who won or lost pretty irrelevant...

Kurt better cover his arse...

Greg Swann interviwed on CH7 news said that Waite & Murphy got through OK

_________________
Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Was there anything in the Tippett hit against Scotland?

_________________
“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

cant wait to read a report. Crows missing a lot of goo dplayers, I was expecting to dominate the game.

_________________
Koperek.

We did dominate, just kicked poorly.

_________________
“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

I meant from the commentators duc.

Thats most unusual that we kicked poorly

_________________
Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

_________________
“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

in the wrap 5AA commentators suggest only 4 crows to come back in..........we didnt do too bad.

a game is a game and we were in it right to the end!

go blues

...er?

_________________
Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

I saw half the game and my short observation is:

- Skills level is a worry. So is anticipation and work without the ball.
- We persist with going wide and stuff up the attack. Every time we went through the corridor we looked far better and improved the score. No prices for guessing how we played in those periods in the first half when the Crows had a clear lead and how we got back into the game.
- Halfback-line is a worry - many mistakes and turnovers. If Carlos can hold down full-forward, Waite should play CHB.

I really hope that the team has been going on half power - because if what I saw today is the current full dress rehearsal, i.e. the best we can do 2 weeks before the season then we will struggle.

_________________
TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.

My post was i reference to exising;s post about Kurt and the 5AA commentators.

_________________
“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

That mob pantsed us twice last year and acording to the 5AA Comentators the crows were on fire

We lost by a point


Good hit out before round 1

PS Ratten play bloody Hadley we are far better with him in the side

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

only saw the second half - umpiring wasnt great (particularly in the 4th where the crows received 5+ frees in the space of a couple of minutes!)

final score was 83 to 82 from memory with us having a fair few more behinds

Of the players that impressed me
robinson - should have a good year I think - looked reasonable in intra club, nab match, against brissie and today. Will be fairly important to our structure this year. Seems to be kicking regular goals
betts - did some good things. Seems to have more consistent effort than previously which is probably down to improved conditioning
waite - did some nice things though not huge amounts. More just happy to see him out there again
yarran - impressing more each time I see him so he is definitely developing. Played a bit off half back today from what I saw. VERY good composure. There was a play in the 4th quarter where he had the ball and there was no one to kick it to. He retained possession under mild pressure, twisting and turning - took 4 bounces before spearing a good pass when a player finally presented in the midfield
walker - did some good work. Good defensive pressure and physical presence (think he delivered a fairly solid bump to a crows player in the 4th up forward). Some nice kicks as well today.
kreuzer - mr effort
henderson - showed some signs in the 3rd, presented well but will be at least a couple of years away before he starts controlling games I think. Signs are there though, just needs to get bigger/stronger

edit: - cant believe I forgot russell - did some really nice things in the 4th. Will be very good for us this year

I think you'll find his name is GIBBSY.

Some observations from mikkeys observations.

The game today is not really all that irrelevant to the Fev leaving. Skill level and gameplan has not improved from last year and unless there is a dramatic turn around it could be a long year. Why hasn't Ratts learnt from his mistakes last year and picked other coarches brains on gameplans or at the least work out a balance beteween defence and attack?

Interesting observation about work off the ball. Ratts when he was playing was probably the hardest working player in the league. Can't he get it across to his players?

And the kickouts and zoning! If we can see it, what are the coaches looking at.

Or maybe we are just lulling Richmond into a false sense of security before the first round.

_________________
"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

Crows got 3 or four goals that didnt involve footy.

After the first few minutes the blues did pretty good and ended up dominating the game. Silly errors by inexperienced players ended up costing us on the scoreboard.

Russell played a nice game and is now a very good footballer.
Gibbs was all class and BOG for the blues.
Good stuff happens once Bower gets the ball.
Judd was in everything.
Waite worked into the game before having a fantastic last term.
Murf was a little rusty and to me looked sore. Not sure i would risk playing him in round one.
Kreuzer was a man amongst men.
Satanta did well and Henderson also some nice things without dominating.

Over all we played pretty well were still sloppy by hand and foot. The crows choked us at first as they do. Blues tried to hold posession rather than get drawn into their trap. It worked as a tactic but failed when a silly skill error made is look stupid. As the game went on their rolling zone began to get broken down by the blues to the point where we were all over them.

I have a feeling we have an extra cog to go up. Our tackling was at times good but never fantastic. If ratts can get them fired get them to play 100mins of intense football applying relentless pressure we will win plenty of games.

There seem to be two schools of thought from those who were at the game. I wasn't.

The old skill errors and bad game plan raised their ugly heads.

The team acquitted itself well and if not for a few errors by some of the more inexperienced players we probably should have won. In general play we had it over the Crows.

Could anyone give a definitive answer to which is correct or is it a bit of both?

_________________
"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

Only saw second half but random thoughts

One of our best players was Kreuzer - gee he is a good footballer

Highlight in 4th Russell worked it out of congestion in the middle and then banged it long to waite

Gibbs was very creative - still played within himself

Carrazzo plenty of the ball but a bit wasteful

Grigg a lot of hard work but disposal disposal disposal
Hendo presented well in third -good defensive tackle and pressure in 4th

Robbo a presence -still does some silly things but will kick a few goals this year

Surprised gartlett isnt playing could have done with his pace today

Setanta kept presenting kicked a good one -did a lot of bullocking work

Houlihan is much maligned but his disposal is excellent doesnt give it away others do

Eddie is going to be very tired this year if he has to be the lead up forward and goal kicker

Yarran ok -need him closer to goal -got a bit of magic

Hysteria on 3AW after a 1 point loss in a practice match unbelievable-I know I shouldnt listen to such a crap station


Kicking for goal needs work -discipline how many 50 s

Need to be smoother coming out of the backline