Our defence is the same gaping hole whether we play defensively or offensively. The main difference yesterday was that by moving the ball more directly we have less chance of stuffing it up, less time for the opposition to flood our forward zone and fewer of our players caught out of position when we do stuff it up.

they were better at the basics - tackling 1%ers and contested ball..

In fact, we almost broke our club record for tackles yesterday with 88 in total. (low as it is)

I wonder if the players had caught onto to the basics of a contact professional sport yet?

I wonder if they will be able to repeat the basics next week???

Or will thy need another kick up the butt by everyone in the Universe - AGAIN!!!

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

I thought it was a step in the right direction at least.
Warnock showed us what he can do if he gets out of first gear and taps the ball more than 30 cm. That's a start.
Tackling was up by a huge margin. That's what will hold us in good stead against any team. Geelong, Hawthown, Sydney. If they get it and we tackle them, they go down like anybody else.
High percentage ball use. At one pointyesterday Murphy had 100% efficiency.(No Moshe it wasn't just after his first possession). Gobbs was using it at 85%. Tha's the key top retention and conpares with 46% or thereabouts against Melbourne. If you are using the footy at 75%+ you will hold on to it and the other team has limited opportunities. And why were the % up? Players running and providing options and not just 50-50 contests; players running to the corridor and not just the boundaries and so the plan was less predictable; The defensive structure of the opposition wasn't as good as some we will encounter; CONFIDENCE levels up as things started to go well.
1% up y a lot. The blocks, shepherds, knock ons, smothers, intercepts and body work in clse were much better than for the past month. Bell was the main protagonist here and a lot of his good work won't feature on the stats sheets but will feature in the coach's analysis and debrief today.
We had a tall forward line and they actually took a few marks and moved around. That makes it bloody hard to double team someone when you have three tall forwards. And they weren't frightened to get kicks downfield. Waite was everywhere, especially early. Henderson showed us why he is so good down forward bu marking and crumbing. Casboult had a serviceable game and got kicks down field but was an option if the others were not available.
Our mids worked together, helped in no small measure by Warnock's work.

The glaring hole in our list is in relation to tall defenders. Jamo is injured butis the pick of them. Rowe is barely OK and is only playing defence because we need hHedo up front. White is OK but not what we would like if we had the choice. he's a bit short for it. Everrit is a swing man and not the best defender going around. McKinness hasn't been as good as we thought he would be. Watson IMO is the pick of them but he is slow. He wold have been unbelievable when footy was played in lines and you stayed in your area and played kick to kick with the line in front of you. Unless he can improve his fitness levels he will probably not make it. So the good teams have us here. Hawkins, Franklin, Cloke, Daniher, Roughead will always kick bags on us or their foils will because we need two KPD. Our small defenders are OK but inconsistent.

Playing the sort of tooty we played yesterday would have us 3-2. Maybe 4-1 but 3-2. That's a springboard for the season. A confident team playing attacking, possession-based footy with players having a crack at the contested stuff. If they play like that every week they'll win plenty of games this year but unless there are upsets all over the joint, the eight is already a pipe dream.

The list MM inherited was put together by Ratts to play fast-flowing footy and when MM has let them off the chain they have produced some breathtaking stuff. Unfortunately he hasn't done it often enough or in the case of 2014, soon enough. By the time he leaves, we will have a list put together to play dour down the boundary stuff and the new coach will have to play that way or hope the players adapt to whatever style he wants. Meanwhile, I hope we play like this week because it's a lot more pleasant watching that than what came before it. Win or lose.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Navyblue95 -
my youtube channel tracking carlton news on television and paytv

As happy as I am with the win -- a revert to type with the same way we played under Ratten is getting us nowhere.

Still, a wins a win, and the effort was great, despite the where-the-flower-has-this-been-for-the-past-month-ness to it.

The great test for this groups is making that effort the standard, rather than the exception.

I must be missing something. Did not watch the game but according to the stats Minson had more hit outs, hit outs to advantage, more possessions and the one mark for the game equal to Warnock. Have we as supporters lowered our expectation of Warnock to such a degree that he only has to have a fair crack for us to get excited?

Watch the game.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

If the stats men say Warnock had less hitouts to advantage, the interpretation that leads to that is plain wrong.

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"I had to eat"

For me.. Warnock was the most influential man on the ground.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

In the context of over four quarters, completely agree with that assessment of Warnock.

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

We've been in even game with the contested ball. In fact, the most we've been beaten by in a game is 2 contested possessions and we've been in front in most.

Not only that, we've had more 1%ers in every game. Contested footy has rarely been our problem. Looking back to the Essendon* game, we had 25% more 1%ers than Essendon*, we won the clearances and we had 123 contested possessions to 125. Yet we lost by 80 points.
Its not about how we win the ball, it's about what we do with it.
Essendon* killed us because they had 123 more uncontested possessions. They ran, retained possession and cuts us to pieces with their uncontested ball use.
Thats what we need to do instead of kicking the ball to designated areas where the opposition have zoned.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Stats are helpful, but that's it

Yes, especially when they don't tell you what you want to hear.

You should pass that thought on to all the AFL, VFL, TAC, SANFL, WAFL etc coaches.
For some strange reason they all use them during games to illustrate to the players exactly what's happening.
Apparently they are a reflection of what actually occurred.

Perhaps they should disregard them and have a "vibe' stat or a TC opinion stat.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Its too simplistic to say we played a ratten style of football. Did we lay 88 tackles and play hard physical football in ratten style footy? I get that the play on fast football reminds people of ratten style football, but dont forget ratten also tried unsucessfully to develop plan b football too. My point, comparisons to ratten game plan are not really accurate.

In fact one game is not really a representative of a pattern at all. Last week against melb we did play in small patches this way scotland and yarran in particular. But the turn overs meant the team abandoned the style.

To me the big difference was controlling the midfield with bell and warnock allowing murphy to play to his strength. Plus 3 mark talls. Bell is a big loss and will impact murphy most, who locked 3 brownlow votes on the weekend. Hopefully mitch can play the bell role.

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'‘He had an enormous capacity to pump himself up and get the best out of himself when it mattered. He had a fire in his belly – a passion for the contest like few other players’' -- D Parkin in reference to the dominator

Who cares who's style it is?
Ratten, Malthouse, Mickey @#$%&! Mouse, what does it matter? It appears some people don't want us to play fast paced footy because it might give Ratten some credit. How @#$%&! ridiculous are we getting.

Its not about who should take responsibility. It's about us playing a game style that suits the personnel at our disposal. Its about playing a game style that will give us more wins than losses.
IMHO, most games a faster paced game with more uncontested ball will suit us, other games or segments of games we'll need to adapt.
The point is we need to be adaptable and not religiously ingrained into one style of play. If Mick can address the balance well and give us a more adaptable game style that will result in more wins and better development of our players, fantastic.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Like I said before.
BV for coach.
Get him!!!!!

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

Robbie looked much better around the ground this week.
Found himself in the play much more often, was much more useful in general play.
Used his height, etc.

If he can break even stats wise in the ruck, and have that level of influence around the ground, then I think it's a win for us.

I reckon most opposition coaches wouldn't mind him winning taps as long as their ruckman can kill him in other areas, and their mids can shark their fare share.
Robbie is always going to get his hands to the ball in the ruck fairly often due to his height.
It's being able to make use of that height advantage outside the ruck contest that will make the real difference to our side.

I think he took a good step towards that on Sunday.

I also think Minson wouldn't have been happy with his own game overall.

For the stats lovers Did we kick long less than we have recently? Handball?

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Well done Players and well done Dr Strangelove ... at last ... a positive change in the way we play.

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

It's not Micks plan v Ratts plan. It's not corridor v boundary
Its playing the style that suits the moment. You might change 10 times in a quarter.
Its bottling the other team when they have momentum, slingshot footy if the opportunity is there, down the line when other options are closed, corridor when the matchups suit.

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T E A M