In the shades of last night's loss I've given good thought to our club and how we are faring.

I've come across quite a few home truths - some good, some bad - but they are all pretty close to the mark I reckon... keep in mind that my views are not just reflective of Round 1.


***Depth, obviously, is a concern. Our best 18 (last nights squad + Kruezer, Fisher, Walker - IMO) 100% fit and playing to their potential has the ability to knock off any team in the competition... whether Ratten's game plan will accommodate this is yet to be seen. Lose any handful of these players though, and massive deficiencies in the backline, forward, or the ruck are going to show. The only area of depth in our team in is the midfield.


***Some skill levels are just inadequate, whilst some clangers are unavoidable. But remember we have the youngest playing list in the competition. Hawthorn held this mantle 3-4 years ago, and they are finally starting to play decent football.


***Carlton, at the start of Round 1 has 33,000 members - except for the 2007 season (35,431), this is more signed up prior to the start of the home and away season than any FINISHING TOTAL of any other season.


***Underdone: Stevens (injury/match practice), Hadley (match practice), Judd (injury - and was still damaging!). A lot of the kids it seems fail to run out 4 quarters - and maybe some questions should be asked as to why? Fatigue takes it's took, especially on younger players - in the latter parts of the season... but why can't they run out a game from the start?!


***Our coach has experience - on the other side of the fence. Ratts' coaching career is only 10 games old (I think), and he - like the team, is still trying to find his feet it seems. Us Carlton faithful may not be as patient anymore - due to our last 5 years and who can blame us? - but sometimes we need to remember this. The coach is learning with the players, and as long as we see changes on the field, as long as we see small, continual improvements in the players, and as long as we see adaptive game plans being executed - we should persevere.


***Particularly last night, I watched three players provide any sort of run or drive from half back to half forward - Simpson, Murphy and in parts, Judd. They were the only players that could find space and create a fluid passage of play to the forward line, many of the others found themselves flat footed or chipping sideways and waiting for the opposition to cross over before kicking to a contest anyway. This definitely needs to change.


***I think we can all say that, despite his deficiencies in the ruck - that Cameron Cloke will always contribute to the team and provide a contest where he can. A classic example of a player making the most of the abilities he has and playing to his strengths (strong body one on one marking, and covering the ground well for mine). Other players that - whether you think they are good players or not - that play to their strengths are Betts, O'hAilpin, and Jamison. (who perhaps played his best match yet last night...)


***We need Fisher! If not Fish, then another tall forward of a marking option. Fev will be double-teamed throughout the entire season without another tall marking option up forward, and while Fisher is the obvious choice - Hartlett, Kruezer, O'hAilpin or even Cloke could potentially fill this role - with varying success.


***Waite has already shown in the Dogs and Tigers matches that the half back flank needs him. His telescopic arms, big engine and courage are finally going to be utilised in the most effective manner, IMO. Waite on Brown? Who knows how that would go, or whether he is better suited to a flank or a floating position - but our backline looks a truckload better with him there...


***We will win at least one of the next three matches (against St. Kilda, Essendon* or Collingwood). At LEAST one! Our underdone players will be fresher for last night's run, Fisher should be back - Ratt's will tinker with the line-up and send any deadwood to the Magoos. In trying to think of last night's loss in a positive fashion (I was spitting chips last night!) - I'm thinking of it as an aberration, and looking at our Rd. 14 match against Richmond as a potential 8 goal drubbing...!


***Did you see the likes of Kouta and Lappin make multiple clangers on a weekly basis? No. Why? Because they were well drilled, experienced players, who had played more games between the two of them than just under half of Carlton's playing list.


***Is it just me, or do we have some ingrained issue with playing half a game?! As I mentioned earlier, our fitness seems to be a concern - but is it really fitness? Is it choking when we're playing decent football due to a losing mentality developed over the past 5 years?! Whatever it is, it needs to be rectified. A slump from our team in our quarter could gift a team like Geelong with an 8 goal effort... if it happens in the first quarter we are looking at a very long match. (Unless it's Essendon* )


Well that's all I've got, I'd like to think I'm pretty close to the mark with my comments but this is my opinion alone... some good, some bad.

The good is that we have the structure, a team with skill (but no experience), two of the best players in the comp in Fev and Judd and a hunger to win - backed by an army of devoted supporters.

The bad is that the Carlton resurgence, although started - is still in it's infancy. The winning mentality need to be established, the team needs to gel and adapt to a new coach's game plan and we need that little bit of arrogance back.


***2008 will be a very, very interesting year.

Watching the replay gave me a little more heart. Last night I was gutted. Distraught in a sense. Were my expectations to high? Maybe. But for my analysis, here goes.

I am not blaming them, but the umpiring was 'shocking'!!!!!!

Before half time, they gifted Richmond 3 goals. The Waite turnover was a farce! As was the tiggy touch wood free kicks. We had every opportunity though, to convert many times, but failed to do so. We should have been 40+ points up at the half.

Richo, hats off to the big fella. At the tender age of 33 Cool , his heart, soul and passion is fantastic. We need a leader of his calibre. A Carlton person through and through. Who will put there hand up?

Defenders, Jammo was very undersized against Richo. His experience though was the key. Banno would have been a better size, but he would not have the tank.

Forwards and entry. Fish, we missed his sticky fingers last night. We are very one dimensional going forward. Fev or not much. Edwards continues to impress. But how much can you expect out of a first gamer. He showed plenty, good to get one out of the way. I look forward to seeing a forward structure of Edwards, Fischer, Houla, Betts, Fev and another small....
Harts? Maybe having a few weeks off. Would much rather see him being developed as a key defender.

Stevo, Judd, Setanta, will all be better for the run. Fish, Hampson, Kreuzer all could be available next week. Promising times are assured. Better times no doubt. All in all, a disappointing night that gave us so many glimpses. One with more answers however. Richmonds best side V ours with 3 under done and 4 of our best 22 out in Fish, Walks, Hampson and Kreuzer.

Cohesion and game time into our stars will come, so I look forward to Stevo taking on a bit more. He should have had a shot 40 out on the run in the last. As should have Houla instead of giving it to Edwards int he square in the third. Those moments cost us greatly in the end.

Kudos to Murphy, Clokey and Hadley. Good first up games along with Juddy, Carrazzo, T-Bird and Juddy. Grigga' looks a quality kid still too.

Stevo and Gibbs were very quite. Bring on the Saints and lets hope for a consistent 4 quarter effort. Ratts would be very happy with the first half. But plenty still to work with this week.

We need a pace of half back. Some one who can carry the ball. T-bird got a stack of it but to slow to release the ball.

We need some genuine forwards not make do's. Josh Kennedy was one but we had to let him go. We need a excitement machines like a Cyril Riolli who can crumb, create pressure with his pace. Last night we were overcome by pace, something we aint got.

I don't understand why we did not trade for Stephen King, he would have plugged a whole while Kruezer and Hammo develop.

We showed some positive signs last night, when we were up we looked good. We ran out of legs, under pressure we made some bad decisions.

You got to remember the club is stable now. This is the new beginning, there is no rush and the wheels are in motion. Great admin, increase in spending on our football department, new fitness staff. Its going to take time but we will get there.

No doubt we will come good, we have to realise it will take some time and some smart recruiting. That should be our main focus and tip more money into.

Its not all doom and gloom - we just lack depth and that affects our team structure.

Last nights game was a good example - With our rucks out, we had to shift setanta away from FB - which pushed gave an undersizes jamison a difficult matchup. With fisher out, we had no forward structure - I've said it before but fisher is more important to our forward structure than Fev - last night showed that again.

We also carried too many unfit players and as a consequence got caught short on the rebound

Pretty good analysis there............. would have to aggree with you on pretty much everything.

Setanta, one of my fav's, should actually be used down back! We missed him in defence last night. I've been pushing him to move to CHF but on the back of last night, i think Full Back could very well be the best place for us to utilise his athletic ability, height and agility.
Jammo did some nice things, but Richo was on fire last night. Hope he keeps his chin up.

But OUR KICKING?????????????? WTF????????????? Some of Carrazzo's kicks were absolutely woeful. Yet he gets mentioned in the list of best players.
Do we have a designated Kicking Practice session, cause if not, we bloody well should.

_________________
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Setanta on Richo would have resulted in only 2-3 goals from the forward. One that stuck in my mind was where Richo played in front and pushed Jammo off his feet with one hand to take the mark uncontested. Setanta would have fly-swatted Richo...

Agree Melvey: Re. Steven King. Even as a one or two year stop gap, for the price Geelong gave for him we could have snapped him up. But then again, in another way of thinking letting Kruezer and Hammo (and to a lesser extent Cloke/Ackland) run the gauntlet this year they will probably be a lot better for it in the future - much like Murphy being thrown into the deep end as getting the best/second best tagger last year.

Remember, this isn't solely an analysis of last night's game - although I have used it as an example and have made some comments based on what I saw last night.

We had 10 players in our side last night who have played less than 40 games. Plus, our two best and most experienced midfielders were underdone. No wonder we couldn't run out 4 quarters against a team that is 'up' early this season.

I'm glad our club is investing in youth - but an inevitable bi-product of that is that we will run out of legs in some games (until those players have the fitness base that comes with 40-50+ AFL games experience).

Other bi-products of youth policies can be - inconsistency (often the result of mental lapses in concentration/intensity), an increased likelihood of mistakes (both skill errors & in decision making), and reduced body strength (hence tackles get broken).

These are not excuses, they are reasons. Good coaching/development will hopefully fast-track our youngsters and minimise the above down-sides.

And let's not forget that many of our players are in the process of being 're-programmed' after 4 years of DP and his game plan style. And that our coach is the youngest in the AFL and has coached only 7 games.

Patience people. Patience.

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

As well as the general issues of inexperience & sorting out our game plan, specific areas that need to address for mine are:

*Ruck - Hammer is our #1 ruckman, which speaks volumes itself because the guy has played 2 games, is 20y.o. (today!) and has been playing Aussie Rules for only a few years. King would have been great for 12 months, but that means we would have had 7 ruckman on our list (plus rookie Jacobs). Who would we have cut? Sugar? He has 2 years to go on his contract . Cloke? Maybe. Aisake? Nup. Think we'll just need to be patient on this one, and use Cloke basically as cannon fodder to protect Hammer/Kreuzer from too much work this season;

* Getting the midfield mix right - Too many outsides, not enough (quality) insiders IMO. Would love a Sam Mitchell-type to feed the ball out to Judd, Stevens, Simmo etc. Without a dominate ruckman and a quality inside mid, we will not maximise those players. We saw last night that when we have problems at the stoppages, we don't get the ball into those bloke's hands enough. We all know his limitations (slow, average skills), but I wonder if there still might be a spot of AB if he can get his body right..? Hadley will help in this area too when he gets a month of footy under his belt;

* Pace/Run - Everyone looks slow when they don't have the ball, but we certainly looked slow last night. We could do with a jet coming out of defence (having Tex back will help this), and perhaps another one inside forward 50 (if Benji's skills settle down and if he gets over his injuries, he might be able to offer us something later in the year, mind you, those are big 'ifs'...);

* Marking Forwards - Fish needs to play at least as well as he did in 2007, even then we are a bit short on making targets. Jake shows promise, I don't have much hope for Harts, Aisake is a long way off it. Kreuzer is probably the hope. Shame we had to lose JK, but well, we just had to;

* Small/Medium Forwards - Would love a Chapman-type down there. Strong physical pressure, plus also dangerous/creative around goals. Eddie is OK, but doesn't do enough for mine. It would be great if JR stepped up, but the jury is still out on him IMO. Wiggo is just short of AFL standard IMO. Hoops' defensive pressure in the forward line needs to improve. Maybe Carrots, and/or Murphy should spend more time in the forward 50 (or is that robbing Peter too much to pay Paul)?;

We have an inexperienced defence, so that's obviously a work in progress, but I don't think it's the area of the ground where we have the most cause for concern IMO. Bower, Grigg, Jamo look promising alongside Waite, Carlos & T-Bird. Plus the likes of Austin, Ando, Pfeiffer, Armfield & Browne coming through means we have some options on our list there.

I think the most important area is the midfield. It's vital we get our midfield working, that's where the game is won & lost (and where everyone keeps saying is our strength...but I still think there are pieces of the midfield puzzle missing).

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Concentration, intensity, skill and fitness are the areas we need to improve on the most as a whole.

_________________
There's so much I could say...

Setanta at full back is a ridiculous idea save for a match-up like last night against Richo. Why we didn't try him or Waite I'll never know.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Still pissed about last night but the one (still) critical deficiency in our game is tackling. We were absolutely pathetic last night at times. Some of Houlihan's efforts were enough to make me vomit!!! Not even a token effort at times!!!

You cant let undersized flanker types to get through you like your arms are made of lettuce leaves! FFS!!!

Fuming about it

Not many positives after last night. Another long season ahead

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

I dont want us to tank but im not all that sure that we can win more than 4 games this year anyway.

Its clear that we have issues in many areas.

Defence - we all know that we are weak down back. Im not sure that Jamison is good enough for a FB. The jury is still out on Bower while Thornton is just ok. I like Waite playing at HB but overall, we dont have any run coming from the backline.

Midfield - our midfield looks good on paper and should be our strength. Juddy, Stevens, Murphy and Simpson are all class. Carazzo is good but trurns it over too much while i expect Gibbs to lift this season. We need a hard nut that can win the hard ball from stoppages.

Forwards - we are going to struggle big time up forward this year. Fev is a gun but u cant expect him to do everything. Im worries about his off field behaviours and wont be surprise if we trade him at the end of this season. Sorry to say but Hartlett will not make it and neither will Eddie Betts. Edwards could be ok but all in all we dont have enough options. We do miss Fisher but i must be the only person on this forum who thinks most posters in here overrate him. He is a good mark but average kick for goal. He wont be the answer to our problems.

Rucks - everyone is saying that Hampson is our number 1 ruckman but i cant understand why??? He has played just 2 games in his career yet he there is so much expectation on him. I hope that he and Kreuzer can do the load this year because Ackland, O'Hailpin, Cloke and Jacobs are not good enough.

Its clear that our list is still weak. The following players shouldnt be here at years end: Bannister, Hartlett, Saddington, Wiggins, Betts, O'Hailpin, Cloke, Bentick, Blackwell. Theres a few that will probably come to mind later.

Chances are that we will have a top 5 pick in the draft this year (very seriously, we may have 2 with the PP) and we cant afford to waste it on another 'small' player like Gibbs, Murphy or Walker. We need to start going for key position forwards. St Kilda did it with Riewoldt and Kositchke while Hawthorn did it with Franklin and Roughead. Time to see the big picture!!!

I'm not too sure where to from here but i wont be too upset (or surprised) if we finish the year on 4 wins.

_________________
Walk on, Walk on,
With hope, in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

08/02/1981 - GATE 7...Our brothers will never be forgotten!!!

Houla was the main culprit, but Stevo wasn't far behind.

The Tigers waltzed out of our forward line far too easily

_________________
The Empire Strikes Back

One game dude..... One bloody game!!!!






You do barrack for Carlton don't you? Collingwood supporter? Essendon* perhaps??





You are a comedian?? Is this Benny Hill??

Gibbs: 188cm - I would say he is just over oommpaa height....

Walker: 190cm - Him too....

Clokey? Played well last night. Are you actually watching the game or just looking for an excuse to bag?

I think Ratts has already stated that we have 5 ruckmen on the list injured with Hampson Kreuzer AOhailpin Ackland and Jacobs all missing. Obviously 5 rucks out injured or returning from injury is not a common occurrence and would test any club in the ruck. Add Stevens Hadley Judd and Setanta all underdone and a win was going to be a hard ask.

If you were told a club was going into a game with 9 kids with less than 50 games experience not a lot of height and a couple of the senior players still easing into it you would expect them to drop away in the second half. We took a gamble on Carlos because we were desperate for someone to give relief to Cloke in the ruck.

The game plan seemed to be okay when we were up and running but IMO some poor decision making and poor skill execution hurt us. IMO some of this can be attributed to lack of fitness and some is a reflection of our list at this time.

We can work on the skills and more experience and drills will help with some of the decision making. I think we need to give it 4-5 weeks before we make any judgements. I hoped we could pinch a win or two early but it's a bit unlikely.

Good post.

I know it was Richmond, but let's wait til at least Round 6 before we start sticking the knives in...

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Houla was the main culprit, but Stevo wasn't far behind.

The Tigers waltzed out of our forward line far too easily


Couldn't agree more, Houlihan and stevens (most over rated player in the AFL, run's around getting soft touches, never puts his body on the line to sheppard, block or tackle) are piss weak, these guys are suppost to be our leaders out there, when the going gets tough there going the other way. i don't care how under done Stevens is, when he's out there he must help show the young kids how it's done in tight. This is what frustrates me the most, the lack of real leadership out on the ground, Judd will be fantastic but he can't do it on his own.

You are killing me!

So you have bagged so many....Stevo now too.....

First game back and was clearly in need of a gallop. Was STILL very GOOD though...........

Hi Blues1 - welcome to the site, first time poster - eagerly following the forum for a while!?



Pretty much spot on Lynchpin.

GAVROMAN wrote:


He kicked 39.15 last year Im confused who do you consider a good kick for goal then?