Hard to come up with a list because we didn't learn too many new things today. Will do my best.

PROS

1 - Lappin - did well forward. Good contributor

2 - Gibbs - looks very comfortable at HBF - hard to get away from him

3 - Fish - I have documented previously that I was not a major fan due to what was truly worse than VFL kicking. He seems to have improved his kicking 100-fold and he is winnning me over

4 - Thorno - did a few ok things (i am struggling)

5 - Setanta - I'll throw him in because he does seem to learn more every week - He has a LONG way to go though.

CONS

1 - Poor composure from supposed leaders - Houla lap and heath, who are sort of leaders, handled the ball abysmally. Fumbles drops, poor kicks. We were under high pressure, but you'd expect cooler heads from the experienced players.

2 - In 8 quarters against decent sides - we've been hopeless and uncompetitive. This is not completely unexpected, but I don;t want our list to get sandwiched in an area on the ladder where we beat crap teams and get embarrassed by the good.

3 - Simpson predictable - Is becoming too predictable!! Runs onto his left, and kicks a 40 metre kick to the hotspot with 4 on 1. Even worse is when he's on his right foot and the whole league knows he's gonna cut in and the defenders catch up to forwards - GET SOME MORE TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE.

4 - Follower division - with a spare-part rucks and stevens out - flower it's gonna be hard to get a clearance (Kerr and Judd don't help)

5 - Lance - our hands are tied and you have to play him but it is a birthday for his direct opponent so far this year. Not the reason we lost of course, so don't get carried away.

Special mention - I'm really afraid we're gonna win 5 or 6 games which from my point of view would be an unmitigated disaster and a waste. We can't beat most sides, but will get Rich, North, Coll.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

we won the clearances - we were just innefective with them - it was either a quick kick out without looking - or if it was a clean takeaway we still blazed to the half forward line where we had nobody - we really need to find a half forward line.

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Cons:

Waite & Wiggins

The former seems like he'll never deliver on his 'potential', the latter is just ordinary.

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"I had to eat"

Cons

Fev spent too much time and energy (justifiably) remonstrating with the officials

Whitnall continues to struggle

Just not our day - Eagles showed us just how far away we are from vying for #17

Pros

Fought it out - never really dropped our heads, although horribly outclassed

Thought Russell held his own on Judd in the 2nd

Walkers last 1/4 was pretty good - looked nice in the midfield. Would now like to see an extended run in there. Could be our Stevo replacement.

Gibbs starred on Wirrpanda after 1/4 time. Give him a 12 month apprenticeship at half back then unleash him into the guts in 2008 after a pre-season is under his belt.

Dynamite Joe had a serviceable debut.

There's always next week!

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Their clearances were 3:1 in their favour, always going to be under the pump there

When the heat is on we become too one-dimensional going forward. No variety to our play.

Footskills are unacceptable. They're the cons.

Pros: Lappin ... just

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C'mon Blueboys!

Pros: JUDD
Cons: JUDD
Everything Else: JUDD

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Our footskills were atrocious, all day. The odd good pass, but so many times we'd drop the ball a metre in front of our teammates and cause turnovers or unnecessary contested footy.

But, as mentioned, we had a dip for most of the game.

We just weren't good enough today.

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Our footskills were shit because of the pressure of the game.

It was a good game to tell us where were at... along long way away still.

Keep rebuilding and developing instead of talking lala land finals...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Cons:

Jarrad Waite - let me explain.

In the pre season we played him down back, and he looked ok. However the only place Lance can play is sweeping down back. Therefore Waite has to play forward.

Waite can only play down back because the opponent takes him to the contest (ie doesn't require any great reading of the play by him) and his athleticism allows him to do well in the contest.

Up forward he is a disaster, bad decision making, poor kick, no idea.

Who's better down back - him or Lance?

As for the forward line I'd rather be developing Hartlett or Edwards (than watching Waite play the same game every week). The sooner we have Kennedy, Hartlett and Edwards up and firing, the closer we will be to being a finals team.

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Get comfortable being uncomfortable

..

the con their is lance - he is not only preventing hartlett from being in the team but he is forcing waite forward and we lose at both ends cos lance cant keep up down back and waite isnt cutting it up forward - solution remove lance

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

It's not going to happen though is it.

If Lance is going to play, he needs to become a good CHF again.

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Get comfortable being uncomfortable

that would be a nice start - that wont happen though either

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Cons: Margin we lost by - I hate these losses
Footskills - need plenty of work

Pros: We're young and still learning.
Will get a top 4 pick this year - if we're lucky maybe 2 early picks
Cloke's bump on Selwood
Another game of experience for our youngsters.
Some changes this week for the side - hopefully Hartlett & Blackwell may get a run at the expense of Wiggins & maybe Kennedy

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For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

Pros:

-Lappin played with such heart and he really led from the front when few other leaders did.

-the slow slog-like game helped Lance and he was rather solid as the floating man in defence...only problem is having a spare man means a spare Eagles player is somewhere (i.e. shepherding Judd and Kerr)

-Gibbsy was very good

-Thornton was extremely good in defence, i loved his game.

Cons:
-Another ordinary day from Kennedy..he's got to be on the verge now.

-Houlihan got a tonne of it but i jumped off the bandwagon this weak...wet weather tough footy petrefied him at times.

-No Stevens in the midfield exposed some of the younger guys. We won the clearances, but the way it was used and organised was shaky all day.

-Jarrad Waite played below his usual self today...cant remember seeing him hold onto a mark all game.

-Fevola was given a bath by Glass, mind you the delivery to Fev was shocking and he didnt have much opportunity to star.


Nic

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Cuck Follingwood

Biggest con for me today was the glaring lack of support runners and shepperders. Maybe it wasn't that clear on TV but the Eagles were always running in support of each other and 1) providing options and 2) providing support. Clokes great bump on Selwood was a rare exception and highlight.

Biggest pro was Gibbs, looked really composed and a couple of great spoils, one in the 3rd which should have ben a goal to Waite instead he missed and the ball came all the way back and sailed over Bryce's head.

Just on Kennedy, I'm a massive fan of the way he presents and I know he is still learning the game but I watched him pretty closely today and he looked to me like he didn't really know what his role was. He looked worried about getting in Fev's way when he went forward and looked unsure where he was supposed to be and who he was supposed to be on when the ball was coming out of our forward line. Interested in others' opinions on this.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

Pro's...Gibbs composure down back....
Lappin was ok
Scotland seemed to hit most targets
Clokes bump...


Cons...lousy skills by hand and foot.
Poor tackling....Hurn ran through four players who couldnt stop him or didnt want to.
Ackland turtled a marking contest..........
Leadership lacking as Jakovich stated on fox footy.
No Fev...no forward line.....its been said before so need for me to go over old ground...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

YES! Apprentiship over... set him free!

We were just FLAT

+ Some of the senior players did well: Scotland, Houlihan, Lappin all got good numbers
+ A great debut for the young guns, but not a great result.
+ Fev's brain-explosion, and what opportunities that will give the side to develop options up forward
+ Fev's defensive game

- Our kicking was disgusting: one goal per quarter, our major up forward options doing jack diddly.
- Marc Murphy is human.
- Lance
- Not having Stevo (this will be a con for the rest of the year)
- Fev's brain-explosion, and what that will cost the side in his absence up forward
- No come-back
- The lowest score ever against the Weagles

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[Sam Jacobs] looks like a 7' Lance Whitnall, and [Mitch Robinson] looks like a 4' Lance Whitnall
(The SEN team during the Carlton v Cats 2009 pre-season match)