Laidler to miss 2-3 weeks with slight medial strain.

Terrible game. For us to play that poorly and still win by so much says more about Melbourne than ourselves.

A few comments on players:

Brock - I can't see how he gets a game. Slow by foot, hand and brain. A waste of space. Ratts - we forgive you for giving up a first round pick for a dud - just move on and give a talented kid a go, instead of trying to justify his trade.
Carrots - had a shocker & you could see that he knew it. High turnover rate but doesn't play that badly very often.
Robbo - Got it 30 times & butchered half of them - but love his effort & he will get better.
Murphy - all class
Judd - all class
Gibbs - his current role is just what he needs because he can be a bit lazy when left to his own devices. Had a good game.
Ellard - poor kicking again - get used to it.
Laidler - was very good until injured. Has been a very good pick up.
Jamo - another good game.
Thornton - did OK
Hammer - Rucked quite well and won the hit outs with ridiculous ease at times. I taped the game & watched his marking attempts in slow motion. He has no idea. At one stage he tried to grab the ball like a closing clamp and didn't even touch it. If this guy doesn't get 500 balls a week, every week, rammed down his throat, what are our coaches getting paid for ? Is anyone teaching him marking technique ? He doesn't even get his hands in the right position.
Scotland - poor game by his standards, but not the worst.
Simmo - as above.
Waite - always competes. Has to stay forward because he is our only reliable marking target up front.

I wouldnt say Scotland was anywhere near poor at all - he just didn't have to standout, and didnt. Hardly called on to be desperate and sop didnt have a natural highlight. Still got a lot of the ball and serviceable.

If the game is a scrag and we only really notice the highlights (Judd's pickup, some of our goals) and some of the lowlights (dropped marks). Sitting in between in a game like that is no shame.

Conditions didn't help but I get a bit frustrated at the Blues trying to manage these <10% chances in the forward entries, even when the ball is in yarran's hands. Further there were at least 3 times in that quarter where they tried <10% chances deep in the pocket making it even harder to score unless a Garlett can extract it. Given our forward structure and extra men in defence by our opposition often a better option is to kick in to space or in front of someone to let a forward run on to it. I dont think we're up to taking these extreme odds of this workburners.

The return of Houlihan could help these odds but we're still trying too hard at times.

attended the dour affair with the old man for once.
Solid 47 point win without anything outstanding

I may get shot down for this, but IMO young Jeffy G seems to me to worry a little too much about himself rather than the team. He seems to want to do the flashy stuff too often, rather than the team thing. And that squib in the forward pocket was, dare i say it, Davey like!

Im still in awe of our oldest bloke, Scotty. That bloke is a star and would start in most teams right now. Left or right foot, pressure or no pressure, forward back or in the guts. Very underated IMO

Judd - enough said.

Top 4 - Balls in our court, win the games that we should win and its ours.

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i AM CARLTON

That's unfair on jeffy and incorrect. I want him to be mire selfish actually and not look to pass off the ball in the f50. What games have you been watching?

more selfish like the Essendon* game??
doesn't get much more selfish than that

more selfish than the squib?
more concerned about coming off the ground bruise free than doing what the team requires him to do, did u see the spoil attempt on rivers also? no body contact at all. Ran around rivers to avoid contact hence letting rivers take an easy grab and goal

It's not incorrect and its not unfair. Its been there for all to see, some would just prefer to turn a blind eye

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i AM CARLTON

Diesal, your criticism of garlett is just unbelievable. He is a great tackler, one of the best. He is a clever footballer and rightly so hangs back to swoop on the ball when he assesses it will come free.

He is a great mark for his size and does often gets His hands dirty.

His roving Is first class. They can't all crash and bash in to get the ball.

What else do you want him to do?

Every player at some stage appears to squib a contest, but sometimes it just looks like it.

Drewgarl, it may seem unbelievable to you but its true.
Every player can tackle, because they know what they are tackling and can see what is coming.
Not every player can mark a ball that is passed to them when they don't know whats coming, ie. JG on Friday night.
Jeffy couldn't lay body in a defensive marking contest.
He couldn't do the team orientated things like run the clock down, or go when its his turn to go.

I love jeffy screaming down the wing all alone or chasing someone down from behind. What i don't like is him running under a marking contest for fear of whats coming and turning the ball over, when the midfield has just busted a nut to get it down there and find a target inside fifty.

There are couple of things he really needs to work on to go to the next level. Doing whatever the team requires is one of them, not simply doing what is best for JG

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i AM CARLTON

wasnt there an article a cpl of weeks ago that mentioned he was leading the comp in pressure acts inside forward 50?
must do that all for jeffy hey?

not sure what he was meant to do with the rivers mark. i am pretty sure rivers was someone elses opponent for most of the night and all garlett was doing was trying to cover and ran 150m to do so.

i dont care who's opponent rivers was, or how far he ran to get there, that is not my point. Jeffy got to the contest easily and then ran around the contest.

He needed to jump into rivers with his eyes on the ball and effect a spoil, not a half assed attempt

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i AM CARLTON

Garlett was doing the team thing trying to cover Rivers for Waite. Probably the first time in his life he has found himself in the back fifty trying to defend one on one. A learning experience.

No chance playing on in the last against Essendon* was about him being selfish. He just made an error in judgement. Showed some inexperience but it wasnt selfish.

He squibed it the other night. He should be told about that and i am sure he will be.

Thanks for the reply Clubby, and finally a sensible one.
The Fletcher incident IMO was selfish, it seems he wanted to play on and look flashy and kick the goal, whereas 80k supporters, players and coaches knew the situation and he should've gone back and iced the game. Its selfish in the sense that he put himself first, not the team.

I also understand the awkward spot defending rivers and the fact that it wasnt his man, but he had to lay some body contact at minimum

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i AM CARLTON

i think you are being over critical. at 21 and 74kg he hardly has the maturity or strength to physically impose himself. the incident v Essendon* was an error in judgement. at the minute he is in the team to kick goals and keep the ball inside 50 by applying forward pressure. he does both very well.

Our kicking inside 50 in the first quarter was awful. However we found avenues to goal and ground out a win and were patient and kept at the contest and on top of the contest.

I liked Setanta's game. He went really well. He's a bit like Travis Cloke. Can be a bit hit and miss with his kicking but has improved it and can take a contested mark inside and is not bad at ground level either.

Nine times out of ten when our blokes try and do the unselfish thing and pass off to someone else after marking in the forward 50 they @#$%&! it up!

Things are looking good if Garlett taking the game on against Essendon* and attempting to cover for teammates (albeit ineffectually) are negatives.

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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

Garlett is not a natural "body contact " player, probably because he's never had to bother. He can probably count on one hand the number of times he's been in a crunch in his entire football career.

Whatever your concerns are you just need to realise he's

a) improved 100% on his involvement in the contest in comparison to when he arrived. So the improvement is likely to continue.

b) much of his game involves him just spoiling enough for the ball to hit the deck and he maintains his feet. Jeff's danger to opposition teams is when the ball is on the deck.

c) He's still 10 x's more courageous than Didak.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

The problem for Garlett wasn't the ineffectual spoil, it was the lead up play when he was on River's shoulder almost and then let him run uncontested into the 50 while Garlett was jogging. He only ran to "spoil" when the kick was made. Too late by then. He'll have to be better than that.
It doesn't matter whose man that is, you don't watch anyone run unopposed into their F50. He's there, he's responsible for him.

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T E A M