Love how the press are writing off our team as having no fire-power/forward options having seen just one NAB cup game.

Firstly - a forward line of Hendo (kid, new to the Blues) and Robbo+Yarran (2nd year players) is not Carlton's A grade forward line. Waite, Setanta, Betts, Houla, Walker would play there at various times this year.

Secondly - coming back in soon are a couple of the Blues main goal kicking mids and best runners in Murph and Simmo

Thirdly - scoring shots at half time: Swans 5, Blues 12 ... Swans finished with one more than the Blues. Hardly a fire-power vacuum.

Lastly - crap game, poor skills, NAB Cup ... big deal.

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"It was like calling your ex girlfriend after a night on the booze, just a really bad decision".

It's all a cunning plan so we can get a decent price for betting on Carlton to make the eight.
I'm gonna put a lobster on 'em tomorrow..(if betting is open yet?)

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

Not for lobsters, that starts on Tuesday.

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STURDYISM!!

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

was worried about hendo but the more I watched the more I liked - he seems to be a workhorse and very much reminded me of JK but obviously a lot less experienced - signs are good but it will take time

our gameplan is heavily reliant on on fit and hard running mids who can break the lines - only Judd and Robinson showed that last night ... I am certain once our other runners return and with fitness improvements we will look better ... how much better is too hard to tell from one again

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The glass is neither half full nor half empty. Rather the glass is twice as big than required.

Haven't read the entire thread so I'm sorry if I repeat stuff.
We looked like we needed someone to straighten us up down front. Henderson didn't demand the footy enough. At one stage Judd had the footy and the camera looked over his shoulder down the ground into the F50. Not ONE player was leading at him so he kicked it to a contest. Not good enough.
Kreuzer looked a bit lost at FF but played better on the ball. I think he will be better resting there rather than playing there.
I think Setanta should get a go. He will lead at the ball carrier and demand it a bit more IMO. Don't know why he didn't play.
Yarran looked better. His dribble point might have been a Garlett goal, though.
Lucas did a few OK things but I stand by my pre-draft plea to draft Lewis Jetta for his pace. The kid will set the place on fire running with the footy. Lucas is more of the same as we have. Pretty quick but not electric. We need at least ONE ball carrier who can run away from a tackler and make the players in front of him come off their man. I hope Walker can do it more than he has.
The backs did OK. Bower had a real go and Jamo went well for his first run for a while. Joey is just a player at this level and tried his guts out.
Gibbs couldn't get near the footy but we know he is a class act anyway.
Robbo was our best until about half-time after which he promptly disappeared.
Warnock didn't get injured as far as I know.
McLean lost me with his lack of sportsmanship before the game and then Kirk towelled him up good and proper anyway. He will improve but I got stuck into Kane Cornes for not shaking hands once and so will do so to McLean. Weak as water. It smacked of the arrogance Bondi talked about on another thread.
I wanted to win. I think we missed Murphy a lot.
We have a long way to go. At least the three musketeers can play now. Two of them should be up front IMO.
Next stop, Richmond. All aboard please.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Much as I like Setanta: Lots of posters seem to be saying he is one of the keys to our forward line. He has kicked 29 goals in 58 games. Last season was probably his best as a forward and he kicked 12 goals in 12 games. He is nearly 27 (and yes probably has some small improvement left). He is not going to make that much difference.

I also quite like Armfield. I've read several posters say we missed him. He will make negligable difference (and he can't kick either).

Year after year we hear that this will be Walker's break-out season. Maybe THIS will be the year but I, for one, wan't to see more evidence before I put too much faith in him. And his kicking is poor.

Houlihan has many more detractors than fans yet is cited as a crucial missing piece of the puzzle.

No doubt Waite is a huge talent. But, he is returning from a knee reconstruction and I wouldn't be expecting him to be straight into his pre-injury form. Thinking he will led our attack is fanciful nonsense.

Murphy is a question mark at least for the early part of this season with injury. And he is an ordinary kick most of the time.

Sorry, but we need to use the personell we had last night better because there is not that much to come in. Certainly no more than the Swans.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

I am glad you have the ability to laugh Synbad. I have always found prophets of doom to be something of a glum bunch, and here you are blowing stereotypes right out of the water.

I'm sure Ratts knows he's only got 8-10 weeks to get their shite together.

I didn't mind not having Fev out there, infact I was rapt. I don't care if they were't going at 100% - but I do expect to see some passages of play that resemble a decent football team.

I didn't see any sign on Sat night. I hope we can pick up the pace in round 1 without the only A grade player on the list.

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end of message

Game plan would have won us the game easily on saturday night if we could kick and mark the bloody thing

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

I think you are a tad harsh here kkk.

Setanta's 58 games predominantly comprise of mainly ruck and backline duties. He hasn't kicked 27 goals in 58 games as a forward. And last year's output did not come from 12 games of 4 quaters of forward work for his 12 goals either. Furthermore, when Setanta was forward, Fev was still the go to man, and like many other forwards, Setanta was bipassed. I don't think we took advantage of Setanta's or the other forwards' capabilities.

Armfield's pace and ability to break lines, like Bower, no matter what it looks like to you, is essential for our team as is the quality to break lines in all teams. We don't have many who can. Furthermore, that raw pace of Armfield's is required to match the pace of opposition speedtars like Rioli, (on St it he would've been used on Jetta)....I thought all the knockers' criticism of Army would have subsided by now after his achievements of 2009. He'll play it again Sam in 2010.

Walker has been one of our bst players since he started. There is no doubt he belongs in the top 22, and whilst he hasn't starred, he would no doubt find a spot in all other 15 teams too. He has pace, spring and his disposal is not as bad as some make out. His bad disposal, like Army's comes from not settling down before disposing. I think Army sorted that out last year, and Walker's disposal in the 3 games he played last year was quite good. Give them a break.

Houlihan is a bonafide senior and AFL seasoned player. This is exactly the condition we are trying to develop our kids to. The point is, Houlihan is fully developed and his skills are unquestionably very very good, whilst the kids are still getting there. Houla was also our best player in the last game we played, which happened to be a pressure game; the Elimination final.

Waite will be a dangerous player for the opposition no matter where he plays. I'm sure the opposition would rather see Waite in the backline rather than the forwardline because he always kicks a few and is hard to match up.

Murphy kicked 30 goals last year. On the run, from 50, from angles, and also pinpointed his delivery to Fev's chest umteen times.

We had 8-9 seniors missing from the Swans game on Sturday night. We moved the ball slowly and the bottom 6 in that game we still in training wheels. I don't expect Brock to play like that again either.

The glass is half full kkk, and I don't think you are being fair with your evaluation of the players you mention.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I know it looked that way on TV BS, but seriously, Judd was never really clsoe enough to hit forwards on the chest.

Kreuzer didn't fail, the delivery and the failure to penetrate HF was where we failed.

Henderson did do a lot of leading and running. I thought he presented well.

TBH, I saw some of our senior players (Judd and Jamo) on a couple of occcasions go for the miraculous passes which were a 30-70 chance of coming off, when there were better options closer that would have enabled us to get into the HF area to pass off to the KP's.

The passing forward was not good.

The reality was that we moved the ball too slow and gave the Swans ample time to flood.

What seemed like a player no presenting (Henderson) was actually most likely a case of that player being too far away from the ball carrier.

Maybe the KP positioning needs some work too, but I though our problems started further up the ground.

Hey, if Yazz kicked straight, we would've won.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

But WHAT ABOUT ROBBO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I dont understand how people are not getting excited about Henderson? For a 20 y.o to be holding down CHF for the first time in his career, on an All-Australian defender and to not loose one contest that i can think of? Geeze thats a pretty good effort in my books! He presented as well as any other CHF in the league ATM and if he held onto some of the marks that he got his hands to, we would be talking about how our new recruit won us the game. The amount of times he got himself into a position to mark the footy in a game where there was sweet F.A quality ball coming into the forward half i think needs to be aknowledged. Picture what we would be saying if that was Hartlett displaying that much strength and ability to crash packs, and keep the ball in our forward half.

Had 20 or so touches on the night.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

I'm off the Ratten bandwagon. Love the guy, he bleeds blue. But if we don't start showing some gameplan, and being able to execute it, we're never going to make top 4. We looked like a team of individuals with poor skills running around trying to get a kick. What have they been practicing over the summer? Kicking wide to the boundary line, not leading, missed handballs, kicking grubbers, geez.

If we are going to win 17 we need THE BEST coach, THE BEST assistant coaches to mould these 22 individuals into an efficient, well-polished and ruthless UNIT.

Now I ask you, is that what is presently happening?

If you want to check a few things you missed (I did) a replay is on One at 1 p.m. Monday!
Got it set up in the office over lunch with a couple of Carlton supporters
Like watching a movie the second time, you always pick up a lot you missed first time
Delivery into the forward line is not good.

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Bawditawaba

I'm confused, was it the non-existent gameplan or the terrible skill level that lost us the game?

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Why does one exclude the other?

We lost by a seasonally adjusted kick and a 1/3. If we had neither gameplan nor skills I'd have expected us to get done like Richmond did.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa