Not until Umpire Ian Robinson pays for his crimes against humanity and shaves off his horrible 1980’s perm.

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

Winston Churchill

If you think performances like last night translate into “anything can happen” you are delusional.

That was putrid.

The same patterns that have dogged us for years were present in the first half once again.

Let’s see how we perform in the upcoming two “easy” games vs the eagles and tigers at home. I’m not holding my breath that we’ll win either of those convincingly.

4 in a row is great on a surface level. But last nights performance just showed what lies just beneath the surface.

If being a misery guts means not celebrating a win against the bottom side (who’ve now won 1 in 26) where we literally fell over the line, then call me a misery guts. I’m not impressed by meaningless wins anymore, I want to see long term change in the mentality of this playing group as that is what brings about long term, sustainable success.

Credit to Fraser for changing things up after half time and giving them a spray.

Young should be filling in for Weiters not Derksen, not yet anyhow.

yeah, 100%.

derksen is miles off. a step slow by foot and several more by mind. young needs to be replacing withers

What about the free against Kemp for beating his opponent, when we had all the momentum??

The Bombers did their homework and came up with a good plan to quell Cripps and Walsh, and a change up their rebounding with Merrett and Robert’s back. And Ben McKay. credit to them.

Plus our concentration was off in the first half, not completing our marks, kicks, handballs or tackles. A lot of fumbling and giving them the ball. Also, our forward entries were way too shallow. And old habits of ignoring the quick forward handball or short kick for the long bomb.

Having said that, credit to us for lifting in the 2nd half. It was disappointing we gave them a sniff in the last 5 mins when we really should have gone on with it and kicked further away. Lots for us to work on before GWS.

It will be interesting to see the coaches votes - I thought they had more of the better players than we did even though we won and had many more scoring shots.

I struggle to comprehend where some supporters want to draw the baseline between an upwards projection, flatlining and downward projection.

The player list the day Voss left, is still the same list the day after. Since Voss left Fraser has navigated the List to 4 straight wins. 2 against top 6 teams and 2 against struggling teams. Would we deem that to be Up, Flat or Down.

On what date would supporters like to see the upwards trend begin? Was it the game after Voss left. Is it in a month? Is it Rd 1 2027?

At one stage, after the Blues kicked a goal, the Forwards met for a chat. Ison, Bryne, Young, Kemp, Harry and Gov. What's not to love about that cross section. At the other end................you had Deano, Derk, Billy and Cow. Again, what's not to love. All 4 are brave, competitive and fearless. That's what lies beneath the surface. Getting 10-15 games into the kids. Fighting back when the team is playing putrid, to scrape a win.

The talk about not wanting to get up the ladder, as far as we can, just makes no sense to me.

Do you not think Ison, Bryne, Young, Kemp, Deano, Derk, Billy and Cow would benefit by A) winning enough games to make finals and B) Playing in a final at the G infront of 80,000+?

Any win instils belief in the process. It instils pride in the Club. It instils trust. It instils camaraderie. It instils a greater knowledge of how to win, in all manner of ways. The 4 wins have all been different.

What is better on a Monday.................A shite win, but hard fought, for 4 in a row or a good loss, going into a Bye week.

WWWW looks better to me than WWWL.

Also, anything can happen......................just look at the Cats game last week and the last 4 weeks.

Enjoy the Rest Carlton FC. Huge 10 weeks ahead for all.

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.”

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

Well said Cazz.

Yeah , he is a switched on bloke . And respectful to all . Can't go wrong having a quality bloke like Josh around the place .

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All my dangerous friends

Was Harry a Bombers fan who grew up idolising Lloyd?

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=613182853796740

For years, Lloyd milked time by throwing grass in the air to take the piss. What goes around, comes around.

Fair call. Like most, I only really looked at their 1-in-25 streak vs our 3-0 streak and figured it should be an easy win, tempered by the fear that our mentality issues could produce an uncomfortable margin. But I never gave much thought to how they matched up with us. And when I think of modern Essendon*, I think of that game where Parish got 50 disposals at 85%, but did SFA to damage the opponent. Bruise-free, supercoach-friendly crab-ball is how I think of them. But perhaps it isn't true. Our 8 - eight! - centre clearances for the match, of which 3 were by Pitto and 2 by McKay, suggests that Essendon* are no pushover in that part of the game, and they ended up smashing us in contested possessions. We looked far more accomplished than them in linking up and advancing the footy, even when we were playing in second gear. Their forward play is spasmodic and uncoordinated at best, fortunately for us.

If I recall correctly, Harry kicked one from there a few years ago against Hawthorn.

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Our tradition demands success!
Mens sana in corpore sano

Yes. Sheedy started the strategy of milking the clock in the 90s.

They can cop it

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#DonTheStash

Buried in the middle of that win was a 7 goal turn-around.

A bit more composure and we should have kept the 3 goal lead and kept going ........ but s##t happens. Hopefully we'll learn from that and stay switched on from the first bounce (throw up).

Any win against this mob is a great win

Just one more thing and it's been mentioned by others .... Let's sort out the centre ruck debacle. We're notorious at giving away free kicks by crossing the line (multiples per game) and giving the opposition free entries into their 50. Then you look at Pitto with arms up "who me? what for? what did I do?"

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"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz

Long term change in the mentality of the playing group will grow with each "meaningless" game won. You think we would get better with every loss do you?

That is what your words imply.

Are you in WA by any chance?

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No Guts, No Glory

He actually did - so it was a realistic attempt.

It was smart play by Harry - there were a number of times our football IQ showed obvious growth.

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

Winston Churchill

Effendopes beat 3rd placed Demons playing same brand as last night.
Was hoping to improve percentage, but appreciate the 4 points .
Lost in the ruck and contested ball usually means loss of game.
This coaching group isn’t afraid to change things up. Well done.

Watched the game again and other than the last 10 minutes of the 2 nd half, the 2 nd half worth watching

Love the skirmish initiated by that dirty Ainsworth after their goal.
Took away the limelight and quashed any thought of momentum from the.
Smart old fashioned footballer. Much needed type of player.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Before last night, there was no real talk of substance for any of our games. The pressure was off.

The win v Geelong changed that. All of a sudden everyone was talking about wildcard, percentage booster etc.

The game actually had meaning for the first time since maybe round 3 or 4. And look what we dished up.

The previous 3 in a row played under no pressure whatsoever yielded the expected result. When there's no heat, we can play.

As soon as there's ANY semblance of hope, pressure or expectation - that's what they dish up.

So yes, it's all meaningless until they stop doing this conditional bs, put consistent effort and pay respect to the opponent. Sixteen tackles to half time. SIXTEEN. Contrast to Freo who kicked 19 in a row against the hapless Roos to put the foot down. That's the standard we should be aspiring to.

And when you throw personal jabs into your argument, you've got nothing.

Always interesting to see how they would perform being favourite rather than the underdog. Cripps on Tom Mitchell's podcast during the week. Really poor pressure in the first half. A sign of some resilience that they still won?

Setterfield limited Cripps. Cripps with only 6 contested possessions and 3 clearances. Walsh sore but 3 contested and 2 clearances. Essendon* clearances 35-28 with 13-8 in the centre. Pittonet unable to adjust to the current ruck rules?

Really missed Weitering. Derksen's kicking is poor. Essendon* with 15-5 contested marks. Solid games from Newman, Cerra, Cowan, Dean, Acres and Haynes.

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"I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it." - Finch

Acres was dominant on one wing. He is a powerful unit.
Hewett was contributing all game too.

Bryan dominated in the ruck. Lucky he needed rest time.
Let’s not kid ourselves Pitto - McKay combo is not the answer next year.

Dean is fantastic, but he let Caddy dominate him in the last 10 minutes.
I understand why he doesn’t go body on body. He’s only 18yo.
Has to get stronger over preseason. Great game nevertheless.

KPD: Weitering > Young > Derksen

I don’t mind Derksen as a Forward.
Derksen is too slow as a KPD. He’s OK on 3rd tall forward if not quick.
Ridiculous to expect 195cm Derksen to beat 202cm McKay
It’s not just the 7cm advantage it’s also the extra reach McKay has over him.

Lewis Young is the obvious and proven Weiters replacement.
Thank god Weiters will return for GWS.

Same issue with Kemp. He’s too short for a KPF target.
Kemp is more a HF maybe a 3rd tall forward.
Kemp got lucky taking an uncontested mark. Well done Gov with block
Kemp got lucky umpire paid the free for push in the back.
If not for that luck, Kemp was lost as a KPF
Missed Harry as our only KPF when in the ruck.
We need to find a KPF for next year, especially if Harry keeps rucking, and he will.

Crippas set shots with a drop punt are as unreliable as Kemps.
Embarrassing. We lost games early in season because of this issue.
Will continue to be an issue.

Hayward is a bonafide goal kicking forward.
Need him there when we are attacking.

Ison was bound to have a quiet one.
He should have kicked that set shot
He was on his left. Fix it !!!

Love the Cow. Huge jump. Huge kick. Huge spoil.
Make sure we don’t lose him to Tassie.

Cerra again fantastic. All class and tough.
Three really good games in a row.

Walshy can’t tackle with one shoulder. Why expect him to do so?
He was a liability in the middle imo.
He should have been moved to wing and Cerra in guts.

Setterfield beat Cripps in the contest. WTF?
Durham killed us in first half. Wasn’t just bc of Bryan dominating.

Our experienced players got us over the line.
Hewett, Acres, Cerra, Ainsworth, Harry, Newman.

Gov was clever creating opportunities without disposals.
Keeper. Ditto Evans. Footy IQ.

Young ones Wilson Dean and Cowan were fantastic.
Smith and Byrne sericeable.

Williams, Young, Riley good in VFL. Cottrell in 2 nd half turned it on.
Williams > Young vs GWS.

4 in a row. Boys can have a well earned rest.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Its always great to get a win but please don't sugar coat it. Last night was putrid.
Missing targets, over use of handballs, dropping easy marks Missing easy goals.
They generally looked like a clueless rabble.
The only thing that saved them was the other team was a bigger clueless level.

If we had played at half the level we did in the previous 3 weeks we would have flogged them.

Turn up like this against GWS and it will be a slaughtering.




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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws