Thought Rowe did allright tonight

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

[quote="2ndeffort"]Thought Rowe did allright tonight[/quote
Better than alright.

Clear indicator for me tonight was delivery to and defence of opposition forwards.

Everything as was better.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

The major positive for me was the overall effort. Where has it been?

Best players were Cripps, Docherty, Bell, Everitt, Armfield and Casboult. Great to see Graham get a full game and Buckley must next week too.

Disappointments were Henderson, Menzel, Yarran, Thomas and Jones. Is there anyone that we can replace Jones with? Even Everitt came out with a strong lead, mark and kick. I would put him in the square from now on and banish Jones to the reserves until he actually does something.

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Silvagni

I would like to see Jaksch at CHF when he returns. Hendo as a FT defender

I thought Graham looked decent. Didn't get a lot of the pill but used it so much better than most of our ball butchers.

I loved Goodes's goal celebration.

A guy that's proud of his native Australian heritage and culture and not afraid to show it is pretty cool.

The hostility to him is weird, IMO.

Cripps and Bell are keepers.

Hendo Yaz and Menz may have checked out already.

Particularly since he's been given every/ample/enough/consecutive/non-sub opportunity at AFL level.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Bell was terrific. He's a little uncouth, but his improvement chart is heading north.. Watch him in 2017 (for Carlton hopefully)

What was Menzel's injury?

Graham was OK. Give him the whole year...at Carazzo's expense.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I wouldn't mind seeing that but he needs a couple of VFL games up forward to understand our structure (or lack of it)

A good effort but the wet and slippery conditions amplified the gulf in class. Sydney handled the ball like a dry day while Carlton were trying to mark a piece of soap.
Some positive signs though. Bucks up forward added a spark.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

they had a dip which was great but we had another crap set
allowed a spare man again which gave then the easy release and spare attacking option
we're pathetic at guarding space and our instinctive flare and attack has been decimated in the last three years
barker needs to start clean and play one on one and make everybody responsible for their own man
the biggest issue would be to instil some composure back to the players, they are always rushed and under perceived pressure so they waste their hard work after gaining possession on blind execution
next few weeks will be telling

Yay..... We only lost by 10 goals

Great game
if you said before the game we would lose by 60, i would of taken that. We would of lost by more if we never changed the coach.

Biggest positive is we were matching probably the best midfield in the comp in clearances. Tackles were up as well, which is what u expect when your playing for the coach. Just some skill areas let us down a bit

People that think graham is a dud really have no idea about football. Part of the group that matched sydney in clearances. He has potential. Give the guy a go

Much better effort all around. Still stressful to watch but not soul destroying! At least we were having a go.

Missing our three most talented midfielders we won the clearances and against one of the best (if not best) inside midfield in the comp. That's incredible. Cripps is a star and a warrior! Along with strength of Bell and the team-first determination of Curnow and Carrots we had four warriors in there.

Last night was the best game I have seen from Graham and good on the kid for stepping up when it counted but I just don't see anything that excites me about his potential. Hope he proves me wrong but frustrated by the number of times he gets his hands on the ball and then just braces for the tackle. In contrast to Cripps who would still get a handball away if he was wrapped up in a straitjacket.

I was really disappointed to see Buckley named sub and he showed why he should start when he came on and added paced and spark. I would like to see him played forward from now on.

I like Tutt. Courageous and pacy but so light that he just gets smashed by tackles. The last few weeks he has been rag dolled a number of times. But I like his energy and resilience and would like to see him continue to get opportunity.

Walker - how can we get better value from the talent and speed of Walker? Seems such a waste on the backline. Hopefully when Sheehan and/or Byrne return he can move up the field a little.

Docherty just continues to impress week on week. A real shining light. Got whacked around the head a couple of times last night for no free!

Have been willing to suspend judgement on Jones but he was disappointing last night. Hendo frustrates me as a forward - never gets any separation. The forward line is atrocious.

Rowe was good. Seems to be at his best when given a big task (like stop Buddy) and allowed to just do it without runs in the ruck or being thrown up forward for 10 mins. Keep it simple and he will give you his best.

Yarran - was his opponent taking him out of the play? Not something you can tell watching on telly

Our whole ground defense appeared so much better last night. Was it because of better workrate or better structure? I don't know but hopefully they will bring that effort for the rest of the season.

I have a theory that the opposition don't mind us winning the clearances. They just have a swat team in front of the ball ready to pounce. Me thinks its a distorted stat

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I sometimes think that too. To beat us teams know they can easily get us on the rebound as our forward line cannot take a grab or hold it in. They also know that keeping it in their own forward line is easy as we cannot get it past their wall. Winning the ball at stoppages for the opposition is almost counter productive for them. Opposition coaches wouldnt tell their players to lose contests or clearances but they wouldnt be pulling their hair out trying to find a way to get on top in that area.

I still like that statistically we are ok in that area. Just need to get better on the spread, get better forwards and a better system going forward.

our overall structure and spacing across the ground was much better, but the biggest difference i noticed last night was the players were a helluva lot more relaxed.

maybe, possibly they're no longer scared of getting the hairdryer treatment from dick, i mean mick, if they make a mistake??

they used the corridor a few times, they only kicked backwards after the swans had turned it over and we had no spread. but in general play our set up was good and our play mostly positive.

i also noticed a distinct lack of our players with eyes-only for their man. that was pissing me off the most under dick, i mean mick. players abandoning all footy instinct and forgetting about the guy with the ball, while they mindlessly tracked their man mark. at stoppages our players were too busy trying to body up their man, rather than look for their own space and hunt the ball.


all in all ... after 2 days of having the team, Barker delivered on his word. more competitive and more focussed.

take any team's best defender (jamo) and best first bounce midfield (Kruezer, judd, murphy & gibbs) and then take a sprinkling of other handy players out on top of that (the irish lads) and put them against sydney ... and the reality is most will get done by 10 plus goals.

barker has the inside track to the coaching job. looking at the list of potential coaches being bandied around, Barker's resume reads as good as anyones. he's done an apprenticeship and woulda learned lots under clarkson, lyon and even malthouse. but with malthouse, he woulda been learning more about what not to do, and how not to coach a football team.

i'm opitimistic for the future under barker and after our bye round, i reckon we'll see steady improvement under him.

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Terrible act.

Have no problem with him doing any dance he wants but to aim a war dance focused on opposition fans is highly provocative and did in fact lead to unrest.

Then his little innocent act after the game.

If we had a fair dinkum competiton, he'd get reported. Whether he gets a fine, suspension or warning I don't care.
In the EPL or NFL he'd get a 3 week holiday.

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T E A M

Exactly, you don't see the "All Blacks" do tha Hakka after every try.

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

Winston Churchill

It's a footy game, not a theatre of war.