Welcome back to pros and cons for 2010

The first 10 minutes was a pleasant surprise, then it all came back to Earth. Playing Richmond Round 1 every year is a nice little ‘free kick’ for the club. You can only beat your opposition.

PROS

1. Kreuuuuuuuuuz – elevating himself as a genuine gun. Freak.

2. Yarran – Good chase, good offense. Best game for club.

3. Betts – Consistent and reliable.

4. Neater ball movement – We were more fluid with our switches and ball movement which was nice to see.

5. Midfield options – McLean was good in and under, Murph and Gibbs are gold, Carrazzo has a massive motor. We have enough to rotate well.

CONS

1. Disposal – Atrocious at times. Main offenders off HBF were Bower and Russel (who did a lot of good work), Carrots and Scotland as well with some shockers. We can’t afford to play a short passing game with kicking like that.

2. Running to fill the holes at the back – still lacks. We jog for the first few seconds after a turnover and get burnt. The reflex action should be SPRINT BACK, fill the hole.

3. Joey Anderson - Nyet. Sorry.

4. I want to stick more tape on Jamo’s shoulder I’m so scared it’s gonna pop.

5. Warnock’s tap work is not near Kreuzer’s and it’s notable at the clearances when the big number 8 is off. To be fair to Warnock - first game for ages. It should get better.

You don’t say no to a 9 goal win. Well done Blues. The true challenges await.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

pros

Forward line

cons

didn't win by 100 points

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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!

Pros -

Great to get some added match fitness to Murph, Waite and Warnock
Very even performance across the ground
Forward line got greater understanding of each other as game went on (creating space etc)
Midfield and Ruck rotations were spot on tonight
Definitely more unpredictable forward line

Cons -

Caught a bit flat footed at stoppages in latter part of first 2 quarters

I actually thought our disposal was fairly decent for round 1. You're right that it probably was a little careless off HBF at times, but I thought what was really good was some of the short passing into the forward line - when a player had taken a mark 50-60 out we found a target closer to goal really well - Betts' pass to Setanta was superb.

Pros
- McLean. Gets to plenty of contests, uses the ball well by hand under pressure and his tackles stick.
- Russell. Gee he has come on leaps and bounds since being dropped last year. Quality player these days.
- Yarran. The goal he set up for Waite in the 2nd qtr was pure class. Love watching him play and will only get better.
- Henderson looks a player.
- Kreuzer
- Murph

Cons
- Anderson. Not up to AFL standard IMO.
- Walker's kicking letting him down.
- Robinson looked a little slow and ineffective at times

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There is no footy god

PROs
-AJ obliterated Nahas and did a whole lot of extra work to boot
-Eddie and Yazz ran rings around them
-Brock did his job, did it well, and didn't get too exposed
-Warnock and Kreuz are really going to be a formidable combo - ALL PREMIERSHIP TEAMS NEED GREAT RUCK COMBOS
-Gibbs was great, and was able to shut Delidio up when he was threatening to break out
-Tall forwards functioned reasonably well against a short defense
-Murphy and Waite looked good!
-JR was very solid, and ball movement from backline was not too bad (maybe thats more due to Richmond though)

CONS
-Too many out of bounds
-Some bad drop-offs in intensity that will cost us major momentum against good sides
-Some really dumb play-on/run into tackle situations
-Hendo and Setanta are still a big work in progress
-Anderson wasn't great. Don't think he was awful, but hard to justify his place ahead of Armfield, Davies or Lucas
-Backline didn't have a great game. Wouldn't read too much into it, but they weren't flash at all
-Walker still fluffing his kicks big time
-Forward pressure was not consistent enough

All in all a great win. Possibly the most important game of the season in terms of our finals hopes.
Now we have one on the board, with some momentum to try and beat at least one of Brisbane or Essendon* (dare we say both?) before Judd comes back.
If we had lost, we would struggle to get our confidence back up I think, and we could have been 0 and 9.
Such a key game even though they turned out to be a rabble in the end

-Henderson showing glimpses; just needs more time; at times tries to take a chest mark on the lead which allows the defender to spoil; like Setanta needs to extend his arms out so he gets a free kick/gives himself a better chance of marking.
-Carrots leadership, won a lot of contested ball; still burned it occassionally but clearance work was good
-Scooter good run out of defence; won't get such an easy ride like that every week though.
-JR and Bower - both now have the confidence if they're third man up to actually mark it instead of spoiling.
-Murphy got better as the game went on; no sign of soreness
-Brock much better and cleaner, good decision maker and won lots of 50/50 contests. Did his job to feed the ball out to the runners
-Kreuzer and Warnock both quite good although against fairly average opposition. We can now play lots of tricks at forward 50 throw ins with 2 ruckmen there. Warnock occassionally made a clanger but made up for it with a smother or tackle. Some of the tap work was impressive, with both the rucks palming the ball a long way out of the inner circle for someone to run onto.
-Waite - couldn't ask much more first game back.
-Robbo didn't get a lot of it but provided a lot of defensive pressure.
-Setanta and Yarran lively up forward.

Cons:
-Walker will be rusty but kicking still exposed at times along with Carrots, Anderson and AJ.
-Anderson struggles at times with the tempo; I guess we can only see if he improves with further gametime.
-Goals conceeded in time on still a concern.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

1. We played better than I thought we would.
2. We have a lot of class in the side now.
3. We don't need Fev anymore.
4. We have a lot of upside still to come.

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Silvagni

Pros

Won by 56 - would have taken a point

Grunt work of Mclean early

Carrazzo -fitting captain and 100 games off the rookie list

Multi dimensional forward line -yazz betts setanta hendo

Performance of waite and murphy after long lay off in pre-season

tackles in forward line
Scotland and houlihan very good
rucks dominant -warnock a bit rusty and needs more game time after 18 months out of game

Agree with Kreuz could end up being our best player

Send off for Richo nice touch by the Carlton supporters

Sorry dont agree about Anderson thought he was ok -disposal and decision making needs some work but quick committed and can play in a number of positions

Russell apart from that one errant pass to mclean was cool effeicient and creative off the half back line

Cons

time on periods for first and second quarters diabolical
The holding of the ball aloft to slow game down immeduiately signalss the other side will get a couple of goals in a row

Kicking for goal in second half

Umpiring 20 free kicks to 11 at three quarter time -when we were first in for the ball -does not make sense

Its always funny how one person's cons are another's pros

pros
Yarran - Preseason did him the world of good - he was able to think through situations
Kreuzer - When he was in the middle we looked in conrol
Russell - When he makes a mistake it is glaring but he is only making a mistake 5% of the time so 95% great
Jarrad Waite back
Confidence to kick backwards and spread the opposition - also seemed to have time on our hands

cons
red time goals
Mitch Robinson - what does he bring to the team on the field?
Warnock - nothing good comes from Freo. His ruckwork was atrocious and at one stage Simmonds took two jumps and still beat him. His around the ground was OK but I thought his decision making was slow. BUT good to see him get through a game. I still prefer Hammer at this stage. Probably could use some Bullants experience

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Oh I can't believe I forgot this one! It's probably my number 1 CON for the night.

We could've gone for the jugular in Q1, all over em. instead some clown puts the ball in the air and our momentum gets drained.

The problem is if you're gonna play keepings off you have to run HARDER to create options and space. But the second we put the ball in the air our players STOP RUNNING because they think they don't have to anymore. And then we turn it over.

Really stupid execution of a potentially valid tactic, and the opposition also read it by pressing up and blocking the short pass.

Need to keep running..............always

_________________
They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

Pros

Eddie. He never slowed down at all, which shows how much fitter he is..........THANK YOU BOOZ CRUIZE (they just had to fit that into the pre game promo didn't they ). Ran rings around them.

Setanta - the new Earl ?

206. Yeah he was a bit rusty and sometimes didn't use his height at ruck contests, but gee he covers some territory and is pretty good around the ground (runs to the right spots), and he's well...........206. Definitely a cult figure in the making. Sadly looks like Sauce to GC now

Yaz. Like Eduardo, improved fitness has made a massive difference. Kid can play

Bowerbird, Russell, Jamo, Thornton..........and we have no backline ?

Brock the extractor. Juddy will be salivating

Krooz, a 200cm ruck rover

A guy can get 41 possies and not get the Viera. Well done Carrots


Cons

Junk time goals. Shoulda won by 80+



ps, I thought Ando was ok and showed a bit, but disposal needs work. JR used to have the same attributes ?

Pros
Murphy & Waite got through unscathed, and both contributed very well.
Debutants all showed some glimpses.
Henderson - he's only played a handful of games remember - showed us what his upside will be when fully developed.
Warnock surprised me with his second efforts.
McLean was better when it mattered, that is, in the real season and not the Mickey Mouse Cup.
Very even performance across the board, in all sections of the team (defenders, mids, fwds).
A blistering start, matched (generally) by good starts in all quarters.

Cons
Judd was well held.
Carrots probably won't get that NRS nomination.
Seemed to run our of puff at the end of quarters, at least while the game was still a quasi-contest.
Still leaked a few red-time goals, but we scored a few too.
I wasn't at the game.

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Pros
The look on Richo's face in the crowd at around the 54 point mark.
Defensive pressure in the forward line.
Commitment to the footy
A great solid win to start the season.
Setanta shepherding two Richmond players to give Eddie a shot at goal.

Cons
Hardwick building a team of dirty snipers in his own image.
Richmond being rewarded time and time again for ducking their heads when caught with the ball

This moronic play-switching in the back line is really going to screw us over if we are not careful.

Pros:

First up win is always good
Multiple options in attack make us look dangerous
Warnock, Murphy, Yarran and Waite getting through and contributing well
Judd to come into that side.
Players such as Austin, Garlett, Grigg, Hampson, Hadley, Lucas, Armfield will need to earn their spots.
A fit Eddie!!!!!
Gibbs poise under pressure.
Henderson did some nice things. Like his workrate.

Cons:

Jamisons shoulders. Still looks injured to me.
Walker. Ratts need to find him a spot in defence or attack and leave him there. Lost on the ball and shouldnt use his left foot.
Time on goals. A problem last year as well that needs to be improved.
Scotland needs to stay off his left foot.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

Pros.
Blew off the dust in Rd1 with big win
4 pts.
Confidence builder for many
To Jim from sunbury who earbashed me at a Party last Sunday about Yarra vs Rich and what a mistake we made. Chew me.
People will pay big money to watch Special K play in years to come .................and even from Round 2 of 2010. I know I will.

Cons.
Many were rusty but got the job done well in the end.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Pros

Eddie.
Fantastic, great work rate. too unselfish at times
Yarran
Sensational pace when he wants to use it. Good evasion and skills
JR
Fantastic out of the back half. He is confident, quick and highly skilled. It's great to see him finally realise it.
McLean
Great grunt work. Tackles, harrasses and most importantly, gets the ball into the hands of our skilled runners. Great debut
Kruezer and warnock
I love the second and third efforts of these guys. Very skilled for big men as well.
Henderson
Presents, chases, instructs and has great repeated efforts. He'll be a beauty.
Hoops
Hasn't rated many mentions but his ability to pick the ball up of the deck in a contested situation directly resulted in about 3 goals for us.
Bower.
Great value. He will stuff up a few but give me a risk taker over a stopper any day.

Cons
The Tigers efforts at ducking their head everytime they were confronted with a tackle. And what's worse, the umpires fell for it.
Jamos inability to get through the game unscathed.



Russells skills were atrocious at times?
AFAIC, 95% of his disposals were fantastic. seriously, SV, you'd find someones pay packet in the street and whinge about how much tax you paid.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Pro:

After about ten minutes, when Waite had kicked a goal and Henderson had kicked a goal and McLean had kicked a goal and Setanta had kicked a goal and Eddie had kicked a goal, and it was obvious the team was sharing the ball in the forward 50, all those numbnuts who've been moaning "who's gunna kick carlton's goals now" had their answer.

If we still had Fev, I reckon we still would've kicked around 18 goals. The only difference is we don't have one guy kicking 8 himself anymore.

Yeah yeah, we were playing a rabble. But at least it shows that the team is capable of scoring from multiple options, and being smart about it. Naturally it'll get tougher when we play the good sides.

Con:

Jeez, I worry about Jamo's shoulders. Especially when he decides to be one of the two guys to chair off Thornton...

We know what the tigers were practising all summer - it wasn't kicking or marking, it was ducking their heads. They did it really well .

Pros
- I went to game of footy for the first time in many years and knew that every bloke on the field was going to give and give and give. I didn't have to worry about a sook bringing down the entire team .
-Eddie!!!!!!!! I love this guy.
-Yazza is brilliant!
- Kreuz and Warnock are brilliant together - monsters!

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end of message

Pros
We play Richmond twice this year.