Then the media wankfest couldn’t wait to give the Rising Star to McGrath of Essendon* and tell us with a straight face how hard it is for a young player to play a mid field role.

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

Winston Churchill

FMD AGRO, did you have to remind me.

Can't believe McGrath won a Rising star...and then consider Cripps vs McGrath....and Hogan....put together.
Its [REDACTED], isn't it!

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Yep,i was there,and for mine,very deflating.Reckon it was more of the same.Murdered around the packs.Hawks had a heap of newbies and they knew what they were doing.Say what you will about Clarkson,but the guy knows his onions.Very cohesive outfit the Hawks.................................despite walking out of the ground with my bottom lip dragging on the ground i feel we have great scope for improvement.At last we are getting real talent on our list and its just a matter of getting them on the same page.Reckon we could go either way this year.If we can sort out our work around stoppages we could be a sneaky chance for the eight.If not,we are in for another long year.I still say we have a good backline and good forward line.Its just a matter of getting more ( a lot more ) out of our onballers.

Regards Mick.

PS.................i did have a very touching moment yesterday.I was walking out of the ground yesterday with my two sons ( who are grown up with families of there own ) my eldest hugged me,kissed me on the top of my head and said,Dad,that was great,just like when we were little kids...........and you wonder why i love Princes Park so much and want it back as our home ground.So many fantastic memories.......dont tell me we couldn't get a couple of games back there.Surely despite various obstacles it couldn't be done.Our Prez and CEO would be derelict in there duty if they are not working feverishly in the background not to achieve this.

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All my dangerous friends

Even harder when he was back pocket all year. What a special player. Best young midfielder to never play midfield

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T E A M

It was a 4.5 out of 10 for mine.

I felt the score flattered us as the last few goals we kicked were junk time.

We were belted out of the middle and particularly in the ruck. Hawks mids waltzed out of the middle with no pressure at times and moved the ball in space as they pleased for the most part.

We did have our moments and had glimpses of looking like a well drilled team. It was exciting to watch our tall forwards as well as Jones marking in defense. Walsh was also a highlight and SPS had moments of class.

Unfortunately it didn't happen often enough and I was expecting to have better display of skill. It's just a practice game so I won't worry. I just wonder why the Hawks looked semi well drilled at the least and we looked a class below?

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Koperek.

Questions for those who were there - how much of our clearance struggles were due to not playing any true ruckman? And who rucked for the Hawks? And a general one, I know Kreuzer had the knee surgery but what's up with Phillips and Lobbe, I would have thought at least one of them would have got a run.

My thoughts:

NOTABLE POSITIVES

Sam Walsh - not quite Andrew Walker quality first game, but not far off it. Cant wait for Round 1 vs Richmond on big stage. Poise, speed, matrix...

SPS - impressive game through midfield. Has clearly got his fitness up to level required to give himself a chance to match it with the big boys, mid-field style

McKay - good game, mobile, strong, kicked well

Gibbins - probably in our best 22

Setterfield - worked himself into game nicely. Fingers crossed he stays fit and healthy, he'll be a gun for us if he does

De Konig - good game when he came on in 2nd half. I hope he plays more games this year than Casboult

Dow - solid game

Cunningham - solid game

Wietering - good game, but want to see more



NOTABLE NEGATIVES

Garlett - awful game, sorry but you just cannot get the ball 15-20 in a game & turn it over >50% of the time. In a praccey match, FFS !!! Cost us 3-4 goals in turnovers across half back. How is he going to go in a real match when pressure goes up 50% ??!!

Poulsen - not up to it. When you are that small, and you only get the pill 10x a game, your skills must be elite. Poulsen skills mediocre at best.

Casboult - OK in ruck, BUT, I don't recall him taking a mark in the game. When marking the ball is your ONLY strength, then seeya later

Jones - don't bother taking nice marks in back line if you're gonna turn it over most of the time. I'd rather you punch the ball to ground.

Daisy - tries hard, but just not good enough anymore. If he plays >10 games this season, we are in trouble

Kennedy - slow, very slow

Silvagni - seems to try, but F&*^, apart from occasionally doing something OK, he just seems to be in no mans land for far too much of the game

NOTABLE NOT MUCH TO COMMENT ON

Curnow bros

Simmo

Murphy

Mcgovern (did a couple of nice things)

Plowman

Newman

These are worries indeed.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Nice one!

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

You can read less into this game than you can into a JLT game, so that’s saying something

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

A ruckman, Cripps and Fish (who looked good from what I saw of the AFLX) would make a slight difference to our midfield !

Lack of crumbers and forward defensive pressure is one of our biggest deficiencies right now. The loss of Pickett is a blow and it seems Lebois won’t make it, so for now Cunners, Gibbons and (gulp) Polson would seem our best options ?

Fasolo hopefully not far away - should play in our 2nd JLT match.

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There is no footy god

Beautiful

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Fasolo would have to turn up the pressure.
We need more from him than a marking small forward.
If he kicks 3 goals a game, I'll be happy with that.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

The ruck is the main problem. They can’t keep relying on a half injured Kreuzer. Pick one out of Lobbe and Phillips and stick with them for a few weeks.

I don’t know if the coach understands the importance of the ruckman. Perhaps he prefers a hobbling Kreuzer over a fit ruckman? Casboult is not the answer in the ruck, how many times does he go back to that well?

Agree with you, let’s go with Lobbie or Phillips and give Kreuzer time to rehabilitate develop an endurance level AFL standard. He’s not young so manage Matthew wisely or he’ll be gone end season. We can’t carry so many unproductive talls any longer.
Casboult and Jones are only temporary solutions they’ll be scrutinized and may be gone end year.

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Go Blue Boys

I think you will find this year will be different. Last year we had a lack of talls in the F50 and as a result we needed a ruck/forward. We now have an oversupply of talls in the F50 so we could afford to have a tap ruck like Phillips to play a sole rucking position if Kreuzer is injured. Not a coaching issue, rather a lack of cattle issue.

Clearance support for Crippa is what we still need, let's hope the kids develop and step it up this year and the new additions prove their worth.

https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2018- ... uare-stars

With our two best from 2018 missing it makes it tough.

Baby steps. With Dow and Setterfield,when he is up to speed, things will be different.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”