Thanks grro.

Nothing in the media regarding CJ and Grigg, other than the story on The West website that was written mid-game. Will wait for some news coming out of Carlton before I start to worry. Will be interesting to see how it goes if they have no video footage as well.

Here's hoping Grigg might be right for round one

Ablett, Corey, Selwood and Bartell take practice games pretty seriously.

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

I'm not talking about the Dogs, I'm talking about the Blues.

Don't compare us to them.

And in any event, for every Dogs in 08, I can show you a Cats in 09.

Don't flirt with your form. It's the dress rehersal, and it stands to reason the coaches and the players would want to get their act together before R1.

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

When they got to the GF they did...why would our mids care about a game at Bunbury? There's nothing in it for them. There main concern would be not getting injured. They know they have the ability when it comes to the real thing so what's the point in giving that extra effort in a game that means nothing?

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"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

Yes that's what the club said.

Good dress rehersal.

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

RE Dress rehearsal: Did we implement any form of 'rolling zone' or a specific play to combat the tactic?

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

To answer your question - clearly you have never heard of the phrase 'don't flirt with your form'.

I recall many a coach saying that over the years. Many.

You can delude yourself as much as you want into thinking Brett Ratten & Co are happy right now, and not p!ssed at their players.

Do you really think Ratts is happy right now? Do you think he's saying to himself "Judd, Gibbs, Stevo, Murf etc didn't give a stuff about this game, and that's cool"?

Hey, it's not worth 4 pts, but the club said it's the last dress rehersal so clearly it was an important hit out, so you're dreaming if you think this is an ideal prep for R1. We might beat the Tiges, but right now you can't say this is an ideal final lead up.

We're lucky we have depth.

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

I doubt Ratten is losing sleep over it. It's not ideal but it's not exactly relevant either.

I really think the club was concerned about the Bunbury aspect to the game and from that point on, it was more about damage control. Some are panicking for no reason. Let's reserve judgment until round 1.

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I send an SOS to the world

Just got back from Bunbury.

First things first, great work grro! Don't know how you did it, as I too was looking after a couple of rugrats!!!

By chance, ending up sitting right near the Blues 'bench'. That term used loosely, basically all I saw was some 1970's brown kitchen chairs placed on the grass lol

Let's just say, I'm sure the boys will look forward to the MCG and all it's trappings in two weeks time

Some observations from me:

Grigg - came off in the second qtr and didn't return. Had his upper leg iced and I assume it was for a hammy. Made some enquiries with some of the Carlton camp afterwords and apparently it was just a bit tight and they didn't want to risk it. Hopefully that's true and he'll be right for Rd 1. Though I must say he did appear to be favouring his leg quite a bit from what I witnessed

Reports - I didn't see these apparent incidents so can't help there. Trying to watch the game with people continually walking in front of you and trying to look after the kids is pretty hard lol.

Start - as grro said, we were well on top and should of been 4 or 5 goals in front after 10 mins. We didn't really match that intensity for the rest of the game though it'd fair to say.

Fev - played very well, was on fire early. Very popular in my section of the crowd. Second only to Judd lol. Scared the living daylights out of me when he went down in the second qtr after a marking contest however it was just a very slight roll of the ankle. Is fine, so no worry there.

Judd - was ok today but not to his usual standards. Disposal was pretty poor (by his standards) to be brutally honest but got a bit of it. Saw a couple of dashes and breaks from packs and I'm happy with that.

Murphy/Gibbs - pretty quiet today though Murphy was a lot better in the 2nd half.

Hampson - took a couple of really great grabs today, really top notch. Unfortunately he's eagerness to dish off the hands to the runners going past leads to skills errors that undoes a lot of his good work. Plenty of upside with him. Seeing him in person, I understand what everyone means when they talk about his athleticism! He is lightning quick for a man of his stature. Just continue to work on his skills and add a touch of footy smarts, especially with positioning, and he'll be a real handful.

Walks - imho, showed some good signs today. Did fluff that kick like grro mentioned but got a bit of it and showed his usual creativity.

Hadley - after seeing his grunt work in the packs today, really looking forward to seeing him play a great part in our midfield. Really impressed with him today. His in and under work was excellent.

Garlett - really adds something to our side. Woud have to be a huge chance for rd 1.

Betts - worked hard and did some nice things today.

Yarran - kicked a wonderful goal in the second qtr and worked hard when on the ground (there were plenty of rotations all day). Can't say I remember him having a heap of it though.

In general, not too worried with what I saw today. I was just hoping for no (major) injuries and assuming Grigg is ok, I'm happy with that. The result doesn't mean much as long as we take care of business against the Tiges. I hope the reports also go our way.

It must be said, the intensity level was off and it was Hands Oval, Bunbury Regional WA on a 30 plus degree day. That HAS to explain our defensive pressure all day, especially through the corridor. Freo continually brought the ball upfield with literally zero pressure (right grro ). With the umpires also over officiating, don't be too worried with today's result.

On a side note, only get to see the boys live once, maybe twice a year. Generally at Subi or if I'm lucky like last year, at the G. To see them up close and personal and on a country suburban ground was quite surreal

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We are on our way back...

Great report MPH78

Good news about Grigg, hopefully hes right to play Rnd 1.

The fact that the AFL dictates how clubs plan their pre-season by telling them who and where they will play is a complete joke.

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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.

Spot on there Can Eater. We have a lot of underdone players and we don't have a settled line up. It's going to be hard to beat Richmond. Carrazzo will definitely not play. Walker I think will. He seems to find his form pretty quickly after long absences. Scotland may play but hasn't had a proper AFL-standard hitout. I really think we will be the underdogs going into Round 1 and Yarran and Garlett now look good chances to play Round 1. Robinson IMO will be there. There's a lot of inexperience and the key to beating them will be a)stopping Richo and b) killing them in the middle.

praccy matches.... pfft. i'm pretty sure that when i wake up tomorrow, the sky wont have fallen in. hanging for round 1, and the real stuff.

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i don't wanna spend my life explaining myself. Either you get it, or you don't- Frank Zappa

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

From AFL website Wiggins reported, no mention of CJ2

Sounds like our main players treated this game the same way Geelong treated the game against us last week .
Don't know if that's good seeing it was supposed to be a rehearsal for the "real thing " .

Selection for Richmond will be very interesting . I would expect the players to be training "The House Down " , the next 2 weeks . About 8 positions in the 22 would be undecided now .

Bannister and Scotland did pretty well in the Ants game , so 2 hard weeks on the track from them will make things interesting . And good to see Hadley playing so well even if it was a practice match . At least he's taking his footy seriously .

Lets hope everyone takes the Tigers seriously or we will get smashed .

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Get the facts first.
Then you can distort them at your leisure.

Firstly thanks to Gro for an great effort last night and MRPH for his report.

In relation to the dress rehersal, these are Ratts comments from last week:



VB in relation to the phrase 'don't flirt with your form', I think applies more when you are leading into a final series not practice matches.

Hope Griggs is fine for round 1.

In the age yesterday it mentioned that the club will be seeking special request to have Walks and Scotto to play for the Bullants next week.

I can`t understand why the AFL wouldn`t schedule Freo v W Coast, Adel v Port and Syd v Bris for the final practice matches. We should have been playing another Melbourne club at Visy Park as reward for our performance during the NAB cup. It would have been a boost for club memberships in hard economic times and far less stress from travel for all clubs.

After being relegated to Bunbury, the club may have decided on lets just go and play but don't try to do too much defensively as we don't need any injuries at this stage.

I'm sure the players are aware when round 1 starts and were not looking for a corky or a twinge to upset their pre-season.

If anyone thinks that yesterday's game was an indicator of how we are heading, then you haven't been watching the pre-season competition that well.

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“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.

Hopefully it is just tightness.

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There is no footy god