Just back from the 'G.

Strangely flat game. Never out of it, but somehow Never really in it. We lacked potency up front. The forward line doesn't seem to have the teams' confidence. We muck around instead of driving forward to leading targets. Walker might need a spell.

Back line was, all in all, good(apart from that fist quarter where we were under siege). bower surprised me when he came on. Gave us run and carry (although I still get nervous when he has the ball), laidler keeps impressing and I thought Henderson did well on Cloke particularly in the second half.

Thought we matched them in the middle.

the pies couldn't relax all day. They only knew they had us when the siren went.

Nice debut for Twomey.

Sad to lose the four points, but we are definitely catching them.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

Bower is a poorer option than Henderson as a KPD. Consistently plays from behind and looks to attack rather than get in front to defend. It isn't the season where Bower played well on Cloke by running off him. Cloke is now 108 kgs, yet still capable of covering a lot of turf. Bower is still a rake with his lack of core strength. Pears is stronger, yet two years younger. For the time being, Jamison and Henderson are our two best defenders.

With 14 minutes left, I reckon they gave up and thought that was result a good pass mark against the best side in the AFL.

Soft.

Only Robinson, Judd and Kreuzer kept fighting.

Yeah maybe but I don't reckon we have the tank to go with sides who play high intensity for the full game....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

The problem is that Cloke would have had 7 shots on goal today no matter if Henderson or Bower were on him. That's why Henderson should have been sent forward to give us a chance.

Watching Cloke's marks inside 50 which gave him shots on goal...would any defender have been able to stop them? It's bewildering......

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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

That's funny, I thought Bryce was our best player today - thought he was great.



Mostly agree with this though, I would've at least switched Hendo forward when Bower came on. Bower did look good running out of defence, but one effort frustrated me, when he want to kick it off the ground in a contest on the HFF rather than putting his head over it and picking it up and at worst forcing a ball up. His little scrubby kick went straight to them and they got a goal.

I had to feel sorry for Watson - he gave up three goals through decision making errors (they weren't really kicking errors per se, they were all going to the Carlton player, but he wasn't awake to Collingwood players being there to intercept). I think he will be a player but picking him was an absurd decision, just ridiculous. He really cost us today, but he shouldn't have been picked.

Are you giving Judd BOG?..........I thought he struggled against overwhelming odds all day, and had no positive influence on our outcome.[/quote]

Yep, and I rate Murphy's year to date performances ahead of Judd. I agree very little quality possessions but without him feeding others we would have been smashed badly. Carried the team which had its fair share of passengers today.

They didn't play well but neither did we.

Hard to draw conclusions for that game.

We took the #1 team (by a long way) all the way to the line ... see no negatives in that loss. Watson grows, Twomey shows something, Hendo was solid against the best forward in the comp ... I'm not sure that we could have expected much better from where we are form and development path wise and with the current outs from our core 22.

Never happy with a loss but will take that against the Pies in this round.

Well done Blues.

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"It was like calling your ex girlfriend after a night on the booze, just a really bad decision".

So near, yet so far.

At times it was back to the bad old days of kicking to the DISadvantage of team mates and being asleep at the wheel in setups around the stoppages.

Hendo did ok on Cloke. Anyone thinking he's good enough to match or better Cloke at the moment needs to take a deep breath. Thornton provided somewhat of a forward target and both players did as best as we could expect.

I thought AJ did ok and was much more assured in his efforts than some others who were very disappointing at times.

Well done to Twomey who didn't look out of place on the big stage in his debut.

Some strange MC selections the last few weeks looking on from the outside. Thought Houlihan could've been a handy sub today as the game went on.

It depends on which Bower you are referring to.I have seen Bower beat many a bigger opponent. Pre injury with confidence up he is a gem because he hurts his opponent with his rebounding. If you noticed today we got very little run out of defence Playing him as a sub will not accelerate his progress nor give him the confidence. Half arsed decision in my books.

THIS

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"I had to eat"

Yet we outscored them in that time

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"I had to eat"

Bower isn't a shutdown defender. Against Cloke last year, he always played from behind and was caught out on the lead by a bigger opponent. Similar efforts against that spud Jay Neagle in Ratten's only win against Essendon*. Bradshaw used to ragdoll Bower when Jamison was unavailable, so he's not strong enough to take the power KPF. Third tall who should be monstering mediums and smalls to rebound like Harry O'Brien.

Will be cheering for the Saints tonight.

Me too. I understand how you're feeling.
[youtube]PN0XRkSyhwM[/youtube]

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Without having all the information it looked to me like selections were a bit off.

I dont think we needed the extra tall. I would have left watson out and played bower. Again i dont have the info that the coaches have.

I dont believe Henda would have done as much as a forward as Thornton did and have no problem with Henda playing on cloke. He did pretty well. It will also be great for Henda's development as a forward to see how the best do it. See how much he has to run and how strong he has to become. When Waite and Jamo come back CHB will be up for grabs. Bower Henda and THornton all options.

So i would have left watson out and played another running player. Tuohy or Armfield.

We have plenty of scope for improvement and we can certainly improve on todays game in the next month and a half.

Go Blues !

Just don't get the negativity re softness, passengers, lack of fitness, etc - that was a finals-like game played at high intensity with very few possessions uncontested. And I thought in that area we matched them well.

Where we struggled abysmally, as a few have pointed out, was kick-outs. I think it was the most decisive factor between the teams to be honest. For the life of me, I cannot remember us maintaining possession from a kick-out beyond the defensive 50. Breaking even with a boundary throw-in about 60 from their goal was the best we could do today. That says a lot more about strategy and structure (and the poise of the guy kicking it in) than it does about hardness, etc.

Was critical of the decision to keep Henderson down back last week, but thought he actually did pretty well in 1-on-1s when he had a reasonable chance at it. The Pies do kick it very well to Cloke's advantage and you are going to have to cop him getting his half-dozen shots at goal. But we forced him wide and a way out most of the time so that was reasonably well handled.

Agree with criticism of selection, Watson shouldn't have played, he's just not really ready and I don't know what message you are sending to someone like Austin. Would have preferred they start with Bower on and bring Watson on as the sub if they just wanted to give him some experience.

But a lot to like - Duigan, Laidler, Twomey and Garlett's second half were my highlights. Warnock much better but his bodywork in marking contests remains deplorable.

All in all, If we can make it to September in the top 4 - we're a chance - that's what I take away from today. But a bit of work to do to get there.

Take into account that Laidler did a good job on Brown today. Third tall?

How many times did Judd bulldoze the ball forward of the pack into the hands of a waiting filth player? It was like the filth players know our strengths better than we do, it doesn't take a genius to know where Judd is going to direct the ball to from most packs (as demonstrated by the filth players ). The question is why don't our players understand how Judd plays!

So many wasted contested possessions by the captain

Cloke could have kicked 6 goals.

Thornton is a flanker, Henderson is a tall.

When players streaming from half back look forward, one will stand out like a beacon, the other blends in with our other medium forwards like Walker. Thornton played ok given who he had to play on but he doesn't present up the ground like Lachie does. Lachie may not mark it but he recognises when the HBF is @#$%&! about and needs an outlet kick.

Anyway Club, we'll agree to disagree on this one.

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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