Went tonight. Much better hit out but our skills are beyond ordinary. We simply can't execute the game style we are trying to play. I fear it's going to be a long year getting smashed on turnover.

Very happy with Marchbank. Watched him back in to packs multiple times. Fantastic stuff. Courage, class and smarts.

Pickett stood out too. Very classy. Hopefully we see much more of that this year.

Thought Cripps was pretty good too.

Got exposured again multiple times 'out the back'. Particularly in the first half. Needs to be addressed.

Result doesn't matter but we butchered so many I50s in the last.

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We are on our way back...

Do we have to keep pretending that preseason form means nothing?

Pros:
Better performance. Although flattered by average opposition. Would have been another 10 goal loss against a good team. Still we persisted for longer. Good aggression. Liked the 'unsociable' footy early on. Good willingness to tackle. At least we kicked a few goals.
Hope we keep Weitering forward. He's a star.
Pickett looks he could become a star. Very, very exciting. Pace. Tackling. Goalkicking. Even marking.
Marchbank continues to impress.
Smedts was encouraging. Shame he kept missing shots at goal. Would have been great for his confidence.
After a poor start, Cripps, Murphy and Simmo were good.
Kreuzer was pretty good again. Just wish he didn’t always mongrel the ball forwards when kicking it in general play.
SOJ needs to get more of the ball, and he may need a run at VFL level to do so. But he makes really good decisions with the ball up forward.
Plowman much better this week. Although his kicking is a concern. Misses a lot of targets for someone who seems to have a decent kicking style. Also don’t think the match ups we’re asking of him are fair. Doesn’t have the mobility to match up on small forwards, although that’s what we’re asking of him.
Rowe was pretty good. Also like the competitiveness of Alex Silvagni. Does some stupid things. But looks an upgrade on White.

Cons:
The new ‘secret’ game plan of handballing to disadvantage. Got a little better as the game went on.
Terrible turnovers are really costing us at the moment. Kicking not much better. Must have kicked it out of bounds at least half a dozen times.
I know we’ve lost Tuohy (to Geelong) and Byrne and Buckley (to injury). But we’ve played 4 tall defenders every week so far. It would be alright if they were super athletic, but they’re not. We struggle to match up on small forwards. And we struggle to get the ball out of defence. And we keep getting caught out the back by ‘spare’ forwards. After 3 weeks’ evidence, I find it hard not to conclude that our defensive organisation has gone backwards fairly quickly.
Can we please, please stop playing Thomas. He simply doesn't do enough for a senior (highly paid) player. Pretty disappointed with Palmer as well.
It’s going to be a very frustrating year up forward. So often we butcher the ball going forward, and miss relatively easy opportunities to find a forward in space. And then when we hit targets, we have forwards trying to take chest marks, rather than extending their arms. And then we miss easy shots. We simply can’t compete unless we kick accurately for goal.
I know he’s at his best as a tagger, but Ed’s been fairly disappointing the last 3 weeks.
He tries hard, but gee Kerridge frustrates the heck out of me. Just makes horrible, horrible decisions. And Lamb’s not much better.

double post

At one stage the commentators said,
'Carlton continue to find new ways to turn over the ball.'
It was terrible and when we turn it over we don't have the pace to get back before the opposition forwards get goalside.
Obvious flaw in the defensive setup.

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

Palmer & Smedts have very poor skills. Waste of time. Costly all night.

Have read Freo are ordinary a few times in here but surely with a midfield that has
Sandilands, Fyffe, Mundy, the Hill brothers, Neale & guys like McCarthy, Walters, Ballantyne and Bennell (when fit) forward, they will trouble quite a few sides...

That's what I thought. They will be better than predicted. Their midfield is as good as any in the league, particularly with Sandi putting it down their throats. Their problem will be up forward.

The depth of our midfield is our glaring weakness. We don't bat deep enough. Between that and the ball-burners who keep turning the footy over, we can look terrible.

Overall, I thought we were ok last night. Like last year, I don't think we took pre-season that seriously. I expect we will be very competitive in round 1.

much better performance than the past couple of weeks.
Cripps was good, kruezer was good, Pickett and marchbank gave glimpses and I was glad to see mcreadie get another shot as reward for some great efforts last week.
I think Murphy will be fine once the season starts... he has worked himself into it. (Fyfe is a different animal so comparing the two is fraught. Murphy is an artist who runs hard and looks to bring others into the game. Fyfe is a highly skilled crasher who looks to win the game off his own boot.)
Having said that, we turned the ball over a lot and then got caught on the rebound.
And we butchered our opportunities either in a chain of play or at the end of a good chain.
Still. Freo with sandi and Fyfe playing well and Neale and the hill brothers and McCarthy... will not be the bottom dwelling team from last season.
I wouldn't say I'm happy w our pre-season but I'm certainly not as outraged as some appear to be.
Looking forward to another step forward this season (whether or not this shows up on the win-loss ratio).

Hard to argue with that.
Palmer bulked up too much and its costing him now that the game is much quicker.
Smedts is just average at best. Just another soft turn over merchant.
We keep bringing more plodders in when we are trying to turn the list over to improve it.
Really frustrating.

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

Palmer has never had good skills. He was an accumulator at Freo, racked up posies but never used it effectively.
Smedts is a down grade of Tom Bell and even Belly lacked polish.

To move fwd we need to stop drafting these types of players. They will never be there when we actually start competing.

That's why i said sos' retread players are more losses than wins....the club wants to lose by 50 points rather than 100 points if we have pure draftees in their opinion...

I dont agree....if you are the best recruiter like beatson from sydney you will be fine..

What about kerriages miss from 10 m out.?

Hilarious....

Seriously this guy just kills me every time he gets the ball. I think he hit 1 target by foot last night and my 12 year old said "wow he kicked it to one of us"

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

I take it we lost?

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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/

Pickett has played 2 practice matches and is already our strongest & SMARTEST fwd. he turned it over a couple of times kicking to the advantage of our fwds, in the path they should of ran and they had no idea.
Also the amount of ball we got hands too but didn't mark was ridiculous. If we held half of them we would of nearly won it.
Will be another 10 odd moved on next season. Too many avg footballers.

Hope Docherty Smedts Palmer can tidy up their skills. Should be good contributors.

Pickett obviously has the class. Let's see how he handles a bit more attention from the opposition.

I'll be ecstatic if Kreuzer can continue to be serviceable as he was last night.

Weitering will be thanking the gods for Marchbank and Macreadies arrival at Ikon Park.

Sumner will hopefully replace Armfield sooner than later.

Jaksch/Harry Mac hopefully in for Rowe/Casboult ASAP.

Pros
Pickett looks good, hope we keep putting games into him
Marchy been the stand out this pre season Out of our new recruits
Kruez got monstored in taps but was actually very good around the ground I thought
Simmo and doch so good and so important
Cripps is a beast, makes me smile every time he gets it
Weiters is special, liked him up forward
SOS is a smart player and although doesn't get much of it, doesn't waste too many opportunities

Cons
We butchered the ball
Basic skill errors
Curnow and Kerridge, love these guys endeavour and both have really good tanks but they just can't hit targets
Palmer and smedts started poorly but thought they worked themselves into the game in the second half
Lamb and daisy.. I just don't know if we can play both of them
Same goes for white and A. Silvagni

Overall wasn't a bad hit out
Looking forward to round 1
Hope our skills are more sharper
Charlie should be back and can't wait to see SPS in our team eventually

if any player is doing clangers in practice games you can be 100% certain they will do the same if not worse during the real thing

rubbish, MF

on what basis is it rubbish?

you're talking in absolute terms