Edwards: Why is he playing? Has been ordinary in reserves and looked absolutely lost last night. Long way to go.

Carrazzo: Is NOT a defender, is essentially a ball magnet yet is played in defence which could effectively kill his career.
Fisher & Wiggins: Actually have huge doubts on either of them progressing much further, to many weaknesses that will be exposed by better sides.
Betts: Needs to get involved more. Can be awesome but now has enough games in him to be more influential.
Russell: Simply NOT up to it. Never has been, never will.
Judd: Copped hell all night and worked butt off. A few could learn from his example.
Edwards: Why is he playing? Has been ordinary in reserves and looked absolutely lost last night. Long way to go.

Excellent post cj69.

I agree with pretty much everything you have said, but think that Waite can play KP in the backline. It is also his preference.

How did you view Joeys game last night?

I was at the game, saw him do a couple of nice things, but ws having too much fun with some work colleagues and subsequently missed some of the action. I need to sit down and watch the tape.

Fisher & Wiggins: Cannot play both in same side. Actually have huge doubts on either of them progressing much further, to many weaknesses that will be exposed by better sides.

Good post but....

Carrazo beat Nathan Brown last week

Wiggins was the 'match winner' last week


This is the problem. When we win they played great, when we lose its the wrong position etc.

Whilst i agree that perhaps Russell Wiggins and Edwards and even Fish need to be dropped to give others a go, i wouldn't go as far as saying they cant play that position or they have to go year end.

How did you view Joeys game last night?

Joey was fair at best. He seem to come on and off the bench a bit which made it hard on him. Certainly gave it his all and will be a very good player. Would like to see Ratts play him and Browne in defence where they played ALL their junior footy and why they were selected. They are certainly a better option than Carrazzo.

I don't like to be negative but I agree with you particularly on this point cj69.
To me he Edwards have enough tricks to be a viable forward target at AFL level.

great post.

we still got a long way to go but on the up no doubt. Tough decisions need to be made

i hope next week our forward structure is mixed up. I'd bring in Walks and Hartts and settle them both down there for the rest of the year

With Hartts to be the hit up forward, walks 40 meters out taking some screamers and Fev offering the lead.

Walks could be dangerous and so to Hartts both keeping there opponents honest and thinking twice getting off them to cover Fev.

great post.

we still got a long way to go but on the up no doubt. Tough decisions need to be made

i hope next week our forward structure is mixed up. I'd bring in Walks and Hartts and settle them both down there for the rest of the year

With Hartts to be the hit up forward, walks 40 meters out taking some screamers and Fev offering the lead.

Walks could be dangerous and so to Hartts both keeping there opponents honest and thinking twice getting off them to cover Fev.

As for Russell... after every loss someone comes out and starts having a go at him. Russell was average last night (as were many others), but he has been steadily improving and he has a role. I wouldnt be writing him off by no means.

Melvey - that's the most sensible, constructive post by you I have ever read. Maybe it's not just Carlton that are on the up, maybe you are as well!

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to come up with the "tough decisions need to be made" post....

Every year is a tough decision year and if I'm not mistaken we've turned over our list more than any other team over the past 5-6 years. We don't need to start culling the list of 10 players... particularly based on one or two poor efforts. Did anyone really expect us to be playing finals this year? Or to be a perfectly consistent team. I for one didn't. We just wanted to see improvement in players and in the game plan. We've seen both.

A couple of players will surely be looked at - or will go:
Edwards, Benjamin, Blackwell

and there are a few more mature bodies that are just there for depth... Wiggins, Bannister, Cloke, etc

It just amuses me that after every loss, someone has to come out and bag our better players whether it is Waite or Fisher or Stevens or Scotland.

Fish had an injury interupted start to the year and is playing a CHF role which he is not suited to. Once we can get another CHB to replace Waite and shift him back to the forward line, or Kreuz develops into a CHF in a few years, Fish can move back to the 3rd tall role where he can have the same sort of impact he's had in the past.

As for Russell... after every loss someone comes out and starts having a go at him. Russell was average last night (as were many others), but he has been steadily improving and he has a role. I wouldnt be writing him off by no means.

Carrots worries me more. Just a terrible user of the ball by foot. I'm not sure if modern footy can afford a player like that.

I hate losing last night, but I'm not worried. Just like I wasn't worried after we had lost the first 3 games of the year. I see progress. I see spirit. We fight to the end even if we don't get the points, something we havent been able to do for 7 years. It's early days in our revival and patience is needed. My view is at the end of the year, we cut 5-6 players and don't make wholesale changes unless we can recruit some additional experienced guns - which is always highly unlikely.

One last thing. Hampson should be in the team. Our structure is so much better with the third tall.