I suspect if Carlton had won by 20 goals, you would have still thought it a disgraceful coaching performance. I think we get it. You don't like MM.

Where is the actual match day discussion thread? I can't seem to find it.

Arrived back at the hotel last night and my wife told me we'd won by 5 points. I literally jumped for joy, then she tells me we lost by 5....

Anyone who thinks we'll win a flag with this side is full of it.

Mind you, anyone who thinks the Bombers will win a flag with their current side is also full of shit.

The standard of the game on Friday night was another example of how far off both sides are from the likes of Hawthorn, Sydney, Geelong, etc.

can anyone tell me why gibbs still gets games getting cheap kicks and handballs and never puts his body on the line number one draft pick must have been a very poor year what ever he is getting he is over paid

Could have,should have.But didnt.....................beauty is we have next week as a statement game.Hawks are good,but not that good.Not deflated one bit myself.All these close losses just tell's me we are getting closer.Its gunna click real soon,and for mine no better time than the Hawks.

PS............i can honestly say the only time i have been totally disgusted was our effort against the Saints.That was pathetic alround.But other than that we have shown glimpses.Lots of players have improved individually,just havent gelled as a team.Reckon its just around the corner.I feel our second half of the year is gunna be a big improvement on our first half..................effen hell guys,talk about list cloggers,holly shit,we had them in premiership years.Lists are continually evolving.

can anyone tell me my hendo didnt kick over yarrans head so he could run on to it we might have footballers but no brains

Can't blame MM for that. At some stage the players have to be made accountable.

Did you see Sydney yesterday? Bloody Hell was it impressive.

Numbers, gut running, support, skill, adherence to gameplan and an amazing workrate. Guys like White, Everitt, Morton slot in and just play their role.

IMO that's the standard we must look to as a minimum.

How many of our players would get a game in that side?

Can one of the stats gurus confirm our win loss ratio for close games ( under 10 point margins) over the last 5 seasons? I can remember beating Crows by a goal and Saints by 3 points in 2011 and Freo in a close one over there last year but that's it. Losses in that range must be close to a dozen..

Hard to be critical but in first quarter Murphy should have had a ping for goal instead of the poor short pass. As a leader he needed to back himself and kick the goal we needed. 40m on a so so angle he should have had a shot

2009 onward Carlton have won 5 games by less than 10 points and lost 13 by less than 10 points.

2013 3 losses
2012 2 wins
2011 2 wins, 2 losses
2010 3 losses
2009 1 win, 5 losses

hendo's kick not the problem - he was under pressure - it was yarran's pathetic, gutless non-effort that allowed winderlich to mark uncontested that lost us the game. and it wasn't the first time in that quarter (or a number of other occasions for that matter) that yarran failed to contest a mark.

shit if he had one hundredth of the courage of heppel in contested marking he would have taken that ball.

and then there was the failure of anyone to run past white on the mark, etc etc, how the hell did Essendon* run into open goals in that last quarter - but yarran's was the worst

So left the game last reflecting, apart from being in semi shock as we've come to expect this sort of result from our team over the past 4 to 5 years.

Here goes:
We have players who are mentally weak.
We have players who are not fit enough to play the modern game for all 120 minutes.
We have an abundance of players who cannot kick accurately, thus costing us many games - this comes to lack of technique and poor recruiting criteria.
We have players who "sleep with the lights on at night" in big games.
We don't have an effective F50 entry system - this has been non existent since the halcyon days in the mid to late 90's.
This list will definitely not take us to no.17, let alone make any impact, in the remote chance, we make finals this year.
We have some players who are improving at a good rate - eg. Casboult, Cachia

What this means:
Biggest list overhaul in recent years required - PLAYERS THAT CAN HIT A TARGET and KICK BETWEEN THE BIG STICKS - one of the key criteria
Mentally and physically tough players - bring in some extroverts FFS.
Trade/draft using a 'moneyball' philosophy - players that can kick but are not getting games at other clubs - eg. like Scotland

Was in semi shock from the result, but supporting this MEDIOCRE team - at BEST - is getting boring.