CON:

Fev's body language early in games seems to set up how he is going to play the rest of the game. Yes he is double teamed but other quality forwards deal with it differently.....dont think he earnt much of a pay packet today!

No - shut our midfield down and we will lose. If our midfield has time and space, Fev will kick goals. Our midfield were under pressure all day and Adelaide are masters at that.

Anyway Pros:

- We were in it for most of the game despite giving away a lot of experience and size.
- Eddie, Browne, Murph, Russell all pretty good

Cons:

- Smashed in the ruck. 55 hitouts to 18, and I saw a stat in the last quarter which said 18 hit outs to advantage to 1. My kingdom for a 202+cm ruckman who can at least nullify the contest. Hammer step on down?

PROS:
- Browne: Very good debut
- Kreuzer: Continues to come on
- Stevens/Simpson: Looked to be the only midfielders that actually ran the lines today
- Eddie: Great 1st quarter, shame about the rest of the game

CONS:
- Fev: Everything to do with him was bad today. His kicking was poor, as was the kicking to him.
- The fact that despite the Crows clearly telling the world what their gameplan was going to be, we still played into their hands
- Judd: Absolutely killed by Shirley today
- Lack of midfield depth
- Getting smashed in the ruck against one of the weakest combinations going around today
- Lack of pressure. How many times were crows players able to play ring-a-rosy with the ball without anyone laying a finger on them?
- Kicking for goal: Grigg, Russell, Fev
- Fisher: Couldn't lay a hand on it today
- Hartlett/Thornton injuries: Really hurt us badly. As usual it seems to be the players more important to our structure that go down. If Hartlett's injury is serious, I think it could be curtains
- Jordan Russell: I can't believe all the praise he's receiving here today, I thought he was terrible, and that SURELY he would be dropped after today. Oooh, he laid a couple of tackles and took a few marks, whoopee-doo!
- Last quarter umpiring: As the Carlton-hating media are quick to point out, the shit umpiring probably had no effect on the result. But still, it certainly snuffed out any chance we might've had to get back in it.

Far more cons than I'd like today.

_________________
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

Pros:
Browne
Russell - He is getting better each week
Kreuzer's football smarts

Cons:
Hartlett's hamstrings
Forward structure once he went down - Adelaide players knew it would be kicked to Fev more often than not. Fev stays mainly inside 50 and we had no one working outside the 50. No option leading up meant we bombed it or kicked it to Fev with Bassett/Stevens/Bock zoning off in front of him.

Rubbish.

He was pure class at times.

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

Tend to agree with Donstuie about JR.....he attacked the footy well but his errors kicking for goal, getting caught with the footy really hurt us.....at this stage of his career he should not be making basic errors.
I'd like to see Ryan Jackson get some senior game time.....similar player to JR but better disposal IMHO...

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

He had only 10 touches to 3 qtr time, and was only able to actually show flair when he could finally break Shirley's tag. When it was 50/50, the great man was soundly beaten.

_________________
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

Pros: Browne
Cons: Stupid skill errors, so typical.
We have a long way to go

I reckon you're a bit harsh on Fev. He didn't have a good day, but "pork chop" is OTT. He was stiff not to be given a couple of frees for over the shoulder and chopping the arms. I didn't think he sulked or gave up, I just thought he struggled to get into the game against a top-line defence and he received little in terms of support up forward. The ball wasn't coming in there all that well either, as we got smashed in the midfield.

PROS:
Fev & Judd were quiet, and we still stretched a very professional top 8 team.
We received a lesson on pressure football and being clean with the ball.
Simmo.
Carrots.
Bower.
Jamo's 2nd half.
Eddie's 1st half.
Browne did a few good things.
JR got involved and made a reasonable contribution.

CONS:
Last quarters remain a problem.
Still too many tackles not sticking.
Injuries to Harts, T-Bird & maybe Browne.
Pfieffer report.
Fisher needs to lift.
We got slaughtered in the ruck and in the midfield.
Impatient supporters who don't understand how long it takes to build a successful team.

Overall, I thought it was a good learning game for us. I thought it showed how far we have come....and how far there still is to go.

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

Jacksons disposal aint to flash I reckon Elwood. JR had some howlers today but so did a few others...

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

CONS;

-Interesting that inside their 50 we always had runners front and centre of contests and did well at clearing the ball due to this. Inside our 50 after each ball came to ground at best we had 1 against 3 or 4. They cleared the ball way too easily from our 50. Adelaide are guns at doing this generally. I'd love to see more crumbers front and centre in forward line contests.
-Murphs skill errors!! Great player wasting a lot of ball

PROS;

Imrovement of Russell

He wasn't "absolutely killed"

He wasn't "soundly beaten"

He may've been "slightly nullified"

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

That's why I was disappointed with Fisher's game. He gave us very little up forward (even though Bassett is a tough opponent). I thought Ratts might have even thrown him into defence in the last quarter (when Waite went forward), just to mix things up.

Injuries to other players might keep the pressure off Fisher to hold his spot in the team, but we really need him to lift.

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

Please explain?

_________________
Formerly Blues-Back2003.

People forget we played a decent team possible top 4 and took it up to them.

They chokes us up and it was a real test to see where we are at. Could have been much worse, silly turnovers cost but you get with a young team.

Considering Juddy was shut down and so to Fev we actually managed to win a bit of the ball but lacked options other than Fev up forward.

The Carlton of old would have gone down by 10 goals today. We gave em a few cheap ones and so did Ray Chamberline.

CON:

The bottle thrown from the Carlton cheer squad missed his head

PROS:

Our first quarter. Think we got it inside 50 on 14 occasions and had 12 shots at goal.
Hartlett showed promise until he got hurt ... proved to be a viable option.
Browne ... composed ... footy smart
Bower ... not afraid to play in front ... he takes the contest on

CONS:
Hartlett getting injured ... he can't be cursed can he ?
We turn the ball over in the worst possible places and we pay for it on the scoreboard
Got smashed in the ruck duels
Russell ... worst sin in football is to have your kick touched by a player on the mark ... you can push back to the yarra river if you want to ... demonstrates lack of footy smarts
Inability to provide a quick counter attack after the opposition score a behind ... Adelaide got two goals this way

I think Fisher will only ever be a good third tall. We needed him to present up to the wings once Hartlett went down but he doesn't seem good enough at that role. Instead he is better floating back towards goal and losing his opponent.

When exactly did Hartlett do his hammy? We looked so much better with him there; he spread Adelaide's defence and meant we didn't have to rely as much on chipping the ball around at HF.

Just got back from the game.

Cons

Thought Russell was ordinary again tbh, his kick into the man changed the momentum of the game-unforgivable really, I mean he took a long enough runup. He has all the atributes to succeed except up top-and that was confirmed to me by a carlton person in the know.

Shite umpiring

Thrashed out of the centre

3 goals in second half due to no forward structure

too much fiddling with the ball in the back half but that will get better with experience.

Pros

Browne

Eddy

Jarrod Waite was good all day-that umpire stuffed up big time.

first quarter.

Pros
- We stretched a top six side with both Fev and Judd down.
- Nice debut from Browne
- JR improving
- Bower growing in confidence and will be a good player.
- More game time into Jamison, Grigg, Gibbs and Kruezer.

Cons
- injuries to Thornton and Hartlett
- too many skill errors
- killed in the ruck/stoppages. We badly missed Hadley IMO.
- we badly need a tall forward option, especially with Hartlett's future in doubt.

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There is no footy god