One of the most pleasing developments in an ordinary season has been the progress made by Rowe. Aside from the second quarter against the brute that is Hawkins last week, he has been terrific in a purely defensive sense. A little slow to process what is happening around him and not the best user of the footy, but he has been doing a very good job for us overall. I am pleasantly surprised with how he's going.

On another note, did anyone else go to the game? Crowd was a poor 49k and the majority were Hawthorn fans. I know that Carlton fans are pretty fickle but they really do seem to have dropped off.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

Cool, the guy is a gun .... In the backyard with no pressure. Unfortunately for him AFL is played under the spotlight. He can take some Zoloft and flower off to some b grade country league ...

I actually think it's a bit of both but more lack of top liners. It's the A grade talent we really lack. Same against Geelong and why we are failing to finish off games.

People blame our fitness. I think that's way off base.

We are giving our all but in the end we come up short. It's hard on a team when you work hard to get the ball and continually turn it over. We turn the ball over too much and we lack quality ball use and decision making. Looked to me like we can win the ball well enough but butcher it.

The addition of Judd last night showed it. Passed his best but still a class above. Just does things right and made a massive difference to our side. As I have said before the addition of 3-4 "class" players and it can turn quickly.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

regarding watson he has to play the rest of the year he really got throwing into the deep end.We have to give him chance to redeem himself.

I agree with Psych re our top end talent.

Judd (AFL Royalty and Carltons best player by a long stretch)


Gibbs (High B and becoming an A grader who needs to keep stringing good games in the midfield)

Yarran...(is up and coming and with a better engine will become an A grader)

Simmo...(who looked ordinary last night, but we know his game is an A grade game IF given no respect and plenty of space)

Jamison ...(apart from weak shoulders, he's an A grade FB who can compete with any FF in the game).






Murphy...(no where near his B&F 2011 form when he took over from Judd...he's a B Grader who couldnt force his will on the game....where is the class?)

So really its Judd, Yarran and Gibbs as the class players who can make a difference to our team effort. Without them and relying on Murphy and the rest of our mob to win a game is suicide. WTF has happened to the old Murphy? 2 good games this year. That's it!

Watson should be played again. I dont buy the nerves issue as an excuese, but more of a reason. Its his character.
We need to seee more becasue I thought he could bring something to the team. On last night's performance he's finished...so lest see if he can make ammends and if he really is a VFL player.

Good effort by the boys...I really thought we'd win it with Lake Gibson Mitchell Stratton and then Gunston out too, but the Hawks did come out to play.

MacLean and Carrazzo are a liability.
Docherty needs to fix up his engine.

IMO we have 11 good players as our core and the rest need to be improved by development or replacement.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

..oh yeah, special thanks to robbo, army and white for bringing back some much needed mongrel..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

Good point.

Loved Robbo having several goes at their dirty old fashioned thug of a captain...I wish we had him on our team.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Robbo was great. Looked more settled, less crazy too.

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

The biggest problem last night was ball awareness.

How many times did the ball come in and he was in a pack or against a single player and the ball spilled free and the other players turned towards the ball except Watson who continually found himself looking for it 180 degrees from where it was.

Hard to teach that stuff.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Casboult & Rowe bring some much needed physicality as well. Makes a difference.

In regards to top end talent imagine if we had 2 players like Selwood & Pendlebury in our line up. Not only ball winners and class but it allows Murphy, Gibbs, Yarran etc. to be the second level players and as such would play a lot better and with freedom. All of a sudden your depth looks so much better and there is less pressure on the kids to perform straight up.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

Good point re Caboult and Rowe...both show a bit of mongrel and hardness.

Re the selwood pendlebury inclusions....I agree but it just shows that Murphy is not elite...I'd have him as a high B grader. Gibbs can be A grade.

Shows we are a couple of class players behind. Yarran can step up with a good preseason and then we need to import another 2 mids who can win their own ball.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

It felt like an away game last night. Hardly any Carlton supporters there again. I know we are a bit disillusioned with the club right now but i turn up every week. Each to their own but i will always go along and support them.

I don't think Gibbs, Murphy or Yarran will ever be what I call "elite". Players like Ablett, Pendlebury, Selwood, Fyfe, Dangerfield are those types IMO.

Elite players can dominate and make the A and B graders look so much better.

Murphy, I believe is a bit like Cotchin. Both very good players but struggle under the weight of having to carry a side. If all of sudden they are the number 3 or 4 midfielders they will thrive. It's the reason I rate Judd so highly. IMO he has made an average side look better than it was for several years.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

BINGO.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Agree need some more A grade talent but last 2 weeks have been heartening in terms of not winning but showing with a bit more talent we could match the better sides

Need another good off season like last one get some decent players from other clubs like Docherty Everett and Thomas as well as early draft picks and hopefully one of those turns out to be a gun

Sick of people over the last 24 hours talking about hawthorn injuries -yes they have some but last night
We didn't have Jamison Henderson Kreuzer Buckley Curnow all in our best 22
Ellard also is injured

About time we beat this mob and one key criteria for next year is to beat them

..hard to teach sure, but plenty of players look to have none as they adjust to the tempo, case in point Rowe.. ..see how much more composed he is becoming, was worse than watto for awareness when you factor in how mud more experienced he is, watto settled as the game wore on, it took Rowe a month to settle..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

no way is dangerfield elite

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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.

I think it was their replacement home game, the ones against us usually are.

Yes, it was. We were still badly outnumbered, only 49,000 there and we would have been lucky if 15,000 were our supporters.

Half volleys are the hardest to pickup cleanly but appear to be our favored method of delivering the ball.

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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