norf ran away bcos at that moment we were at 153 defensive pressure for the game. mids weren't running hard or pressuring, we were turning it over exiting our back 50 and our defense with durdin was horrible.

you cannot win an afl game at 153, fullstop. and norf's record in melbourne is actually not too bad, as in they're competitive.


pittonet isn't versatile enough to play 2nd ruck. if he's not rucking, he's on the bench. and we're down a bench spot for an entire game. again, you can't win afl games like that, as our losing record with tdk and pittonet reflect.


we're 10-1 on the season with 1 ruck. 1 ruck and harry is plenty serviceable as backup. and when pittonet plays, he needs to be the only ruck in the team. tdk isn't good enough to play forward and share the ruck. so, if tdk isn't fit enough to run out a game (as voss alluded to, as to the only reason why pittonet was selected lately), he sits

there's a whole other thread for this anyway ... i'm done talking about it.

i get the feeling we're just falling over the line and waiting for finals.

they look tired, and look ready for the season to end, and for the proper season to start. but, for that to happen, they have to finish 2nd on the ladder ... lots of tired and sore bodies out there.

imo the afl season is about a month - or 4 fixtures, too long

Becoming a true Clarkson team, knees dropping into opponents left and right.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Team selection is a big thing in the last few weeks. First Durdin was injured then he is in. Kemp did not need to be dropped right now while McGovern is out.

Cerra has been down but he is playing down back? Our midfield has been poor. Try someone in there. Cinc ??

Happy for Cottrell as has he started to find some ball last night, but if Hewitt had played last few games, i reckon we had a better chance of winning those games. He was really good last night and another big body to help Cripps.

And we do need another ruck, but not Pittonet. We need another athletic moving ruckman to pair with TDK.

Young should have played over Durdin. Durdin is slow and lost out there. And young can play second ruck too.

Voss's pattern is too chuck in Marchbank, Fantasia or Cunners at every opportunity and drop Kemp, or Owies to sub.

Why do we wreck good form with names? It upset the balance by getting the troops back in.

Kennedy needs a position, as he is either out of form or lost out there.

We need to work it out in next 5 games. Neither of them will be easy despite what the media think about easy draw.

Nothing to do with the game itself but was so weird to see so many neutrals at the game in their gear.
Just near me there was a bloke directly in front wearing a Collingwood beanie, a kid in a Hawk's scarf, a bloke in the next bay in his Richmond guernsey and a bloke on the way out in a Crows beanie. Then on the way home there was a family at Wallan Maccas who were all in Carlton gear except for the one kid wearing a GWS guernsey.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

TDK was a foot injury I believe, got stomped on. They really are. Lots of dirty stuff all game.

Walsh needs a freshen up. Id say his back is playing up.

Team looked tired with only sporadic bursts of energy. I reckon they are putting in some hard yards on the track to make sure they are primed for September. I would be disappointed if they arn't.

I saw a woman who was full kit wanker in Bommerz gear.

I'll reiterate: we would be reigning premiers if Owies had played prelim. v Brisbane.

How you leave out the third highest goal scorer for the year still does my effing head in.

When we were wasting forward entries in that 1st quarter he would have drifted into space to capitalise.

Absolutely essential inclusion in our forward line - yesterday proved it again.

3rd highest scorer for Carlton again this year.

Oh, and kicks straight: 26-11

(and only 2 goals less than Lions 'essentials' Charlie Cameron and Eric Hipwood)

Walsh was given the Clarkson treatment all game. "Some extra love from the North player" was how the boundary rider described what was being dished out.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Heavy training loads?

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

We need a fresh fitness group for next year. Whether we like Russell or not. Every year we have heaps of injuries and we limp into the end of the season looking very tired.

Imagine what a fit and strong Carlton will do in the finals.

Change is necessary.

We were very fit and strong in the back half of last year, but because we had to go at full tilt just to make finals, we weren't able to build towards a September peak. It may be wishful thinking that our current dip is due to such a plan, but I'm going to withhold judgement until it plays out.

Sometimes you just have to grind wins out and we did that yesterday.

We will finish Top 4, but with 5 Non-Vic team in Top 7, finishing Top 2 is Key.

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Go Blues

A wins a win. At this stage of the season that is all we need.

GO BLUES!

Agree 100%, I'd rather play in Sydney than Brisbane if it comes down to that.

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world

North pushed ahead in the first half because we allowed them too much easy territory with their possession.
We refused to apply sufficient pressure to the ball carrier and allowed them to chip the ball up the ground. Centre clearances were 7-7 at half time and hitouts to advantage were actually in our favour.

The obvious discrepancy was uncontested marks and marks. North had 52 uncontested marks to our 24 at half time. We were poor with our zoning and too many players were content to give them space.
We reduced their uncontested marks to 16 in the 3rd quarter by being more accountable to an opponent and forcing them to kick down the line more. Get the ball back into a contest and we minimised their inside 50's and started to give our forwards more opportunities. Hardball gets 10-4 in our favour after being even at half time.
Any team can play well if you let them have the game on their own terms. Pressure and contest as Vossy continually says are our strengths.
If we don't bring them, forget finals success.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Our pressure lately is not there
Clearly Weitering DeKoning and a few others are banged up
We might be a top 2 team via the ladder but are miles off a top 4 team

I went to the game, take the 4 points and move on.
We clearly are not playing as we were about a month or so ago.
After hearing news about TDK what a courageous effort it was from him.
Carroll played well.
Thank goodness we won. Having to catch the tram home because of bus replacements on my line would have made the trip much worse. Crammed into a packed tram and taking forever would have sucked if we had lost.
Is there an unwritten rule that every time Walsh is tackled he is paid holding the ball against him?

I drove to Coburg & got the train from there

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#DonTheStash