The subject says it all really, and before the bleeding hearts call me too negative, too quick to jump to conclusion, its a young team, they are learning, etc., etc, I will simply say that I just spent two hours of my life watching crap, and i won't get that time back.

I expect far more from Carlton teams.

Very dissapointed.

We could have won that game, but we got sucked in, fell off our game plan, and lost the game in the second quarter (same as last week).

I am filthy.

Umpiring was home town to the max, but we did not help ourselves. Let them get easy kicks, and DID NOT TAKE OUR CHANCES.

I am beginning to wonder whether this team has some extremely serious flaws.

Time for me to take some deep, deep breaths, and reassess this year.

We have a long, long way to go.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

The positive is that last year they would have run right over the top of us after half- time..The boys stuck to their task in the 2nd half...Better kicking,who knows?

Umpiring was far from home town. Carlton got their fair share of average decisions their way.

I went to the game, and god Fevola copped it. Had a very off day, and lost to Parker easily.

Any questions about the game, just ask.

I agree we got a good run in the last quarter, Cooney. But by then the game was over.

umpiring is not the issue.

Too little from too many, at crucial times.

Bad decision making, taking the wrong options, indecision at crticial moments, and an inability to take marks in our forward 50, partly beciase of delivery but not entirely, are all far more relevant.

No one incident is worth mentioning, becausa there were too many.

Freemantle are not a great team - Hazelby, Carr, Bell and Pavlich are great, but the rest are just like us, ordinary footballers. They made horrible mistakes, kicking to us from the kick outs, turnovers galore, and we still couldn't beat them.

AND some of the boys started to look disheartened - Skinny for example.

This season is very close to being a shocker. Round 5 with one and half wins, and facing Hawthorn without Fevola and Stevens (I think Fev will get at least 3 and Stevo will plead to 1 'cause it will be all over the sunady shows tomorrow).

It is simply noy good enough.

Pagan should be furious.

So should we all.

Lasts years team would bounce back from this. I wonder what this team is made of.

_________________
"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

thanks for the offer to answer questions - my main question would be Fev - was his body language really that poor? - and the times he was dragged - any specific reasons or just poor form/match ups?

He got dragged once for a 50m penalty that for the life of me I have no idea what it was paid for.

He then got dragged after wrestling with Grover.

Was dragged in the last IIRC - Whitnall also spent time on the bench.

Fev's body language was ok - he had a dirty day but he didn't really drop his head. Set up a nice goal to Whits with good team play - was unselfish.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Surely NOT!? This couldn't be Brendan Fevola we're talking about could it? Parker a (another) player with few games to his name playing on a 'quality' power forward such as our Brendan and Brendan finds it hard to get into the game.

I'll give him this much;

Delivery was poor throughout the day (ankle passes simply don't work) and the forward line did crowd at times - that aside he was quite poor himself at times and really hasn't set the world on fire much in 2005. As Dennis has said countless times now, when things aren't going your way you just can't afford to drop your head like that because the rest of the team see it.

I wonder who might be the subject of a Robert Walls article in the coming weeks because if Pavlich is anything to go by I say bring it on.

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The great are great to us only because we are on our knees. Let us arise.
--Robert Collier

You got to be kiddin? VET last yrs team would have not been more competitive. We have had the same problem since R1 kickin kickin kickin. Fullstop...These boys have no confidence in going for goal and if one misses they all start too.

Second Q has also been our problem for the 5 rounds we seem to disappear for 15-20 mins and put ourselves under a great deal of pressure.

But on the up we played them at there home and lost by 19 and shoulda been less or a win. I dont think that they are that fair away from the competition need a good solid performance for a couple of games.

But gesh these blues are frustratin to listen to hey.

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Can smell the gf its there for the taking we are the form side

My main dissapointment comes from our forward line and yep also delivery into the forward line but

We had TLO / Red / Deluca / Fev / Waite and most of the time it was just so crowded hell we got in there enough but it was just to congested

With that forward line why couldnt we create more space and allow our forwards to have more one on ones. if Freo where crowding the forward line surely some of our players could have found space around the 50 meter arc or get the crowd up at the 50 Meter mark so that we have a one out into the goal square

Our forward line really needs to get it together and not just for the Wizzar cup but for the proper season

I will be more blunt....I thought Freo intimidated us physically and thats saying something becuase Freo are on the whole a soft team.
Medhurst and Farmer are punks and we let them push and shove our blokes and no one did anything. Medhurst needs some physical attention to upset him... a Glen Archer type...when are we going to get it right with him?
Denis had a poor day in the box and the selection comittee got it way wrong....backing up after Port we needed fresh legs ie Betts, Bannister, Simpson...we had too many slow movers for Freo in those conditions.

I'll say this again ..we need a pack marking key forward who can take the heat of Fev...looking for Fev every forward thrust doesnt work especially with lance not being that type of player and having to fill in down back.
Maybe Chris Bryan or promote Sentanta..I dont care just give me a big bodied player with some grunt who make a contest.....Thornton, Parker, Grover etc are about as crap as it gets and we couldnt take a mark down there...cant wait for Fisher to get back either....
Troy Longmuir....not good enough like I said last week no physical presence...
Karl Norman...how big are you 195cm 95Kg plus...start using that size and make a statement...we didnt recruit you to hang out wide on the flanks and look for the easy receive and play like a half back flanker..get in there and give us some grunt.

Thought Andrew Walker went ok..attacked the footy, dispsoal was ok and even though he got caught with the footy at least he was trying to create and do something...nothing to kick to so forced to do it on his own.

Really dissapointed in this game as I thought we would win....it was the wimpy way we went about it that worries me and some of the old ghosts came back to haunt us...lack of pace, lack of grunt and lack of marking power. Without a 10-12 mark a match CHF we are going nowhere...Fev was a idiot gouging Grover but he must be frustrated being the only player apart from Thornton that can look after him self when it gets physical...

Agree Elwood, we looked slow and we needed some people with fresh legs. Simpson, Bannister are two obvious examples. Chambers was poor and Longmuir didn't get it right. Took a great mark but missed the kick - that was crucial.

_________________
"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Plain and simple, we didn't take our opportunities.

We kicked 18 behinds and 2.6 in the third quarter when we dominated. More generally when we're on top we don't put sides away, there's no killer instinct with our team and it's costing us dearly.

I've rarely seen such a frustrating quarter of footy as the third one. We can talk about fresh legs and whatever else but too often these days we're shooting ourselves in the foot when we've actually got the ball and it drives you insane. We have to learn to punish teams when we've got the momentum because other teams sure rub our noses in it when they're in control.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

Fevola's body language was quite poor, but understandable. You could tell he was frustrated, by the crowd and the midfield.

Fev really needs delivery from the midfield, but Freo applied a lot of pressure. The thing that makes him one of the better players is his second efforts, runs hard and chases. From what I saw, the main players who struggled were.

Carrazzo - Is he that #44 with the big head? Got eaten alive by Medhurst, and by Farmer who was very close to BOG.
Big Red - Shouldn't have been on Pavlich. Not quick enough to stop his lead, looked slugish.
Kouta - Went totally missing for most of the game. I didn't realise he was playing until the second half. Was he injured? Not his best effort, and really needed to lift in the second quarter when it was there to be won.
Thornton - He struggled, but I understand he was injured. Medhurst was too quick.
French - Was good around the ground, but was well beaten by Longmuir in the ruck. Got the majority of his hit outs against Johnson. Good effort everywhere apart from the hit outs.

Davies, Chambers and Bowyer didn't have much game time, so they had limited impact.

The guys who cut you up were Farmer, Medhurst, Pavlich, Longmuir and Matt Carr. Whoever was on Josh Carr did a very good job.

Port's poor kicking from last week rubbed off.

All the same, how much were we crying out for a crumber. The ball fell off hands in our forward line a helluva lot today, when we actually got it in there. Not a soul there to mop up.

Disagree with the comment that Freo are on the whole a soft team. I think their tackling last year was very strong, and though this is the first game of any sort I've seen this year, it really looked impressive today.

To be honest, I'd pencilled Port and Freo in as our first 2 losses of the season.

Sadly I'd inked in winds against the roos, bummers and filth...

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Congratulations CK95

Josh Carr was off the ground a fair bit..maybe not fully fit. No one went near Matthew Carr all day...ditto for Bell after half time...its not like its any secret who Freo's best players are..we just dont seem to have the players on our list to handle Medhurst, Farmer etc...they are too slick for our taller defenders and outmark the smaller ones...

Mind you, half of Bell and Carr's touches were fairly non-damaging.

Needed the likes of Stevens and Kouta to stand up.

I agree i'm sick of tired watching Professional Footballers getting paid good money and kicking points,doing stupid things on the field.Those usless flowers wasted most of my day again that i won't get back.I dont think i'll watch the game against the Hawks they probably lose that if i watch it ,so it will spoil my night, they might win it if i dont give a shit.
Lets give Fevola $1 million a season and Whitnall $2 million they play like they earn that

Agreed Elwood

Lance is NOT the answer at CHF

Until we get a gun CHF, we'll be going no where

We need a big, tall, strong, fierce competitor who will force a contest and keep the ball trapped in our forward 50. Anyone on our rookie list that might fit that description?