What we saw tonight was one club who is moving in leaps and bounds due to their recruiting / list management and the other spiralling downwards through poor recruitment / list management.

Agree with this.
We had a chance to get in a player such as Houston. He was exactly what we need right now. There is not enough scrutiny on our recruiting team, especially Austin.
We are a mid table side at best with a bulging salary cap. Unless we move on some of our top line players we have little options. We can't afford any top range free agents and to make things worse we do not have a 1st round pick this year.
Too many eggs into the one basket getting Smith unfortunately.

Probably Elijah - can't remember him missing many from the 40-50 range. And probably Charlie when fit... it's when you get to >50 that he arcs his run and then anything can happen... and <40 he's liable to do something daft, but 40-50 he's quite solid!

BACKDROP

Missing from our best 23

CHF: McKay ........ replaced by Young
HBF: Newman .... Gov keeps his spot
BP: Boyd ... small defender
Mid: Cincotta ... lose our best tagger
Mid: Smith .......lose our outside speed
HFF: Hollands....lose our goal kicking HF, and good kick
FP: Fantasia .... inform small forward replaced by Motlop

FF: Curnow......was definitely not match ready

SOS moves from CHB to support Curnow
Young goes to CHB on Chol, and ruck to give TDK a chop out

GAME LOWLIGHTS

Carlton hard done by umpires.
Hardwick goal was a charity in the first
Frees in the middle for ??? end up 2 goals for Hawks
Free against SOS after TDKs goal was ridiculous
Hawks caught with 19 on the ground. No auto free or 50m penalty. Ball up
Manhandling of Cripps at contests no free. Touch a Hawk and its a "Freekick Hawthorn" call.
Chol pushes Young in the number 33 (back) and marks and goals. No free given to Young.
Hands over Charlies shoulders no frees
Meek had more hit outs to advantage against a tiring TDK.
A couple easy shots at goal hit post
Acres terribly out of form in preseason and continues poor form, yet selected
Wings failed us.
Lost Saad's drive whilst he is a lockdown defender. Miss Boyd.

SOS kicks 1.3
Chol kicks 3.1
Motlop 1.3

Williams 2.0 only 65% game time again. WTF?

Bottom 6 for me were Acres, Kemp, Fogarty, Motlop, Cowan, Young, Gov, Haines, Charlie. That's 7 too many.

HIGHLIGHTS

Intensity great
Contested ball great
TDK, Cripps, Hewett, Cerra, Hollands, Weitering great.
Walsh, Cottrell, SOS, good.
That running goal from TDK (not paid)
That run from the backline by Saad to goal
That running long kick by Doc to Williams.
2 quick goals in a row
Lucas Campo not disgraced and another game under his belt.
Hollands blanketing AA Dylan Moore
TDK's desperation to get us over the line. Was huge.
Young in the ruck actually won when in there.
Docherty's defensive work, stopped a lot of potential Hawks passages.

SUMMARY

If Hawks are the best team in the comp, and we lost by 3 goals with all the above going on, we are not too far off.

Obviously depth is an issue when needing to cover injury. That's next year.

Hopefully Curnow and McKay find form. Hoping for 2 to play together next week, to start their season.

Appreciate the never say die effort, and winning the contested ball and clearances.

Keep up the energy and intensity, and form will come, on the back of that. Saw some glimpses of what could be.

The one that got away....again.

Next, Dogs. Hopefully Boydy and Harry will be back.

Is this your team for next week??
kingfish, coconut, nam jim, coriander
pork belly bun, char siu, asian slaw, pickles
japanese fried chicken, lemon braised onions, parmesan, sriracha mayo
cone bay barramundi, miso lemon butter, pickled enoki, pickled chilli
charred chinese broccoli, house made oyster sauce, sesame seed
wombok salad, bean shoots, peanuts, chilli, lime

I thought this was a good summary of where we're at (but he's not writing us off...yet):

https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/03/21/f ... ally-dumb/

Thanks, Bondi. I don't care how bleak it looks to some (and it looked very bleak after last week) it is way too early in the season to be throwing our toys out of the cot. I might be enduring some misery but I don't need to be reading endless 'end is nigh' posts for months on end. Plenty of time for teeth gnashing as finals approach way off in the distance.

Carry on.

good link, article is spot on ...

now its about if we think we can turn it around ...

2023 - confidence at an all time high
2025 - confidence at an all time low

is footy really that simple?

Thanks, Bondi. I don't care how bleak it looks to some (and it looked very bleak after last week) it is way too early in the season to be throwing our toys out of the cot. I might be enduring some misery but I don't need to be reading endless 'end is nigh' posts for months on end. Plenty of time for teeth gnashing as finals approach way off in the distance.

Carry on.

I hate reading about the constant denial too, bud. But I won’t make posts dedicated about that.

Sure we’re 2 games into a new season. But we’ve not developed any wrinkles or shown signs of growth from last year. And over the last 12 games we’ve beaten exactly two teams.

Norf and west coast.

For some, that’s enough writing on the wall to want change and to act proactively to get after said change.

We currently play the worst brand of football in the entire afl. And that’s pretty hard to stomach considering we’re 30 years without a sniff of a flag.

I dunno. Maybe I’m an asshole. I’m pretty sure I am

But it just feels a bit too st. Kilda’ish to be in denial about where we’re at and to not be realistic about our future.