I thought Lucas was good, but the stat you just provided proves how irrelevant stats can be when Yarran kicked 3 and setup a few more.

We have 3 of the best 5 small forwards in the league, if not the best 3. We have arguably the worst tall forwards in the league. If we can sort this out it we can mix it with the best.

Casboult in for Hampson.
Casboult and Rowe then have a couple of weeks to battle it out for the spot to play alongside Waite when he returns. I prefer casboult. Has much more upside and I love his chasing.

I think our ideal forward line would be Waite and casboult with Kreuzer floating in at times playing that roaming role that others have mentioned (I like this idea)

Knockers to play number 1 ruck, but needs to start taking a few grabs around the ground. We are overstocked with 3 first rucks. I'd see what we could get from Gws for hammer at seasons end, who are reportedly desperate for a ruckman. They have a plethora if young talent and surely there will be a few of their kids who would be keen to move back to vic. I like hammer but he's going to be wasted playing 2's as he's obviously not the answer up forward and Warnock and Kreuzer are both ahead as ruckmen. Then look to pick up another rookie as back up and to develop in the 2s

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Yeah ... im not huge on stats unless theye impacting.

stats for the sake of stats tell us nothing... its a very ratten fixation.

On those stats last night it was a case of Lucas>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Yarran's game

The reality however is quite different

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Thought Brock was BOG. His kicking around the field was just sublime. Stood out head and shoulders above anyone else on the field in this regard. He is a smart player and knows how to find space, which he obviously needs so he isn't exposed for pace. Regularly gets forward and kicks goals too. I can't remember how many times I said 'Brock will never play for carlton again' during games over the last few years. Couldn't be happier to be so wrong.

Walker was not far behind and I think he's been our best player of 2013 so far.

Garlett is back to his 2011 form, and then some. Whatever his personal issues were last year must have really got to him because he was terrible all year. He and yaz would both be in all Australian contention at the moment. I dare say Eddie would be too had he not been injured.

Jamo also in all Australian form. He just doesn't lose a contest. Ever. Maybe a couple against Hawkins where he got caught in a wrestle and was just outmuscled. Really need a laidler type providing the chop out in this situation against the big gorillas. You know jamo's confident when he's not just spoiling but outmarking his opponent. Still has a tendency to throw it on the boot too hastily under pressure though.

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I was at the game and it was a great spectacle as a Blues fan! Aside from that 5 goal stretch for Adelaide, everything went nicely for us and I was supremely confident throughout.

Not much I can say that hasn't been said, but the improvement across our entire side is astounding. I feel like Mick has taken a very close look at every player over the pre-season and identified clear areas for improvement and most importantly, standout strengths. Players are playing to those strengths and ever so slightly their flaws are being ironed out. The common thread across the side is being a defensively-minded team player - slowly everyone is getting into the habit of being selfless and sacrificing themselves for the team. Obviously a long way to go, but the progress (or is that the process?) has been immensely encouraging.

Individual players... well, the defense was great. Jamo and Hendo are close-checking, mobile, disciplined & skilled KPDs. They aren't man mountains but they know how to wrestle and always seem to have good enough closing speed to go the punch. Tuohy is finally getting back on that upward development curve - strong in the contest, moves well and looks to be honing his impressive disposal skills to be more dangerous on the rebound. He's always been team-first so he would be one of MM's favourites I'd wager. Kade looked good in defense as well, when he was there - generally pretty composed and kicking was alright - fair play to him. Gibbs as always was good (before being subbed), disciplined, effective and creative - he is a great player. Walker is in great form, his disposal has become very consistent and he is a physical beast - dangerous rebounding weapon!

Lucas haters can bite me - he has a good football brain and an impressive set of physical traits, and he is playing like he belongs. He might not be a star at the moment but he's on a good trajectory, super impressed with how he's been able to turn it around. Brock has also resumed where he was last year - does everything well, composed, strong, smart - he is slow and I'm sure he'll be outrun by someone at some point and everyone will be up in arms, but he's good for us.

Am I the only who wasn't enamoured with Warnock? I could be wrong, and I do think he's talented, but he offered very little around the ground. Despite being 8ft tall, he can't take a contested grab and lumbers around the ground. Maybe I'm just used to Kreuzer's phenomenal efforts, but his one-dimensional style concerns me. That said - he was great in the ruck (and was last week) and clearly he's got our midfield firing, so I think I'm probably being unfair.

Garlett, Yarran, etc were great.

Mitch looked a lot better yesterday, a bit more composed with the ball and did really well around the clearances. Courageous as always. Still needs to be a bit more damaging with his kicking but that will come I'm sure.

Rowe and Hampson were pretty much non-factors - probably lucky our smalls were so good otherwise there would be a lot more heat being applied in their direction. Fingers crossed the likes of Casboult & Mitchell (the two true key forward prospects on our list IMO) keep coming on.

Judd has looked fantastic this year. He is relishing the decreased responsibility and looks to be happy as ever.

I love Dennis Armfield.

Overall, really good win. We still have a lot of improvement to do but many positives. In Mick we trust!

i am happy to have got the win, but i don't think mick would have been happy with that performance. in fact, i think we actually played better against collingwood and geelong, but were lucky to come up against an out of form and injured adelaide team.

i was very positive even after our losses, but i thought we were skylarking yesterday, and after watching the replay, i thought some of our play was cringe worthy and we would be punished if we were playing a top side. hopefully we can get that out of our system in the next few weeks against more lowly opposition.

i thought rowe was a better contributor than Hampson, who constantly got hands to the ball, only to see it slip straight through and be whisked away. at least rowe brought it to ground in a dangerous position and even had a couple of nice assists in the first quarter.

i thought jamo was good once he got moved off walker early on, as he was getting smashed in the first part of that first quarter. then he was well on top of the resting ruckmen. hendo had a shocker and had a lot of goals kicked on him - even by makeshift defenders who were forced to be moved forward. his disposal was woeful and he barely hit a target all game.

i thought lucas was really good, apart from a few disposal errors and that missed goal. i also loved brock, walker, tuohy and scotland's games. warnock really needs to create a bit of presence around the ground, but our midfield certainly seems to respond well to him being in the ruck. the little helpers were on fire.

for the people who thought kade played well down in defence, i don't know what game you were watching. i was at the game, and i also watched the replay, and he was on the wing, with no opponent for the whole match. his disposal was shocking.

glad with the win, but still plenty of room for improvement. i am glad we have some weak opposition coming up so we can try and sort a few things out without suffering losses.

Does anyone know exactly what happened to Jamo? Did he pop the shoulder out? Is it ok now?

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my youtube channel tracking carlton news on television and paytv

Played the game out, gave a strong don't argue in the few minutes also.

And you shouldn't write off players as easily as you do. And yet you continue to do so. Lucas will continue to improve under MM and I have little doubt will be 150+ game player so you might have to get use to him. I know you are just after a whipping boy for 2013.

I have no idea what the list of HBF's and VFL onballers has to do with Lucas.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

tackling was/is a major deficiency

Yarran's job was to kick some goals and Lucas's was to be a gut runner b/t HB and HF to link up and that's exactly what he did. Try watching the game again and see how many times coming out of defense the ball ended with Lucas because of his hard running to make position. Okay he turned a couple over and made the odd poor decision but he wasn't alone. The way AFL is played at the moment, at such break neck speed, give me Lucas's hard running any day.

I'm sure his GPS figures would put him in the top 5 last night. Those stats won't mean much to some but I'm sure MM will be happy. The rest we can work on. He's still only 21 and only played 23 games.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Lucas is a fourth year player picked in the mid first round Mr Cazz
And yet his deficiencies are glaring.

The only way he will play 150 games is if we continue drafting hbfer types who are kicking dew off the grass at Cramer street.
Thats what he has to do with it all.. if we didnt have a team of hbfers in the ressies and we had been taking mids.. wed have an option to leave out Lucas atm... but if you go along to the reserves... youd find Preston players dominating the midfield in our reserves.
And cos we dont have options... Lucas stays....
Thats how Lucas is linked with our overabundance of average hbfers in the ressies.... its a very clear line... !!(I thought it was obvious)
Lucas would struggle to make the side in any of the other teams in the eight...

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physicality in congestion was/is a major deficiency

I think he's improving all the time.....

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

Yeah, Nah the only obvious thing is your need for a whipping boy. Sadly it's in your nature.

You'd rather denigrate that encourage. That's okay we all get it.

I'm not 100% sure your opinion about who would or wouldn't get into any of the top 8 sides counts for much in the grand scheme of things.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Papers here in Adelaide are saying club doctors are fearing Tex's injury is an ACL and when club doctors say that they are normally correct. It seems he will be gone for the season.

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If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

Thats right.. he is in the side because he is a runner... but his kicking is a pitching wedge floater helicopter.. thats put players under the pump (see Kreuzer)... he cant stand up in a tackle.. players run over the top of him.. and his decision making is woeful.. but yes he can run....but that shouldnt be enough... he should have more to his game.

Yarran needs to do more too... but at least people pay the price of admission to see the aboriginal players play (Including walker/Betts and Garlett ).. cos they can do alot of things right.. and theyre runners that create opportunities for themselves and others...
Lucas is seriously crippled outside of his run.... its not enough!!!

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Ps this was the online headline 30 mins ago

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If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

was awful to see sablueboy - hate seeing the guns of the game go down like that - Doc Larkins wasn't holding back last night on radio