Pro : revealing that certain gameplans make us extremely vunerable. Coaching staff need to recognise this and come up with an alternative ASAP.
Cons : This loss puts us in an extremely precarious position with Freo next week.

PROS None...

CONS Robbo's diabolical kicking
Lucas' marking effort, or non effort in the third
Gibbs having the opportunity to contest the ball or stand back and wait till the Bomber had it and then tackle. He did the latter and the Dons cleared the ball
Not using Gibbs more decisively. He has sublime skill but he needs to be much more than a neat distributor loping around by himself in defence. He needs to be the third guy the oppo has nightmares about in our midfield. Needs to be using his great skill to get the ball in contests
Selection of McLean, smacked of arrogance and self justification, not his fault but he is slower than Percy Jones. One of our worst recruitment blunders of an established player, up there in the pantheon with Davenport, Mansfield, O'Reilly, McGuane - a real 1990s stuff up. How come every Melb supporter knew the game had passed him by and not us, did we watch him at all before we gave up a first rounder?
Duigs has great character but sides have had a year to watch him and won't allow him to sag off, they will isolate him. How can a third rater like Alwyn Davey cut us up?
If Crameri had not missed 4 sitters in the first half he would have got 9, and could have had ten. Who the hell is Crameri? How will we go against the good power forwards?
If we don't dominate the middle we look short down back and up forward
Not enough flexibility or imagination in the box
All of us would rate the Dons way behind us in talent and development, yet we were heading for a thrashing before they eased up in the last 15 minutes
Why can't our coaching staff get consistency of effort. Are we a top side, a premiership contender, or a flat track bully?
We can't afford to drop games to lesser sides
Our performance ag sides like Freeoo and Nth, way behind us in talent, will tell us where we are
Who pulls us out of the mire apart from Juddy and Murph
Not a lot to bring in except Walks who is way underdone and needs VFL games
Our early draft picks apart from the early gimmes over the last 6 years looking a bit dodgy. We've lost Grigg (who wasn't that good) JR, Bower, Hammo Lucas need to keep improving as none of them have established themselves yet. Out of 5 picks in the first 20 you'd want several good players and at least one star. How long before one of these guys really emerges and at least stamps himself as a certain selection, let alone a real good player.
Supporters need to harden up. Those of us who well remember the really great Carlton sides know that the sort of rubbish we dealt yesterday should be criticised and not excused. Tell them they are good when they are, not when they are not. No excuses!

no pros in a loss like this

cons

- did not deal with their extra number back in defence.
- did not deal with their pressure. cant believe i am writing we didnt deal with essendons pressure ffs. their tactics early (see that dirty @#$%&! lonergan) were clear.
- we let stanton run around and do as he pleased.
- got smashed in the rucks
- injuries
- as per usual came out as flat as tacks in a game against Essendon* we were meant to win

just as a side note the afl need to look at lonergans tackle & one or 2 others where murphy and simpson were raped. that shit is not on.

We suddenly can't handle the power forwards yet we beat two power forwards last week.

We certainly lose some perspective when we lose games against this team.

Last week were champions and truck full of supporters thought this game was going to be a stroll in the park. Supporters got ahead of themselves and so did the players.

Learn frOm your mistakes and move on FFS

Actually... people are pissed off cos they should be behind us.. not ahead of us.
And at some point .. we all know if were going to be a good team. these are the games we MUST win.

We have fallen back to the pack again..

And thats the problem.

Thats the perspective you must get.

_________________
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.

Good lord you are a drama queen. In round 4 they are ahead of us.

Scary to think that all our pre season planning has come to this that the scum are above us on the ladder in round 4.

Players are tweeting when they should be drowning themselves In the shame they have placed us in.

Juanita .. you dont improve by doing the same things perpetually that you did before

Tell me if you thought thats a game we should have dropped Juanita???

Was that satisfactory?
One of our problems is were ok... but we cant take the next step when we must...

Some games are musts..!!!

That Essendon* managed to knock us off with an inferior list .. and be 4 and zero is a credit to them.. !!!
Thats the truth!!!

Try analysing what were doing and dont worry about me .. pointing out stuff for anyone who is interested.
If youre not. simply ignore, Juanita...surely you cant be that sensitive ....



I know youre a "she will be right kind of girl , Juanita"... but we not all like that

_________________
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.

Synbad might be a drama queen but he is right. We should not accept this. Enough is Enough.
Do we want to become a professional unit again? Do we want to become feared and respected?
Well these are the games you stamp yourself as such a unit and time after time we fail. Make excuses if it makes you feel better but I certaintly won't be sucked into that. We need to get our structure and heads right to combat these circumstances.
Essendon* bullied us - Essendon* - Hawthorn & WC will do that 2 fold!

Oh and Juanita...
Footy is psychology.. and momentum.

We lost the momentum and right now.. its abit like shark burly
Where clubs were beginning to fear us.. a lesser team bowling us over that easily gives hope to any club to pick us off...

Thats why Geelong are hard to beat...

Teams doubt themselves

Like we will be again now... players ride waves of confidence.. alot of players woke up this morning doubting themselves

Back to square one...

They lose the game before the game begins.

Its the other game.. the one in the heads...

Its the one we dont excel in...

But unless you get that right... youre ot going to win a flag..

_________________
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.

the way you disappear after wins and reappear after losses is painful but i agree with everything you say.

i am sick to @#$%&! death of losing games against this mob when were not meant to. im sucking to @#$%&! death of looking back after 22 rounds and saying games like this cost us a top 4 spot and a shot at the flag.

its about the psychology of being a bone fide flag threat.. every club would again look at us as beatable..

We lost to a team we should beat!!!

Now its not about lsing its how we lose.

Were hunted again....!!!

doofdoof..

I dont get to wrapped up in beating low teams or teams like Collingwood in same position as us... every team will fancy themselves against Collingwood.. like Port last night..

The difference is Collingwood have won something recently.

We have proved jack!!!

And when i choose to post my thoughts should have no bearing on you!!!

Its not pathetic when i post but it is pathetic youre keeping my timetable.. it says more about you than about me.!!!

_________________
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.

Pro's
Kreuzers marking
Waites marking

Con's
Looked too slow
Outcoached
Goal kicking all day was woeful but especially in that third term it really hurt us

_________________
"You're not gonna believe this. The guy killed 16 czechoslovakians. He was an interior decorator."

"His house looked like shit!"

hurt them too!!!.. more id say.. if you check out the goal score

_________________
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.

Throwing the baby out with the bathwater in that post Gerry. Loads of reactive comments that ignore the play of the previous 3 games.

We got done. Blokes who have been playing well played crap. Gibbs being one. He dominated the HBline in the first 3 rounds and helped set up big wins for us. The coaches had every right to play him there again and expect his best.
We were not in the Dons face defensively and our attack lacked the pace and bite of the previous weeks. Lost clearances and contested ball. Flat as tacks.

We need to get back to the ruthless, hunting in packs style we displayed in the first 3 rounds.

We can get the ship back on track just the like the great carlton side of 95 did after 2 big losses or the Blues or the Blues of 82 after getting flogged by the tigers in the semi's.

Bit harsh on Lucas - he struggled with injury last two years and he's played about 15 senior games.

Pros:

Geelong lost to Essendon* last year when they were red hot favorites didn't seem to effect there year and there supports didn't cry the sky is falling.

Murphy, Judd and simmo tried all day

Hendo our best defender by far.

Waite our best marking forward by far.

Cons

Struggle against the flood.

Jamo seems lost when he doesn't have a job for the day. Can't play him forward when he doesn't have a good kick for goal.

We were beaten in the ruck.

Injury to carrots left us short with a tagger to stop either Stanton or Watson

Game plan should have had a lose man in defense that stayed in the defensive fifty. They must of got 6 or seven goals just kicking in to space in side our fifty our players were chasing tail.

Let's be honest, we played like crap and should have lost by more.
You can't be expected to win every game but should win the ones you are expected too, especially after the great effort last week.
Have we grown compared to Collingwood or have they actually gone backwards?
We play a fast and hard brand of footy when we are focused but I still think we are weak mentally and quite easerly pushed around physically.
The most important is, we need to get nastier.
If this does not improve and improve quickly it will be another wasted year.
Can we match it with the best teams? Yes and No.
We can, but we need to improve that 5% to go ahead of them.
What we lacked this week from last was of course intensity and a sense of teamwork.
Last week I was pleasantly surprised we the shepherding, the gang tackles and knocks and taps to advantage.
That’s how you play and win as a team.
Yesterday we averted back to not chasing and running off for the easy possie.
Can we win against Freo? Bloody oath, but that depends on our mental strength and our ability to be more team orientated.
What we also need to do is win the centre clearances and the big part is our ruckmen who were badly beaten and our forward marking and kicking.
I also believe Waite needs to be within scoring distance most of the time to hurt the opposition or at least Hampson/ Kreuzer doing what they did in the first three rounds.
Three and one is still a reasonable start but that kind of loss hurts.

does anyone else here think we are better with Thornton in the team? I think he is a better switch man than Jamo, who seems to have taken his role. Give Jamo a role as stated above and use Thornton like the first 2 weeks. Means Bower would go though I suppose? Too many tall defenders, and lack of a tall switch player?

In order to satisfy some on this site.....i'm calling out the fact that i have not posted for a while. Now that thats out of the way here are my P&C's

Pros:
- Reinforcement that our list needs to run deeper than it does and we potentially may have time to identify those capable and focus on fast tracking their development. See below.
- Genuine ruckman needs to play week in and out in our team. Warnock has to come back in.

Cons:
- Gibbs yet again has not been able to make a statement and inspire us when the chips are down
- Bombers $7 and i did not get on.


Which of these will make up the last 6 in our team:

Bower, Brock, Curnow, Ellard, Hampson, T-Bird, Collins, Davies, AJ, JR, White

Pros: Another game into the younger brigade.

Cons: Most have been mentioned already but:

Ratts allowed Fletcher to roam free across the half back line for four quarters. Last year he put Mitch on him and shut him down. They marked everything inside both F50s.
Fwd line too small. Sooner or later we will have to put another tall forward in the team. Waite took 13 marks last night (most of them outside 50) and the rest got zip between them. Hampson had NO influence on the game at all and IIR too one mark inside 50 when we usually insisted on kicking high to Betts and Garlett, both of whom had taller players on them.
Essendon*'s intent. I thought after the Carazzo tackle and one on Murphy by Ryder shortly after, that they set out deliberately to injure our players by riding them into the ground from behind. Match that up with a few 'sling' tackles and it speaks for itself. If the AFL doesn't do something about this and nip it in the bud, every decent player in the comp will be wearing a sling inside a month. Gutless act by both those dogs.
My brother sent me a message on Skype. 'na na na na na na". He isn't interested in the footy and can't name the Essendon* captain. he just did it to wind me up. It worked.
They still have the wood on us after 40 years of doing it when we least expect it.

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