Apart from the obvious ones:

Pros

Betts trying hard - spent too much of the early part of this season almost afraid to get his hands dirty. Got dirtier last night and looked all the better for it.
The sub rule - favours teams with good physical fitness. It has also led to a lot more contested footy, long kicking and brings into the equation players that might not otherwise be important cogs. If he can stay fit, I think Brock McLean could be very important for us.
Duigan - 2nd game in a row where he has been excellent. Tough, cool under pressure. Important addition.

Cons

Carrazzo too loose for most of the night. Gave his man to much latitude and then rarely hurt the opposition going the other way. Much prefer Armfield.

Structure - Laidler as a 2nd tall is just not big enough. He's got that 189-itis, we had that problem with Beasy, Livingston, Sporn et al where it's just not quite tall enough for KP. Desperately need Austin to stay fit. Could really add a lot of size to our defence. McCarthy and Watson appear to be the future but will require some time.

Hampson - it's not so much the marks he misses, it's the fact that he isn't able to even bring the ball down to the crumbers and further his forward line pressure just wasn't good enough.

Gibbs - needs a good hard look. Something doesn't seem right.

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

- Igor Stravinsky

Pro:

- We've discovered those missing ingredients that Premiership teams are built on, guts, determination, never say die attitude, belief we can win

That last on is the best one. I couldn't agree more.

_________________
1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

Cons:

Hampson
Hampson
Hampson
Hampson
Hampson

_________________
1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

Maybe I'm being hard on the young man. It isn't personal but he doesn't seem to know where to run to. Seems to have no football intelligence. He just hasn't done enough for the time he has been at the club. He has no presence on the ground IMO that indicates that he should be playing. Even if we are a big man or so down, I don't think he is up for it ATM. Maybe he is down on confidence and needs time in the VFL to get it back and learn to run to the spots he needs to.

_________________
1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

When I played basketball as a kid my coach always said it's 99% played in the head, as you only ever have the ball in your hands the other 1% of time, that 99% is all about structure, positioning, movement, blocks, in other words teamwork.

Pros:
- Curnow, Laidler and Duigan have added a lot to the team (wasn't sold on Duigan but have liked his last two games)
- Showed great character when we looked gone for all money midway through the last.
-Won a close one which we haven't managed to do in ages
- Our defence is really starting to gel. Every loose ball was mopped up really well I thought.
- Not a pro as such, but I didn't think Betts was that bad - I watched him closely and thought he really put in last night. Didn't quite work out for him, but he wasn't awful.
- Umpires were baffling at times, but I think they had zero influence on the match which is good.

Cons:
- Generally a really frustrating night. When Judd missed that sitter I had an awful feeling that it would be costly...it nearly was. We have to capitalise better when we are controlling the game.
- We are a KPP short both in defence and in attack. I don't see a short term solution for the forward line with Hendo out of touch, but not selecting Bower this week IMO was unforgivable. White is a goer, but gets thrown around like a rag doll in the one on ones. And now Bower is injured/maybe suspended....great...
- Hampson needs a spell in the twos. Problem is, he probably has to stay until Kreuzer is right (unless Setanta can show some form)

Ellard straight back into it. Running goals from the 50m from midfielders priceless.
Jamo continues to marshall the defence. Attacking more.
Yarran until hurt.
Tex .... finally, finally held one!!! And his kicking for goal.
Judd and Murph yet again.
Laidler doing nicely ... when not matched against men double his size!
Curnow again. Can be a bit ungainly but doesn't seem to make many mistakes.


Hammer not setting the world on fire but he gives 206 a chop-out and there's no-one in the twos to bring up.

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I just want my old club back ... (edit) maybe I have!

In addition to the obvious ...

Pros:
Smart of the MC to bring in Ellard. Gives him a run before the biggest contested game of the year.

Cons:
Unfortunately for Laidler he got played through. The Crows were given instruction to kick it to his man and it worked well for them. Like Laidler but he was isolated and exposed.

_________________
"It was like calling your ex girlfriend after a night on the booze, just a really bad decision".

THIS

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Pro's

-Believe it or not we are playing much better footy than last year. We appear to have a structure and purpose.
-We got off to a fast start.
-Eddies pressure was very good even when he didn't have the ball.
-Tambling plays for the crows.
-Ellard stepping up when it counted.
-Murph becomming an A grader.
-Walks.
-Jamo
-Judd (just don't miss like that again)


Con's.
I love Jeffy, but he was notable by his absence after he missed those goals. I don't mind that he misses them, but he's got to have the confidence to present himself as an option when the game was in dispute in the last.

Kicking in general. The goal kicks were highlighted but there was some wayward stuff at crucial times.

We are two 95-100kg players short.

_________________
I hope Essendon* folds.

Pro's Curnow...great in close
Ellard...very handy player
Jamison back in form
Murphy led the team in the last quarter and was great.

Cons...MC leaving us high and dry for talls and leaving White and Laidler with their ar$e well and truly hung out
to dry vs oversized opponents.

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Sorry about the quote but I like your Avatar.

_________________
Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Pros
4 points gained
Last ten minutes- boys showed some character
First quarter performance. Best one quarter display I have seen for a while.
Jamison puts in another strong display after a forgettable last season. Is prepared to back himself and contribute to our rebounding effort
The addition of Laider and Duigan adding stability to ouur defence along with Yarran pre injury
Ellards recall. Should never have been dropped.
Walker's effort. I just hope he will no longer feel the urge to take a speccy. Much more valuable on the ground
Murphy is clearly our best performenr to date this year
Cons
Ratten's persistence with Hampson as a forward. Adds nothing.
Russell in defence . Has gone backwards this year. Needs to be tried elsewhere other than defence. Duigan has taken his spot.
kicking skills 62% disposal efficiency by foot is very low. Our inability to hit a stationary target with our short kicks is disheartening.
Too manny times their tall forwards were competing for marks one on one. Where was the loose defender? Not to be seen.
Simon White makes too many basic errrors for more liking. We leave our defence exposed matching him on bigger opponents
Gibbs needs to step up. Does not push himself enough. Playing nowhere near his ceiling which is frustrating. Would play him as a half forward this week. Needs to model his game on Nathan Buckley.
So too many missed tackles.
Judd's kicking. Has lost confidence in his kickking for goal. Our mids need to score more goals to relieve pressure from our forwards
Warnock and Hampson are very sooft at marking contests easily outboodiied by smaller opponents. Lack of upper body strength.
After watching the Bullants no onne apart from Army and possibly McLean putting their hand up. Hendo Setanta and Thornton had no influence. Bower did well until injured. Kicking skills also a problem for the Bullants. Port were much more polished.
Our spine is still a big problem.

Conundrum

Kreuzer and Hendo

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Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

Pros:
Good to finally get up in a close game. We've had a shocking record at these in recent years.
Really pleased about Walker's performance. Hopefully that will regain his own and the MC's confidence levels. We really need to persist with him in this role. Unless they want give Gibbs a go at it.
Waite, Warnock, Murphy, Yarran, Duigan and Jamo again.
Great effort from Davey Ellard. Should keep him in the side for a bit. Adds just a little more depth to our midfield stocks. Fantastic goal late in the game.

Cons:
Bad conversion. And really good conversion from the opposition. Again.
Taylor and Tippett both finally getting their kicking boots on at the same time, and against us.
Waite dropping chest marks.
Judd played well, but had one of those occasional days where he misses a lot of targets.

I agree. I thought it was a super move, and had a real impact on our ability to get over the line. Nice option to have up the sleeve.

I actually thought this was an issue at both ends of the ground. Opposition talls seem to initiate contact, our talls rarely do. No doubt relative size and experience have a little to do with this. But even McKernan was pushing our guys around. Wouldn't mind SOS or Sticks or someone like this putting some work into our key position stocks in this area.

Ironically I reckon our most physically aggressive 'tall' at the moment is Simon White, and I love him for it. It's just that he's always going to struggle against the really big boys.

I actually reckon Etihad is probably the worst place to have to play the Crows. Worse even than AAMI stadium. For that very reason. At least on the bigger grounds it's a lot harder for them to simply camp back and rely on the rebound.

I agree with this.