I personally think our midfield is ace and our defence is coming along nicely. I think the one area we need to improve is forward options. Fevola and Kreuzer are awesome and Kreuzer should be played there permanently. But I feel we need one or two more options to really make our list complete. I do not rate Fisher that highly, and would rather Waite play forward. But what I really feel we lack is a medium forward type in the medhurst/williams/akermanis type role.

Where do you think this can come from?

At least for this week, we should release Waite to HF with a license to roam to the wings and centre. Draw out the filths defenders and create some space. We need to make the players that drop back in front of Fev accountable and punish them. If they insist on sitting in front of Fev then use our spares. Fisher needs to keep roaming far and wide but I would like Waite on that line as well to add more of an X factor. He showed against port how dangerous he is going forward

More into the future, I really hope Hartlett steps up. It seems unlikely but he has the dimensions

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C'mon Blueboys!

That's what I never quite understand. If they have 3 or 4 on Fev, that means we should have 2 or 3 who do not have an opponent. In the spirit of tourism Australia (which seems dead anyway...) WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA???

Absolutely! Seems we just keep the same numbers in our back half when we could be using these free players around HF
Well, maybe in theory it seems good

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C'mon Blueboys!

I think we can agree that whilst we have loose players who have opponents manning up on Fev, our midfielders are not kicking it to our loose man.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

The spares are pushing up the ground and out wide to try and take their opponents away from fev. They dont leave though they just sag off because they know we will go to fev in the end.

Sitting a tall in behind Fev like we did in 4th qtr is the way to go.
Fev has to accept that 2 in 5 inside 50's are going in long. Fev has to accept that other blues are going to fly for the same balls he is flying for.

In the end it will make fev more dangerous.

Fev pushing up to HF and Kreuzer deep in the goalsquare sounds good to me but they have to learn not to get in each others way like Brown and Bradshaw do so well.

Like iv said heaps of times before...we need to develop (or recruit) a class medium forward who are good at ground level and also in the air. Right now we only have talls and a 'small' (Eddie Betts).

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Carlton Premiers '10

..and Pfeiffer

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

If Russell can become the hard working, tackling forward and Pfeiffer can become a classy forward who is clean and good at finishing by kicking goals we've got something going to compliment Kreuzer, Fev, Fisher and Betts.

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Carlton Premiers '10

At the moment our best bet is to have Kruezer & Hampson changing out of the square. Fev being a leading player from the FP and then makes it harder to double team and gives us another tall option.

Cloke should play as a lead up CHF. He is a good mark and has good skills for his size. Hartlett, Wiggins & Fisher are the other options. I wouldn't rule out Thornton playing that role either especially when we get all our defenders back.

Need to be careful we do not get to much height up there though!

Betts, Russell, Gibbs, Hadley, Pfieffer, Murphy etc need to rotate through the fwd line and middle.

The biggest problem we have had so far is our delivery onto the fwd line as well as our movement inside 50. Two of our biggest issues at the moment.

Defensively inside 50 we need work as well.

We have options we just need to get better at it.

I would have Waite and Walker on the wings as extra Mids who can go fwd or back depending upon play. Would make us very dangerous.

When Walker returns we should play him in the forward line till he gets match fitness. Then we should play him as a midfielder who pushes forward and kicks goals in the Dale Thomas type run and carry role I recon.

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Carlton Premiers '10

A much younger and mature Fev

We are too predictable so what can we do?

Throw Waite up forward. No one will no what's happening, not even Waitey himself half the time. X Factor, match winner, you name it. Give Carlos the chance in defence the remainder of the year to see if he can make it.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Would be nice to have a couple players who were reliable set shot kicks for goal from further than about 35m out...forget about actually being kicked to, positioning or the ability to beat their man and take the mark, if a player takes a mark 45m+ out we have:

Fev - Yes
Fish -not good
Waite - not good (not playing there either)
Edwards - not good
Murph - not great
Gibbs - not yet
Hartlett - prob if he can ever get right
Betts - not great range
Krooz - looks likely
JUDD - not ATM
Stevens - sometimes
JR - not good
Simmo - ??
Bentick - not good
Carrots - no
Cloke - tends to try to kick the shit out of it
Wiggler - not bad actually

If we had some blokes who were dangerous from 40-50m out they then may have some respect paid to them on the HF line instead of everyone gravitating to Fev

theres a spot for walker in the forward line but not backline as thats been stitched up by armfield, browne and carrazzo.

fisher needs to lift...the team is rising and its showing him out abit. hartletts time is quickly running out as well...edwards is struggling to make it over the line.

we do have problems in the forward line...& it's going to get worse if we dont do something about it come trade week....im not too worried about the draft but trade week we need to recruit a tall forward from somewhere.

Steven Browne's one player I can see as an option up forward down the track

good strong mark for his size

long accurate kick

fairly quick, and we know he'll work hard to keep the ball inside 50

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

What do people think about"

Fev up the ground a bit. He'd have the option to:

- lead up into the centre square to take the 2nd/3rd mark coming out of defence, then turn and deliver into the F50 off a couple of steps with his long kicking and good disposal; Or

- lead back with the flight (takes any loose men in front of him out of play) and/or double back to mark around 50m where he's still in range.

Kreuzer parked in the square with Eddie (if fit) at his feet. He'll be a threat they can't ignore after last week and will draw defenders to him creating space for ..

Gibbs as the FF leading into the hole. He's a good long and usually accurate set shot for goal, and from memory, kicked 6 for Glenelg one week playing that role. Has the size to hold his ground in a contest and the smarts to time his leads well.

You could even set Fisher up there as well and get them to lead to opposite sides of the ground (a somewhat revolutionary concept I know, but I'm confident our boys would get the hang of it after 2 quarters or so).

By the time they figured it out we'd probably have a handy lead, and once all the defenders are playing honest like we'd switch Fev back into the F50 and he could kick a lazy 5 on the lead in the 2nd half to close the game out.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of Kreuzer and Betts in the goalsquare i think that should be a permanent setup for us.

Dunno if Fev has the fitness base to run around HF but it could be something we use for a quarter or two to mix it up and get over the spare defenders opposition teams leave around 40m out from goal against us (Though thats to stop fev).

Fisher has been the one playing that lead up role to the wing and been doing ok so maybe Fev can stay in his normal role and take marks around 40-50m out and kick some goals.

Hopefully we can get a fair share of goals to from midfielders such as Gibbs, Judd, Murphy and Stevens.
Oh and Jordan Russell.

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Carlton Premiers '10

thats ok - my main concern though is that even when we have players standing free inside 50, we often overlook them due to the first instinct being to kick it to fev.

The only option that I can see to get around this it to play fev further up the ground (fitness issues?) in order to bring other forwards into the play more.

In terms of who we could play deep forward - kreuzer would be an option though I'd actually prefer waite. Much higher ground level x-factor/unpredicatablity that is likely to draw holding/chopping frees and it allows us to take greater advantage of kreuzers tank by playing him off a HFF (which would also cause greater opposition headaches on matchups than if kreuzer was played in one of the key posts). Fisher would also be a good option upforward to draw frees due to the danger he presents via contested marking though he offers a good lead up option atm

The other player that I think might have good potential as a permanant primary/deep forward target would be wiggins. For some reason I like the thought of wiggins playing a mark williams FF role - reasonable speed, great hands, and a reasonable set shot. Would also offer a lot of hardnes at the ball/contest that would make the opposition take notice. Fev provides this on ocassion though not all the time (is getting better though). Fev also seems to prefer to hip and shoulder/bustle which can often lead to frees against rather than lay a solid tackle.

Fisher is a good player.He might be struggling a bit this year possibly because of his injury but i have faith in him,that after a good pre season next year he will get back to his best.Some players have a weaker season then previous due too many things but he still rather young,not in his late 20 and it hasn't been several years like over 2 years.

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Bang Bang.