To be honest I wasn't overly confident going in but I thought we'd just have enough to win. Couldn't believe some of the predictions thinking we'd thrash them. So whilst I am very disappointed I do know that it is only Round 1 and I thought that there was a chance we'd lose today.

A few positives were Betts, Waite before he got tired and Kouta who got a lot of the footy and moved really well, although didn't use it as effectively. Houlihan didn't look fit at all and I feel sorry for Livo, things just never seem to go his way. I also felt sorry for Deluca having to play in defence because it's just not his position.

I think North were more up for it than us and despite having most of the early play and missing a few chances we can't really complain about the result. We lost to a side that was hungrier than us.

Also we were extremely unaccountable, it was incredibly frustrating seeing loose men everywhere and how easily they moved the ball out of defence. We played right into their defenders' hands and they kept cutting us off. The delivery into the forward line was subpar however someone like Whitnall was a bit down today and Fevola still managed 3 goals despite not getting into it. Campo really struggled again, Rawlings always seems to suck him in and he just can't shake him off.

Overall it's not a good result but there are 21 rounds left so we'd be stupid to jump to any ridiculous conclusions. Maybe this loss won't be so bad in the long run, maybe it will. Still, we need to bounce back against the Bombers next week.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

I'm not sure what we could have done when we entered the forward 50, as North had loose men there and our 2 key forwards who are both leading forwards are ineffective when their space has been blocked.

I didnt like the continual passing towards the City side forward pocket as it meant there was a 2 on 1 when the ball came to ground and the ball was already on the wing in a flash.

Kouta was terrific, for someone with no match conditioning.

Poor Livo, no luck at all

Down, but not out!!

Even a decent team would've beaten that Blues side by 50+. Just about as bad as it will get for the Blues in 2005 I think

We were easily the better side in the first half but didn't put enough on the scoreboard. You need a bit of luck & losing Livo & Walker (on top of Thornton) made it extremely tough, had to reorganize most of the side & while the roos could rotate their players we really could not. Also paid the price of playing so well pre-season, giving Nth plenty of time to study us and work out how to beat us. Thought a few people around here were getting a little over excited so I guess it's back to reality. I'm sure we'll have better days. At least Kouta is back & Betts showed some good signs. We couldn't understand why he spent so much time on the bench early.

I didn't see the match, but how did BigRed go.....??

can someone tell me

I hate losing to the Roos because my mate comes over to watch Roo games on Fox Footy. He's pretty magnanimous, but I can't help but feel we were beaten by an inferior side who took advantage of our flatness, poor delivery to the forward line and injuries.

Cheer up people it's only round one

and I have penciled you in for the 8

at the moment you are sitting on top of the Saints

But I am sure that will some of you happy

I said that to my mate after the game. He was chuffed the Roos won, and all I could take out of it was that we weren't going to be bottom after Rd 1.

Red not much today - he went down (1dst quarter - damn beer befuddles everyting) wonder if he was a bit hurt. But he and fev had no space and where never 1 out - and if they were (yes i know) the delivery was carlton circa 2003

ahhh the vargaries of youth.......

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Thanks dannyboy both Livo and BigRed were they players I picked last year to have a big one this year.

I hope Livo's injury is not too serious...

Kangaroos were ordinary

We were worse...

Bring on next week.

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"...that's the thing about opinion - you don't have to know anything to have one..." Andre Agassi commenting on Pat Cash 2004
"...the less you know - the more you believe..." - Bono 2006

I think in hindsight Laidley so publicly talking us up was a good move. Although, while I fell for it, I wouldn't expect Denis to have, so maybe there was not really anything in Laidley pumping us up a bit.

I'm pretty pissed at the loss, the first game in a few years I've gone into R1 expecting us to win. As mentioned we had enough of it in the first half, but for whatever reason, be that the pressure/desperation from the Roos, or complacency from us, we just didn't seem to click as a team today like we did in the Wizzer.

There were still a lot of positives to come out of today, its just the we know we're better than we played today and to have expectations is not a bad thing. Bring on next week.

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Agree with what you say.

Also agree with Wojee. I also believe that we're a better side than the Kangaroos at the moment. I thought our kicking for goal was a little disappointing, and by contrast the Kangaroos were excellent in that area. (They seemed to kick a lot of their goals from deep in the pocket. This is typical Malthouse strategy, where you play shortpassing around the boundary line until you're close enough to take a shot. It's hard to see them being so efficient all that often, even in the 'indoor' conditions at the Dome.)

I not only hate losing to a side that we're better than. I hate losing to sides that play 'severely ugly' footy. No doubt their holding on to the ball, and chipping sideways and backwards and then counterattacking when the opposition makes mistakes will help them to pinch a few extra wins. But it's almost impossible to see it being particularly effective in the long run. I also don't enjoy seeing us beaten by a combination of Rocca and Thompson. With all due respect to Rocca, they're hardly what I'd call a fearsome forward set up. In fact it's hard to see them doing a great deal of damage very often during the year at all. I guess when your 2 first choice key position defenders are out. And when you can't buy a centre bounce clearance. And your midfielders have run out of numbers and legs. Then you've got a set of conditions that make it at least theoretically possible for those 2 to win them a game! Next thing we know, even big Corey will be contributing to wins for them!

I was disappointed as well with Davies' finishing. Everyone's allowed an off day, but you really need to operate at the very least at 50% efficiency in his role, if he's going to be a long-term place in that role.

Also, and I know it probablly wouldn't have affected the outcome by itself, but we had 2 certain goals touched on the line. More care from the kickers (Whitnall especially, as he wasn't kicking from that far out), and better shepherding from the forwards is required.

We were pretty poor today, but it just goes to show how easily we could have gotten away with a win. If only we'd eradicated a few errors in these areas (plus some of the other areas!).

Guys, this game went pretty much as I expected.
We became complacent with the style of play used by opposition teams in the wiz cup and got outsmarted and outplayed by the roos

today's game was a real H&A game, pressure through the middle, strong tackling pressure, numbers in defence and greater intensity. When all of these factors were inflicted upon us we were unable to cope. We didn't go in enough to get the pill (we were thrashed in clearances) and our quality in disposing the ball dropped markedly under the increased intensity.

In a way, I think todays game will do the club a lot of good as I think we were starting to believe our own hype and went into todays game cocky and not prepared to work hard.

I said to mates today that this game was not going to be won by the roos but would be lost by the Blues (if you know what i mean). I wouldn't be too quick to state that we are better than the roos, maybe on par with them.

I just feel sick everytime i see Wells playing against us, geez he's good!!!

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C'mon Blueboys!

Can't understand why everyone seems to focus on Goddard when Wells is the one we really missed out on. Still, looks like another St K stuff up!

We played our best footy in the 2nd Q when we really pressured and harrassed the Roos ball carriers. Gang tackles, sprinting to take on the man with ball etc. Alll of that completely went out the window.

I was one of the ones not very confident leading into the game. It will be a while into the season now before I start developing any confidence in what the boys can produce.

That said we were short two key defenders, and four of our top ball carriers (Campo, Stevens. Scotland and Lappin) went missing for unusually large chunks of the game.

We STILL get killed for pace. Wells just made us look stupid at times. I almost wonder whether David Clarke should come in for special assignments on the really quick players.....actually that's probably just the disappointment talking....

Fair enough, but I honestly believe that the Roos aren't that good a side and have them finishing around 12-13 and expect us to be 8-10.

I think Eddie did a good job making up for a lack of Wells......if he's nurtured right, then who knows....

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.