Pros
- Garlett
- Yarran
- Watson will be a good player
- Kreuzer, Hendo, Bower, McLean and Lucas still to come into the side
- Robbo and Curnow toiled hard

Cons
- "fumbles" Duigan
- Betts
- Carazzo
- Walker

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There is no footy god

I made a couple of pre season calls and got slated. Tonight everyone seems to have seen the light. Betts should have been shipped to eagles last year, Murphy is a possession winner not a match winner and curnow is his replacement in the guts because he has some.

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We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion.

Same as all of the above
the game was fantastic until the pies kicked away in the second after which Carlton played defensive footy and Collingwood seemed to go through the motions

the last quarter and half was shit

If Ratten wants to keep his job he needs to get rid of
Walker
Scotland
Hampson
Carrazzo
Thornton
Russell


These guys arnt part of the premiership team of the future for reasons stated. Its when will they bit out of the mix

Gibbs and Murphy will never be stars

Gibbs is too soft. His kick off the ground in the third was pathetic

Murphy is just a good player. Wont be anything sensational

Betts to stay in the team must become a midfielder. Dont know if he has the capacity to become one


I would bring in Lucas for Walker

Hendo for Hammer
Bower for Thornton
Ellard, Kerr,Daviesand hopefully Mitchell all get runs. Ratts better be introducing new blood otherwise we wont advance

Pros: we are improving.

Learning some guys aren't up to it. Betts, Russell, Carrazzo, Thornton, Walker gave big question marks over them in big games.

Kruezer, Henderson, Ellard, Lucas, Bower, Touhy will all come into our best 22 by years end.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

Pros

Watson great game for an 18 year old in his second AFL game. This kid will keep on learning.
Garlett
Yarran
Judd as always
Murphy
Gibbs
New structures and personnel will take a while to build then a lot of players will look better.

Cons

Hammer tantalises, needs Senior game time. By the time Kreuzer comes back we'll know if Hammer is steadily improving. Watching on TV it's hard to see what he actually does. Raises expectations pretty high when he marks and goals at the start.

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Bawditawaba

The biggest con? The channel 7 telecast.
Showing meaningless shots while play is unfolding, failing to show stoppages until after the ball is bounced.
High and long range shots which demonstrate nothing. If their idea of innovation is to stick a camera up a cherry picker, they're a bigger laughing stock than I suspected.

Absolutely embarrassing.

Love Simmo but he is off the boil at the moment.
The basic defensive skills of our small defenders/mids at defensive stoppages.
Players who consistently overcommit at the player in posssession as the 2nd/3rd player in. It's laziness falsely wrapped up as some form of aggression. (Hi Jarrad)
Our hesitation to hit up a short option in favour of a wide option. It's a lot more effective to pierce the zone and then kick over it than to go around it. Watch how Collingwood counter the press.

Pros.
Jamo. Great to have him back.
Robbos attack on the ball and man. Should act as an inspiration to others.
Jeffy. This kid is never beaten.
Murph is improving.
Juddys defensive game.
Yarrans ball use when in space.
I thought Laidler worked well when he had the right match ups.
Curnow. Love his attitude and workrate.
I'm still very positive about the Warnock/Hammer combination.
Juddys workrate
Our tackle pressure.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Bottom 6

Hampson - Kreuzer
Thornton - Henderson [Austin feel free to step up, been a long time]
Duigan - Armfield/ Davies [not convinced on Bower]
Walker - Kerr/Lucas
Carrazzo - Ellard [enough is enough]
Collins [willing to give him three games] - Houlihan
Betts [kick up the asz]

Hammer was fine - Couldn't kick over a cherry bob

Throw in the Richmond game as well

_________________
Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

BIG CON:
- You just know Monfries was watching Blair's little performance on JR

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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

Great call, insightful call.

It's these little things that determine the culture of a team, and whether it can challenge for a flag, and where we fall behind against the well disciplined sides.

The question is - How do you instill that discipline? And why haven't we instilled that discipline into our team?

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

Pro:

By and large we held our own against a team which was expected to wallop us, save for some crap umpiring, and 10-15 minutes in the second.

Con:

The douchebags, naysayers, and whingers are out unseasonably early this year.

_________________
And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Yeah, I can see the upside with Hammer forward. But when you break it down to the basics, 1 of 3 outcomes are possible when you kick long to KP forward:

1) They mark it
2) They get hands on it, crash the pack, and bring it to ground
3) They fail to impact the contest

I reckon Hammer had too much of option 3 last night.

He misread it, mistimed his leap, the ball went behind the pack, and the defense ran it out.

Needs to turn the 3's into 2's.

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

Agree with everything there except I'm losing patience with the ruckmen. Both of them consistently get outmarked in packs and get knocked around far too easily. It was funny/sad that shot of Waite taking the big speccy 20m out, with Hammer attempting to mark the same ball 3 metres in front of Waite, just nowhere near it at all. He seems to have no idea at all about the flight of the ball. He does have amazing potential but my goodness me...
I'm not writing them off but they're just frustrating me at the moment.

I don't know that Duigan will make it. Too fumbly, poor lateral movement and poor awareness. I hope he improves but it will surprise me if he does.

JR wasn't at his best, but for someone to suggest that he's played 3 poor games now, they are absolutely kidding themselves. He was very good in round 1 and 2. Have a look at the replays.

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Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times, blame it on the WIGGINS!

Where was this comment when Russell was having a decent year and placing well in our B&F?

He's had a few poor games yes but it doesn't help when he gets crucified by the umpires feeling sorry for little man Blair.

Some of our kicking into the forward line put the Pies defenders under real pressure with the height we had if we kicked it deep. Too often we'd be kicking it long about 45m out which meant there was not real pressure on the Pies defence.

To be honest, neither side looked at their best, still ironing out the pre-season rust. The re-match will be a better indication of where we are at.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Con: we lost so the usual suspects have logged in for their first visit for the season.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Must resist dirty dirty trolls.

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dane's trolling again

Agree, but not sure if Jarrad should be the one staying down? Or are you referring to the moment in the fourth where both he and Garlett stood on the mark telling the other to drop into the play, resulting in a cheap kick over the top?

He should be flying into packs. Walker should be staying down a little more often, as should Duigan, Laidler and quite a few others.


One kick in the whole game and he's now rubbish. One kick. You have got to be joking.


Like I said, I thought there were plenty of 2's, just no one to capitalise. The root cause of a '3' is generally the ball carrier misjudging the kick or being under pressure, which happened plenty last night.


Nonsense; argue their BS with logic. Everyone wins.


IMO, our bottom six last night was Walker, Duigan, Betts, Carrazzo, Simpson & Laidler. You can excuse Laidler as inexperienced, but the rest have to take something from that, and at least two need to be dropped.


Rubbish mate, absolute rubbish and you were rightly howled down for it last time. Murphy won virtually all of his ball in the thick of it. Check the stats and watch it again if you don't believe me. He had mates letting him down when he ran for the receive after doing the hard yards with Judd.

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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.

I noticed numerous times that 2 or 3 of our blokes would rush at the Collingwood player in possession and he would simply handball over the top of them to a waiting team mate who would scamper off with the ball.

Yeah that's mindless (and something I've been banging on about for years), but you can't expect Jarrad to do all the running. That's something that can be ironed out with a simple discussion between players and coach.

It just keeps creeping back into our game when we're under the pump. Duigan is also bringing it back in a big way.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.