In a game that was billed as our ‘big test’, it is hard to say if we passed. Whilst we probably got level with the best in key statistical indicators such as contested ball and tackles, we were found wanting in the intangibles – a lack of polish in pressure situations compared to our opponents.

Crucial errors under pressure that were swiftly punished cost us the game.

PROS

1. Watson – outbodied by a bigger opponent at times but showed he can play

2. Yarran – mops up effortlessly at half back

3. Judd’s defensive work – we know how good he is, but his tackling and defensive work tonight was IMMENSE. His burst in the 3rd quarter got us in the game

4. Garlett – can play, and benefits from being the second small forward to match up on as it steretches the defence.

5. Heath Scotland – a gutsy performance, stood up tonight.

CONS

1. Not locking it in our forward 50 – it’s the new trend in footy and we just let it out too easily, either with a soft free kick or poor marking attempt, which brings me to ............

2. Hammer forward – don’t mind him in the ruck, but he simply fails to make an impact in too many marking contests. If he’s not gonna catch it, he must bring it to ground, but tonight when we used Hammer as our go to inside 50 they just whisked it out. Need Hendo and Kreuz back so badly.

3. Dropping Armfield for Collins – didn’t understand it on thurs and still don’t. Armfield has an impact, Collins was out of his depth.

4. Gibbs under pressure – just fumbled a bit and wasn’t clean. He might be the best outside player in the league, but as we saw tonight – there’s no outside game against the best. Needs to be more comfortable as an inside mid.

5. Duigan lacked polish, and Eddie is struggling with the close attention but it does free up his mate

Well, there are signs we’re moving forward, but we need our key talls back quickly. Found wanting when the going got tough tonight, but the players will learn a lot from it.

Can’t lose momentum, gotta pick ourselves up for next week.

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

Watson was a massive positive tonight.

I was a loud voice to trade first rounder for Troy Chaplin and reckon we got him.

Yazz and Garlett - sensational.

Negatives.

Henderson and Kreuzer missing

Agree with all your pros and cons

Big cons- Eddie betts and jarred waite

Cons:

Krakouer

Walker, Waite, Betts, Warnock
The use of Gibbs
The criticism of Gibbs on here

_________________
"I had to eat"

From what I saw tonight - much of negative is legitimate.

_________________
"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

Pro's
Watson has promise.. got tired in the end.
Jamo was great I thought for first game back.
Murphy, Judd and Robo all tried hard. Robo may break his neck one day.
Garlett.. best small forward in the league..

Con's
The use of Gibbs and the general game plan... didnt seem like we set ourselves to win. Gibbs should also watch Robo play footy.. MC give Gibbs Robo's tape this week..
Reckon it may have been a hard night for a Sub given the intensity of the game.. but Collins cost us at least 2 goals in his first five minutes. Did he hit a target.. 44% effective and that may be generous.
Carazzo - I love your endeavour.. but handpass.
Betts.. junk time again before you did anything.. needs a kick up the A&s.. drop him let him know that Jeff has gone well passed him.

Indeed

_________________

We passed don't worry about that. Collingwood is unbeatable and better than last year remember.

Pros:

- Provide a strong contest.
- Watson unless injured should play every week. Was solid tonight against quality opponents.
- Black Caviar is awesome.
- Warnock won many thumping hit outs to advantage
- We have players to come back, Collingwood don't.

Cons:

- Betts should be dropped.
- Duigan a shocker
- Hampson had a good game this year, just not this week
- Yarran flogged Krakwhore

Pro - I thought we passed the test as far as list. I really think our list is finally very strong and I want Hendo, Kruise, Bower and two more smalls (Army/MacLean?)

Con - I thought we failed the test as far as structure - our forward entries and our defensive forward structures were crap - but I do think this is because Hendo and Bower are missing and we need Kruise.

_________________
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!

pro
effort
persisting with watson
yarran hbf could work
curnow was solid again
jamo
robbo's hit at the ball
scotland

cons
dont understand why walker didnt get a run in the midfield before being subbed
some poor turnovers (collins, robbo)
too many flying for a mark against each other in the fwd line
absolute lack of leadership from waite
betts struggles in big games - or is that just me?
we missed krueze and hendo.....looking forwrad to having those guys play fwd together
we lack another 2-3 quality mids (pies out numbered us)

PROS:-

Not a lot to be honest. The score will so we put up a fight, but it was our mistakes and the stupid decision to kick backwards and flood in that 2nd qtr that cost us the game.


JUDD
Tried he's best. Did some nice things but christ, he needs help.

GARLETT
Superstar!!!! I have a man crush for this kid! Just wants to play footy!

WATSON
Stats will show he had at least 5 goals kicked on him tonight, but i like the kid!

YAZZ
Loving him of half back and i reckon he's better suited there. Kinda like a young Andrew McLoud.
Still a bit raw, but love watching him!

CROWD.
Gotta give Melbourne footy fans credit. That's a crowd that the NRL grand final would be happy with!!!!!


CONS:

Christ, where to start!

KICKING BACKWARDS.
IT - HAS - TO - STOP! - We conceeded 6 goals from kicking backwards. It doesn't work. Why do we still do it? We are the only team in the comp that consistantly does it, consistanly gets screwed by it, yet never bloody learns from it!
STOP IT FOR @#$%&! SAKE!!!!!

GIBBS ON SWAN.
Nope, didn't like this move. Gibbs was our best goal assist player. You put him on a hard tag and your instantly costing us goals. Not what we need.

CARRAZZO
Has got to go. Ive had enough. Im gonna nickname him Mr. 50%. Cause that's all he gives.
Goes at it half-assed and turns the ball over way too much. What's worse? He's in our god damn leadership group.
How we chose him over Armfield is beyond me!

WAITE
Had enough of him too. I'd actually drop him again and i'd actually consider trading him to the GWS. He just wont learn. His wild ways and inconsistency is costing us. Fev was an idiot too...... but at least Fev put goals on the board each week. Waite is just being dumb!

UMPS.
@#$%&! YOU!!!!........... enough said!


All in all............ Yet ANOTHER game where we play 3qtrs instead of 4.
Watch that 2nd qtr again. The constant kicking backwards and flooding up the field kept the ball in Collingwoods forward line and they were able to crumb because of it. If we kept attacking, like we did in the first, who knows what the score would have been................... but i know it would have been a lot @#$%&! closer than what it was.

_________________
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Pros:
- Watson is a great find. Was asked to do way too much tonight, but managed to hold Dawes for most of the game. If not for his mates elsewhere, would've held him goalless.
- Robinson: I love this batshit crazy Tasmanian
- Jeff: Was the only player of ours who looks like he can break a tackle
- Tackling was better than it's been for a while
- Curnow continues to impress
- Yarran at the back is all class
- Jarrad started to take some good marks
- Juddy again had to carry us
- Simmo tried hard
- Off the ball we were a lot better than we've been for a while

Cons:
- When we lose, it's always for the same reasons
- Not playing for each other, waiting for the cheap handball rather than helping their teammate out. Watson left on 4 filth blokes was disgraceful.
- No awareness. Too often we play on only to have an opponent fly from nowhere with the tackle. Kicking and handballing to stationary targets.
- We don't play to one another's strengths enough. How often do we see Simmo having to use his right, or Scotland with his left?
- Gibbs needs to stop being the icing on the cake, and become part of the cake itself. I defend the "Bryce Squibs" jibes to the hilt, but he needs to get his head over the ball
- JR looked like his 2008 self tonight
- Walker and Betts were hopeless
- Collins off to a shocker, looks like the Richmond may leave him more eventually than we'd like
- I never see anyone nipping at the heels of our tall forwards
- Slow, chipping to wings, bombing to contests (which we often lose). I saw times when the corridor was empty from our kickouts, yet we continued to chip to the flanks
- Ratts has to drop Carrots
- Laidler isn't a KPD.
- Juddy again had to carry us

_________________
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

Pros
1. Yarran - all class, going to be a Carlton legend.
2. Garlett - all class, going to be a Carlton legend.
3. Robbo - so desperate and now adding some vision to his game.
4. Our run and carry put real pressure on the Collingwood press.
5. And Juddy of course!
6. Still much to look forward to with Hendo, Bower and Kreuz back in the side

Cons
1. The next level players did not come up - Murphy, Gibbs, Betts.
2. Carrazzo - we are not a good side until he cannot get a game, poor disposal and decision making.
3. Collo - in hindsight a poor decision to play him, Army would have been a better bet.
4. Kicking short in the last.
5. Hammer's dreadful kicking.
6. We missed, they didn't.
7. Blaming poor umpiring decisions for our demise.
5. We lost

_________________
"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

Gibbs never played on Swan. Petals and Thomas yes, and did his defensive job on them well. Problem was it rubbed us of our best ball user by foot through the middle.

PRO:-

Thank @#$%&! i'm out of the country for the next two weeks.

_________________
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Pro

[REDACTED] up Collingwood's percentage

Con

[REDACTED] up our percentage.

_________________
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Oooooh!

Another con!

When we do those 'open' moments with our coaching panel on the TV we look so @#$%&! lame it's not funny.

I don't know if it's lame because we're covering up the serious discussions about the opposition or lame because it's, well, lame...

_________________
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Correct. And Gibbs did a very good job of quelling Pendlebury. Both he and Swan got some last quarter junk time stuff, but neither were devastating. Swann's possies were misleading.

Pro: Judd, Garlett, Scotland, Yazz.



Con: A 147 point worse performance than last week.

_________________
THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

QFT.

8 clangers tonight....