Abit too early needs to build his body abit. Hasnt got the Rowell build but sees game faster than most.

no more long bombs into forward line is a start (unless it is 1v1 situation) need to stop tigers running the ball out from our forward line ,they destroy us on the turnover .I just remember all those open easy goals scored.

As long as we get more easy goals than the Tiggers do.

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Our tradition demands success!

Watched the Carlton Saints game again this morning; 3rd time.

There was a lot of easy goals Saints scored: out the back.
No Carlton defender out the back on the last line.
Saints waltzed in for 5 easy goals.
That came from their hard running to be the next option ahead.
Very Richmond like: circa 2020.

Docherty had a mare of a game.
His disposal has never this bad, so I expect a heap of improvement.
The direction and positioning of the backline was missing, but I guessed Teague was trying things.

Cripps spent too much time forward and couldn't clunk them.

I expect both our leaders to step up.
Cripps as a dominant inside bull. Docherty as the sweeper and organiser.

Agree with others that Martin's touch wasn't spot on, as I thought on the night.
He presented and attacked and tackled with fierceness and showed a bit of #unt, but he too can step up round 1.

I thought Newnes wasn't great either, and played like a peripheral player.
He does give us body strength, but not speed.

I also thought the forward line pressure was weak too.
Yes there was a few tackles laid by some, but the Saints waltzed out with ease; as if we were letting them do so.

I hope our forward pressure is applied with a frenzy when in that space.

This sort of strategy requires a fantastic fitness level to maintain the pressure and run back defensively.

Then there's this corralling we have to stop doing.
Players must attack the man with the ball, maintainthe pressure to create perceived pressure.
And, its a game of centimetres, as it is kilometres, so stand the mark...not 3 metres behind it.
Make them jog backwards to give themselves room to kick...and play on.
When umpire calls play on, attack and close the space; make them hurry their kicking.

Turnovers will win this for us with Doc, Saad and Williamson gaining precious metres and breaking lines.

Setterfield was a star on the night with his hard defensive running, high marking and tackling.

I really didn't think much at all of Fogarty's output. He wasn't as good as some suggest.
Yeah he laid a few tackles, but I expect the same from every player as a minimum.

I didn't think Ed was much more superior to the other Mids, and did his job.
Ed's physical presence and pressure is great, but Walsh and Cripps offer similar grunt imo.
What stands out is other than Williams and Setterfield, the other supporting cast of mids playing cameo roles/ chop out there need to get more physical/ dirty ie Dow Cunners, Fish, Betts and Murph to spread the load.

I reckon if we step up another level we can push these Tiggers over.

4 more sleeps. Go Blues

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Ed spent plenty of time on the wing. That's not really his go. Obviously the idea was to give Williams and Walsh plenty of midfield time but I'd expect Cripps and Ed to be back at the coal face Thursday night.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

There is a push for the government to increase the crowd to 75% capacity.
We currently have 3 active cases in the whole state, all in hotel quarantine.

I couldn’t agree more with most of what you have summarised.
The funny part is we lost by 4 goals. I can’t get my head around it because we weren’t good in so many areas. Interesting year coming up.

Richmond's home game......... certainty!

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

I thought the same. Ed mainly on a wing.
This week with Williams missing Ed has to start at the centre bounce with Batman and Robin imo.
Teague/ Barker may choose to start Dow there, but I believe they were giving him a taste and see how he holds his own there.

I like Ed in the middle.
He contorts his body with strength at the contest and on his opponent...no easy take away for his opponent, and he fights hard to win it instead.
I do take your point BV that we still rely on Ed in the clearances. Sertterfield is the other big bodied mid who can do well there too.

We need peripheral midfield players to step up this year and overtake Ed and seriously spread the load.

I loved Williams in the middle the way he wills himself at the contest, but he tends to bomb it forward rather than connecting. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Perfection only happens sporadically.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Agree, so many areas to improve. Thursday night will be very telling.

Will your mate from Mexico be tuning in?

The problem is we cannot have Crippa, Ed + a Walsh with Setterfield & Newnes on the wings. Way, way to slow. We need some motors on the outside. The very reason we went after Williams. Martin needs to be played more midfield this game and so does Dow, Murphy, Williamson/SpS, etc.
If I see Cripps, Ed, Setterfield, Walsh & Newnes as our main centre group, our coaches better have a decent plan to bring the ball quickly to the outside flankers!!!!!

So, my step-dad managed to get an MCC guest ticket for me, so it looks like I'm going on Thursday.

He had two awesome seats lined up on at the bottom of the top level right near the wing, then spent so long reading the terms and conditions on the tiketek website it timed out, so by the time he re-did the forms we're now in the boonies further around towards the city end goals Oh well, closer to the Carlton cheer squad and further away from where they'll unfurl their two flags... ...so may be a blessing.

Would never have gone down MCC path if the club could be a little clearer on whether CC/LL members will actually get seats or not.

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

Our mate from Mexico!

I think you're referring to Blue Beatle. BS and BB knew each other in Tassie IIRC

I hope BS returns. Has good insight in the game. Adds a different viewpoint.

Top fella, and has decades more Carlton stories than most.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Who do you suggest on the wings.

I reckon when Ed started off on the wing, not in the centre bounce he effected a midfield role and wasn't too far from the action.

Newnes played wing on Hill after 2nd quarter...after damage was done. Setterfield played both praccy games exclusively on a wing, probably defensive wing coz he was helping the backline more often than the mids who played centre square

Do you mean a Philp type on a wing ?because you've named all the other midfield candidates.

I think they're all mids, including wings.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

What do you mean by the yellow ... you lucky bugga.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Wouldn't have got him to use his MCC membership (boomer put on the list at birth and been an MCC member for decades) for a ticket if we could be certain of getting tickets through the club. Carlton members have been allocated 2000 tickets.... 2000. Joke. And no matter the level of your membership, it's first come first serve for seats when it opens up on Wednesday morning via Tiketek.

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

My ideal midfield would be something like this:
Pittonett(Casboult/TDK) Williams(Martin/Stocker/Fisher) Walsh(Dow/Fogarty/Gibbons)
SpS(Docherty/Murphy) Cripps(Setterfield/Kennedy/Ed) Williamson(O'Brien/Newnes)

Note: Players in brackets are rotations and I'd prefer only one bull (In the Crippa block) inside the centre as we have options now to assist via the Williams block.

Thursday night will be telling on a number of fronts. We’re a bit undemanned playing the best team of the past 4 years. Are we going to roll over like last year and just let them walk all over us early or are we prepared to make this into a rock fight? We need 22 blokes cracking in, tackling, chasing, pressuring etc and then whatever the result is from there I can live with it. This mob is very very good but they’re not unbeatable. I’m not expecting a win but need to see some fight and 22 blokes not playing as if they are afraid of this mob like we’ve seen in the past