I just want big Levi to smash (legally) the Melbourne players who drop back into the holes. I hope Carlton kick it nice and high above their heads and big Levi takes a hanger over them leaving the Melbourne players very sore. Hopefully tomorrow we find a forward who clicks and becomes the player we have been searching for

_________________
It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

abit from left field ....

we constantly bemoan how bad our kicking is, but we need to look no further than Thouy (though he hasn't had a great year to date), as to how someone can improve their skills quickly. He is one of the better kicks at our club. why arent we using him as a standard approach and have all our players going through the same process as him and what he did to pick up the kicking skills in such a short period of time? It might take a year, it might take 18 months, but until we get out kicking sorted, we could have all the players in the world, ad we will still lose if we kicked like we have been the last few weeks.

The article about how we concede many goals from poor kicking out of defence is something that is easily fixed, combine that with out terrible kicking in front of goal and the season could be in a very different position as we currently sit. We should have blown Port out of the water in the first quarter, we should have beaten Richmond in the 2nd game. Waite, Garlett have probably been our biggest offenders at this, with Bell, Robbo and Walker not far behind them.

I can quickly think of about 10 goals between Waite/Garlett/Bell that should have been kicked that wasn't, and I don't mean iffys, I mean absolute sitters, that should never have been missed. Throw in Warnocks attempts and you start to see the picture. Some of Walkers kicking out of defence has been disgusting so he can think himself very lucky in my opinion.

forget all the rubbish about players being better than others or not, but the hard facts are, that unless the kicking is up to standard (which its not) then we will struggle. until we get the kicking sorted, we are going nowhere.

get a footy into the hands of every player, every day, 200 kicks a day, 300 kicks a day, practise, practise, practise. IF a player can not reach a level of efficiency considered acceptable, then they shouldn't be getting a game. And there should be no expcetion to this rule.

that is the minimum that should be expected of any player and until they are achieving the minimum expectation they should not be getting a game. no exceptions.

_________________
Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

Problem is we kick it over Casboult's head so he has no chance to mark it.

SS, there are two problems with your argument:

1. Native Aussie Rules players have had their technique ingrained for the better part of 15 years. The irish lads start from scratch when they get here. It'll take longer to re-program an aussie for this reason alone.

2. The fitness/conditioning guys limit the repetitions of the players to avoid injury

I personally think what you propose can be done, but it would take time. Golfers re-invent their swing, but it takes thousands and thousands of repetitions to do so.

The average time on an AFL list is something like 4 years so spending 2 years improving their kicking is a bit of a waste of time. Better to make sure that they can kick when we draft them and making kicking practice an important part of the weekly skills sessions.

_________________
The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time
A garden to nurture and protect

#DopeThenStash

If Waite did not have a dad named Vinnie he would:
- not be on our list now
- not have been given 3 year contract

Waite is the most over rated player to wear the Carlton jumper for a very long time.

This is not about Rowe vs Waite, however I will say that Rowe has played much better than Waite this year. Waite has done SFA. Waite is high on reputation and has not come near what people thought he promised.

If Rowe's last name was Hunter, people would all of a sudden give him respect.

While I agree we have a lot of players on our list that should not be on an AFL list (including Waite), unfortunately there is no mid season draft and it is not Super Coach where we can trade for Rowe & Waite for Roughhead this week.

I am sick of seeing people bagging players who are at least having a go and trying to win the football. By continuing to play Waite who clearly does not give a @#$%&! and dropping Rowe who is trying his heart out really does send the wrong message to the other players. I am happy to play a hard trying/working Rowe over a lazy, don't give a @#$%&! player any day. This is how you change culture.

_________________
It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

When in doubt our midfield should just kick the ball long to Thorp.

re bold - its not working, so lets try something different.

I don't disagree with the first comment, but I do think that players can change, as you allude to with the golf swing analogy. Im not convinced that kicking "x" amount of balls everyday will make a player less or more prone to injury either, but we are fundamentally flawed if we would rather a player be fit and able to run 15kms a game, than one that can kick the ball consistently during the course of a game, and only cover 7kms a game. The quickest way to move a ball is not run with it, but to kick, and kick with purpose. A ball will travel quicker kicked over 50m than it will be in the arms of someone running with it for 50m etc..

but you are right, i.e. retraining exiting players, but I was more alluding to the fact of players that are new to club in the last few years, or those that have more than 5+ years at the club. I don't think you would invest time into Mclean, Judd, Scotland, Carazzo etc.. but players like Bell, Graham, Cripps etc.. i would be ensuring we do everything we can to ensure they are kicking at minimum effeciencies, and if after 3-4 years they cant do that, then move them on ... id say Bell is falling into this category over the next two years. He has enormous potential, but so did Hampson, and it never eventuated and i think we would have been better to keep Jacobs (had it been possible) than hold onto Hampson etc.. I think we should have let Hampson go two to three years ago and concentrate on someone else. Casboult, in my opinion is firmly in this category and if he cant make it this year, id cut him.

as good as carazzo has been for us (he has surprised me in becoming the player he has) there is a reason he wasn't able to cut it at Geelong, we have to get passed this, where okay is good enough.

_________________
Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

The Bomb tactic is pure brilliance by Dr Strangelove but seriously, Casboult has to lead more ... as Cloke does for Collingwood.

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

Both our field kicking and goal kicking are atrocious but any skill can be improved upon though it is not necessarily the quantity of practise but more the quality of practise.

Goal kicking SHOULD be the easier one to get right, especially set shot kicking, since the process can be assessed as a single piece that is separate from most externalities. Field kicking is more involved and typically needed to be done under time pressure with targets and opponents moving but this is no difference to a tennis shot played within a rally. If a solid technique is created then constant results should be returned.

The analogy between goal kicking and a golf shot is a good one. Many golfers have changed their swings over the course of their careers. What it takes is a lot of practise but this is always done with the guidance of a coach and iterative tweaking.

It absolutely amazes me that this has not been done with somebody like Levi who has been acknowledged for 4 years now as having some great attributes for a forward but also having a very bad kicking technique.

Maybe it has and Levi is too thick to listen but my guess is that if it has been done then it was in a very amateur fashion.

_________________
Carlton - Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less
Than I used to, my love

The irishman was a blank canvas. The locals have been kicking shite since they were in the u8s. A decade of bad habits can't be un-learnt in a hurry if at all.

No.

People need to accept Waite for what he is. It's not his fault he's over rated. He's produced the same standard of footy for several years now. Supporters should question themselves for why year after year they've expected Jarrad to produce a season that is far better than any season he's had before. It won't happen..

Waite is an exceptional athlete who has played key position roles at both ends of the field. He's capable of some very exciting footy, he can take a strong mark, kick some freakish goals and excite the fans. He can also make some shocking errors. That's his game. Has been that way for years.

We can't take it out on him that some supporters have continually failed to take notice of his limitations. The fact that he hasn't lived up to the unrealistic expectations of a success starved supporter base shouldn't take away from the fact that he's been a very good player for this club over a long period of time. No matter who his father was, Jarrad has clearly been of AFL standard and is head and shoulders above a battler like Rowe. To compare the 2 is absurd.

Feel free to criticise Waite's attitude in the last fortnight, but lets not diminish his achievements as a player.

_________________
@cecil_anderson

Agree. I feel for Waite. Since Fev left he has been asked to fill a role beyond his capabilities. Put him in a forward line with a more than decent FF and CHF and he'd be a very difficult match up. In our forward line, he's a sitting duck.

_________________
"I had to eat"

Waite has been double and tripled teamed in the 1st three rounds. Not his fault we setup or even deliver badly into the forward line. He has been our only focal point and the only one looking like being able to cause any headaches for the opposition.

waite and garlett need to kick goals - they continue to miss easy ones when we need to put scoreboard pressure - these two primarily cost us against Richmond with their inept kicking for goal -as senior players need to do much better - that's not to absolve the rest of the team from blame but with their experience and skill should kick those goals

Levi needs a few games in a row. Little point in bringing him back for 1 week ... then dropping.

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

If I had to guess, this is why I think they've been dropped this week.
Probably also because their forward pressure needs to lift.

How's Cloke going?

In fairness, there were plenty who were worse than Gibbs last Sunday. For the first three quarters he was one of our more productive players, but that's not saying much.

_________________
"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde