GIBBS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLAYING U18s LAST YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Agree, we expect a hell of a lot from this kid as a bottom age recruit. Won't see the best of him until Judd, Stevo and Hadley get match fitness and offer the protection he needs. By mid year, maybe with Tex back too, this will be one hell of a midfield.

I know that Ratts has indicated he wants us to grow into the season and his primary concern has been round 1 and beyond..

I thought the best positive to come out of Round 1 to be honest, was Chris Judd! The way he moves, his disposal (At about 65-70% capacity) was better than anyone out there on the park..

While not the best player on the field, being at the game watching him in action, reinforces just what a force he will be for our football club.. Has overtaken Fev as my favorite player at our club!

Would have been nice to see Gibbsy do a bit more on Thurs night but it is only his 2nd season, and we foget is only 18! But from what i saw against the bulldogs in that practice match, he is a freak and every disposal is first class.. Dare i say it, he reminds me as very Hird-esque! 100% poise, will improve!

Murphy and Stevens are class acts, and will be very handy for us this year.. I just really hope we don't have too many 3rd and 4th quaters like we did on Thursday night, because our first half looked very promising..

I'd be happy with 8 wins at the end of the season, and with our base of young kids, i believe next on the agenda at the end of the season, WE MUST recruit a ready made defender!

Darren Glass would be ideal, for eg.. Perhaps a ruckman also, but we'll see how Hampson develops over the next year and what our main priority is..

Still i'm looking forward to the season ahead, a few of our key players are pretty underdone, and we have a few outs, and with Fish, Hampson and Kreuzer coming back in the next 1 or 2 weeks, we will improve!

The jury is still out on Stkilda! Not so confident, but of course im hopeful for a win! They have to prove themselves as a team in the home and away season!

We will see!

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Corinthians 9:6- 8

name names for those of us who haven't seen the game yet.

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one you knock back is one you never have

I find it strange to see why Bannister should be copping such flack. He had a run with role on Deludio and he kept him to 5ks, 8 hbs and a couple of goals. Not a bad game and had the better of Deludio on most occasions

His decision to kick it to Judd in the last Q was so much a poor choice as a poor kick that lack penetration and hung in the air. Judd obviously called for it.

I think some supporters are just looking for the usual suspects as a scape goat.

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.”

2 instances where players stepped short rather than going into the hole were.
Carrots - should have run back with the flight. Looked at the ball and then the oncoming pack and stopped.

I also remember Thornton doing it once.

I wouldn't do it either but I'm not being paid to play contact sport. Short steps = self protaction. Loom at the good clubs.... Not much self protection shown. so as we still play with this we are a long way off.

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Stay tuned We're in for a BUMPY ride

IMO Waite is neither a forward nor a backman. He is a natural WINGER. Give him one side of the ground and tell him to create his own history. When required, he has the height and speed and physique to help the defenders or to become another forward option.
IMO Setanta will be a very efferctive FULLBACK for us but FFS, just leave him there. I don't care what issues we have in the ruck, sort it out THursday night and do not include the Irishman in any contingency plans
IMO, Carrazzo needs to go back to being a run with player and given an ultimatum that if his kicking doesn't improve, he will remain a tagger all of his career.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

To be honest the biggest 'Con' of the week is this thread. So many Carlton-bleeding fans giving in to short-term pain and a second half turnaround to not see what is really happening out there. I have this theory that many years on the bottom, of being despondent, change the common fan to a whining, sooking mess - like your typical Richmond fan - and I've feared this is what we are becoming.

Stand your ground Carlton fans. We had many, many positives out there.

PROS
- Controlled the first 45 minutes. Richmond were only in the game from some basic defensive errors and a few lucky umpiring decisions. We were precise, patient and moved the ball well.
- Edwards. Those yarping about him being dropped need to consider 8 beautiful leading marks from a debutant. He kicked 1 goals 2. Convert better and that is a perfect introduction.
- Judd, Hadley, Stevens - elements of these 3 were amazing to watch.
- Return to football of Judd, Hadley, Stevens, Cloke and Setanta. You all read training reports dont' you? Don't you? Dont you know that these guys are all coming back from something serious?

One of my pet theories in footy is that injuries intra-game cost you a lot more than injuries pre-game. Yet because of our list, all 5 of these guys had to play. No choice. And yet between them (ex-Setanta) they played what 20 useful games last year?

- Our I50's weren't just bombs but they were attempts at being precise. In the latter 2nd and early 3rd we turned it over not from your Pagan 3-1 Fevola match-up but a failed pass. Our mids couldnt hold on to the ball at times, but we needed to hold it up.

CONS?
- We lost patience. Our forward entries became panicked as the game wore on.
- We lost intensity. Our leadership became straggled (minimal fitness) as the game wore on. When we were 4 goals up, you could see it, you could see the drop in pack-contests and you could see us relent.
- Once we lost these, we were losing the game. Richmond were gallant, hard running, but nothing more. We are a step above but they played better as a team.

I was very happy with most of what I saw. Carrazzo's 4 or 5 failed entries into I50 were a symptom of something else- I think we forgot to wait. Extra match fitness, extra time playing together, and some returning players will see us much better-led and much more efficient.

Couldn't agree more Molsey

I know with a Pro's & Con's the Con's are not going to be positive but bloody hell you would think the world was coming to an end reading some of this rubbish

OK we dropped off the game in the 2nd half, but really ... by how much and for how long?

We kicked 2.7 (to 9.3) in the 2nd half and many of the points were makable shots. They only had 3 more scores in the whole 2nd half and only 1 more score for the whole game.

We were only 7 points down with 12 minutes to go and as bad as it appeared we were going (particularly the end result) we were still in with a real chance at that stage.

I was actually happy with a lot of what I saw and some of the passages of play were particularly exciting to see what the future beckons.

All I want this year is to see improvement in our ability to compete and to see individuals learn the game and get some experience under their belts.

I'm sure we will get better every week that these guys play together. Remember this is only the first time this team has played together as there were so many players either injured, rested, rotated in the pre-season games.

I for one am really excited by what I saw in the first half. I'm looking forward to seeing that type of intensity and teamwork develop throughout the year to the point where we are playing good footy for a full game rather than just in patches.

.... and for those who can't help yourselves you may want to visit .....

TalkingDoomsday

TalkingTheSkyIsFallingIn

TalkingTheEndOfTheWorldIsNigh

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^^^

Don't worry Essendon* ....... We still hate your guts

^^^

Would it be safe to say that many of the more negative feelings in here would be somewhat less extreme if it was any other team but Richmond we lost to?

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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

Yes, if it were Geelong or Hawthorn it would be, Richmond is nigh on excusable. But they were up and about and wanted it that little bit more by the look of it. Fitness was an issue. We had pretty much the same amount of scoring shots and up and until the last ten minutes it would've been pretty much even around the ground as well.

Take a few things away from the game like Judds performance at 70%, I thought Jamo was good even though Richo beat him, Murphy is gonna have a good year, Stevo and Hadley better for the run.

The negatives for me was the fadeout and Piss poor disposal at inappropriate times from serial offenders i.e Carrazzo and Banno.

Would've liked to have won but not the end of the world yet, still 21 more weeks to go, next week will be tough but for a month after that I believe we have very winnable games, I'd love to beat the saints though!!

Couldn't agree more Molsey.

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

Good perspective on the game by Molsey above.

I was so convinced the blues would win I bet my entire Centrebet balance on them,"only" $300, but it still hurts.

Some very exciting passages of play in the first half, and thought the overall foot and hand passing skill level were a big improvement on last year.

When we were 4 goals up I thought this team can make the finals.

I still think we have the ability to do so.

We lost to Richmond, arguably 2007's worst team, so for most, we are still a crap team etc etc.

I prefer to think that Richmond played their best game of the year, but we played our worst, and that we will keep getting better.

If the Club isn't already doing it, they need to put resources in, to improve the players mental preparation/conditioning so they can put together 4 qtrs of consistent effort and performance, and not lose confidence when things start to go wrong. We know the physical fitness side of things is well looked after.

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No Guts, No Glory

You cannot argue the fact that these days poor disposal can derail ANY game plan and stifle all momentum. You simply cannot be successfull if the team suffers from poor disposal. Carrazzo, Thornton and Bannister were and have been offenders for some time in this regard despite their other attributes.
If their poor disposal continues we have to replace them...

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There's so much I could say...

Quite true......But Bannister made the one mistake and is held up as the usual suspect. Aside from that one kick he played a solid game on Deludio and was one of our more disciplined defenders. Stevens turned it over twice for 2 goals at crucial times. Do we replace him?

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.”

If it's continually hurting the side and directly impacting on our chances of winning then of course we do, otherwise we are accepting mediocrity and shitting on our successfull culture ... right???

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There's so much I could say...

Yes..................Good Luck With That

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.”

Don't agree. He had good leads on a number of situations. And just missed them plain and simple. The goal for Richmond that started their revival after we were 4 up came from Carrazzo missing Fev on a regulation lead.

And btw, we're still bombing it to Fev versus 15 players way too often.

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

You are kidding big time. That was Fev's. Fev workrate has been terrific since Ratten's become coach. He worked damn hard Thursday, against 3 or 4 at times and by the 3rd qtr, like alot of others, he was completely knackered.

Look, I'm sure once Stevo brushes away the cobwebs we'll all see some Bradley-esque 'outside' brilliance from him the majority of the time and he will be a big plus.

The point of the matter is we ALL must lift our levels of acceptance and have the courage to make the call on players who are just 'existing', whether they're great blokes or not.
We are Carlton and we don't accept mediocrity.

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There's so much I could say...