That was funny!! but really NOT the way to turn things around nowadays. Note the comment at the end "England lost 4-0" i.e. the spray did not work.

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

Totally showed up by a really inexperienced Essendon* side that delivered the same old game plan that surprised no-one except our coaches. We went shockingly wide and short. No-one seemed to be clear on what we are doing. Ill disciplined. Too many players pointing at each other and arguing which indicates lack of leadership and cohesion on field, lack of game plan or understanding of game plan and lack of strength and authority off the field. More excuses trotted out from Ratts. Apparently the players should be ashamed of themselves - no argument from me there. How about the coaches Ratts, what are they required to do? We need a hard man like Lyon in charge who has his side, including many ordinary players, playing with intensity, discipline and cohesion totally lacking in our team.

Walker as a key defender I think is a reasonable move, but Walks lacks the dash and intensity he showed before his injury, and the defenders seem to spend a lot of time being angry with each other. Gibbs needs to stop drifting on talent alone and look at J Selwood and try and be as intense as him. McLean and Warnock need time (for Warnock time in the 2s) but when you recruit players from other sides you need to get it right. Time will tell whether Brock was worth a #11 pick when Ball was only worth #30 and Hadley #55. He needs to be miles better than both them. And Warnock will need to be a star to be worth 2 picks when we already had Hammer and Sauce.

One positive, I though Kane Lucas made a tremendous debut and will be in the side most of the year.

After a promising start we now face another side we have had no idea against. 1-8 is looking a real possibility.

Well, I am really ashamed to admit I had a great night. We had been invited into a small box by a friend of Jimmy Buckley and Jimmy is a total legend. He was so nice and fun and he was absolutely marvelous with my son and his cousin (see photo). He had Sherrins for the boys and took them to other boxes to meet some other past players and get their autographs on their footballs. This included Diesel and others. If we had won he would have taken hem to the rooms.



I can report that Dylan Buckley is going really well and looking forward to being drafted next year. Jimmy is proud as punch. Dylan is now Captain for Victoria in his age group. He is currently 16 and 6 ft tall. Jimmy says he has great speed and skill and will be a good midfielder.

I had the feeling that Jimmy and quite a few people around the club are a bit concerned about Ratts in spite of loving and respecting him.

I had to go to a function after the game and ran into Nick Stevens. We had a good chat. Nick looked in great shape and has not let himself go at all. He stated that he is still furious to have been forced to end his career early due to the neck and he misses playing terribly. I did not want to press him on Ratts but asked him how a group can play suddenly so badly in a big game like this. Nick said "footy is a crazy game" and explained that we all know that 80% is above a shoulders and a "false" start to a game can just make it impossible to get back mentally. He said at this level and the frantic pace of the modern game it can be very hard to understand how stuff like this happens if you haven't played and then it does still surprise. Between the lines it sounded like the Bombers do have a psychological advantage on us - which might indicate that the coaching staff has not been doing such a good job.

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

I think we are the only side that still does this. It was cutting edge stuff about 3 years ago. To me it sends the message to the opposition that we think they are right on top and we are struggling to cope with it.
Among the many disappointments for me was Knights was able to execute the same game plan, that we can not counter, with reduced personnel.
I just can`t understand the thinking behind the high possession game with so many unskilled players. Inevitably there will be a turnover which results in the opposition running the ball through the corridor for a shot in front. Compare where Brisbane and Essendon* took their shots from to our avenues for goal.
While i don`t think Knights is a mastermind either, his gameplan of quick direct movement is one we should embrace. At least their players look like they know what they are supposed to be doing out there.

And then we moved the ball forward and had a chance to score. It doesnt mean what it use to !!!!

The bombers killed the clock at the end of one quarter also. Winderlich gave a fist signal. It was something they didnt do in earlier rounds and it cost them goals and games. They will be happy with the fact they now use that tactic.

qft

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

yes scotland. it's about making a statement. if you dont want to put your head over the footy or run both ways then @#$%&! off to the reserves to rot.

we have to many passengers.

Gez, Scotland ran the other way, as evidenced by his 4 or 5 rebound 50s, and several tackles, also a few intercepts.

Busted his gut out there.

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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.

Doesn't matter. Burn them all they say.... Doomsday!!! The end of the club......

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

Scotland definitely put his head over the ball...Yarran avoided contact on two occasions a split-second prior to the contest, but he wasn't alone.

Freo have given the competition a football lesson. Irrespective of whether they slide or not as the season progresses, you win the respect of the football public and spectators of sport playing that brand. What a fantastic game. True entertainment.

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--------------------------------------------------------"The only one that could ever love me..."

It is going to take me a lot of time to get over that disgraceful lost

How can we let a bunch of kids run us around like that?

Because we are a bunch of insipid, lazy, pack of imposters. We disgraced the guernsey last night and Ratts has officially lost me. He had no excuses if he lost that game. And he did. Useless prick!

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C'mon Blueboys!

Hi Mikkey, also was in a box last night and Jimmy Buckley walked into ours.. From the pic of the kids I think you were in the box next to us, we were in box r77 (I think) and I think I can recall seeing those two kids, mind you I did consume a bit as you do so the memory/image is not quite the same.

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31-3-2015 - R.I.P AFL, corrupted lying pricks
12-5-2015 - Go WADA
18-8-2015 - Suffer Hird* u lying flower
12-1-2016 - CAS goes bang, happy new year.. Drugcheats forever..

Till this hour I'm still disgusted and disappointed and this post expressed my emotions to the letter. Nothing else to add.

It was evident in the first five minutes of the game that we mentally hadn’t turned up. Hadn’t turned up with the intensity required to be able to execute the things needed to win a game such as contested possession. The expectation from each player seemed to be on someone else doing the hard work.

We looked like boys against men in the first quarter, especially at the centre bounces. Kreuzer played as though he believed the hype from Garry Lyon’s article. Not only did he drop relatively easy marks but he was pushed out of the contest as though he was a twig. The worst game he has played for the club. However it shows the ability and work ethic he normally shows. Besides the dropped marks however was the way he was outmuscled by Hille. Hille has about 8 more pre seasons than Kreuzer but Kreuzer had to be more competitive than he was. Hille made space for Watson who was able to stroll around the stoppages with little pressure on him whatsoever.

And this gets on to Watson’s opponent in the first quarter. Bryce Gibbs has a shitload of talent; but it means @#$%&! all if he isn’t prepared to work his arse off, be accountable and feed the ball out himself.

It isn’t last year where he can plant himself on the defensive side of the centre square and take 12 uncontested marks every week. He needs to WORK instead of bludging around half back. A supposed finger injury does not prevent you from running. He needs to instigate something when things aren’t going our way. Don’t count on someone else doing it.

When we did win the ball we butchered it but it should be of no surprise to anyone given the players we rely on to bring the ball out of defence such as Armfield, Walker and Carrazzo. I admire Armfield’s defensive ability but he should be giving the ball off to someone who has the ability to hit a target. Similar with Walker. Andrew Walker playing in defence, as I mentioned during the pre season, is a liability. You cannot continually run past for the handball receive when more often than not you will turn the ball over with poor disposal. Ratten surely has seen enough to realise you play him where his turnovers won’t cost us – up forward. Forget about him being out of the game for so long, his poor disposal/decision making has been evident for a long time.

The kicking was so predictable in that we would kick it on the heads of the leading player – they would have to prop/stop and then the scum defender would come over the top and spoil. However when you have butchers trying to deliver the ball you are always at risk of turning it over.

Jarrad Waite is severely lacking in confidence and as much as I don’t rate his decision making/kicking he just needs to keep getting games under his belt. Would have liked him to have played on Gumby and be led to the ball…Gumby isn’t that quick that Waite would have been exposed.

Now onto the coaching side – Heath Hocking played on Brett Thornton for a fair portion of the game. Thornton would let Hocking drift up the ground, allowing Hocking to be the link man about six times when Essendon* rebounded out of defence. Hocking has a football brain and set his running teammates like Dempsey up through the middle of the ground.

How we could allow a linkman with a football brain to set up THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE GROUND. Knights knew Thornton wouldn’t follow Hocking up through the middle so he instructed Hocking to drift up and feed it out to his runners.

With the complete lack of pressure we applied on the likes of Dempsey, Thornton became completely ineffective as a loose man in defence. Reminded me of the way Nathan Brown was opposed to Thornton a few years back and was allowed to drift up the ground and chop us up going inside 50.

The inability to clog the middle of the ground was pathetic yet so predictable. When you are having an off night you still have the ability to work defensively. You may not have good skills but it doesn’t stop you from being accountable. Surely the coach has to take some responsibility in the post match press conference for the way they were ONCE AGAIN able to slice us up through the middle.

We continually had the ball at half back and had no one to kick to. Even if the ball was in the hands of someone who could kick they would be forced to bomb it down the line to Kreuzer or Hendo and try to force a stoppage. How predictable…how little things seem to have changed. Yarran nearly coughed the ball up because he had to @#$%&! around with it because there was nothing ahead of him!.

All because there is @#$%&! all movement from anyone. I have been to training when Riley has shouted at the players MOVEMENT CREATES MOVEMENT.

Yet when we have the ball at half back we seem scared to move. Why, with all the fitness work and skill work they do would the players remain stationary? No one providing an option.

Surely the coach would have worked on some system to create a loose man – like Knights did with Hocking. We never seem to be able to get someone free coming out of defence except for possibly Bower. Bower cops it from half the Carlton supporting population yet it is his risk taking which creates the movement from other players and allows us to move the ball forward. You have to think it is an inability from our running players to work hard to space or they are so uncertain of any ‘system’ the coach has tried to put in place they remain flat footed. It happens time and time again.

Only positives were the debut of Lucas, and the workrate of Henderson and Simpson.

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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

No.

I'd rather have the priority pick the AFL took us off in 2002 than Fevola.

We had enough forwards to get the job done, but we played into their hands again.

With Judd out, the one thing we need is a leader like Goddard who is able to go forward and kick goals.

And can hit a target lace out from 60 metres.

The laugh is on us after they let us keep our priority pick in the next draft.

Our midfield has no idea. Our coach is out of his depth.

Can we at least show a bit of respect to a Carlton great? Bag his coaching all you like, but Brett Ratten is not useless and is certainly not a prick.

And I loved him in the number 7 - great player. But as a coach he is completely inept and useless. His ramblings and excuses have worn thin and the circumstances of this entire loss are completely inexcusable. The nature of the loss and the dispirited nature of this team are sickening

Where does the buck stop?

Sorry if my comments are harsh, but last night was round 7 2005 for me - when the last coach reached the point of no return

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C'mon Blueboys!

As much as I try not to add fuel to the fire and pretty much sit on the fence and hope the powers to be make the right decisions. I think Ratts is out of his depth. Ratts may be a good coach but not at this level and I think he's getting found out. I coach basketball at domestic and representative level and consider myself a reasonable coach. Some think I'm a fantastic coach. Doesn't mean I'll make a good coach of an NBA team and the same I think applies to Ratts. May be a good coach, but just not at this level.

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Leaders do not care what other people say about them. When people start talking crap about you, thats when you know you've made it

Good post Effes.



We are so static at times it seems the message isn't getting through.

The consistently good performing teams force the issue with their ball movement.
We seem only able to use options the opposition allow us to use.
We very rarely dictate the terms, and with the current coaches being there for nearly 3 years now it's little wonder questions are being asked.