Both of you are doing a good job of kicking players before they've even debuted and settled into senior football.

See the rhetoric posted about Yarran last year.

Or Kennedy when he was at Carlton.

We want skills, but you also want toughness as well.

Trade Gibbs for a hardnut and then trade Davies for a skilled player.

Lucas has been better than Fyfe, but pinged two hamstrings.

Where's the love for Hughes?

Im not digging Davies, or even Hughes.
I'm taking a dig at the brief given to the recruiters.
I rate accurate kicking highly on what I want from our recruits, and not many would deny kicking would be Davies' main weakness.
2006 draft Gibbs was the only good kick we picked in the ND and we had 3 inside top 20 in a super draft. 4 years later Gibbs remains the only good kick, and the only one selected in the ND to make a serious impact so far.
I have been a Yarran fan and was a huge JK fan.
I'm not impressed with our trading though.
You might be happy with Brock for #11, but I'm not. Before his injury I saw him in the practice games. Too slow injured or not, considering his skill set. Swans got R. Shaw for next to nothing
Swans paid less for Mummy than we did for Warnock. We are far from league leaders in getting value in our trades.
In recent years what have we given for Saddington, Hadley,Warnock,Judd, Brock?.....too much for the output they have given us. Bullants strong, Carlton list over rated by supporters here, unbalanced with holes and with a fair bit of dead wood still. The Fev trade was our winner and that only happenned bcoz he imploded.

Where's the love for Hughes ?......he was appointed when we were broke wasn't he?....there is talk about the process for Ratt's appointment, who did we interview for the rec. mgr position out of curiosity ? Did Pratt's philosophy of targeting best not "best available" apply when a broke Carlton offered WH the job?
His ND record outside of 1st rounders is pretty poor with only Bower having total team security and Armfield close.
If you think he is the best recruiter out there you are entitled to your opinion, but I reckon there are blokes out there most clubs would rate a little higher.
Anyway with Army,Hammer,Jamison,Walks,AJ,Grigg, Carrots all in the 22 ATM I reckon we have enough players already that struggle to hit targets consistantly. Then Setant turns it over a bit when he plays also. MK and Sauce not above avge with their kicking either.

Dream on if you think Hughes has compiled us a list with the talent to take us top 4.
Anyway I think he is dilligent, hard working and has done his best so I am grateful for his effort and commitment.

Not sure about how others feel, but to me it looked like none of our players wanted to be there. For the most part this team is consistently showing lack of heart, lack of accountability, lack of passion, lack of support for teammates.

One effort where Joseph run about 50 metres to put a block on so Garlett (I think it was him) could continue an attacking run down the wing exemplified the type of support that ALL of our players need to be showing. There maybe one or two other examples of this type of "teamwork" but the simple fact of the matter is, there is not enough of it.

I am also sick and tired of the consistent unaccountability of players. Numerous times our players let there man run off them and create. It seems most try to play some kind of mickey mouse zone, which ineveitably allows a good 15 metres space for their direct opponent.

Tackling is another skill this team struggles with. How many times did we see limp attempts at tackling? Funnily enough if all you have got is a little love tap on someones arm as they are running with the ball, they are going to break your meek attempt at a tackle. Happens far too often. These players need to HTFU plain and simple.

Overall, I found this effort insipid, heartless, spineless, pasionless, hopeless. A devastingly dissapointing effort, which really made my heart sink.

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Cripps is the man

Ah Jeeze, thrashed in the first quarter again! How long now since we've won a first quarter? Weren't even in front at the first break against the Brisbane Bruins, and if they'd kicked straighter.... A lot of the problem is obviously between the ears and at whose feet do you lay that issue?

I wonder how much longer Judd can stand up, we just lack hard, inside players to help him. We recruit Hadley and Mclean for this reason (shrug) maybe in the end they'll deliver, but right now it's hard to see it happening.

Rats says to the media "well none of you guys even thought we'd make the finals". I suppose what else could he say, but he's fooling no one. He makes the eight and wins a final or he's gone and he knows it.

Before the Geelong game on 774 I heard Sticks say that Brittain (Is that how you spell his name? How quickly we forget) had wanted to get rid of Fev. I can't help thinking that would have been a good move. Players with his attitude can be a cancer in a club, it would have set the agenda for the future, no one is bigger than the club, do the wrong thing and you're out etc. And as was seen prior to the start of the season with the "booze cruise" we are still plagued with lack of discipline off field, which can/will flow on to effect on field performance. Incidentally in the same interview, when asked how Carlton would go against Geelong Sticks said it would be "boys against men" way to go Prez!

But as has been said elsewhere including by me, if you can't get the fundementals right, all the well thought out plans in the world will be for nought. Oh God I'm sick of complaining year after year about our lamentable kicking skills!

Well I feel better now having got that off my chest. I would suspect like most here I was born a Blues supporter and I'll die one, there's nothing that will ever change that.

As far as I can recall none of our players have done anything stupid off-field since the start of the season, so that's an improvement!

Waite didn't get reported

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NG
S M C , S F L

I don't want to hear "We need to support Judd more" again.
He is as responsible for our malaise as anyone.
He needs to stop playing like someone who thinks he's not getting any support and see himself as 1 of 22 players.

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T E A M

+1

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STURDYISM!!

I agree (someone started a thread about tackling last night, shame it got merged). Let's face it tackling has been an issue at this club for almost a decade. When we appointed Libba I though we were on our way to fixing it (that went well ).

We seem to be indecisive when 2 of our players go to the opposition ball carrier. Too often one goes to tackle (misses) while the other hangs back between the opponent & the opponent's target, and time after time they still get the ball away!!!

The good sides like the Hawks know how to swarm the ball carrier & give him no room...it's something we've only shown in patches, & very little the last 6 weeks.

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#DonTheStash

Hawks and Saints play that rolling zone, we play the twilight zone.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Really noticed how the Hawks go about that pressuring by one guy going for the tackle and at the same time another guy reading where the handball might go and pressuring the intended receiver.
It creates a total breakdown of play in which they quickly regain possession. Smart team football.

And keeping their feet. How many times do we go to ground just way too easily in contests? I realise the surface is crapp but i didn`t notice too many Sydney players going down.

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Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Lucky, for a while there, I thought I was to blame.

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T E A M

Yeah right they didn't hear the boos.

Worst part of the match for me was Lucas doing a hammy while trying to take the game on.

2nd worst part: why do we try to kill the clock late in the first quarter every week when the game is over? Why not do it when we're two goals down and have no momentum? That's the idea of tempo footy right?

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

That's right and the doggies didn't really have an issue last week either.
It's a clear indication of unsuitable footwear which needs to be addressed with NIKE as a matter of urgency.

Yeah, its Judds fault. The sooner he starts playing like the other 21 the better off we'll be. Yeah, all that, getting his own contested possessions is a disgrace, who does that guy think he is?, Wayne Johnstone. Boo hoo, so he gets tagged by the best tagger every week for 7 years, and still win club B&F, Brownlows and Norm Smiths.

What we need are more Carrazzo's , guys who can get 47 stats a game without a tag. Now theres a dangerous footballer.

Dear oh dear.


And just for the record, he had 9 tackles. HMMMMMMmm

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I hope Essendon* folds.

About the same as we kicked to a Bulldog player last week..........unbelievable for so called Senior players.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

While we definitely fell over more, both teams took their share of tumbles. If the club have been trying to use long stops to address the issue of shifting turf, that would go a long way to explaining our form.

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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.

He needed to shepherd for Yarran in the 1st qtr?