We were down Cottrell as well though weren't we?

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#DonTheStash

when did he go down? the 4th qtr wasn't?

so we had ollie and acres playing wing without being chopped out? either way, when cottrell left, we looked actually better

Cottrell was gone late in the 2nd I think.

I've mentioned in other threads but everything that is good about this club was on show when we played Geelong.

That absolutely has to be the baseline for every performance. It was built on pressure and manic ball turnover focus.

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another staple to that game was i can't recall a single tackle we slipped off. there was intent to everything we did.

chris scott was bewildered after the game and said we're the best team he's faced since he's been at geelong.

Just caught results from overseas.
We were 11 and 4 in 2022 and missed the 8
We made finals for the first time last year.
To suddenly expect everything to fall in place this year was a pipe dream.
We have 6 players that are above average to elite.
To go the next step you need 8 to 9.
TDK was 1 and last year Cerra was the other.
But we rely to much on Weiters Saad Cripps Walsh Harry and Charlie.

Noticed in the feed Pitto copping it.
2 rucks will always beat 1.


But look on the bright side at least we haven't fallen away as far as Sydney their depth is worse than ours.

You need your list healthy we have been battling with injuries all year.

Gov was concussed when he took that shot
Should not have taken it.

Missed to many chances early in the game.
Same thing happened last year when we were on the losing streak. You need to kick straight

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Spot on Syd. Hope the trip's going well!

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#DonTheStash

Saad has not been elite. Refused to put his head over it on the weekend. I haven't watched the replay but he stood out as one of the main culprits watching it on the night. Boyd also down on his early season form.
A few weeks ago (or perhaps last week)David king highlighted
Saad as one that needs to lift . He got worse on Saturday.

agreed. he was elite last year when we came good.

every other year at Blues been either above average or average. when Saad plays to his high-bar and gets a role and opposition that allow him latitude you realise how good.

when he drops off a little i looks like he’s playing a bit rubbish, but it’s mostly by his own high standards. rather than cf average player performance that week (how ever you want to assess/measure individual performance in a team game).

good players work themselves back into good form and i think Saad’s shown himself to be a good player for us.


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Saad is just one of many who has come back from injury and hasn't played as well as he did prior

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Thank you people.

we’ve missed some of those wide receiver types in the middle of the ground for reasons of form and injury.
* Cripps, elite. better than last year even but occasionally well held for 3 quarters of a game. lacks the support Walsh was giving early on for his late season start.
* Walsh a shadow of the best 2024 finals player in the AFL.
* Cotters just not match fit (i mean his lack of touch and field positioning, not kilomètres run or speed average) in his first two games.
* Hewitt plays more of a shutdown mid role and occasional HF marking 70m out role, not the running ball transition/receiver type. never will be.
* Elijah was great as that extra midfield running/receiver type when we were winning, he’s been more patchy of late.
* Blake Acres up and down a bit.
* Kennedy isn’t in middle any more.
* Cerra, 2024 has been a complete write off
* Ollie — if the MC is honest its his tangible desperation to run to a marking contest that keeps him in the first 22, not T or K, and certainly not good shaking Ts, which kind of says too many of our senior players lack that tangible desperation aspect.
* TDK extra marking and scrambling mid transition play. sorely missed.
* Pitto, an elite ruck (at the VFL level). good combo with TDK but costs us an extra mid or tall forward for the service.

our transition game looked so much improved the first half of this season. that’s what hurts so much. lost our contest and pressure game while developing a transition game (which is modern AFL and required) and now we have neither to rely on as the « one wood » (which is a stupid phrase too many at carlton use, yes. i’m mocking the idea we have a natural advantage that is immune to opposition homework, strategy and tactics).

seems like we can’t defend without our midfielders and forwards (including Owies at times) playing strong defensive games and when they do it seems to hurt our free flowing transition game.

its been too tricky to balance all these aspects for a team that suffered heaps of injuries (as have some other teams). much aa Hamel was a CCF great (whose departure prob cost us a flag) is it time for a new Defence coach? the players look confused in D50.


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yep. our list demands so much of our best 10 players. Doc’s on-field presence and flexible utility capability sorely missed i reckon.


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footy gods displeased? what gets into players heads? what is that confidence and belief connection we now lack. time for camp curnow but i suspect, sadly, that it’s too late in the season to manufacture GF worthy form.

i started noticing the ever encroaching AMPOL logo on the back of the jumper around then. marketing have been very stealthy about this. at first no A on the game day presser backdrop then appeared a training pressers. then on. game day. i was like as long as its not on the jumper i won’t lose it.

then (months later?) on the back of the jumper.

then the other day there’s an ad for the membership website in the Carlton app and image is of the skipper facing away from camera and thumbing towards the AMPOL on his back. (the things ya gotta do for $1m a year). irony that it‘a inadvertently a thumbs down gesture not lost on me.

then the post game camera in the game day coaches review , again crippa with back to camera and AMPOL showing.


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I'd expect a guy called Diesel to notice that...

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Cottrell was gone in the second quarter, so we were a player down for more than half the match. So why do you think it was the lies who ran out of legs? Is our team really that fit?

at the game, the pies stopped running, mate. they'd get turnover, look up field and no one was there, and no one was moving there. their run literally stopped in the 4th. Cameron was barely jumping in the ruck, their kicks were dropping short and missing targets. classic fatigue setting in, imo.


voss said himself, we played the best footy in that 4th qtr, we've played in a month. did we really? or did the pies fade and let us get our hands on the ball and have the game on our terms? another 2 minutes and we win that game. hell, one straight kick from gov and we do.

if we come out and do the same from 1st bounce with the hawks... then we are back. if it's more of the same, then i'm in the camp that the pies faded, and that's why we looked good.


fwiw, cottrell. didn't even notice him out there, and didn't notice him when he wasn't. so much so i was surprised coming home and tuning in the coverage that he left injured.

so that tells you how well he's going.

Maybe it was my eyes, but our jumper looked less navy blue on the weekend, and looked more like the blue from the spoon years.

funny you say that. at the ground i struggled with the jumper clash, actually. pies in the black shorts is a nightmare.

i don't know how the players make split second decisions in traffic.

The pies created a problem that didn't exist 20 years ago when they inexplicably changed to a black back.

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