I only partly watched the second half.
Very disappointing, but it is only a practice game.
Teague has a big job ahead of him trying to get the worst midfield in the comp to settle down and chip around the outside of the F50 until they can hit a target, rather than the Carlton special "long bomb". Lucky we have a half decent defence, otherwise it would've been more like the GWS v Sydney game.
The only real positive for me was seeing Doc running hard off the backline and chasing down players in the D50. Let's hope he continues and hits round 1 running.

I don't think the membership dept will have to worry about working too hard this week.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

In a word. Diabolical.

The kicking was abysmal.
The bombing into the forwardline... still doing that?
Weak tackling effort
Fumbling and inability to pick up the ball off the ground.

It’s in stark contrast to what we played liked against Collingwood and what has been reported all preseason.

Positives
Fisher, Weitering, Walsh and Martin while he was on in the first half
Polson wasn’t terrible.

Negatives
Setterfield... hugely underwhelming performance but at least I know he’s capable.
Cuningham invisibility was his super power today
Dow will spend a lot of the year in the twos
I take it back, we don’t have depth... yet.
Didn’t appear to be any system at all and Freos gameplan seemed effortless against us in the first half.

I’ll be looking for a marked improvement against the Lions.

Not sure whether to say it’s just preseason... or reset or recalibrate my optimism.

The difference between last week against Collingwood and that is so stark:

Things I learnt:

1. How the Geelong recruiter picked Lang at 16 is beyond belief as he is borderline suburban footballer.
2. You just knew that every time Polson got the ball it would end in tears (in fairness he did he a few good things but you Know what I mean)
3. Cuningham- and excuse me ladies but he is a cock teaser. He flits into games and then you don't see him. Just doesn't seem to want it. Harden up.
4. Philp- reminds me of McGrath - reckon he plays round 1. Big plus.

We have quite a few mids who struggle to find the footy. For Fisher to get it 27 times was pleasing. We also lacked any attacking flair and Fisher seemed like one of the only players capable of creating something.

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@cecil_anderson

Would of liked to see Philp get more game time. From the minimal time the few plays he was involved in looked promising.
Polson shows dash and some evasiveness then sky’s the the ball blind everytime. Wasn’t the only culprit.

Betts will need to build this fwd line from scratch. How can there be no space to lead into 98% of the time? Theres zero resemblance of a structure.

Can’t see Kennedy or JSOS ever becoming our DeGoey, Gray, Greene equivalent in the medium fwd/mid

Sad but true, very little quality to go through the midfield.

Hence why we threw big $$$ at Coniglio.

And will do again on another this offseason. Brad Crouch & Jack Viney free agents, Wines linked, Whitfield sign yet?

Good to have the footy back and disappointing some youngsters havent improved after a big pre season.

Really liked the look of Philp, thought Polsen showed more than most. Thought Setterfield, Kennedy and Dow were really disappointing. Don't think Setterfield should be demanding a spot in the midfield yet... Freo just played better and looked more desperate tbh and that was the difference , oh, and our skills. facepalm facepalm facepalm all game.

Don't lose faith....

it wasn't great today... but geez...pretty
obvious the team was picked to find out
a few players...!

and it did...!

I'm glad they didn't find it too easy... just
have to work harder now... got three
weeks to get it together...!


kindest regards tommi

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

From Simmo's performance today he may be playing one year too many. I hope not.

Otherwise, game plan, what game plan. Skills, what skills.

Pittonet a battler. De Koning the future and today a bench warmer mostly.

Therefore coach, what coach.


Geez I hope I am wrong.

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

Simmo was fine I thought.

Midfield was deplorably bad, though we were experimenting giving midfield time to younger guys generally.

What we found though is most those young players, are either not up to it yet or won’t be at all. Fisher at least gets involved but worries me with how high his ceiling actually is.

Dow doesn’t get it enough, hasn’t really bulked up, not sure he will ever be more than a fringe player.

Cuningham similar boat, doesn’t do enough. Needs a decent run at it with injury and string together at least 5-6 games in a row before making a final call, but maybe his body won’t allow that.

JSOS, Polson, Lang, and Kennedy hopefully don’t play much senior footy this year, if they are we are struggling.

Add McKay, McGovern, Eddie and a full game from Jack Martin to round 1 and things look a lot better up forward.

SPS, Kreuze, Murph and crippa will obviously help massively too.

I think a fair few guys got exposed today though and played themselves out of a chance for R1.

Im not sure which dumb footballer you are referring to (we have several) but I think killing them is a tad harsh.

Where’s the worry room

Not worried about the result however it is disappointing to hear that Dow, Cunningham and Setterfield weren't able to step up.
No injuries is good news.

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In the Truth there is no news, and in the News there is no truth.

Agreed tommi

there seemed to be a bit of 'the score's not important' experimenting out there

Would prefer to lose these games and find things to work on than go into r1 with false hopes.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I don’t usually read into pre-season results (historically they’re a bad predictor of how a team will do in the season proper). I generally look for how new players (recruits and draftees) look and whether any players look to have taken the next step following a big pre-season. Although, however you cut it this wasn’t great to see.

On a positive note, I really liked the look of Martin when he played. He plays with intensity and has that touch of class we desperately need. Thought TDK also had his moments, especially first half. Walsh looks to have gone from strength to strength. Plus good to see Doc get through unscathed.

Was disappointing to see a few of our younger brigade not take the opportunity to step up without some senior players missing. Setterfield, Dow and Cuningham didn’t do enough last night. Could add a few more to that list.

Not saying anything new here but the skill level really needs to improve on yesterday or we’ll shoot our selves in the foot all year long.

Hoping this game was a bit of an abberation given how well we played in last weeks practice match. Time will tell whether we end up more like the team that played the pies or the team from last night.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

If Carlton want to take that next step then it’s players like Fisher, Dow, O’brien, Setterfield and Cunningham who will be our barometers. Invested a lot in them.Cannot afford to rely on players like Murphy and Curnow through the midfield to win games.

If they don’t come on then I am afraid it could be back to square one.

I’ll dismiss last night and hope it was an aberration. It is only pre season.