There's only one reason why we lost last night, and that was the bludging collective of the midfielders from midway through the 1st and all of the second quarter. Absolutely poleaxed in all facets of the middle during that period, the defenders were constantly defending against waves of free Tigers kicking into the 50 with little to no pressure.

Absolutely pulverised out of the centre where its at least a 50\50 contest.

It was as bad as it could possibly get. To come back the way we did showed serious character because it really was THAT BAD.

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

I didn't even know he was playing until he kicked that goal.

I'm not worried to much just yet...........It's a new Coach - it'll take time.

I'm not a fan of Mick Malthouse (that's an understatement - i hate the prick!) but you have to give him time to do his thing and support him (as much as that makes me want to vomit).

Judd, Gibbs and Kreuzer looked A-Grade and Murphy tried hard.
A few players need to lift a bit harder and play 4 qtrs as opposed to 1 or 2 (ala Betts, Jeff)

Our backline is in serious need of a kick in the ass. Bootsma isn't ready and Joseph is gaaaaawwwwwnnnnnn!


I won $200 on richmond, cause i expected them to come out fighting........ but I don't see them as a serious threat and fully believe we will finish above them on the ladder. A couple of good footballers in their team but some absolute soft bitches too (ala Grigg).

I had a Richmond supporter sitting next to me that was easily the most irritating prick ever. He was proceeding to tell me what Carlton need to do to win a Premiership............. WTF DUDE??????.......... Your Richmond!!!!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

That's what it seemed like, as soon as we started to run and carry we looked a lot better, I am not sure about the long kick and play the line consistently, I don't think we have the bodies for it and it looks more like we are playing to our weaknesses rather than our strengths.

What worked at Collingwood may not work at Carlton.

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We are the maybe blues

Anyway, on to the game.
Not worried, it's a long season and there's obviously going to be a teething process with the new coach. Mick will learn a lot about the team and individual players in these early rounds. We all saw last year after being 6-1 that things can turn pretty quickly. We played absolute rubbish footy for most of the game and still nearly pinched it.

I thought Gibbs was our best player. He's playing with the enthusiasm, confidence and aggression that was missing last year. I think it's pretty clear he wasn't happy under ratts and he'll take the step up to elite this year. He is just so damaging when he gets a bit of time and space. The big positive from last night is that it looks like mick is going to use him in a position that will make the most of his talent.

Judd was judd. Stands up when we need him. Obviously coming off a limited pre season and he'll be better for the run.

Murph was quietish but not bad. Did some good things and kicked a couple of goals, but he's not in top form. Hopefully he starts racking up the 30+ possie games because we're better when he gets a lot of the ball.

Hammer was our best and only dangerous marking forward. Hats off to him. Cops a lot from supporters but there were some really good signs. Yes he did some stupid things and made some costly errors but he's still only a 50 game player. Took a lot of good grabs and had a couple of oh so close ones in that last quarter. The important thing is he looked dangerous nearly every time we kicked to him. Must be left to play forward now for a number of weeks. Let him develop and gain confidence.

Levi had an almighty howler but he's young, inexperienced and needs the game time. He showed enough last year to suggest he could be a long term player and unless Waite returns him and hammer are the best options we have. Keep playing him.

Jamo was solid, spoiling very well.

I thought Hendo had an average game. Got beaten 1 on 1 a lot but we know he can play. We let the ball come in far too easily which made it hard for defenders.

Duigan worries me. Tries his heart out and no question of effort and intensity, but he lacks composure sometimes and is pretty clumsy. I wonder if we drafted him at his peak and he's since past his peak. Hopefully he can recapture 2011 form which was very very good. I feel he will get a lot of game time being in the leadership group and all.

Yarran wasn't bad but he has so much talent and isn't fulfilling it at the moment. Shows glimpses of what he could be.

Walker was very good after an ordinary nab cup

Carrots and simmo can play much better than they did.

Lucas was ok, still makes a few bad decisions in tight situations. Sometimes looks like he's so worried he's going to get caught he just flicks it off without thinking, ie handball to someone's back. He'll keep improving. Another one we have to keep playing

Boots showed a lot last night and he's going to be a ripper I think but he's still a fair way off best 22 for mine. Gives up some easy goals, and he's still a kid and gets ragdolled a bit. I know we need to get games into him but he can learn and grow in the 2s for a year or 2. Scotland and laidler will come in and their strong bodies and experience will improve us

AJ offers nothing to the team. He can play a part but is really just making up the numbers. Pretty much any other player on our list could do what he does but then have some offensive weapons as well. He's just so limited and there's no more scope for improvement. Time to move on

Our ruck issue is still a massive problem. Kreuzer is our best ruckman in general field play around the ground, and plays by far his best footy when he is the number 1 ruck. Warnock is our best tap ruckman by some margin and gives our mids first use, but can really only play first ruck as he's pretty useless forward and ordinary around the ground once the ruck contest is over. Hammer is by far the best forward of the 3 and is serviceable in the ruck. I'll be buggered if I know what the best combination is and I'm certain we can't play all 3.

A lot of kreuzers taps seemed to result in Richmond clearances which leads me to think we need Warnock in. We played some of our best footy over the last two years when Warnock was tapping it to our mids. But then what to do with Kreuzer? He's not the same player when he's not the number 1 ruck and we lose so much around the ground with him not in the ruck. He's decent forward, but hammers much better forward and they can't both play forward. It's a conundrum.

Highlights of the night for me
Determined come back, not throwing in the towel
Gibbs showing he will be elite
Hammer looking dangerous up forward

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Except Kreuz got the taps and then had to get the clearance himself while our other guys watched. Warnock can't do that. Maybe Warnocks taps will be more effective .

Just watching the replay. Richmond's last 3 goals of the match came directly from Duigan's poor discipline (2 frees and a 50). Absolutely pathetic from a member of our leadership group.

If these two blokes are in the best 25 we have at the club at present...

But the MC, the 'experts', the paid professionals - believe they are.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

When he goes for that last goal which he missed - Brock McLean (I think) was basically standing by himself about 30m directly in front.

Yarran clearly looked sideways as he ran in. Twice. Probably why he missed. So probably igmored him.

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"I had to eat"

sadly, or is that happily, I was oblivious to all this as I watched "counting crows" at bluesfest at Byron and only heard the last ten minutes driving back to surfers. should I watch the replay?

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one you knock back is one you never have

The 50 against Jamison was there.

The 50 against Hampson was tough.

The 50 against Duigan was flowering ridiculous.[/quote]


50 metres are a blight on the game. Duigan was already in "the protected zone" when the Richmond player took the mark. His mistake was not putting his hands up in the air. For that it cost a goal.

50 metres are over kill -whether paid to Carlton or the opposition I hate seeing them. I hated seeing the one given to Simpson as well for when his opponent went 1 cm over the mark. 25 metres at most.[/quote]

I agree, it can be a harsh penalty, particularly when it gets paid for minor infractions, 25 for stuff like the above and keep the 50 for serious stuff like a guy getting crunched well after a mark etc.

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We are the maybe blues

does that too often for my liking (running with the flight into a pack) - just nothing above the ears

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one you knock back is one you never have

Disappointing to lose obviously, but I'm not slashing my wrists over that loss. I'm convinced it's going to take the team a couple of months (at least) to settle into the new game style under the new coach, so I have very moderate expectations about our win/loss ratio in the first half of the year.

I'm surprised that so many posters are bagging our defenders. I've said a number of times that I believe our backline isn't settled and has more holes than grandma's undies, but what more could you expect from the personnel we had last night in defence when our midfield was getting absolutely smashed? I felt sorry for our defenders in the 1st half, our midfield was making it very very hard for them.

I actually thought Bootsma did pretty well but was just overwhelmed by the amount of ball coming in. OK, he made a mistake in the last minute, but on balance I thought MM would have been reasonably pleased with what he saw from the kid in the circumstances. We've seen it in the VFL, but Bootsma is an elite spoil. He has good closing speed and long arms and often gets the fist in when you don't think he will. Generally a good kick too. You don't really want him body-on-body at this stage, but I think we have some promising medium defenders coming through in he and McInness.

Duigan isn't a player I see in our long-term future, but I didn't mind his game last night. He made a couple of blues, but I thought he had a go and did alright in the circumstances too. But I say that from the perspective that I think he's probably out of his depth and Laidler should be playing that role in the team. Tuohy has been out of form so it was no surprise that he didn't set the world on fire either.

Any games we get out of Waite from now on are just a bonus, so I would really like to see Hendo given the opportunity to be that lead up forward we so badly need. Hendo just got a pass last night in defence from me, but by not selecting White or Laidler in the team, we limited our options to move Hendo forward when the Casboult/Hammer combination wasn't really working. I know it's "robbing Peter to pay Paul" because we don't have a lot of other strong options at CHB (White will be OK against some opposition but will be outsized and/or outclassed against quality opponents, Laidler is a good player who can shut a tall forward down if required but is more suited to another role in defence, Watson hasn't come along as well as we hoped and he needs to get a lot better defending one-on-one, and McCarthy isn't up to it yet and is injured at the moment anyway), but I think Hendo can bring us something we really need in attack.

Midfield really needs to lift because we aren't good enough at either end of the ground to win games when our midfield isn't on top (not many teams are). Brock & Carrazzo in particular were poor in the first half, IMO. Bell, Curnow & Ellard (who looked good in the NAB Cup before getting injured) should be knocking down the door. It wouldn't surprise me if Murphy isn't 100% fit at the moment. Gibbs & Kreuzer were sensational in the last quarter, but otherwise only fair. Whereas I thought Judd had one of his better games in the last 18 months (he was one of the few who was still getting his share of the pill in the diabolical 2nd term) and Lucas was far from our worst player, IMO.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Page 68 of todays HUN, the game saving tackle was in fact a free to Bootsma, tackle was over his shoulder.
Since when can a player be kicked in the face during a marking contest and not be given a free kick? I am not saying that Vickery should get reported but it was at least our free.
Will be interested in the changes for next week, Laidler has to come in and in my opinion Duigan should go, of his 10 possessions 6 of them were clangers.
Oh well, there is always next week.

Can someone also tell me why that goal of Yarran's wasn't video reviewed until the ball was back in the centre?

I understand why there has been a generally negative reaction to Levi's performance, but I will say in his defence that I noticed at the ground last night he was working very hard at blocking for Hammer and others in the forward line. Occasionally he over did it and I think he should just go for it himself a bit more because he is a very good mark. However, if he and Hammer had kept competing for the same ball we would have been up in arms about the lack of coordination amongst our forwards. Levi seemed to do a decent job of keeping his opponent away from the contest when Hammer was the target (which was to Hammer's benefit). Unselfish play. He also did OK when he went into the ruck. I wouldn't call the night a complete disaster for Levi's career. However, I've been saying this for 3 years, his kicking is the biggest worry....

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Or indeed why they reviewed Yarran's goal but not the one in the first quarter that Jamison most likely touched?

Next task for the laws of the game committee: obliterating cheats like Jake King who hurl themselves at the ground when tackled to draw a free kick for ITB. King did it twice and got a goal out of it once. Jonathan Brown did it to us a couple of times last week to.

I guess they're more worried about blokes trying to win the footy though...

Please no more Joseph
Please no more Duigan

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Happy Days Are Here Again!!

Already getting sick of hearing about game style, structures...

Kick straight.

Make tackles.

Work hard.

It's not Brocket science.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.