St Kilda looked a lot cleaner with their ball movement.

Lots to like. Lots to work on.
3 All Australians to come back into the side. Cripps was excellent. Loved the game of Kennedy.
Cerra is classy, Durdin and Fisher create plenty of pressure and pace on the ball.
Backline is still a concern. What's the point of playing O'Mac and not putting him on King? I suspect Weitering calls the shots on defensive match ups and his ego wont let King go to someone else. The defensive coach should call the shots. At stages McDonald was playing on mid size forwards. That's pointless.

Boyd apparently is a beautiful kick but he was a turnover machine today. Nic Newman frustrates the hell out of me. The most one sided player in the AFL. With stocker, Docherty and Plowman to come back in, he should be first defender out of the side.
O'Brien has been mentioned by others. He's always lacked strength in the contest and crumbles under pressure. I thought Pitto was very good today, as were Saad, Williams, Owies and Setterfield.
Philp seemed to struggle unfortunately IMHO.

Love Silvagni's workrate but his kicking is poor by AFL standards. Put a couple of passes on Charlies head that should be an easy lace out chest mark. Both times Charlie got smashed. Not good enough.

Loved the pressure and intent around the ball. The Saints were rushed 90% of the time. That's the best tackling, pressuring Carlton team I've seen in a couple of decades. Is it sustainable? Hopefully so.

For round 1, in Harry, Doc, Plowman, Stocker, Martin.
Out Williamson, Newman, Boyd, Philp, O'Brien. Kemp to the wing.

Pretty much covers my observations from The Legends Stand yesterday. Totally agree re Newman. That turn over when he refused to run onto his right side was embarrassing. JSOS worked so hard but yes, his disposal is not good enough. Agree with the outs. Cerra gives us the class we have craved, not sold on Williams. Go Blues!

Lucky you in the Legends stand.

What are your expectations of Williams? Midfielder? HBF?

Based on what you saw yesterday what areas of his game does he need to improve on? Weaknesses?

I thought he was out 3rd best out there, after Cripps and Saad, but that was from TV land.

I agree. I thought both Williams and Saad were great off half back!

St Kilda looked pressured and rushed IMHO. Our ball movement was much cleaner. We handed them goals with basic errors from inexperienced or fringe players. That shouldn't happen once we put Doc, Plowman, Stocker, Martin, McKay etc back into the side.

Maybe my expectations are too high for him. He seemed rushed and hassled when disposing of the ball. Our side lacks class and quality. I will leave it at that.

I agree. I thought both Williams and Saad were great off half back!

We will see as the year progresses. A couple of the 50 metre passes from Williams were truly amazing: pin point accurate.

Its amazing how 2 people can watch a game and see it in an entirely different way. I watched the game again today and have not changed my opinion. With the exception of the first quarter, St Kilda seemed far cleaner, particularly going inside 50. On the other hand we struggled all day to hit targets.

Can't wait to get Stocker back ... he really adds some pressure in the back half.

Yep, I agree. McGoverns kicking will be a real feature as well. Newman kicking in is pointless. It's up to the coaches to nominate the designated kickers and stick to them. Newman should be well down the list. I'd consider McGovern and Williams as our best options.

Newman is a very poor-man’s-Simmo without the heart

OK ... well I have to say I was disappointed.

Same old problem moving the ball into the forward line ... we just do it so poorly. Bad decision making and bad execution. St Kilda looked a lot cleaner with their ball movement. Also thought our forward pressure dropped right off after the first quarter.

Backline looked very vulnerable. We are going to miss Jones so much. Too often players were caught out with opposition players running into space.

Hopefully we were just rusty but on that performance we will get crushed by Richmond.

Positives were Cripps, Cerra and Silvagni.

FINALLY. We are not only setting up correctly at stoppages with players sitting on the outside but we are using our hands to move the ball out to them for their run. We are also running more through the corridor with multiple handballs. FINALLY - thank you VOSS.

FINALLY. We are not only setting up correctly at stoppages with players sitting on the outside but we are using our hands to move the ball out to them for their run. We are also running more through the corridor with multiple handballs. FINALLY - thank you VOSS.

I like what I saw there but our forward 50 entries are still bombish, hope it changes with McKay back in the team... and out back 6 looked a little lost at time... shows how much we're going to miss Jones, especially early on.