The key part of Adelaide's game plan (which became far more effective after the first quarter, when we had a two man bench) was to look to pass down one wing, only to switch to the other, forcing all our blokes who were playing one-on-one against their opponent to run back and forth, back and forth.

You can pretty much work out what happened from there. They exposed something Justin Cordy identified early in the pre-season: we don't have the fitness of the elite sides.

Eventually Adelaide were two men down, but they had the extra petrol tickets saved up to run us completely ragged.

Having said that, I was appalled by the umpiring overall in the last quarter, although I'm sure due to tired players we conceded some frees amongst the 13 (to 3).

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

Good post .. agree with everything that you've said: 1., 2. & 3. We could have won the game but hey we are still improving and its great to see the hunger in the young blokes. Even though Waite's punch into the crowd was bad for the team, on the flip side it shows that he was so pissed off about them scoring a goal and showed passion to win for carlton.

Pro's-

12 scoring shots in the first quarter. We should have iced the game if not for poor kicking at goal. As we've seen all season, we're up and running if we take our chances.

Adelaide smashed us at the stoppages, Judd was down a bit and Fev was a sook again yet we remained competitive against a highly experienced quality team.

Browne was composed and sure. Knows where to run and how to make space. Just needs to spend some time with the sprint coach.

At least the costly errors are coming from our kids. Gibbs kick out, Kruezers kick across goal, Grigg missing from 10 metres out.
They're 18 and 19 year old kids. They wont be making those mistakes in 2 years time when we're looking to seriously challenge.
Get the development gametime into them now and keep looking at the big picture.
Kids will make mistakes.

Paul Bower. This kid has come along in leaps and bounds. Generally beats his opponent and more importantly, runs the lines when he has the ball.
Too many backmen want to be crabs and lead/kick sideways. A tallish KPP who takes them on is a godsend. It also gives us the flexibility to play an extra tall in defence.

Kruezer. Love watching him play. Wants to compete, wants to learn and wants to win.
You cant ask for more.

The excitement in the crowd whenever Juddy gets the ball.

Cons-

Playing Gibbs. His workrate was right down IMO which means he was'nt right to play. You dont take chances with 19 year old kids when you have hungry replacements in the VFL.

Simple errors from experienced players. JR has been around long enough now. Under 12s know to get back off the mark when shooting for goal. AFL players should never make mistakes like that.

Undisciplined acts. It doesnt matter if you're getting a raw deal off the umpires or if you're frustrated. Being a sook and not chasing/punching away the ball is not acceptable from senior players. Grow up.

Some of our supporters.
Including Coterie members and club identities. Let the players be the centre of attention and not you!

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

CONS
Disposal by hand and foot, even when not under pressure.
Hitouts

PROS
Everything Else
First time in years I have been happy with a loss.
Every bounce of the ball, 50/50 went against us yet we still kept trying our butts off.

Tackling, pressure, commitment, controlled agression etc were really encouraging. last year that would have been an 80+ loss.

Russel - finally showed something
Browne - Very impressive debut
Bower - gee he impresses me more and more each game.
Carazzo -I love him in the back pocket.
Every one else I found positives with too.
Spewing about Hartlett as he was looking the goods (except for his defensive pressure), and I would have been very happy to admit I got that one wrong. Was a real target.

Adelaide got about 5 easy goals, and we missed about 3 or 4 sitters YET, we were still in it for most of the game.

I really think the boys will get a lot out of this loss, and I am still 100% positive that this is our breakout year. You can see the confidence building.

The signs are very very good.

PS - spewing Judd got run down in that fast break in the (3rd?), that was gonna be another "special" moment for the highlights reel.

_________________
Window = Open

do tell BV

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

I think he'd be more value to the team as another mobile forward option who, as VC, has enough respect from his team mates in that they'd instictively have enough confidence to target him thus taking the sole focus off of Fev. We are still way too reliant on Fev.
He has good finishing skills and the footy smarts and experience to be a danger up forward ...but he'd need to focus more on defensive pressure.

I think Murph can cover his loss in the midfield a bit more rather than be up forward as much.

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There's so much I could say...

bandwagon tossers perhaps..?

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There's so much I could say...

PROS

The continuing improvement in our kids as they get more gametime - I thought JR was good today

Reading sensible posts on this thread by people who understand that we are a young and developing team which needs another year or two before it starts to really deliver. Grrofunger I agree with your take on it

CONS

Prima donna umpiring decisions - the bonus goal to the Crows significantly detracted from the game itself and from the integrity of AFL as a sport

Reading posts here by the slash and burn merchants and comments by people who really show their ignorance about football and developing young kids. Remember they all can't be champions ; in fact you don't want a team of champions!

We were killed in the rucks. Hammo needs to step up; or Jacobs

Having now to suffer the jibes from my family who all live in South Australia and support the Crows!

I was thinking the same thing myself this morning Budzy - we need a Brad Johnson/ Ryan Okeefe style forward- Stevens hasn't got that zip he used to have could fill this role I think-

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

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There's so much I could say...

Johnson can mark overhead and Okeefe applies defensive pressure.

Melvey. This is your best post EVER!!!!!

Interesting to hear Heath Scotland on ABC radio after the game say that IHHO the honesty amongst the playing group could be better.

This question was put to him by Mark Maclure and I have no doubt in was in reference to playing group's body language when things got tough and probably in reference to Fev as well.

Hopefully Scotland and the leadership group can address this problem very quickly.

Other stuff....

I've read threads about our game style against the crows and I'm not that worried about it because I believe the group is now actually developing. Most of these guys have been in the 20-25 goal shoot outs and still lost. Now they've gone to the other extreme and are trying to perfect tempo football and probably to the detriment of the win loss table.

Now they've worked it out they now have to know when it's the right time to play the right type of football. when to move the ball quickly and when to hold the ball up etc.

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Make Carlton Football Club your sponsored World Vision Child today

CONS
- No Fev. No Judd. No Carlton.


PROS
- No Fev. No Judd. No Carlton - but still managed to be in the game for most of the match, despite missed shots, injured players and crap umpiring.

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************************************************************
NOW YOU'RE JUST SOME CLUB THAT I USED TO KNOW.

You neglected the most important stat, Einstein - 9 tackles.

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No Guts, No Glory

QFT.

Melvey, this is easily your best post to date. Keep it up

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"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself" - Henry Ford

and neglected to show how many carlton players had more clanger kicks...did you notice the wind at all. Even Adelaide and their perfection at hitting target had alot of clangers

_________________
cruise (Kreuze) missile:
a very accurate flying bomb.
SOURCE: http://library.thinkquest.org/3785/glossary.html

PROS:

Know this seems trite, but the highlight for me was the beaming smile on Clokey's face when he soccered that goal through. Representative of the great spirit the boys showed, they never gave up.

Very very close to winning the game against a solid team. Improving and learning all the time.

I remain confident we will have a good year.

CONS:

Ridiculous umpiring in the last that cruelled any hope for a comeback.

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No Guts, No Glory

Like to think that the game against Adelaide was indeed there for the taking. But for a few hurdles.

Structure changes due to Thornton and Hartlet. Allowed Adelaide to up the tempo, with the confidence that we were down one tall rebounding defender, that they could afford to sit there resting ruckman deep in the goal square. At the other end of the ground the loss of Hartlet helped Adelaide to double team Fev.

Pending were you were at the ground you may of seen Neil Craig at 1/4 time taking his team into group huddle before they splitter into there team structures. No doubt he would of highlighted these points.

Once our bench was down to two interchanges, we were going to struggle against a strong and hard running side. You could attribute two or three of the last quarter free kicks to fatigue. Simply not positioning themselves correctly.

Finally the Hadlee ommission, made Judds life somewhat difficult having to shake off two tags. Although Bentick played well, Hadlee blocks very well.

Not to say, that the points mentioned above are the only reasons for our loss, they surely did not help our course.

Side Note, liked Browne's debut game, looks a thinker, noticed he made space in the middle, but was overlooked?

Need to introduce another ruckman, Kreuser seemed spent, possibly due to our rotations being affected due to only having two on the interchange?

Overall, still happy with the direction, more game time into our young and inexperienced side. Hope to see some significant steps in the following 6 weeks.

kreuzer hasnt been around for four years...russell has