to panic, but guys need to look at what they did today and decide whether it was good enough for them, and good enough for the team. Too many of us are trying not to f*%& up instead of getting excited about an opportunity to get a run and make a difference. I mean, that's why we play, isn't it? We don't get paid to do this, it's supposed to be fun."

As somebody who has watched this team over a number of years now, I couldn't agree more.

A number of Hawks gathered at a local establishment later that night to drink away the sorrows of the loss earlier in the evening. One odd occurrence was the attempt by one Hawk who showed up to duplicate the hairstyle of a plastic Lego character crossed with an unshaven homeless person all wrapped up in a tight yellow shirt that screamed "I am straight". The ridicule he received will certainly ensure that he will revert back to his old doo for future outings.

Broadview makes the much anticipated overnight trip to Ottawa this weekend to face the Swans. The Swans, coming off a win two weeks ago vs Guelph, will not be taken lightly by the Hawks, particularly after the past two games. It is my belief that the Ottawa trip will get the Hawks back to where they need to be as a side. A strong win, coupled with stronger bonding that evening, is no doubt the best medicine to cure their pain.