Flower guys, I can't go tonight and can't do Carlos.

I'm ropeable but can't get out of this thing tonight.

Carlos is on offer if anyone can take him.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

I am up for some Carlos tonight.

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http://www.benharper.net
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Thanks BlueBell if it means that you will be going to the game and analysing Carlos for this thread.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

ok, here we go, my assessment of TC's own Paul Bower.

not paul's best game tonight but the lad is growing with each outing. let himself down with so-so delivery into our forward 50 on a couple of occasions, bombing long and high to congestion, often when our forwards had peeled off wide. this isnt necessarily a bad thing, perhaps the forwards stayed central and in that 15-25 meter out form goal area they could have put more pressure on the saints defenders.

great to see he was creating space, especially in the corridor and was willing to run through the middle to try and create and spark us. as said above his delivery into 50 wasnt great but his field kicking cant be faulted. i think the way the saints set up structurally also meant a lot of his work came to nothing. against teams who dont flood so heavily his runs will be of great importance, he will also have leading targets to try hit up.

showed great courage on a couple of ocassions as has become a trademark of his game.

honestly, there were as many positives as there were negetives from his game tonight, but given his experience he is certainly a guy worth persisting with. his dash and potential for growth as both a player and physically is reason for optimism.

tonight i was really chuffed to see russell have a good outing.

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"In fairness it did seem in the early days of the draft teams would just pick a name totally at random out of a hat. I'm pretty sure we picked James Cook at #2 one year. The mediocre forward, not the explorer" - Me, 12/9/2011

Carlton 2012: Lets remind them why they once feared the Dark.

Russell have a good outing!!! WTF! You must be on another planet. If he plays again for this club then surely ratten must be tanking again!

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"what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger"!

i thought he did well to get involved, won a bit of the footy, used it reasonably well. when you get beaten by 7 goals you have to look for positives and i thought his sharpness, in patches, was a good sign. would have no issues seeing him played in the same manner he was tonight, a lead up HFF. you couldnt fault his work in contested situations and his endevour to get into the play. some peoples opinions are set in stone and thats a shame. russell was far from our worst tonight...i was far more impressed with his game than, say, i think any of us could have been by kochitzkie (lol, what horrible spelling). and who would be rated higher by the footballing public?

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"In fairness it did seem in the early days of the draft teams would just pick a name totally at random out of a hat. I'm pretty sure we picked James Cook at #2 one year. The mediocre forward, not the explorer" - Me, 12/9/2011

Carlton 2012: Lets remind them why they once feared the Dark.

I had Cam Cloke tonight (so to speak), here is my brief summary, was harder to watch just one player then I thought.

CC started on the ground with M Gardiner as his opposing ruck, started off well and appeared to be his enthuisiastic self. I haven't checked the stats but it looked like he had his fare share of hit outs early, although not always to Carlton players, I wouldn't mind him going for a big punch rather then the taps that most ruckmen attempt. A big punch forward with our mids running onto it would be interesting occastionaly.

Anyway, he seemed very fit to begin with and was obviously instructed to run off Gardiner, either that or Gardiner was instructed to run off CC? He presented well around the ground and dropped back into the backline also. When in the backline he was just filling the vacant space rather then competing/assisting teamates in marking contests - I thought he could have been dropping into the space where Saints players were leading.

He had a rest after about 7 minutes which I felt was too early, he seemed to be getting a feel for the game and all of a sudden he was off - Gardiner followed suit though.

This rotation continued for most of the game until late in the third when he was briefly in the forward line, if our mids had more vision they probably could have picked him out on his own.

For everything good he does there is a similar negative, I still think he is valuable for us and wouldn't mind seeing him in some pinch hitting roles.

in short:

* showed great determination, although this faded as the scoreboard blew out
*won the ball a fair bit but appeared to go against team rules in that he bombed the ball long on several occasions - not sure if this was old habits, laziness or just not thinking (not on his own with this)
*ran hard early to present at both ends
*whilst getting on his own is good he must be aware that he can get caught out on the rebound - when King was on against him he jagged a couple of goals

I would always play him for his size and effort, but he won't be a star just a solid contributor.

Happy to answer any questions - hope this was sufficient.

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world

A big thanks to Seanpb and kk for their reports.

I know that game and the feeling after was one of crappiness, but for the rest of our analysis, lets see what we have to show from our experts.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

I coudn't go in the end on Saturday, but I watched on Tele.


I had Banno - he kicked a goal .


I WILL be going on Saturday night - can't wait!!




That is all.

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I couldn't make it either on Saturday but did watch it on TV. I had Murphy. From what I saw on TV his first quarter was his best. Kicking the opening goal. The thing about Murphy though is that he doesn't panic when he has the ball. Examples of this was in the first quarter where he had the ball on the half forward line and trying to take on some St.Kilda players, he knew he couldn't get past them, so rather than panicking and probably getting tackled, he kicked the ball between the two saints players and found Hampson who went on and kicked a goal.

The other time this happened was in the third quarter where he had the ball around the wing but from the commentary and his reaction on the TV he seemed to not find any players up forward giving him a lead. The umpire played on and he was going to get tackled by a St.Kilda player but out from the corner of his eye he found a teammate (can't remember his name) on the defensive 50 who then switched it over and we found a way into the forward 50 but as most times in that quarter our skills let us down and we lost the ball.

If anyone else has anything to add please do so.

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Go Blueboys

OK I had Hadley but due to my 11 yo son's appendix bursting on Good Friday we werent able to go to the game. Quiet weekend at home recuperating but I did catch the game on the plasma so best I could do without being there. Obviously not being there I couldnt see all of the 'off the ball' running checking, blocking etc but from what I saw here goes:

Hads seemd to start the game like a man possessed. One minute he was scrapping it out in the middle, next he is cleaning up in the backline. I was sure at one stage he was kicking it to himself. Hard at the contest and a big enough body to make a difference. His kicking seemed pretty good as well. I havent seen the stats but he seemed like he was everywhere for about a quarter and a half and then ............ disappeared.

Not sure if it was fitness, form or the Dennis Denuto special, the general vibe!! but he seemd to go MIA. He wasnt on his own in this regard but obviously this corresponded to the period of the game where we were pathetic. Turned up again in the last qtr.

As with a lot of our players (looking at you stevo!!) he seems underdone and lacking fitness. If he could sustain 4 qtrs like the 1st and early 2nd qtrs then he'd be a superstar. I'm hoping that he is better for each run and that as he gets fitter he is able to sustain his performance for longer.

I was impressed with his hardness at the contest and with his kicking. If he could run out 4 qtrs at top effort then I'd be concerned for AB. Seems to have the polish that AB lacks and also seems to have the blue collar ethic to match. I like the looks of Hads, just wish he was able to go at top speed for a bit longer.

I know he is not my bloke to cover but didnt young pfieffer have a crack on debut!! Might not have been BOG in game 1 but he had a red hot go and you cant ask for more than that!!!

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

He was brilliant. Easy replacement for Russell. He has great acceleration and power to break tackles, yet his disposal is quite good. Bring in AB and with Pfieffer we've got more grunt than we've had for a while.

A definate goer .

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My man Jamo pulled out, so I had a look at his replacement Pfeiffer. Thanks for discussing him guys.

This boy can play. Is hard at it, has a strong body and not afraid to use it.
He isnt lightning but quick enough and on a few occasions made space when the Saints were flooding back to recieve the ball outside 50, one of which resulted in a goal. Disposal is clean which was more than his teamates could say
He started at half forward on Gerry?, I thik he was playing a defensive forward role to stop the backs from providing run. The main problem I saw was that he lost his man on a few occasions because he was ball watching. Would crash into a pack from 10m away, but his man had peeled off and took the ball away after the Saints cleared. If his role was to stop the backs running forward, he needs to concentrate more on his opponent.
The guy has a big upside. When he has 40-50 games under his belt, he may well have cemented hsi spot in the first 18.

On a guy already mentioned, I have real concerns about Bower. His disposal is ordinary. Its his 3rd year in the system and his kicking is substandard. His run may be good and he has good hands but if he cant kick he is a big liability.

Russell - Serious disappointment. Gram provided a lot of the spark that ignited the Saints. He gave a t least 2 feeble attempts at marking where he allowed Saints defenders to mark in our F50 without any contest. He isnt contributing to the team atm. Looks a wasted 1st rounder

C'mon guys, unless you have photographic memories, Saturday night's game is going to be a distant memory if you don't start posting your player's appraisal.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

Fish man's report is in his thread in Players Forum

Thanks nikki

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

I am sorry, i couldnt concentrate on the game at all because of the Ticketing Blunder they had, but from what i saw, here are few comments


Carrazo started outside of the Centre Square and could not get into the game at all in the First half. He was well beaten.


His form in the Second half improved, but he is getting into the habit of getting cheap kicks in the back line that are often Clangers and do not go anywhere.


Carrazo needs to go back to last year & become more accountable in his disposals.

his efficiency of only 55% is very Poor. So far, he is not mending well with Judd & Stevens. they are not working together at all. Each is playing his own game but there is no system in the middle.

Russell in the players thread also.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Ok so I had Houlihan. Started the game on Milne and have to say there isn't a lot to report. Defensively did a good job on Milne, as Milne had little or no influence on the game in the first half (apart from the one time when Houlihan got baulked). Probably would have liked to have seen him push up into the play more and make Milne play more away from the goal, as when the ball was up in our attacking half, Houlihan and Milne were pretty much isolated in the goalsquare.

After half time and particularly in the last quarter, was moved into a more attacking role and played as a forward/on the wing. Looks far more damaging there. Think he did a really good job of peeling off the back of his opponent and on a few occasions had the ball kicked over the defenders head and was in prime position (had one poor in the back decision paid against him). A solid game without being spectacular, defensively shut down Milne and looked lively up forward, but didnt have a lot of time or supply to show what he could really do.

I will watch Jordan Russell

For the simple reason I can already report for next weeks game...........here goes:

Had no impact on the game
Didnt chase hard enough
Kicks to poor options repeatedly
Excellent at 1 arm tackles which oposition brush aside
Defensive side of game substandard
Good Handball
Seems unaware of exact role in game

I desperate;y hope I am wrong but unfortunately I think that JR will be traded at years end for a late second round or early 3rd round.

I like him but i know people are getting frustrated (including JR)