Big thanks to all who provided reports! Love it!!

A coupla questions pls:

Who else played in our back half, apart from the 3 talls? And was it pretty much a set group of players that played in our defensive zone for the entire match, or were there others rotated in there?

Which player/s did our kick ins?

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

It'll go....
16 cups,sitting in a case,sixteen cups,sitting in a case..
and if one large silver cup...should accidently falllllllllll(err...get stolen)...
there'd be 17 cups...sitting in the bombers case.
etc etc...
he's just a jealous guy....(it's not robbo)

_________________
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.”

I am waiting for henny pennys to arrive and say that "The Lions were missing Black, Power, Rich, Drummond, Adcock, Merrett and McGrath. Therefore we should have won by 50 points. We lack structure, we don't have structure, fish stinks, rotting at the head, sack Ratten, 95 boys club, sack Sticks, structure structure structure...bla bla bla"

Good signs today well done blues.

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Delulio is a member of TISM

look i can not add much through my beer goggles but yaz has serious speed when he wants to let it burn. Cant jump on Gibbs yet i thought him like simpson took two and a bit quarters to warm up. Personally i thought gibbs in particular was average like last week early. Eddie was exciting jammo was brilliant and walker despite his odd funny disposal kept us in it with his dash. I expected more from kruze who failed to take a contested grab all day, i thought warnock was the better ruckman. Russel continues to impress and is now not scared to use his body to knock players off the ball. brown and anderson have dash but still i think they can be replaced by army and davies etc. great highlight was seeing hendo kick the sealer from 50. just wish we would have jumped him like the lions jumped fev after his rubbish free kick for his first.

McLean was much better. More composed and in the packs. His short kicks were clean but a few handballs went astray. This could have been our runners inability to read his disposal on a few occasions I thought. He'll be a great player for us.

Henderson took a few decent grabs but probably tries to be the 'team player' a little too much if he is going to be a true forward. Lovely long goal in the last but he didn't set his mind to it straight away. The whole crowd was telling him to slow down and take the shot- but initially he didn't want to. Will be great watching him grow into the role, and might not take as long as some people think.

Walker looked great I thought. He frustrates me a bit but I can forgive some loose decisions today for lack of game time and the summer of political correctness penalties.

Hoops was laconic as always. He actually breaks packs on occasion- it just doesn't look like it because time slows. Some select handballs executed.

Betts was best on ground for mine. He was kicking and marking the ball he just kicked then handballing it back to himself and finishing with a goal. True freak-boy. Gave multiple hugs to Fev post-match also.

Game intensity- especially when the ball was up for grabs- was quality from both sides at times.

My main gripe- that terrible reverse and cross chip-chip bullshit we resort to which resulted in turnovers and goals to the Brions on a number of occasions.

All in all though- GO BAGGERS.

Also- Simpson is just about the most underrated excitement machine in the game. Lappinesque and nowhere near as tortured-jockey ugly.

Oh, and Jammo for The Brownlow. Actually just rename it The Jammo.

Agree. Friendliest boos I've ever heard, at least en masse.

Ok, missed the first quarter entirely so can't comment on that, save for that we'd managed 4.7 and seemingly could have been in front at quarter time.

Defensive unit was very solid, but did cough up the ball with regularity after doing all the hard work. Case of gaining touch and fluency that you expect in the pre-season, should not be an issue come round 1. That was probably the key match-up for the game and for the most part we won it.

Despite the Lions having Fev & Brown, on paper we were the superior side and if this was the regular season we would have won by a considerable margin. Didn't bother to bring the squad lists with me so I didn't pay much attention to the Lions and the matchups aside from the obvious ones, although I did note Proud was more impressive as the game wore on particularly with ball use and Hawksley was also impressive.

I think the problem for Brisbane is quite simply a man named Voss. When the recruiting team get to their job, they do very well. When he gets stuck in, he runs very close to ruining all their good work. Ditto his game plan vs his senior players' efforts. People scoff at Ratts' but Voss runs a very simplistic system and relies on his players to generate something special. Fev looks set to get some stress fractures with a good 10 kilos back on him from last year. Looked slow at times.

Anyway, onto our boys:

Walker - physically superior but blowing out the cobwebs with his skills, good contributor and looked especially dangerous up forward. Went for a hanger and stupidly shoved his man in the back. A few boys were bringing down the good work they were doing with similar efforts, although there was some shocking umpiring in the mix as well.

Russell - cool, calm, collected. A few fluffed kicks when judging the flight of the ball but nothing that won't have been ironed out round 1. Russell of the second half of last year is the real deal and he's not going anywhere. Played a little forward of HB this time around.

Gibbs - faded out of the game for a short while late in the second and early in the third but otherwise was doing the best of what he did last season where he was one of our key passing players (that's the world game stat, Prowess uses ones like scoring involvements). Definitely not hanging off the back and was roaming all through midfield assisting play.

Judd - need I say more? Did what he had to do today, although keeps calling for/receiving the ball in tight spots. If I could knock one thing it's that he seems to be suffering a little bit under his training work load, perhaps he is in the same boat as McLean?

Simpson - good for his first hit out, got involved in the play, takes a good grab as usual and would follow up in a chain of possession to help assist/finish. Slotted a goal through such work. Will have another fine season.

McLean - still getting used to the 'Carlton way' but a better showing from him possession wise. Took a very solid hit in the third and after a case of the stumbles (which one Lions supporter near me labelled him soft for; female, presumably had never copped a spoil in the form of a haymaker) recovered to remain a part of ball movement. Is currently playing second fiddle to Hadley in the stoppage work, both through performance and instruction (I believe).

Kreuzer - his usual self. Not flash up forward but created a contest. I doubt he will see much time there this year as Warnock and Hampson have looked more impressive. That's not to say he won't score goals, but they'll be from drifting forward or having a ping on the run. Ground out the game with Warnock and allowed us to dominate the centre square clearances, but he regularly featured through the midfield play.

Hadley - really moving smoothly. Did his usual stoppage work and featured regularly in link play with the odd skill error like everyone else. The McLean trade has motivated him to work even harder and he looks to be flying. Will get a gig ahead of McLean if this continues, but might just be the beneficiary of McLean's current work load.

Warnock - just got better in every aspect as the game went on. Clearly relished the opportunity to tandem with Kreuzer as the only two rucks in the team. Has superb hands and great decision making and he is surprisingly slick with the ball in hand. We seem to have three ruckmen on the list who can genuinely rove their own taps, which is utterly frightening. Looked a handful up forward with his height, acceleration and leap. Put his hand up to play alongside Krezuer today.

Robinson - another good game from Robbo, continually does team stuff that makes you clap, then fires out the odd piece of stellar play on top of that. Back to business for him after trying to do the low percentage thing every time late last season. I still don't rate his pace and I fear he isn't good enough to create real havoc in the regular season. Mean side-step though. Another pre-season or two and he will cause headaches through the midfield drifting forward and back. For now, not quite in our 22. Motor is better than last year but you can tell it won't last the season.

Yarran - another fine game from him despite the crowd protests. Played second fiddle in the small forward role to Eddie and didn't particularly push into midfield but he really went about his decision making well when in possession and caused his fair share of forward pressure. The closest thing I saw to a squib was kicking the ball off the deck when in the thick of a bunch of players after the ball had spilled from a contest, but he was fending off a Lions player. Nothing wrong with this kid at all. Will feature round 1.

Browne - enjoyed his game again and played a mixture of dropping deep in midfield and HB. Not quite there for HB as I've said repeatedly and his disposal is suffering at present, but those who have ever watched him in the real stuff know he is an above average kick. Not worried at all about his progression and am pleased to know when a few midfielders inevitably go down through the season, we can safely rely on a contribution from Stephen. Improved endurance is a feature.

O'hAilpin - Our best forward for 2 of the 3 quarters I watched. Happily rotated between FF & CHF and didn't miss a beat. Set up plenty of play by being ready for a grab or a crumb and can be pleased with his performance. The aforementioned 'fading' in this thread was his spells on the bench. Was dog tired after the intraclub and missed the first NAB game so is still working his fitness base up, and that may prove tricky in his battle for CHF with Hendo.

Bower - another great game, rotated with the usual suspects to cause problems for Fev & Brown, who secured about 3 goals between them off frees. In the regular season the umpires would be up to speed and it would have been maybe 1 conceded, and that's without factoring in the tired ones Bower et al gave away today. As clean as a performance as you could expect defensively in my book. Pushing off HB he is in a league of his own. Great to watch.

Betts - yep BOG. Still made a few errors but was absolutely electric, and kept it up all game. Eddie is set for a big year. Looked in great shape, and his touch is coming together. Motivated like never before. Did a better Simmo than Simmo today; collected the ball up on the wing, disposed, then pushed quickly into the forward 50 to receive and goal.

Henderson - as predicted he looked more comfortable either at CHF or in a more open forward line, and got better as the game wore on. Snuck in two goals and an assist in the last to round out a game where he had worked for four quarters unrewarded on the scoreboard. One B. Fevola would have finished a similar game with 0.3 and a fifty on his sheet. 10 years at CHF, lock it in. Anyone still naming him at FF, don't. When it's congested, he gets bumped out of a pack at this point. Everything else from him is superb, although he's not a confident kick at goal. That will take a little time. The fickle bunch will like what they saw today.

Anderson - played mostly tall today and did a good job, especially judging the flight, but still lacks the attributes he needs at his size, most notably his ability to do more damage in possession. Doing his value no harm though with this performance, and happy to see that even the lower rung of our list can play a role.

Scotland - His usual self, playing on all the flanks and midfield roles offered and doing some good work. Not a feature role today but I suspect that was under instruction in co-ordination with the coaching and fitness/performance staff. In good nick.

Thornton - as he always is nowadays. Great player, and every time I think of trading him he goes up a cog. Still might do it when he's 29 though.

Houla - solid if somewhat unspectacular, skills are up to notch and his fitness seems ok but was just getting miles in the legs for most part. Bit part player who looked to be moving the ball around in close then pushing up to make a link option to distribute to the forwards. Will be fine for round 1 now.

Wiggins - I would label him our weakest player today, however he was still very solid. Featured everywhere forward of HB, and will be solid if called upon. Still a very average set shot however which is a shame because he is otherwise a handful up forward. Not best 22 material IMO.

Jamison - mostly played on Fev and gave him a bath. Great to watch, and is ready to shut down many forwards this year. Absolutely crucial to our fortunes given Waite needing to be played forward and Austin's injury status.

Carrazzo - solid if unspectacular as well. Will settle into the defensive forward turned midfielder role as he fine tunes his disposal for the season proper. Fitness levels are excellent.

Joseph - more prominent early on today and featured in a forward role at times. Just doing his usual stopping role otherwise. I'm sure he's burdened under a heavy training load like a few others given his supreme fitness. Regularly involved in moving the ball around by hand and short pass when on the field.

If I've been a bit sketchy on our more inside players it's because I like to sit a bit lower to the ground and sometimes miss the centre square action, but we absolutely dominated them in that respect. No Black, no Brisbane as far as I'm concerned.

Away from that, really happy with the midfield instructions away from "avoid the corridor" component. We ensure that all our mids and HBs don't just follow their opponents into our F50, dropping off and sitting back in a zone in midfield as I've been asking for from them for some time. My only issue is that it's perhaps a little too defensive; Joey had a huge option to receive and dispose or shoot for goal at one stage when we were heading to the Legends stand end and just sat there in space, which actually put the guy in possession under pressure. Bit silly, but nothing too dramatic.

Everything looks in good shape as well tune up for Richmond. Be afraid Tiges, be very afraid.

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

Marvellous effort Jimmae...

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!".................

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Be positive to all those @ TC- the wait is almost over!

I arrived half way through 2nd quarter - & my brief observations as follows:

My 3-2-1 would be Betts-Mitch R-Judd or Walker

- Betts played a blinder out of the forward line, looks as if he may also finally have the fitness to rotate through midfield
- Mitch Robinson was my shining light today, he just kept going & going & going - breajks the lines like noone else in our team, except Juddy of course
- Walker played a very good link-man role through the middle 50 - & his skills were pretty good
- The Backline - played really well together - thornton, jamo, bower, russell, houlihan & aaron joseph seem to be the settled 6 - although AJ will likely tag throughout year & armfield, browne & anderson will fight for a spot in that back 6 - plus waite.
- The midfield in the 2nd half - very impressive, worked extremely well together - judd, walker, simmo, mclean, houlihan, robinson etc all very good
- Hendo presented well

Disappointments:
- missed first qtr & a half. But the final 2 & hakf qtrs I watched, Carlos was poor - which disappoints me. I've been a big fan over the years. But to me, he just does not seem to have the aerobic capacity to play AFL footy. In the 2nd half, he just did not do enough for a key forward. Took 1 chest mark & gave away a goal. But that was abouyt it. Has a frustrating habit of just standing around in the forward 50 even though the ball may be in the vicinity. And if/when the opposition look to make a break, does not seem aerobically capable to apply the necessary defesive pressure. He reckons he's had his best pre-season - you could've fooled me.

- I'm worried how we'll go in first 3 rounds w/o Judd - he was the spark that got us going in 2nd half

- Gibbs was OK - but not flying like he can - hopefully just a practice game thing - & he'll turn it on against Tiges in round 1

my personal view mirrors much of this ...

kruze is still 12 months away from really stamping his authority on a game. will be awesome once it all comes together. at the moment is just a semi-micro-something away from having things come off.
hendo is too, but liked his work-rate and his team-oriented approach. much better as a leading forward than as a stay at home body player.
yarran will be one of those players that will leave you asking for more. reckon we will have to get used to it until the penny really drops with him. his skills are sublime, his hands so clean that the game is just too easy for him. breeds laziness and lack of consistency. manufactured a goal in the 3rd qtr out of nothing purely as a result of clean hands and footy smarts.
robbo gives us something we really need ... a guy who demands to be involved in every contest. he got stuck in no-mans land a couple of times in the 3rd qtr while playing as a HFF but really got his hands dirty as a mid-fielder and loved the way he was prepared to take the game on.
mclean was busy but inefficient.
hadlee was cleaner than mclean but was largely played out of position. saw him on the wing for much of the 2nd half.
walker / carrots / russell got a lot of it but butchered a lot of ball IMHO. how russell can be given kick-in duties beggars belief, especially given the fact we're not as well-drilled as other teams.
carrots and scotland seem to have an decision-making crisis. they don't seem to know if they're meant to shepherd, be the man-on, take the man on, take the 1st option. dare i say it, but to me points to a lack of cohesion with the "game plan".
gibbs is in 2nd gear. and that's the thing, he just seems still stuck in 2nd gear. i'm hoping he moves through the gears a bit cos that 50 m flat drop punt pass to hendo in the 3rd was fantastic. if this guy is setting up forward plays then we'll be in good hands.
simmo and betts were fantastic. simmo did lots of gut-bust running, even more impressive considering he has missed recent match practise games. betts was buzzing around up forward like a battery that was never gonna run out of power. wish he had been moved into the middle just to give us more intensity / pace in the guts.
thought setanta was good in the contesting and 2nd efforts dept. gave a couple of goal assists.
jammo just showed how good his closing speed is. was able to keep step with fev, no mean feat!!
just on fev, was the recipient of a couple of soft frees!! throughout all i thought it was fev that the umps hated, but perhaps it was carlton ...
bower just looks ready to take the next step. not sure the 3 talls at the back works though. is bower going to play as a matiner style rebounding HBF?

the midfield picked today is probably going to be the one that runs out onto the ground in late march. it still seems a tad slow to me. also, at times it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of set-up around the stoppages. at one stage in the 3rd qtr we had no-one at the back of the pack in brisbane's F50. clarke won the tap and flicked it behind to an unmanned proud who fortunately missed the snap.

there's obviously lots of stuff i missed, but a few beers at the great northern, including a chat with princes park whistler, have dulled the memory a bit ...

fev copped a bit of booing and quite a few rasberries from a good crowd. in the last qtr the mob down at the old heatley stand end subjected him to "fev is a wanker" chants.

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... 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 ...

As you'd expect in modern footy, players were rotated through the backline at different times - but Jamo, T-Bird, Bower, JR & Joey looked like our core group, with Scotland, Browne and others rotated through there at different times.

JR, T-Bird & Scotland handled our kick-ins.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

[youtube]FVPH_5h0-bs[/youtube]

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Hey we won.

I've been moving house for 7hrs today, had to buy a bloody pre-paid Telstra Next-G card just to avoid going a day without TC.

Now I have 50 billion pages to read ... hmmm.. unpack or TC ...... tough choice that considering my back is now right royally fruit caked.

I look forward to reading the negative nelly posts.

Russell and Houla for the most part I think.

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

Guys - when you see a player who has been at our club for 3 or more seasons in a pre-season game and ponder that he seems a little laconic at times or is having some issues with his kicking, remember these simple things:

1. He's doing pre-season training, where players build their fitness for the season proper. In this day and age that means their workload between games is bumped up something fierce.

2. He's been focussing a bit more on physical work than skills compared to what will happen in the season proper. This will shift over the next fortnight.

3. The staff have a massive impact on the play in the pre-season as they shift players around to try new roles, develop roles or test theories about the team assembled and how they can structure. On top of this, fitness staff have an even bigger say on rotations and game workloads. Why? No one gives a stuff about the result.

So why are Judd, Kreuzer, McLean et al looking a little off the pace? Because they're burning it up on the track and eyeing off the real stuff. Judd's fitness base is going to be huge this year because he'll be mucking around until round 4. Round 4! Imagine.

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

Happy New House Rafa!
May you have many carlton wins to celebrate there.

_________________
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.”

Fantastic game reports all! Much appreciated!

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