You know, with all this crap about Murph and Carrots' apparent inibility to kick a football, I think we're missing a bigger picture here.

WTF is wrong with Fev's kicking right now?

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

i guess that the thing with drafting players these days, no sure things. just guys with a lot of positives and as many negatives. mould those players to play a roll and complement all the others is the key.

micheal sexton was hardly a gun footballer but it was guys (many) like him that really got us over the line in 95. his kicking was arkward as, but it worked for him.

Was at the game tonight, and am feeling rather good about things. Firstly, ran into a game-friend whom I hadn't seen for something like 3 or 4 years! They used to sit near us at PP, and since then we haven't found them at our "home ground". That filled my heart with joy - especially getting on the phone to Gran who was rugged up in Ballarat!

Secondly - we have some great off the ground skills now. The number of times we managed to scoop the ball off the ground was impressive. It's every where else that we looked fragile!

And yet I'm not concerned. We have gone into this pre-season cup with a different attitude. It's not "win for the sake of your jobs", it's play for the sake of your skills. And what did we learn from today's skill session? Almost the entire match was played under a "playon under any circumstance". That results in a few things - first you have to think, and think quick! Receive the ball, release the ball - but to someone who is in a better position than you are! A lot of times that didn't work tonight. But if you want an intense skills session with no apologies and players rushing you from everywhere - tonight was it.

And I don't think this will be our game style come Game 1. But it will hold us in good stead!

Kreuzer didn't play long but whilst he was playing he showed skill, speed and smarts. From a contest in the forward pocket, he watched the Hawks run the ball across the face of goal. He immediately set off for the opposite wing and was in the action by the time the Hawks kicked the ball there.

Gibbs showed what a brilliant centre man he is going to be. Four consecutive take outs from the centre square. Loverly.

Murphy showed heart and whilst his kicking let him down, he will be a better player this year with less pressure from taggers.

Stevens was reckless and hard at the ball.

Fev tried, chased down the ball, tackled and ran. Still letting his emotions show and ruin his performance.

So overall, despite the margin, despite the first quarter thumping, and despite the excessive holding the ball calls, it was an interesting insight, a view into how every other club runs it's pre-season campaign and best of all - not an indication of how we'll fare during the season proper!

What I hope that the coaching staff took out of tonights game was the need to develop vision and judgment in the younger players. They are good at spotting a teammate but need to learn how to read where the opposition are so that they don't put teammates under pressure. Also on a few occasions some young boys waited for the ball to come to them. Can't fault the effort or endeavour.

Also I was infuriated to see a Brown knock over another Carlton number 8

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Ratts: We weren't switched on



This seems to be an epidemic that's plagued us for years. Why aren't they switched on? Why do they have to be pounded to near-oblivion before they wake up? Why do we always have a quarter or so where we go to shit?

This tells me the players still have problems mentally. The same thing happened against Port.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

February.

If anyone has mental problems it is the supporters.

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Half time.

Absolute horror.

inexperience, not being able to adjust to the style of game.... it's almost like they have to be told where they are going wrong and how to improve it.

Has Pagan leaving had a revers-McKernan effect on Fev?

He's certainly kicking like that last year under Brittain

Anyway, as TBB and others have mentioned - it's obvious there is a new game-plan afoot and that some of the younger kids are just lacking a bit of confidence in what they are doing. Pagan has drilled one way into them for several years and now they are having to re-learn it all.

When those chain-hanballs link up it looks awesome, but it takes just one handball or one fumble to bring it all undone - so this is something that needs to be practiced under match conditions.

Which is exactly what the pre-season is for I would have thought...

I was impressed by Hadley and Kreuzer tonight. And Simmo for his undoubted courage.

Campbell Brown is a dirty coward. Loved when Fev evened him up later. And their ruckman No 13 whoever he is - what a filthy prick you are - what you did to Cloke was disgusting.

OK now for my observations after attending the game and letting myself settle for a few hours.

1. JR will NOT make it. Has no idea where the play will be and just floats along hoping that the ball will find him. Having speed and skill count for nothing if you do not have the ball. I have tried very hard to be patient with him; blaming Pagan for lack of ground time and playing him out of position well under Ratten he has had opportunity and does not grab it. He is gone.

2. Murph had a shocker. Nuff said about that, all players have a bad patch, this is his. Will get better we know what he can do; hope he does it when it counts.

3. Cloke is a better player than most people on here give him credit. Always tries his hardest, makes a contest in the ruck (even if he doesn't win them all) and runs to support team mates. Had a good game and held his own, hope he has a long injury free career at Carlton. The fact that this would piss off the filth is just a bonus.

4. Austin and Ellard - back to the ants, see you next NAB campaign.

5. Grigg - OK some good things some bad, will get better.

6. Pfieffer and Arnefield - not the saviours just yet but they can play. Hope they develop some more.

7. Hampson and Kruezer - they are our future and I like what I see.

8. Jackson - bad game, jury still out (for me).

9. Hadley - great recruit.

10. Bower and Jamison - Play them back all year to develop. Both will be good players with long careers ahead of them.

11. Gibbs - As stated before that third quarter was DOMINATED by Gibbsy. They should replay that effort to the rest of our young mids as a instructional how-to video. Will be the best of our number ones.

12. Hawks fielded a pretty strong side, mostly playing in position. When the young blues started running the ball the other way they didn't look to good at times either. They are a good side but will still loose to the top quality sides, will make top four though.

13. I don't think this is the game plan and structure that Ratts will take into the season proper. We'll see a different outfit and different game when Richmond line up for round one.

14. Add Judd, Walker, Fisher, Hartlett, O' Alphin (x2), Bannister (yes he is a good tagger), Bentick into this side and see what difference this will make. There is some depth and plenty of options for the balance of the season.

All in all the first couple of quaters were horrible, the third respectable and the last so-so. But it is NAB cup and Ratts did not want to win this one hence players are underdone and younger players receiving quality ground time. Lets all reassess this after round 10 or so.

Thanks for listening, please ignore the bad spelling.

I agree he is a worry - I saw him stuff up countless times and on one ocassion he put a block on our own player, poor Heath!

He does do the odd good thing, but I see a lot more he cant do. Glad I get to see his stupid face looking down on me from the Talking Carlton banner too - along side a top 9 pick who is developing so slowly.

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I will miss you Kouta - thanks for the memories. ps. Kouta > * for ∞

Usually we win those NAB matches and stumble into round 1 with the same cocksure attitude that we took into the first quarter tonight. We got smashed at the clearances last week by a very inexperienced center formation so pitting Hodge and Mitchell against us was always going to be messy. We have very few senior bodies who are willing to win first possession and it hurts us no end. Hopefully with a few more games under Hadley's belt and the inclusion of Judd, we'll see us actually win a friggin center break.

Add Bentick as well. He will be good rotating off the bench in the centre square.

Couldn't do much from the bench after Hodge 'accidentally' corked him early in the game!

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when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth

Feelgood Hit of the Winter - GHRP-2, GHRP-6, CJC-1295, AOD-9604, Humanofort and Hexarelin

Geelong lost today.


Geelong.

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Great Post.

Just to comment on the bit I highlighted: It was almost as if they weren't running at all in the first quarter, so many recieves were flat footed. I agree that with practice it will come but as individuals they really need to find some initiative and work on supporting their team mates and just running to take the ball forward. There was none of that in teh first quarter it was as if they were at a keepings off drill at training.

I'm not one of the more astute footy observers around here but it was obvious to me the gameplan is totally different, I knew they were trying to keep posession, i knew they were trying to play on. It's going to take time...there is no quick fix. After Pagans tendancy to just tell the players what to do it will take time for the players to find the initiative I was speaking about earlier.

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The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger

Wait just a minute... aren't the people saying we're bloody awful and half the team is crap after tonight's game the same people who said we were friggin awesome last week?

Let's get a grip shall we?

Let's not forget the team when Ratten took over put the torch on some pretty good teams late in the year and just happened to lose.

I don't believe Carlton will play finals this year, but it's not the end of the road. Let's just get a grip. How many premiership points were up for grabs tonight?

If that's our "new gameplan" the coaches have a lot of work to do. I was at the game, and for those who watched on TV, it would be difficult to see how dysfunctional our setups were.

Basically, if we took a mark at half back, all of our players would stand on the wing with their hands up calling for the ball. Just standing there. No movement.

We have a deficiency of presenting, lead-up key position players. Hawthorn just filled the holes and we had nothing to kick to, which is why we kept handballing to pressured options. When Waite presented at HF in the second half we looked better.

Why were we committed to the flanks? Good teams play the CORRIDOR! I hope ratts' new gameplan is better than that.

Another thing for the coaches to work on - Hampson got every hit out (he was fantastic), but we rarely got first hands on the footy. That tells me we haven't worked on our midfield set ups enough, because our midfield players are as talented as Hawthorn's.

Some individual comments (i agree with many on here already)

Waite - will continue to frustrate. Decision making is unreliable, and execution is inconsistent. He'll never be Mr. Dependable (which is what you want in a CHB). I'm almost resigned to the fact that every winter saturday for the next 8 years is gonna contain 3 or 4 Waitey brain-fades, he just can't get them out of his game.

Russel - doesn't get to enough contests, and when he gets there he's late. Simply looks lost on the footy field. Weird.

Hampson - yes

Houlihan - one of our most reliable players. Those who criticise him are harsh.

Pfeiffer - the excitment of last week on this board was very very premature

Those who say that it is only February are right. But you can't dismiss everything that happened tonight.

We got bossed around at the clearances and the game plan and setups were a long way off acceptable.

The coaches have a lot of work to do on their plan and their players' skills.

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

Mate, if you keep thinking like this I think the torch should be put to you.


Down side of yesterdays game was the 1st qtr and turnovers, but we had a fair few players who haven't even played 10/20 games yet, AFL level of footy is faster and these kids are playing there 1st game of 2008 and some there 1st game for Carlton

Anyways, still SO many things we can take from the game......
-Stevens is back!!
-Jamo doing some really nice things down back.
-Ellard did a few silly things in the last qtr but did some really nice things in the 3rd.
-Gibbs getting better and better.
-Pfiffier was alot better when he was played up the ground and shows he could be ok.
-Haddly playing his 1st game in 2yrs and doing some nice things.
-Murph finding the ball......needs to do better when getting rid of it.
-Bower showing more in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs than he did all of last season.
-Having Rucks that can contest.
-The New No8 showing some great signs in his 2nd game, he is quick and reads the play well

AND


We got Judd!!

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Not so best of TheSexySquad


AWWWWWW STEVENS.

In the quest for better stronger bodies game plans etc one skill that has been overlooked a bit has been kicking.

It is and always will be the skill that is the most important.
Recruiters have had a tendency to go for the taller athletic types.Bower is a clasic example of this. He is a shit kick and probably has got away with it because he is a super athlete.

Take Young from the Hawks.
A rookie listed player not even picked up in the draft.
Not a big player but can kick it 55 to a moving target with ease.

We will be better this year but we will lose many games because of our kicking skills. We will turn it over too much,we will miss easy shots and we will struggle to kick goals from outside 50.

I know the coaching staff are working hard with Benjamin to improve his kicking.
Murphy, Bower and many others need the same treatment.
Im not a professional footballer. They are. Practice practice practice.