I am thankful that the Carlton brainstrust listens to footytalk podcasts because they have taken the tip given to them last year about playing Yarran off half-back to cure his propensity for laziness. A skilled half-back with a tank is going to be invaluable for us this year. I just hope that he runs as hard to get back as he does going forwards. This will be a break out year for him and I tip him for All Australian honours this early in the year..barring injury. I have been extremely critical of him in the past two years because he is lazy - but half-back is definitely the best spot for him. Yarran is the sort of bloke who has the X factor and will be a great avenue out of the hard press that Collingwood puts on in their attacking half. Great ideas from the match committee.

As for Cyril "Said" Rioli.. Who the hell is he. Jeff Garlett with his skill, ball reading and sheer determination for the ball craps all over anything Mr. Said has done in his career so far. Garlett will also be All Australian if "Bruce" is not on the selection committee. The second and third efforts he put in today were brilliant, especially in the forward line. His ability to keep his feet and also extract the ball from packs on the ground in the F50 were scintillating. Get him through the midfield as well this year on the odd occasions to do something brilliant.

We are building a proactive game plan. Well actually it is reactive in terms of doing similar things to what other sides do in some respects but it is good that we are thinking about how WE will play instead of being reactive to where the ball is going. Treating a contest as a 'set play' and having players positioned at specific points around the ball is something Collingwood did extremely well last year and Carlton are starting to do that in '11. The first three 1/4's showed us being very competent in this regard.

Duigan... GOOD! Get him in and stay there. He has poise. Is built like a tank and has great skills. Also good one-one.
Bower... when Bower is not in the side, we will know that we are playing GREAT footy. He is just not a footballer. Sorry to the sponsors.

Gibbs is struggling. Forget about him being eased into the game. He comes across on the ground as being a bit arrogant. As if he is still living off the #1 Draft Pick tag and doing hard stuff is beliittling for him. I hope I am wrong but is just an interpretation of what I have seen so far this year. He has lost bulk as well. Looks much like he did when he came over as a young kid; I personally think that if we are going to persevere with him in the middle, that this is a bad idea. He needs to decide what he wants to do this year.

Waite cannot time his leap. I assume this has to do with him still recovering from his knee injury. He tries to take big grabs all the time.. as he did in the goal square against St. Kilda last year but the hands on the shoulders are an issue and even on the lead, he seems to be too early with his jump at the ball. I hope someone has told him because it has been happening since he came back. He also needs to work on goal kicking..not just today but in general.

We will always have a problem up forward whilst Ratten et al decide to play with an extra midfielder or backman, and allow our opposition to have an extra tall in our forward 50. It happened time and time and time again today much to my chaigrin. Didn't he learn from our bad patch last year? FFS, practice matches are supposed to be used to practice things and see if thye work, not to serve up the same crap that obviously didn't work last year. That is an issue.
However our movement from the backline is now reasonably well-drilled and we did it better and better as the game wore on.

It is a numbers around the ball thing, and a knowledge of the 'set play' thing I mentioned before. Knowing that there will also be a bloke where you are going to handball to. It didn't work all the time but geez, it was as obvious as the nose on your faces that it is a focus and I'm glad. Again, to use the Collingwood model, we started to handball backwards to an area rather than waiting and looking for a player. We are being drilled to become disciplined in getting to that spot. Good news.

Also through the midfield - at stoppages, marks or free kicks, we have started to handball to a forward player.. forward of the mark.. rather than to the side or the back which is normal footy over the years.. We started to do this last year at the start of the year when we tried to implement a forward handball from the back-pocket over the top of the bloke on the mark, whilst the kicker-out followed up. It will be interesting to see if this is actually implemented througout the year or if we put it away in the bag once it gets found out and countered with pressure.

I wouldn't worry about the loss. We poo-ed all over Geelong for long periods of the match.
They got 3 coast to coast goals in the last 15 mins because our defensive zone either switched off or the MC tried something different. Geelong also moved the ball fast during the last 15 mins by handballing quickly to blokes forward of the mark and opening up the midfield. We either didn't want to counter it or just couldn't be bothered but this was alarming to some extent. We cannot allow ourselves to be opened up like that through the guts in real games.

All in all, we had the better of the contested footy. Shame that the way the game is going these days that it looks like rugby scrums so you can't actually see what is happening around the ball at stoppages until a ridiculous free kick is paid but that is the nature of the AFL beast I'm afraid. Very ugly to watch.

So much more to write but that is enough for now.

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Without watching any of the game a few mates say there is much to look forward to. Especially a praccy match. I'll be patient enough to judge what we do in the home and away games before being critical.Watching the games may help my opinion too.

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Bring the season on already. The wait is killing me.

Ratts is disappointed at the loss.

Guess he's about to cut his wrists.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

With the help of who...???? Fev ????

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Bring the season on already. The wait is killing me.

He should have won the Rising Star award last year.

Unfortunately these awards are as much about publicity as they are about talent and performance. It was like when Leon Davis got an all-Australian gig ahead of Marc Murphy a few years back (as a midfield/forward), although Murphy spent more time in the midfield, gained more possessions and kicked more goals. Where Leon outshone Murphy was in being good friends with Brian Taylor who spent the whole year spruiking him as a 'lock' for all-Australian.

I agree. Those knobs who do the selection completely overlooked how he actually performed on the ground and in his results in favour of the kids with bigger reputations and higher draft pick numbers next to their names.

That suits me fine though because unless oppositon coaches start to give him respect, he will absolutely towel up his opponent.

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The match report on the AFL website says that Bartel was KO'd and spent the second half off the ground with concussion. Did anyone see it and do we have anything to worry about with the MRP?

wowa someone needs to take a chill pill, take it easy hombre

there's 2 basic elements to this game, being able to find the ball and using it well. grigg's ahead on the first score, and collins is ahead on the second.

Went along today. Saw Nathan Buckley on my way in.

While disappointing not to win it was a practice match and it was bloody hot, humid and sunny. We completely stopped trying in the final term. Geelong were very quiet themselves during parts of the match too. I thought we started the match OK and it was reasonably close for much of it.

If I were a kid I would be getting #38 on my jumper. Jeffy was great and he is going to cause opponents a lot of headaches this year.
Yarran is also looking much fitter and way more confident. Maybe a little off kicking today but some great passages of play from him.
Hammer was involved in everything, seemed to get a cork or cramp by the end of the third quarter though. The "Mr Gale" etc comments from fans are getting annoying already.
Duigan was very solid (same with Laidler) and like many have said offers good leadership and is often yelling and sorting people out.
I thought Twomey, Curnow and Watson also showed remarkable poise for young blokes.
Tackling and pressure seems better and a lot of players have improved their second efforts too.

Henderson got beaten regularly but kept on trying and was working his way into position by the end of the match. Was getting a lot of encouragement from supporters - how things change.
Waite's timing when attemping to mark was off and he did a few dumb things like playing on with a wild snap that went nowhere near the goals instead of going back and lining up.
Walker was a little disappointing, some poor decision making and like Waite loves flying for a mistimed mark.
We still like to bomb it long to a 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 in the forward line, at least we weren't doing it to Eddie Betts today though
Again still often handball it off to a bloke under pressure too.

Other remarks
Also saw Juddy give Lucas a bit of a spray.
I think White might have a corked hip or back, definitely copped a hit to his lower back area.
Bower came off early too, not sure what was up with him.
A lot of players were slipping and sliding on the surface.
Again, it was really hot out there.

Was nice to be back at PP on Saturday afternoon though

It is dramatic because he has gone from being around our 20th best player to being in our top 5, on current form anyhow

It is not just about his fitness and strenght, players often find it easier to find the ball when playing down back and it is a player development tactic coaches have been doing for years playing potential midfielders down back early in their career - see Houlihan, and even the coach himself

Two best parts of his current game are his kicking and his courage, a few times times today he was the man running back into the pack, showing true courage, and that is how he got hurt

Followed your tweet miisnaut –

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Bawditawaba

Lot of posters giving it to Gibbs
All I will say is I have seen just about every competitive game this pre-season and he wouldn't be named in the Bests in any one of those games
People all too easily say "It's pre-season, it means nothing", but I didn't see Selwood acting that way, and he's won two Premierships
Gibbs would want to play a blinder in round 1
Personally I question his tank and pace in a midfield role. Too many times opposition midfielders run away from him and he is labouring behind
If Gibbs had Robbo's intensity, he'd be a star
Time to step it up Bryce

Well that Just about Sums it up. We should Have recruited Selwood instead of Gibbs. I'm Glad we have Sorted this Out.

It's not about who is the better player, it is about intensity
Gibbs' whole pre-season he's looked like a millionnaire out there

Dont forget we got flowered over by the AFL in that year when they retrospectively changed the qualification criteria for the Priority Pick and we got Picks 1, 17 & 19, when we should have really had Picks 1, 3 & 19.

Not saying we would have picked Selwood with Pick 3 - (we probably would have gone for Leunberger) - but would have liked to actually have had the opportunity to pick Selwood.

Then if we hadn't this thread would already by going on about 30 pages.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

He's invested well. He's actually a multi-millionaire so if he looks like a millionaire he must be taking it easy.

Time to get rid of Walker he is never going to be anywhere near the value his pick should command - cant understand why we bother to be honest.

It's clear that Bower needs to be moved on for a Toovey-type and Walker needs to be moved on for a Blair-type...

We need to emulate the Pies who have 22 superstars...

Haven't had a chance to read through this thread yet, but I stumbled across these excellent pics via twitter...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acphotography18

All I want to know is, how did Hendo go today?

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