Hendo wasn't too bad considering Petrie's size and how often it was kicked to him.

Davies had a shocker, and is no chance for round 1.

Pros: Kreuzer, Daylight, Waite, Bower, Yarran, Robinson, Murphy, Scotland, Armfield

Cons: Watson, Hampson, Lucas, Curnow, Davies, Gibbs.

Scrappy with poor skills and decision making for the most part.

Last quarter they lifted the intensity which gives me hope for when the real stuff starts.

Gibbs and Curnow need to get rid of the nancy boy haircuts and return to the meaner buzz cut look they had early last season. You cant play in the midfield when you look like Richie Cunningham (Gibbs) or Shirley Temple (Curnow).

Cant wait for the season to start.

Has Ratten done a presser post match??

Early doors.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

I was sitting behind the players bench and there were a lot of rotations going on which would indicate that Ratten was more worries about the players workloads rather than a serious crack at winning this game.

Players who impressed were Kruezer, Waite, Robinson, Carrazzo & Gibbs.

Players who will not play round 1 are Davies and Watson.

Russell did enough for me to take the sweeper role across HB for round 1.

Thornton will need to play forward against Richmond based on his ablilty to take a contested grab given the poor delivery into the forward line today.

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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

I was sitting ten meters from Ratten in the Pratt stand and he wasn't overly happy

Stats show we won more midfield ball. Problem was general lack of pressure, tackling and run. In other words laziness. Oh and without Jamo we are troubled by quality tall fwds.
We pulled our digit out in the fourth but couldn't convert.
Hammer becoming an expert at running under the ball. He's not up to it. We would be better off with Hammer rucking majority with Kruez up fwd more. He's starting to clunk marks n is looking ominous. Waite n Kreuz fwd will work. Hammer doesn't do enough from plenty of chances

Tactically we were poor, but there was the odd mitigating factor.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

So Ratten says plan was to have a healthy list????

Pros;

Gibbs very handy int he guts, more consistent effort in the contest than I have seen. He's ready for the role now.

Robbo fantastic in his effort, as was Kreuzer. Both look ready to take the next step and become influential week in week out.

Murph worked his way in to it as it went on, Judd similar, but he was that quiet in the first half, he couldn't help but improve.

Have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Bower. For the first time in a while he looked decisive when he had it. So well done to him.

Eddies efforts up forward were good, and Waite looked good. Was also pleasantly surprised by Rusell. Looked more composed and confident than I have seen for a while.

Scotto was his usual self.

Brock will never be quick, but he was pretty clever a few times and I think gets a gig vs richmond.

Cons;

Davies was a disaster. He is not an AFL player and should be 40th in line for selection.

Or maybe 39th - Watson is so far off the pace it isn't funny. He's a real worry at this point. A worry in the sense that with his body shape I'm not sure how you can get speed into him.

Armfield's disposal is just not up to it. He had Waite 20 meters ahead with a simple spot up. So of course he sprays it over Waite's head for a throw in. Just not good enough if we are supposed to be competing for a flag. It just wouldn't happen at Collingwood or Hawthorn. As long as we make excuses about providing run etc zwe're not being serious. He shouldn't be playing if he can't hit that target.

Hampson is an absolute liability up forward. He ran full tilt under 4 forward entries. Has no idea where the ball is going to land or how/where to position himself. The only thing he knows how to do is charge forward in a straight line. He's a body down the and nothing more. And the way he keeps running under the ball he's not even providing enough of a contest to bring the amigos into it. If Warnock is fit he is miles ahead of Hammer.

Lucas gets a lot of it but really doesn't use it well. He looked so composed and compact with the ball in his first year, I M really not sure where that's gone.

Hendo had a shocker. looked slow.

Generally they were scrappy, and mixed some nice, fluent ball movement with some terrible lapses.

Defensively we were pretty awful, it was a revolving door either side of half time when north put through 7 goals in a row, and pretty much all of them were very easy movements straight don't he middle with no pressure and swarming numbers from north. A really disappointing period of the match.

Well done to the boys though for turning the tide from about half way through the third onwards.

They clearly need the run. From the looks of it, I think they probably could have used last week for the main 22 as well given how rusty they were as a unit today. We desperately miss Jamo. We're nowhere near a contender without him.

For those who didnt go to game worth noting Judd hardly ventured into the middle in the first three qtrs.
Thought Bryce got his hands dirty in the last qtr playing on ball which was encouraging

Marc Murphy started on the bench in the 1st quarter

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience!!!

After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F .........
Visit http://fromthemoshpit.com/

Spot on on all accounts
How bad was that Armfield turn over ? His and DAvies lack of polish is clear as day. How many poor users can a team carry? None is my answer
Yep thought Bower was pretty good
How slow is Watson? That bit on the wing when he was outnumbers 2-1 was embarrassing, like a cruise shiP takes half an hr to turn n has no short sprint in him
Agreed also Lucas not a great user of the ball yet

Pretty much matched or beat them in every key stat except for clangers/efficiency.

And goals kicked.

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STURDYISM!!

What game were you at?

When they decided to flick the switch they looked anxious n fumbled.
Hope we haven't left it too late.
Ibefficiency inside F50 continues to be an issue with Hammer main culprit

That counter attack footy has been a problem for us for the last few years. North did it better than any team i have seen do it to us today late in the second and through the third. Its russian roulette for them though. They got it right today and had us all confused.
It was exciting to watch. They are a good side.

We will improve on today and have a good season after a slow start.

Liked Russ today.
BIg K is in the zone.
Hampson was shaky but still involved. Will need to improve on today to hold his spot.
Judd and Murph didnt get out of 2nd gear.
Gibbs played well forward then was moved around. Ratts not giving the Tigers too much of a look at Gibbs forward.
Training loads will have us peak in a few weeks time.
We are a much better side with Robbo in.
Armfield was good. Ironing out the kicking mistakes would make him valuable to the 22.
Petre is a top key forward who i wish played for us. Hendo no match today but showed how much he needs to work to be a better player.
Kicking for goal still a problem with North nailing plenty from on fifty while we shanked them or didnt have the confidence to even try a shot at goal.

Should be a good season for the Blues. I am looking forward to it.