Imagine if he played in front!

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"I had to eat"

Imagine if he played regularly.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I just love this post.


Gee the vibe in this thread is so many thousand times better than last week (a few comments from usual suspects notwithstanding)

You (and I) can't help but love the Wojees.

That's what its all about Wojee. Look at the game from someone else's perspective and there it is...crystal clear...its an amazing game, and we have some of those amazing players in oi our jumper. There's highlights every week if you care to look for them.

My kids just love hamming it up....and I love their care free attitude...they're just rapt to be Carlton supporters win or lose.
The Mrs, well she's a creative type and couldn't give a rats...but get her to the footy, a nice lunch before hand/ or dinner...a couple of glasses of the good stuff...and she has a ball.

I like that.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Exactly my point.
West Coast had an injury list resembling ours in 2010 and the finished last.
In 2011 they had essentially none and they finished 4th.

Imagine if he was the third option?

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

This year we're on par regarding injuries yet they're assured of playing finals...

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

No, actually. Our injuries have been significantly worse than theirs. You've been reading the media too much.

On par? seriously? How'd you work that out?

Players that have played approx 95% of games to date for the respective teams
Eagles - 9 players ie 40.9% of team
Blues - 5 players ie 22.7% (27.3% inc. Judd)


Players that have played 75+% of games to date for the respective teams (15 games)
Eagles - 20 players ie 90.9% of team
Blues - 13 players ie 59.1% of team (63.6% inc. Judd)

Broken down...

Eagles
19 games - 7 players
18 games - 2 players
17 games - 4 players
16 games - 4 players
15 games - 3 players


Carlton
19 games - 3 players
18 games - 2 players (3 if including Judd's suspended games as hypothetically played)
17 games - 2 players
16 games - 3 players
15 games - 2 players

By any measure, we've had a lot less continuity in the starting 22 throughout the season.


Now lets address the issue of injuries to depth players (clearly non-22). Consider the number of rounds missed by depth/Non-starting 22 players that have missed significant time. Significant defined as 4 or more rds missed using injury update for a rough approximation of injury numbers

Approx games missed by depth/non-core 22 players
Eagles - 38 games across 5 players (average of 7.6 games)
Blues - 102 games across 10 players (average 10.2 games)

In a bit more detail...

Eagles
Butler - 4 rounds (rd 9-13)
Dalziell - 11 rounds (rd 3-14)
Lycett - 7 rounds (rd 12-19)
smith - 8 rounds (rd 6-14)
Wilson - 8 rounds (rd 11-season)

Blues^
White - 15 rounds (preseason-rd 1, rd 2-16)
Davies - 14 rounds (rd 2-16)
Rowe - 13 rounds (rd 6-season)
Mitchell - 10 rounds (preseason-rd 10)
Bray - 9 rounds (preseason-rd 9)
ROK - 8 rounds (preseason - rd
Buckley - 8 rounds (preseason - rd
Heyne - 6 rounds (rd 9-15)
Bell - 5 rounds (preseason - rd 5)
Casboult - 14 rounds (rd 1-15)

^worth noting is that I havent included documented injuries to warnock & thornton given that they are a bit less clear cut
- warnock - didnt resume till rd 3 from shoulder surgery, took a while to get match fitness up, hasnt played for past 3-4 weeks due to a shoulder issue sustained in the hawks match
- thornton - missed games due to glut strain though onset is unclear


Summary of the above - Eagles have enjoyed significantly greater continuity in their starting 22 throughout the season and their injury run was nowhere near that of the blues.

So the eagles injuries are 'on par' with what we've experienced this season?

Don't care about injuries. My concern is how we play and how we aren't consistently competitive against good sides.

IMO injuries to us have been a bonus. Kids finally got to show their worth where before they wouldnt of got a look in.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

AFL Gameday review
[youtube]xiAIz3_nh2A[/youtube]

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Navyblue95 -
my youtube channel tracking carlton news on television and paytv

I was a bit disappointed with a number of times where we won the ball in the back half, players look to send the ball forward and there would be no one in our forward fifty, maybe barely anyone forward of the centre. Players forced to chip ball around/go backwards/sideways etc. Waite seemed to spend a lot of time way too far up the ground for my liking.

Then there was the usual occasions where we kicked long and high to the shortest CHF in the game when manned up, or even double teamed on one instance that I can recall. We still seem to go deep into the forward pockets too often also, I'd hoped Waite would straighten us up there. I suspect Gibbs won't make it as an inside player, too inclined to just grab the ball and throw it on the boot; hands not clean enough either. So he's an outside player; so was Bradley. Just let him play, he's too talented to be tagging.

Lots to take out of the game though. Bell, Casboult (I could barely look on a couple of occasions when he was kicking for goal) McInnes, Watson; the kids are alright. Gee, Armfield's kicking has improved too. We looked a lot better with Waite in the side, but we need to plan for a future with him missing more games than he plays at this stage of his career; must be carefully managed.

As a team looked pretty half hearted at times, often looked disinclined to run hard to man up or to create space. Hope it was just they were having trouble getting up for a rubbish team with a big game around the corner.

Ah, here it is August 2012 and I'm looking forward to 2013 already. Is this how Richmond fans feel? Maybe we'll finish ninth.

Still throwing mud @ Waite is see.

Not too much please, he'll break again.

It'll just hit the man playing in fRont of him

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"I had to eat"

Structurally we potentially had our best balanced forward line in for the year, with a huge man mountain target in Casboult, 2 lead up forwards in Waite and Walker, and crumbers in Betts and Garlett, yet we still managed to empty our forward line of a target at crucial times or have Betts as the marking target, and Waite still manages to lead to his preferred hot spot, where the 50 meter arc meets the boundary line.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

So is the theory that the coaches are telling the players to leave the F50 so that their teammates have no one to kick it to?

The commentators seemed to think this was the central tenant of our forward strategy, with the talls pushing right up to allow space for Garlett and Betts to run into.
Not overly crazy about this either, but it is at least a strategy, compared to the complete lack of strategy we have displayed up there at times. I wonder what they think of Barker's work internally? Had a few knocks on him when he was at Hawthorn.


Also agree the holding/chipping/switching made for some frustrating viewing, but, to be fair, this instruction after quarter time changed the course of the entire game into our favor. Certainly an improvement on the 'rush up field and turn it over' strategy of the first quarter.

This isn't true either. We weren't competitive against Hawthorn and Adelaide. We've been competitive against all the other top sides.

Which I suspect was the plan anyway this year, although maybe not to the extent that we have. We were talking about geelong style rotations at the start of the year which would have bought these kids in eventually, but what they couldnt have counted for was the quantity required or the number of games missed by senior players, and their replacements for that matter.

Instead we found ourselves forced to continually go back to the same wells we've always plugged for depth - Thornton, Bower, Ellard, Joseph et al. With McInnes and Watson both playing well, the Rise of Casbault - With Hampson, Warnock, Henderson and Laidler all due back next season, and an evident lack of faith with Thornton and Bower, I expect to see them both delisted or traded at seasons end.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Navyblue95 -
my youtube channel tracking carlton news on television and paytv