We haven't beaten Melbourne (yet?)

_________________
when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth

Feelgood Hit of the Winter - GHRP-2, GHRP-6, CJC-1295, AOD-9604, Humanofort and Hexarelin

Ok it was terrible, and we are all fairly angry, but the players below are the ones who made me most angry:

Stevens - Pea heart, gives us absolutely nothing these days. Is definitely on borrowed time, and if Houla was dropped, Stevo is in no better position.
Simpson - Disposal is right off, makes poor decisions, another one potentially on the chopping block.
Cloke - Has to go, not mobile enough as a forward or ruckman
Fev - Had a bad night, but we didn't adapt the game plan. Why didn't we just station Waite at full forward after half time?
Hampson - Doesn't do much for me I am afraid. Moves around well, but has an awful lot to learn from a football smarts perspective. Just hope GC17 see something in him to take him off our hands.
Hadley - Those first 2 games are looking more and more like aberrations

I know others like Armfield had poor games (with decision making at least), but we can't crucify him just yet. I liked the games or Yarran & Austin, who should definitely be given an extended run in the side.

Bryce Gibbs had a poor night by his standards and needs to do more for him to be part of the AFL's elite.

The final score did flatter us as we were beaten by a side with an a-grade ruckman and a willingness to work hard for each other. I could tell we were in trouble in the first five minutes.

Terrible performance by the forwards, but also some terrible entry to the forward 50 often giving them little chance.

Very quiet game from Eddie. Is his knee still troubling him?
Fev must be injured. There was something not right there.
Yarran showed a few hints for the future in a few cameos.
Waite clearly our most dangerous forward.
As for the rest...
Cloke and Wiggins very much out of form.

Thought Joseph continued to improve.

I doubt that the MC would be happy and expect there might be a few changes.

Maybe Robinson for Wiggins
Setanta for Cloke (team balance)
Carrazzo (if fit) for Simpson
Browne for Russell or Hadley

If Fev is not fit to play then Waite and Kreuzer to play the forward KP's.

I think we came prematurely...

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews ... 70795.html

"There was a fair bit of supply going in there; it's maybe the way we go about it we need to change a little bit."

Goodbye Cloke and Wiggins.

The supply going in there is rubbish, absolutely rubbish. Ridiculous comments by Ratten. Note how open Freo's fwd line was compared to ours. Why? Because we frig around with it for so long upfield that the opposition easily get players back. Inside 50's is a crap stat, there are inside 50s and then there are inside 50s.

And for Ratten to again blame poor kicking is crap also. Once again, most of those shots early in the 3rd were from the boundary (because that's where we brought the ball inside 50), or hurried snaps under pressure, because the fwd line was so crowded.

_________________
"I had to eat"

Overall for different reasons these guys may have occasional good games but overall are not up to it and need to be moved on NOW.
Stevens
Thornton
Cloke
Wiggins
Russell
Hadley

You can add to the list

Hartlett
Bentick
Edwards
Fisher
Houlihan
Johnson
Bannister


They are not up to it

They have had enough chances

The MC has not been ruthless enough in cutting players based on some good games and great in one or two facets of the game.

On top of that the spirit out there was shit tonight. No leadership. Judd leads by example but is introverted. You need a captain who can say to players that that effort was shit.

Simpson tries hard but needs to make quicker decisions
Jamisen Has to run off his opponent more
Gibbs will become the new Stevo unless he gets his hands dirty .

Time for change
It is simple as that
A swag of top draft picks and a champion isnt going to take you to the promised land unless you have got 22 guys busting a gut. I watch Carlton every week and it gets so frustrating so I look at a kid like Joseph and hold hope that the MC have recruited a rookie and have given him a go. They simply must do it more and the six players I first mentioned must be dropped for
Anderson
Browne
OHailpin
Robinson
Grigg(if available(
Gartlett

I would also want Lachie Hill playing Bullants ones every week. He potentially has a future at AFL. he is a good athlete.

It would be 2 steps back initally but we will be better in the long run.

Otherwise we will be a middle of the road side at best.

From an observational perspective we seem to fail to play with any passion.

Essendon* get the most out of their team, yet we can't extract passion, hunger, aggression etc as a whole, regardless of skills.

That is the most disappointing part for me.

Can't explain how empty that game makes you feel, what a joke we are at the moment. Should have put Hawthorn away, play Fremantle, and show so little it is not funny. Consistency is something we just can't embrace.

_________________
Supporting the Blues No Matter What

"They know were coming" - Don't blink because you will miss it.

Gutless pathetic effort I thought........

We have only won 1 game in the past 5........

The forward line has massive issues but I can't see anything really being done about it. The only plan I can see to have some little blokes like yarran and betts at Fev's feet.

Its the bomb it long to Fev Pagan like gameplan and if Fev doesn't mark it betts will kick it.... not going to work...

_________________
31-3-2015 - R.I.P AFL, corrupted lying pricks
12-5-2015 - Go WADA
18-8-2015 - Suffer Hird* u lying flower
12-1-2016 - CAS goes bang, happy new year.. Drugcheats forever..

NBH, Ratts also blamed our high ratio of handballs too. No doubt he felt that HB were impacting on the success of our F50 entries.

_________________
“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

That's the most disappointing thing IMO. Early in the game you could just tell the boys weren't up, no pressure, no chasing, weak tackling, players prepared to coast along like millionaires (Judd, Murphy and Gibbs excluded). it's just not good anough to rock up and play with such little intensity. Bitterly disappointing loss.

_________________
You want the flame? Give us the marbles!!

Is Ratten serious? I thought Freo wasted more good opportunities than us. There's a reason we don't kick enough goals from forwrad entries. We took about two marks all night in our forward 50 - how many did Freo take? and we play as slowly as possible out of our back 50 and as wide as possible. We look confused and disconcerted, too aware of what space we're supposed to be standing in and too frightened to try anything daring or dashing. And nowhere near desperate enough.

MAybe Ratts will be a good coach but apart from his status as an ex Carlton player, why did he deserve a contract extension half way through his current contract? No-one else was after him. We have a coaching panel that is almost exclusively ex Carlton players with no previous coaching experience. Are they the absolute best available? Is Lappin the best forward coach in the AFL?

Early days but at this stage Ratts is clearly behnd Knights as a coach and Kinights looked to be a desperation move by the Bombers and to be getting a wooden spoon list.

We need to have a coach that thinks up new ideas and is ahead of the game, not one who slavishly tries to copy current strategies like Hawthorn's zone and Swans possession game at a time when imaginative coaches are unpicking those tactics.

Maybe the players aren't executing the plans, but it is the coaches job to ensure they do, and also t get his team playing desperately every week, not just when they feel like it.

If we had 4 changes after the Hawks game, surely there needs to be some after that performance.

Besides the lack of marks inside 50, the shots we did have on goal were from the boundary...low percentage relying on kicking those to win games.

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

I thought they tried to move the ball forward quickly. No forward structure + long bombs + Freo flooding killed us

Thats what im talking about.

Unstructured goals and Fev.. thats it...

Got nothing to do with who you have.. but what youre conditioned to do.

Its the same down back... some of those goals we leak are just because our structures are wrong.. no defenders between ball and goals that leads to the weekly goalside stroll goal...

Were unstructured and undrilled throughout.. and the only ones that can play lijke that are our freak good footballers.

_________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Look, I saw the same thing, but I can guarantee you Paganism is not the game plan. Our half forward line has absolutely disintegrated in the last fortnight. Which leads to handball all the way to full forward (which worked beautifully once) or long bombs to fev. Last week almost worked because Fev was on, this week Fev called the waambulance.

Lazy, soft and disinterested - that pretty much sums up their effort for me.

We are so far off it its not funny - We have way too many holes in our list to even think top 8, let alone top 4! Depressing really...

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

I agree. It's interesting that over the preseason and early in the season proper, we seemed to be playing very structured, but slow moving football. And seemingly in an attempt to speed up our ball movement and take on the game a bit, we've lost a lot of the structure that we had at the start of the season.

Looking on from the outside, we seem to be 'between' game plans a little at the moment. Perhaps if we'd spent the preseason concentrating on quick ball movement, and run and handball, then the current plan might be working a bit better.

Hopefully, it's just bad form at the moment. And not a case that the MC have changed their minds about the game plan.

That's the funniest thing i have read since our loss.

So after 7 games it's come to this ....

Last time we played last year - vs Richmond (won) This year (won)
Last time we played last year - vs Brisbane (won) This year (won)
Last time we played last year - vs Essendon* (lost) This year (lost)
Last time we played last year - vs Swans (lost) This year (lost)
Last time we played last year - vs Bulldogs (won) This year (won)
Last time we played last year - vs Hawthorn (lost) This year (lost)
Last time we played last year - vs Fremantle (won) This year (lost)

With a third of the season over you could say that we've underachieved (to put it nicely)

_________________
"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz