Agree. So many games we do not get reward for our back and midfield efforts. Where are the leading forwards? Too much kick and hope, and last night, with Gilbert allowed all game to play loose man in defence, it killed us. We were badly outcoached last night.

No doubt we lack key forward personnel, but just about the number 1 priority over the upcoming pre-season is to get a clear, definitive game plan of moving the ball into the forward line, and of forward leading to position.

_________________
Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

Setanta served this purpose last night. 4 goals (should've been 6) before he had to go into the ruck with Kreuz gone. Gave us a target that we desperately need, but as always when another tall goes off we rob Peter to pay Paul.

This is the problem with our structure. Not just our lack of talls (or management of injured talls, which I bang on about like a broken record), but also that when we lose one, in trying to suddenly cover the cracks we leave a big gaping hole somewhere else. In the games where Jamo, Waite and Kreuz have gone down, our structure has been thrown into disarray. It shouldn't take one @#$%&! injury to throw the whole team out of whack, but with us it does. Compare this to Collingwood and Hawthorn, who have both lost key talls throughout the year but haven't missed a beat. The structure is so strong the cracks just seem to cover themselves with minimal disruption. With us, it's catastrophic.

_________________
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

He also trained in running shoes MOTWYW

Disappointing end result, but in my mind last night confirmed our best back 6 going into 2012.

Duigan - Jamison - Laidler
Yarran - Henderson - Touhy

Hendo should be a CHB for the rest of his days. He smashed Riewoldt.
I'd like Yarran to put the body on the line more (or even bend over on occasion), but his run is first class.
Touhy is a genuine attacking half-back and a good long kick.
Duigan is brave and a great mark, and made some great attacking runs last night (even though he was frequently ignored by team mates when in the clear).
Laidler is extremely reliable, but tended to zone off a bit and get caught last night.
And Jamison is potentially the best full-back in the comp (when fit).

Settle these blokes in the back 6 and let them work together. Height, flexibility and run.

Zac Dawson has kicked 4 goals his entire career, 2 against us

Agree Don, but we seem to keep losing our key players during games (ie Jamo, Waite, Hammer, Kruze) which is very hard to cover. We got back into the game against Hawthorn when Hale got injured.

Coaches have a conundrum.
Do you keep some tactics in the tank for Finals or do you experiment with them and show your hand?

P.S. Robbo's disposal is a top priority.

_________________
Bawditawaba

Just watching the replay now.

When we've lost this year, Ratts has thrown everything around. Jamo up forward, Yazz forward, Gibbs all over the place. Bower forward on occasion too.

With the exception of Carlos into the ruck, largely out of necessity, that sort of thing was non-existant in the second half. I doubt we're too concerned.

Neither should Collingwood for that matter.

_________________
BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

Any word on Kruezer???

More scans today, won`t be known until tomorrow.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/s ... 6128823669



I dont understand why everyone is so worked up, we clearly tanked it!

He should be banned from ever attempting cute short-passes, it's simply not his go.

_________________
Football is life: there is nothing else

Brad Moran kicked 8 in his career (4 against us in one match)

_________________
Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Come finals some players that were down last night and went through the motions will be better. Jarryd Waite I would not even look at playing until 2012. Setanta must take that job on now. Jamison and Thornton back next week I would not put Jamison up forward to start with I would consider Thornton instead.

Garlett for mine has been massively disappointing this last 6 or so weeks culminating in last nights poor effort.

Last night absolute stupidity cost us the game. Garlett and Setanta playing on instead of going back for set shots same as Jamison against Hawthorn. Same as Garlett against Essendon*. Why do we not learn. Why is there not a team rule in place to make sure it is one of our disciplines to go back and kick a set shot. It cost us a 5 goal lead and from one of them i can't remember which one they went coast to coast and goaled. 11 point turnaround right there. The got it out of the centre and went forward and got another one.

I think Lachie Handerson ha been superb recently down back as has Laidler. But both as well as Robinson turned over easy non pressure kicks in our back half. Heath did it twice with one out of bounds. Even Judd did it once. It was just lazy and hopefully is out of the system now.

If we don't get past Essendon* next week we have wasted 2011 unfortunately and all the pressure will be on us this week not them.

Kicking wins or loses you games and our kicking come out of defence last night and at goal against Hawthorn has been very poor indeed.

I'm a lot more confident in winning next week as a result of having lost that, rather than pretended to be there for 3 and a bit quarters and sneak home.

Judd two quiet weeks in a row. He's going to have a huge one this week.

Look at the data for where our midfielders got their touches last night. I'd say it'd be a huge statistical outlier, in comparison to the rest of the year. Judd and Murph, plenty off half back, SFA offensively.

Don't know why Walker gets lumped in with Betts and Garlett for going missing here, when you see his role as someone who is prepared to use his massive tank to work players up the ground and clear up forward line congestion, its clear hes not going to get on the scoreboard as much. I'm sure Ratts would be more than happy to give us the details of his GPS tracker and his opponent's. Watch the second Swans game and see how he leaves Richards a mess by the 10 minute mark of the third quarter for proof of this. Wonder if his role in the centre bounce rotations is a permanent one, or just freshening blokes up at the business end of the year?

_________________
BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

I like that back line.

Amazing that only one of them was there last year.

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

I hope you all have a great fathers day!!! Forget the doom and gloom and enjoy the day with your fathers or sons. The real thing starts in 7 days and I am pumped.

I AM CARLTON

_________________
TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.

just saw the great man enjoying his 1st fathers day with the lovely Mrs and oscar jnr in a prahran cafe, asked him what he took from last night and he said "yeah was a strange game there was nothing to play for" I said yeah it kind of looked like that from the stands, he just had a little giggle, I bid him a happy father's day and went back to my latte

on a positive note though, how unbelievably sublime was Eddie's reverse hand tap to Davies on the run who then hit the post!

Not all that phased by the loss last night. We were pretty average and still didn't lose by all that much. It wasn't worth burning 'tickets' in a match that in the end meant little to us. It was good to see Setanta kick a few and should keep his spot given Waite is out for the rest of the season. No Kreuzer left a gaping hole and should be a concern for the MC. I will be very interested to the make up of the team next week.

Reckon we will beat the Bombers but will need to be 'on'

_________________
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06