Dear Xxxxxxx

Having jetted back into Melbourne early on Sunday morning and taken a little time to gather my thoughts, I've identified a number of deficiencies which set the tone for our bitterly disappointing display against Port Power at AAMI Stadium on Saturday evening.

The die was cast early on in the piece with a series of undisciplined acts involving our players. Two 50-metre penalties, together with a quick reversal arising from an incident involving Shaun Hampson, set us back at a time when we were very much in the contest.

The second quarter came along and in the adverse weather conditions the opposition players simply adjusted better. It was also through this crucial period that they raised their intensity at the ball and the ball carrier, so much so that over the course of the first six or seven minutes we had something like 14 kicks and 18 handballs - which best reflected our overuse of the footy and our inability to make up any territory.

The Port players conducted themselves particularly well here. They outplayed us in midfield and generally surged forward with greater momentum, which in those wet and slippery circumstances gave them that crucial scoreboard ascendancy.

To top it all off, we fell away at the back end of the game. Some of the goals we conceded late in proceedings were extremely deflating and typified the type of night we had. In short, we got gun-shy with our ball movement and we turned the footy over whenever we tried to switch the play. That really hurt us too.

Josh Bootsma followed on with his good form of last week, while Matthew Watson was a fairly serviceable performer in his development, considering the opposition accumulated 61 'inside 50s'.

But with only a six day turnaround, there is no time to dwell. Our energies are now focused on rectifying our deficiencies and getting the four points against Geelong.

Kind Regards]

Well name a side that plays well without it's top two defenders (Henderson, Laidler), best ruckman (Kruez), two of its top midfielders (Murph and Carrots) and its number one lead up forward target (Waite)...

Pretty much Carlton's turning point in the season was when Carrots left the field against Essedon. We miss that ball magnet immensely.

Key is to get as much contested marking, ball winning drills in to breech the gap.

Happened to hear Gerard Whateley on 3LO this morning. What he said about us summed it up perfectly, i.e. we don't have a proper "system" that allows new players to slot in and be effective, unlike other clubs who have had injuries this year but still seem to get results, i.e. Eagles, Pies, Bombers etc. This indicates that its just not TC'ers who have picked up on this.

He also said that we rely too much on the "razzle dazzle individual brilliance" to get us up. Read - we lack a game plan that the group believes in.

Hope Ratts and Co were listening..

Well name a side that plays well without it's top two defenders (Henderson, Laidler), best ruckman (Kruez), two of its top midfielders (Murph and Carrots) and its number one lead up forward target (Waite)...

Pretty much Carlton's turning point in the season was when Carrots left the field against Essedon. We miss that ball magnet immensely.

Key is to get as much contested marking, ball winning drills in to breech the gap.

and shaun hampson dont forget the incident involving shaun hampson