Bottom four finish for us this year and we'll be lucky to finish above Melbourne and no decent picks to come.
F%#K!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_________________
Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

Is a game not worth reading into all that much BUT.......
Russell back to his old self tonight
McLean wouldn shake hands and than got towelled up by the same guy
Hendo presented well but never held them though the kicking was shite.
Kreuzer wasted at FF
Yarran shows glimpses but a consistency would be awesome.
Why do we always go backwards before going forwards
Kick-ins are where we left off(thought we had a new technique to try out)
Their kick-ins continued to get out of the 50 with ease(think we should just go man on man)
Hammer didn get enough game time
Kickin was hocking all round
Good to know Murph, Simmo, Waite, Betts, Walks and prob Hoops will be straight in in a regular team.
Davies done well, got caght a few times but that was due to stupid handballs or crappy kicks.
Lucas had promising signs
Bower BOG for blues
Robbo next
Forward set up??????
Next week at VISY park by the sounds of it

Like others said, hopefully brushed off cob webs.
(cos if its not where in for a long year)

_________________
The climbing has alread began

+1

I think quarters said we had almost a full strenght side on the park. What the @#$%&! was he on about?!?

geez gibbs was woeful beyond belief ... no intensity, no leadership, just cruising as per usual. at this rate gibbs will only play well in winning teams ...

will cut a lot of slack on newbies (hendo, lucas, davies etc)

thought grigg tried hard
thought browne did too but his disposal and lack of class was his downfall. reckon he will struggle in AFL.
reckon joey did ok
rucks struggled but they're all still very young and kept trying. all presented well and fought to get front position. were let down by a total lack of intensity by our mids.
even judd struggled. he is looking a bit one-dimensional in that if he can't burst clear of the pack he doesn't really seem to have other tricks. having him forward is just a ratten pipe-dream cos the swans showed tonight that against a well-organised defence it's gonna take a well-drilled team to score.
kirk made a statement to own mclean ... roos likes to play these mind games. mclean had a shocker really, beyond bad. looked slow, surly and totally lacking in class ... geez.

look, it's the NAB cup and it aint the be-all and end-all but class is class. their guys, young or old, just seemed to know what to do and know how to do it much better than our guys.

was mostly disappointed with a lack of leadership in midfield ...

_________________
... an eagle flew out of the night. he was something to observe, came in close i heard a voice, bending stretching every nerve, had to listen had no choice ...

I don't confess to know much about footy but geez Heath Scotland looked heaps better in the forward line...

_________________
Wherever you go, there you are.

Quarters = Toe Jam

_________________
"I had to eat"

Damn mods. I just spent 5mins typing a summary and now lost it because the thread is closed

We didn't go up to GSW to win, simple as that really. We didn't apply have any intensity, didn't run too hard, it was simply a run out against another AFL team.

In saying that though, you would now expect us to improve our peformances over the next few weeks now that Hoops, Walker and Betts are back (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Henderson was good for his first hit out for Carlton against an AFL team. Lead and contested well and showed good defensive capabilities. He'll improve as the playing group improve over the next month.

Lucas was good, moves to the right positions and wins his own ball. Good contest on the wing just before the end of the game.

Davies showed enough. Looked nervous at times.

Carrots was show boating, as was Gibbs at times.

Robbo was damaging. Is great to see him back injury free.

The defense was very good, Bower magnificent.

Browne has a spot at half back I think. Needs to work on his kicking though.

JR looks to have continued on with last years improvement. Really stands out now, but shouldn't kick out

Warnock had a good hit out, Hammer is not a forward and we will never play four ruckman every again.

I'd expect our intensity and skills will pickup over the next month by 15-20%.

disappointing to lose but we didnt do enough in a fairly scrappy game

yarran - horrible finishing skills but first time I've seen him consistently look dangerous/creative in a game so very happy with his game.
jacobs - thought he was our best ruckman of the night (warnock second). A few good taps to adventage
robinson - in our 22
bower - looked our best defnder out there tonight (followed by jamison). Some good dash as well

mclean+hampson were ineffectual, gibbs+kreuzer fairly quiet, add to that the absence of first 22 players in simpson/murphy/houlihan/betts/waite/walker - not too surprising that we lost.

We'll get a lot stronger by the time the season starts so no need to wrist slash yet

Second tier players have a lot to do

Browne
Grigg
Fish
Anderson
Wiggo



As far as Brock is concerned - not a good look pre game son. Only way is up after that effort.

Not much to take from the game other than a decent hit out.

_________________
"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

silly to base it on one game i know, but looking at our forward options tonight, id say were in for a LONG LONG year.

i got the feeling watching tonight that weve lost so much more than 80 goals by trading fev. how many goals did he create with the fact that he dragged 2-3 defenders with him?

good post

Wow, we need to build a forward line - pretty embarrassing really

Henderson presented well, but can't catch - hope he was just having an off night

Did lack run, but swannies do that to many teams - Murph, Walker and Simmo will help, but Gibbs was ordinary.

On the plus side Yarran looked OK, Hadley played well and the backline is going to be vey solid this year. Russell still has his confidence from last year.

Waitey may be our most important player this year, hope his knee is in A1 condition.

Haven't watched the game yet but surely 2005 and 2007 tell you all you need to know about the relevance of the pre-season cup.

Without intensity and hard running we were never going to look good up forward, even with Fev.

If there's one team you don't want to be trying out a forward structure against for the first time, it's the Swines. Strangled the life out of us.

_________________
"I had to eat"

Fev or no Fev... we didnt even control the game... chip chip chip.. shithouse gameplan... shithouse structures.. players didnt have a clue what to do.... more of the same.. except Fevolaless......

Fev made Ratts look ok..to the unobservnt me thinks.....

Everyones players come on and look like they have a grasp of the game except our own....

In my opinion youre going to really see Ratts exposed as the coach hes pretending to be this year.

_________________
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

What stood out for me.

Davies - I liked his game. Thought it was gutsy for a rookie to run and carry (in the first half anyway). He showed some real poise and will be a good addition to our backline. Really think he'll come very good.

Henderson - Was a bit disappointed with him but as someone else said, he hasn't played a lot of AFL games and played mostly as a defender for the Lions. Hope he comes good soon.

Yarran - This young man is as silky as they come. I now understand some training reports sayi g that he just looks as though he has so much time. His poise was great to see tonight. Didn't panic and just gets on with it. Love his attitude. Vey composed. When he starts to work on his finishing skills in front of goals, he'll be a real gem.

Browne - Looked to get quite a few possies. Also has a great attitude but just needs to work on his overall skills.

Thornton - As cool as ever.

Scotland - Dropped a couple of sitters tonight. Will put it down to some cobwebs. But will need to fire in 2010 for us to come good.

Our stars didn't have a great night and it was just a practice run. Will expect the intensity to increase a fair bit when the season proper starts. Not worried at this stage.

Avenue to goals still looks to be our biggest concern, although that isn't breaking news.

Go Blues! AFL IS BACK!!! Woo hoo!!!

True ! If fev was there tonight we still would have lost by a goal or two. We didnt really want it tonight.

Looking forward to watching us build for the season ahead.

Probably a good thing...may force a few changes off field...where we are still miles behind other teams....

_________________
"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Took the words out my mouth.
Thought Davies showed a bit as well.