How about we take it one week at a time......

We have improved, but we are only 1 game ahead of Richmond. If we play like we did on Friday night every week, we'll be top 4. But we're only an injury or two (and/or a drop off in attitude) away from coming right back to the pack...

We should beat the Demons, but I'm looking no further than that game at the moment.

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

One more con:- I backed the Blues @ $3.20!

After the way we played, I doubt we will see us drift out to those odds again for a while (that could also be looked at as a pro!)

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

Very wise

Pros:

Fantastic crowd support.
Strong effort again.
Waite.
Jamo, Duigan and Laidler.
Simmo and Murphy.

Cons:

3 goals to both Chapman and Johnson playing in midfield. That's going to kill you against Geelong.
The venue. Pretty sure we would have won on the wider expanses of the MCG.
I reckon our defensive system has made a big difference, but thought we got beaten in too many defensive one-on-ones.
Brock. Needs to be given a decent run, and was always going to be tough coming up against Geelong's midfield, and on a fast deck. But just didn't have enough involvement or impact. Needs to have a very significant impact in tight, given that he can't run or spread.
A little disappointed we've tried to convert Army into a forward midfielder. I reckon he's gone a little backwards this year. (Joseph is the other one to struggle with a new role.)
Santy competing for marks with one arm in the air. He's been good, but would like to see more attempts at marking the ball. Also needs to give Warnock more help. He's been looking pretty knackered for a while.

have taken more than two and realised i was out - of - line!!
but you know the more i think about it the more i realise that it was not my fault that i was so angry after the game - it was blue sombrero's for going back to mexico and not being here to calm me down.

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one you knock back is one you never have

I agree. There must have 3 or 4 where this happened. Maybe this is what happens when you play a smaller forward line. But we need to do some work on goal line shepherding. What made it even more galling was that we conceded at least 2 goals down the other end that should have been touched/spoiled.

The noise on the tv and radio was pretty spine-tingling as well.

Pros:

Scotland's game.
Essendon* lost.
Our pressure. Interestingly on Saturday morning, James Kelly from Geelong rated Collingwood as the team with the best structure at the moment, and Carlton as the team with the best pressure.

This annoyed me too, what was he doing?

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The Hawkins one involved Setanta and Thornton.

As I have said previously Setanta may be 2m tall but he doesn't play like it. You should be able to kill the ball in that situation, especially with the ruckman/tall defender on the line.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Warnock is an excellent ruckman.But he is a tandem type of ruckman who badly needs Hammer back in the side to assist him...............thats not a knock on Warnock,he just operates better in pairs.Hammer has been woefull in the magoos,but i would recall him all the same for Warnock's sake.

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All my dangerous friends

Carlton has won five games this year. Take out the Gold Coast one. The margins add up to 1 goal 39 behinds.

Help needed with goal kicking perhaps?

I don't remember all the examples you're referring to but I remember Chris Yarran's. Even though he was closest to the ball he didn't go cause it was Chapman coming the other way, so he just stood there and let Chappie have the possesion. Chappie wins the ball forward where Bartel (from memory) scored his second from the pocket.

It stuck in my mind for two reasons. One cause Yarran was having a dog of a game up till that point so you would have thought he would have wanted to get his hands on the ball. And two, because with his pace and agility he could have exploded onto that ball and been off through the midfield setting up the next play before Chapman ever laid a hand on him.

I thought it was as poor an effort as I've seen this season.

Pro: Our winning of contested ball is ingrained.

Con: Our poor conversion at goal is ingrained.

Thats an ugly stat.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

Pro - I think the most pleasing aspect of the loss has been the response from the team.

In all the interviews that i have heard (Murphy and Carazzo spring to mind), they refuse to see it as an honorable loss. They are gutted and the message has been simple - Not good enough.

Its this mind set that has me confident about the next few weeks. The guys know they let a chance go and gone are the days of being happy with an honorable loss.

Con - The lack of respect in the herald-sun's sports liftout on Saturday..The Headline read "Hey Ratten are you still coming?"..as if we had just been flogged.. Very poor, even by HS standards. I know not all teams can be as brave as the Dons, but we do try..