Just returned from the game ... first time I've seen the boys live this year.
My opinion differs from most here. I walked away thinking that we are very close to being
a serious contender. Every team gets the yips and we had them bad in the first quarter - I can't remember
the score line but it was one or two goals and heaps of points. We were pretty even with them in general play
but found ourselves four goals down. That situation is game over for a lot of clubs a lot of the time. But not us today.
We worked our way back into the game and damned near pinched it. If we had of kicked with even reasonable
accuracy I reckon we might've had 'em by half time. We didnt today; it happens.

Question for the critics. What's a reasonable ratio of "smart" or "good" play versus stuff ups versus not really being in
the game? What do you expect? Armfield, Lucas, Ellard, Kruezer, Bower, Thorton ... sheeet ...I've even heard calls for O'Halpin to be rushed back on the grounds that we're a "dumb" team. Have all these guys stuff ups been erased from memories or something?

Collins was playing because he was BOG in the Ants a fortnight. He came on as a sub last week and struggled to pick up
the pace. I thought he still looked well out of sorts again today, but to bag the MC for playing him this week is ridiculous.
Players have to be given a chance and hindsight's always easy. It would've been ridiculous not to play him.

I could go on, but I suspect no one cares.

THE SKY IS FALLING. THE SKY IS FALLING.

Honestly, if we scrapped to a draw today with Judd dragging us over the line in the last quarter, and the usual suspects leading the way for 3 quarters, I could see why we're pissed off.

Instead, our two best players today were Curnow and Duigan. Two blokes who this time last year, were barely on most clubs' scouting lists, let alone their best 22. On top of this, Judd had five fairly ineffective touches in the last quarter, Murphy and Gibbs had minimal influence, Garlett only kicked a couple all day and Betts was non-existant......yet we still broke even with Dwayne Russell's wet dream.

That first quarter we played today was up there with any bad quarter we've played for the past 10 years. Yet we went in 16 points down.......through no effort of our own, and certainly to no credit to Essendon*. They pretty much outplayed us for most of the second quarter too, up until Fletcher's goal, which seemed to stir us into contention. We slowly clawed our way back into the game, when we could have easily been blown out of it by the 20 minute mark of the first quarter.

More importantly, I've seen us play Essendon* many a time in the past few years, and I've seen my fair share of Ray Chamberlain specials. Cheap free kicks that aren't just pulled out of thin air, but places that you would need to pay hundreds of dollars in hallucinagenics to reach. Alwyn Davey specials. Angus Monfries specials.

And yet we survived that last 5 minutes whilst doing our best to do ourselves in anyway. Was I the only one waiting for a free to be plucked out of thin air to Monfries should a stiff breeze hit his back with seconds to go? In the end I actually thought we had the rub of the coin today with the umpires, and almost felt bad about it, when I thoguht we were going
to run away with it, thinking our win would be tarnished by poor umpiring decisions.

On top of that, we started the game with a one man handicap. Forget Winderlich. Forget Dempsey.

We went in with Andrew Collins. The same Andrew Collins who has now played arguably the worst two consecutive games for the Carlton footy club in many a year. Ricky Mott-esque one may say. May he never get another go at it, but at the same time, surely there's some irony if he plays next week and is BOG at Etihad Stadium. Another Collo not wanting to play at the G for Carlton perhaps?

Out of the 22 who played today, the form shown was fairly consistent with what we saw last week. The annual PR related ommissions will be out in full force this week, and at least they'll be fairly done. Just bring back Lucas already...

Henderson: Remember how he played last year? He looked terribly short of a gallop, been brought back too soon. Dare I say we would have won with Tbird still in. We know what Henderson is capable of, leave him in for next week at least.

Setanta isn't ready, so why not give Casboult a game, what's to lose? Couldn't play any worse than Megan's boy.

Thought yesterday was more like a final, lock down footy with a lot of stoppages with very little space. From that perspective I thought we did ok, certainly better than we would have done in that style of game in prior years.

We got very little from a number of blokes, but I have no issue with them playing Collins at this time of year to see if he is up to it (though he now needs to find form with the Ants) and also playing Henderson to try and get him going. I would have found a spot for Ellard though as he is better finding it in packs than most. People lamenting the loss of Grigg, but I think Ellard is a better option.

A fit and firing Kruezer to replace Hampson will be massive upside. Special mention to Duigan who made all those calling for him to be dropped look very foolish.

Essendon* have almost been the form team of the comp so no shame in equalling them yesterday, they will drop off as the year progresses and I think we will get better. And to those stating they were playing two down yesterday, there is a new rule in place called the sub rule which you must have missed. They played one down and had the disadvantage of not being able to use a fresh sub, but given our sub had no impact that was no real disadvantage.

The main difference between us and the top few teams at present is we are getting no contribution from our bottom six. The match committee will have had a good look at the list in a couple of weeks time and then must play blokes based on form after that rather than reputation.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES. WE WERE SHITE.

CARLTON HAVE NOT IMPROVED ONE BIT SINCE WE BEAT GEE AND STK LAST YEAR. FORGET LAST WEEK, COLL JUST KEPT US AT ARMS LENGTH

AND LET'S JUST BLAME ONE PLAYER ONLY, ROUND 4'S FALL GUY - THE INIMITABLE ANDREW COLLINS.

Just saw replays of both their knee injuries, and it confirmed what I thought at the time, we should have gotten free kicks both times.

Duigan's game I'm interested in seeing. I called for him to be dropped based on his form last week, he looked lost, didn't add too much to our line-up. If the wraps about him being an Andy McKay type are true, I look forward to watching his progress this year.

I need to set the record straight - how do we say it? Is it pronounced "DOOGAN" or "DYE-GAN" or "DWIGAN" ?

At the moment I'm alternating between Doogan and Dyegan. The last one I'm not as sure about, the "ui" in the name does that to me.

Dye-Gan

Just saw replays of both their knee injuries, and it confirmed what I thought at the time, we should have gotten free kicks both times.

Just saw replays of both their knee injuries, and it confirmed what I thought at the time, we should have gotten free kicks both times.

I thought Waite was fantastic playing a lone hand up forward, got us back in the game.

Duigan's game I'm interested in seeing. I called for him to be dropped based on his form last week, he looked lost, didn't add too much to our line-up. If the wraps about him being an Andy McKay type are true, I look forward to watching his progress this year.