GIBBS!

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Cheers Sedat.

We probably played our best game of the season yesterday and the Dogs will bounce back.

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There is no footy god

watch out for the 3rd quarter blues.

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dane's trolling again

I noted yourcomments about Dogs ruck division on Friday but given Streets performance yesterday you can see where one of our glaring deficiencies is

You're all class Sedat.

Our teams are fairly similar - looking forward to some classic clashes in the next four or five years.

The Dogs are always my team once the Blues are out of contention.

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Cant say I've seen enough of him to comment on the outside player comment. He does sees to have time in traffic (which doesnt necessarily mean winning his own hard/contested ball). I think its pretty harsh to label a kid as only interested in getting easy kicks when he has played under 20 games (let alone 50 games). Higgins is probably 19 or so and still fairly skinny (ie less built than murphy/gibbs as far as I can tell) - how many hard kicks would you expect him to get?

Also I wouldnt rate walls comments that much (nor most media commentators) - they just comment on the blatantly obvious without ever considering the bigger picture (ie team A gets thrashed, team A gets a piece condemning them - if for example 2 weeks later, team A starts winning well, team A gets a piece telling everyone how fantastic they are) - there is just no thought put into the pieces.

Aker wasnt bad - think he had 4 or 5 shots on goal (and was open for another when johnson ignored him in the 3rd) - in years past he would have kicked 3 or 4 goals - more than handy for his role in the team. Dont think he is 100% back to his best yet though should be a fairly good contributor for the doggies for at least a couple of years

Without a doubt he'll be a handy contributor for the Doggies for some time, and I love watching him when he cuts up oppositions, and I was worried that yesterday would be one of those matches where he takes a match by the scruff and makes it his own.

By Aker's standards, I think he'd be fairly disappointed by his input (I'm not counting the incident when he was ignored in the sqaure, as that was totally out of his control, and he didn't have any impact on the play at all). He should be ripe for a big one next week against the Lions. Can't wait!

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

grudge- bearer

Are you sure? Doesn't sound like the Agro we all know!

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

from the mouth of the ox, or francis can't remember which one, that is if agro is indeedy Mick who laid it on Chris from Werribee who wrote off Carlton after the NAB cup

I thought we got most of the technical frees that were there and Carlton missed out on a few equally technical frees, so I can understand the ire of Carlton supporters. Having said that, I didn't think they were much of a factor on the day. The irony was in Marc Murphy winning a very questionable free to kick the sealer, but in the passage of play immediately before, a couple of more obvious frees to Murphy were completely ignored by the umpire (who had a clear view of both these holding infringements). Young Marc might have to change his name via deed poll to either Nick Riewoldt or Chris Judd.

What I didn't understand was all the booing for Aker. Didn't he have a massive hand in giving Carlton supporters wonderful memories in the 2002 and 2003 GF's . I won't get started on the 3 times Aker was ignored by his teammates (especially his captain), who instead opted for death or glory low percentage plays.

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"You've got no fear of The Underdog, that's why you will not survive"
- Spoon, 2007
- Western Bulldogs, 2016

I didn't understand the booing of Aker either.

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Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Good to see Johnno get dragged for that.

Should have passed off.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

Aker is a real character of our great game. And you are right. I loved it when he gave it to the filth playing for the Lions

I love Higgins, and he will end up being a very special player and an elite of the competition. But at this early stage of his career, he is only going in one direction. His defensive skills will improve as he gets used to the rigours of AFL. A starting midfield of Griffen (when he overcomes his OP and manages to string together a pre-season), Cooney and Higgins over the next 10 years is something to build a dynasty around.

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"You've got no fear of The Underdog, that's why you will not survive"
- Spoon, 2007
- Western Bulldogs, 2016

Sedat

Have to agree with you on Higgins. Very impressive kid. Interested in your thoughts on Carlton, particularly on what you see as its glaring deficiences. I believe our defence is not miserly enough for my liking and allows too many cheap goals.

Also what was Eade thinking matching Power with Lappin? In my opinion the most critical error of the day.

Conundrum

No great surprise that Carlton has deficiencies in the ruck division. We are also a very poor ruck combination but won many clearances and stoppages yesterday - normally we are rubbish in this area. I'd be throwing some bait in the Brisbane and Adelaide direction, who both have young ruckmen not getting much of a look-in.

The other area Carlton needs to build towards (and has already started to) is a strong 2nd division midfield. Kouta's return has really helped give the likes of Murphy and Scotland a much needed chop out in recent weeks. I suspect Carlton gets big scores kicked against it because their first division midfield doesn't have enough rotation cover, which means they fatigue late in games resulting in too much clean ball into the defensive 50. I was super-impressed with Carazzo yesterday - he won a lot of contested ball and was clean with his disposal, an area that he struggled with in the past. You'll be whacking Gibbs into the centre square before too long, not to mention a fit Stevens from 2008 - exciting times ahead for the Blues.

Lappin was actually on McMahon, who had a really poor game. It looked dangerous after Lappin's first goal in the 3rd, so the move was made far too late.

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"You've got no fear of The Underdog, that's why you will not survive"
- Spoon, 2007
- Western Bulldogs, 2016

You mean Eade not likely to use him as a back pocket tagger for 3 years to teach him something?

Spot on. Denis does not spread the load through all available mid-fielders e.g last week Blackwell only had about 50% game time and Walker did not play mid-field. Some of us are wondering if Denis will ever wake up to the reasons most teams use mid-field bench rotations.

re Johnson not spotting Aker, I agree with Aker in that sometimes players just don't spot the options under pressure situations. Johnno has been a fantastic leader for you guys.