Pros:
- Gibbs: what a star he will be. The patience has been worth the wait.
- Judd: Just was himself, absolute champion and we wouldn't be where we are now without him with 7 wins.
- Betts tried hard and presented all night and kicked some breath taking goals. Was stiff not to get frees when on the lead.
- Grigg: really impressed with his job on Dal Santo. Really becoming a good negating and attacking player at the same time.
- Browne: loved the way he found space and presented on the wings. Will definitely make it this kid and what a steal at pick 36.

Cons:
- Ability to not hurt the opposition on the scoreboard in the first qtr.
- skills and decision making were poor for most of the night
- Our rucks and forward line are a major concern and I'm not just talking about Fev, we need more potent forwards and require our rucks to come on faster

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For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

PRO: Browne's contested marking. :TWOTHUMBSUP:

We improved our performances against Essendon*, Richmond and St Kilda compared to the first three rounds, so we are slowly developing.

CONS: Poor selection decisions, Slow coaching reactions, Ineffective rucks/clearances, losing to Milne the dirty rat and his average rabble of hacks

PROS: We are moving in the right direction and players like Gibbs and Browney will eat the Saints alive in the next few years and doom them to another 70 years of mediocrity. I could feel the Saints supporters sitting all around me didn't have the same cockiness or confidence of recent years. - they were soiling their pants when we came storming back.

History is coming back to haunt them and next year we will roll over the top of the bayside bogans and fitzroy street ferals. I dont think they will hold onto their finals spot.

PROS
-Another awesome game from Gibbs, starting to make me (and the crowd) gasp at the incredible things he does. Most improved by a mile.
-Eddie Betts being his usual Eddie-ish magnificent self. Judd also.
-Wiggins hardness and heart.
-The beautiful weather last night, what more could you ask for in the middle of July?
-Realising St Kilda's perpetual mediocrity is alive and well. Match was a dumb-off for about three quarters. Neither team deserves to play finals, quite frankly.

CONS
-A moment in the last quarter when Edwards and a St Kilda player, both had a chance for the loose ball. Each dived on it, Edwards a moment earlier, and you could see him not go in as hard as he could and should have. The St Kilda player, came later, but went harder, and got the ball, which resulted in a goal to St Kilda.
-Being excited when a Carlton player has it in our forward line, then my heart sinking when I realise its only Russell. And sure enough after doing the hard work to get the ball, coughing it up right on cue.
-All the usual stuff written, said spoken or sung a million times before, too many turnovers, not enough taking advantage of our scoring opportunities, not turning it on till 3/4 time, chump umpires, lack of intensity, too many players having off days, etc, etc.

Pros
Gibbs clearance work and just his ability to pick the right option even under pressure. His decision making is top notch. One passage he marked the ball at HF, quickly looked up and saw Sam Fisher was loose so chipped the ball short, when many other players would have bombed the ball in straight to Sam Fisher.
Judd's clearance work; 9 clearances and set up many attacking thrusts.
Jamison on Riewoldt in the last qtr; Riewoldt's running ability is amazing and Jamison was able to do fairly well on him after taking care of Allen for the first 3 quarters.
First qtr setup where Fevola started at CHF to drag Hudghton away from the full back line; unfortunately we couldn't convert the chances we got.
Winning the clearances and first possessions even with being smashed in the hitouts. We've been smashed in the hitouts all year but are still very competitive when it comes to clearances.

Cons
Inability to deal with St Kilda flooding. Koschitzke or Sam Fisher would float back. Both very tall players and you'd think if you had the ball at HF you would see them and try to avoid kicking the ball to them but many times we still did.
Fev's dummy spit - sure it's ok to be frustrated with no space, loose players in front of you but it doesn't mean you give soft free kicks away and then a 50m penalty.
Koschitzke twice being able to mark on the goal line. Sure he's a terrific contested mark but he shouldn't have been given the space to run and jump to take the marks. Get more numbers back there.
Having the ball at half back, seeing St Kilda flood the wing and having no one loose to kick it too most of the time. If there was someone loose on the switch poor skills meant it was turned over (Thornton's kick to Russell)
Poor conversion - why does there appear to be little change in the way some players kick for goal? You know when they take the mark that there is a good chance they aren't going to kick the goal.
Stevens and Murphy getting tags/run with players is inevitable against most good teams. They need to work harder if they want to get possessions which will help the team.
Murphy lacking concentration when he allowed McQualter to stroll to 35m out and take an uncontested mark.
Judd getting too many of his possessions inside packs - not his fault; we need to get him into space more so he can use his speed outside the packs. Block for him, too often he's getting mauled as soon as he gets the ball. Let him be the receiver at times.

It was men vs boys out there last night

It was against a smart coach with a plan B and C

Played against a team with a forward structure

and a team committed to play for each other

and a coach who can do just that.

Ratts is on 3AW today as a special comments man.

And yet we still managed to get within 7 points in the last quarter.

The glass is definitely half full hey Melvey!

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Good for him. What game is it?

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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.

but yet still lost by six goals. Worse than i thought, i tipped us to go down by 18

We hate contested footy. We got back into the game when it became lose and free flowing but then the Saints tightened it up and then ran over us

All i have to say is thank god for Juddy or we would be calling for Ratts head right now.

Edited for accuracy.

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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.

And yet we had three more contested possessions than St Kilda...

They must really hate it...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Thanks to Judd.

Yeah - I guess he doesn't count and isn't really part of the team.

If you leave Lance Franklin out of your analysis of Hawthorn you'll find they really dislike kicking goals and don't kick enough to win half their games.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

my point being thats were are improvement has come from and thank god we have him

Melvey if youve got nothing positive to say just stop posting on this site please

PROS:-

GIBBS
Jesus this kid is good. I love him so much i wanna boof him. Just class. I was always a Selwood fan and even wanted to pick him as our #1 DESPITE him being injured and not playing in the TAC that season (yeah-i rated him that high) but, after Gibbs's last few games, i am so thankfull that we chose him. He is just a wonderfull footballer in the true meaning.
Selwood is a great accumulator and hard worker (and good leader) but Gibbs is an all round warrior who will offer poise and class be it Foward / Defense / midfield.

JUDD
It's amazing that a 75% fit Judd is still better than most of the 100% midfielders in the comp. WOW. Great extractor of the ball. Really lifted the team (as much as any man could before the end).

GRIGG
Improving. Wasn't anything spectacular, but he's improving with each game. Played on Dal Santo and that would have been good experience for him.




CONS;-

Jesus. Where to start.

NOT GELLING AS A TEAM.
No excuses for that. From the get go, we simply just didn't form a team. Fevola having a hissy-fit was awfull. Stevens and Scotland need to be more accountable. Cannot expect to win games when we aren't playing for each other.

RUSSELL.
Jesus H Christ. Just drop him already. Your job as a FOOTBALLER is to know how to KICK.......... And he quite clearly has no clue. This year, he has kicked 1 goal 9 behinds.............. 9 behinds!!!!!!!
40% efficiency and 5 clangers from just 12 disposals.
Apologies to his supporters and fans, but IMHO, he is simply not up to AFL standard and i'm yet to hear a valid argument.

FEVOLA.
After i talk you up to be a Carlton great, you go and act like that, during the middle of contract negotiations for christ sake. Thanks mate. I know that we're supposed to take you as a complete package, good-with-the-bad type stuff, but jesus, grow up!

EDWARDS.
Sadly, if we're gonna be to Fevola-conscious, Edwards is just going to be wasted in this team.

DROPPING SETANTA.
Hmmmmmmmmm. Well. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea. He surely would have given us another option down back or up forward. Twice we've dropped him this year and twice we've realised that perhaps he could have been usefull.
I do hope that the reason we dropped him was a tactical one rather than anything else (ie:- not liked by the coach).

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

you can not be serious

Im not going to sugar coat everything, i say it as i see it. Im the harshest of critics and expect nothing but the best