Forgot one.

Pro:

Got to see the game live on friends Austar........who are Hawks supporters

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

I thought that Hadley was a pro - despite having been out so long he looked poised and looked like he would be an asset.

And Army's development - he's becoming a dashing defender!!

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

My take on the first quarter appears different to that of others. I don't think we had a shocker but what we did do was:

1. panic going forward, with too many play-ons and rushed kicks rather than the structured entries of the second half; and
2. Half-forward set up was too slow as hawthorn departed their D50.

On the latter point, by the end of the first quarter we saw a change-out at half-forwards with Robinson and Armfield brought on (and Garlett later) to stop the Hawthorn departures from their defensive zone. They were patient and methodical in the first quarter and found it easy, with a bit of work, to get around our zone. Fisher and Cloke on the one half forward line might not be possible to clog the zone. Once the swap-outs were made and the Hawks tried to set-up from half back we progressively caught them more and more. Another forward target may have led them to try to kick out rather than hand ball but I thought we were initially slow to get the match-ups right, but once done, our tackling and set-up came to the fore. Good coaching in the end and good adherence to a plan.

I also thought our clearance work from congestion was really good - we almost always had a runner outside at full pace once we had the ball who could deliver.

Pros:
* Above
* Garlett, Jacobs can play at this level

Cons:
* Forward set-up in the first half. I like Fish and Cloke and think we need another big forward but not sure how we can play them all against this type of set-up.
* Each year you forget how bad Umpires are. They just immediately remind you every February / march.

Pros:-

NO INJURIES!
(although i'd be resting Fev, Judd, Murphy and Gibbs from here on in).

GARTLETT
Looks nice. Handy. quick. Loved his tackle on Rioli.

SIMPSON
love watching him play and he was crucial in our comeback.

JACOBS
Did his part in the ruck ok.

WALKER, SCOTLAND, KREUZER, CARRAZZO
Still to come back.

$80,000 PRIZE MONEY.
Seems like robbery to me. But we'll take it!



CONS:-

FREE KICKS.
God, this game could use less of them. Far to many soft and 'technical' free kicks. The sound of that whistle was giving me a headache.

RUSSELL;
Dud. Dud Dud. 5 years on and we are still hoping he'll come good.

PLAYING THE FLANKS A BIT MUCH:-
Hard to list it as a 'Con' cause, well - we won. But we've been doing this a bit and it's quite easy to read. What i want to know is 'What' we have in store if this plan doesn't work. Cause it's gonna be harder to keep effective when the real footy starts.
Would it hurt to play it through the centre for a bit? Run with your players like the Hawks were doing?

STILL GETTING BULLIED.
Is it just me who is noticing that our boys are getting bullied a bit too much? I thought it was due to our young list but Hawthorn are younger and they were acting like seinors to our year 8's. Roughead was getting quite aggressive and assertive with alot of our players. In those situations........Somebody needs to push back! OTHERWISE - they'll keep pushing harder and more often.

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

General observations

Ordinary game to watch, Carlton were ordinary, yet we won
Never been so annoyed by commentators as I was yesterday - they had trouble putting a coherent sentence together, they were obsessed with the sound of their own voices spouting brain-dead theories rather than calling the game. Healy was surprisingly terrible, BT can be entertaining on radio but was horrible, Rohan Smith just shocking (asked Carazzo in three different ways whether he was disappointed to break his arm - unbelievable). Frawley is incredibly irritating. The constant repeating of easy tropes was stupifying - "we all expected the Blues to cruise in this one"... etc.
Umpiring almost as bad as commentators - ok relax the hands in the back a smidge, but Roughead on Thornton was a massive shove.

Roughead does look excellent - big, strong, mobile, good skills, good footy nous.
Thornton was sensational after 1/4 time
Gibbs is a star -but still doesn't show enough intensity or aggression to be as good as he can.
Stevens and Houlihan are well off the pace of AFL footy in terms of contested football / intensity. It just looks awful, and Hawthorn's style kept them under more pressure than they could handle. no revelation there of course
Mitch Thorpe - I was keen to pick him up last year, he's pretty ordinary as this stage
Bentley was mostly poor, but he does show glimpses
Russell was mostly poor, but he does show glimpses - hmm, not a good sign for near 23 yr old pick 9
Anderson consistently gets stripped of the ball in traffic
Robinson was not as good as last week, still offered a bit - main worry is that he's very one-paced for a defensive forward
Grigg was terrible compared with his form last week and late last year
Fev was fantastic - a real beast - rips the ball from defenders hands, hasn't dropped pace either, dominant
Cloke was too slow at times
I can see Jacobs becoming a solid AFL ruckman - our first for a decade! Good skills, obviously a hard worker, scope for improving strength, already ok at linking up. Tough call if we only get to choose between Sauce and the impressive Garlett.

I thought the cool heads of Armfield, Joseph, Garlett, Johnson & Jacobs were real positives and good signs for our future.

Terrible 1st quarter where in a real game against a full strength Hawthorn we would've been 10 goals down and in a match gone situation.

I still dont understand why everyone thinks Jacob's has been playing well. He has been OK thats about it. To me he looks too slow, and cant jump and guys like Dean Cox, Josh Fraser and Aaron Sandilands will run all over him. He is good body on body though.


My Pro's

Garlett looks awesome
The grunt added by Robinson
Armfield i thought was great, he ran with the ball and used it well
Thornton was very good
Cloke looks like he can jag 2 or 3 a game up forward for us
Stevens' use of the ball across half back.
Tough 22 now to squeeze into


Con's

Do not rate Anderson and cannot see him getting a game in the 1's
Fisher will struggle to make our best 22 as well
Slow starts i am sick of them
Still making bad skill errors
Need Kruezer and Warnock to ruck because Jacobs will get murdered by athletic ruckman and Hammer isn't ready

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Blue boy thru and thru

Pros

That we got through the game without any injuries.

We get another game to refine our tactics and narrow down our squad to a best 22 so we can belt Richmond in round one.

The second quarter.

Ran the ball down the ground at pace with quick handballs so we could penetrate Clarkson's cluster.

Didn't bomb the ball in and play into their hands because they have more numbers back to switch the play with an uncontested kick.

Good move to start Simpson forward and pick faster legs to expose Hawthorn's lack of pace on a fast track.

Glimpses from Hammer.

Hampson will be a more than adequate freakishly athletic second ruckman and forward who releases Kreuzer forward. A poor man's Kreuzer with some of the things he did at ground level and that mark he took on the wing.

Kouta was a huge wrap for Hampson on 3AW.

Negatives

Nick Stevens as a backman and sweeper.

Will be exposed like Scotland who was ripped a new one by Paul Roos playing a tough marking medium forward on him.

Poor defensive coaching to leave our backs one out and not getting back fast enough to help out.

Founds these to be positives actually. Our defense coaching wasnt based on a rolling zone however Id imagine there is a plan for one this year and for once we didnt get exposed by showing our hand to other teams too early. Instead we made changes and we allowed our match ups to take effect without panic.

I dont see Stevens on the role that you have suggested - Waite is our backman sweeper. Stevens appeared to be used as the go to man when we won the ball backwards - Ie he was expected to get into a position that he could use the football and those up the ground knew when he had the pil it was time to move rather than hold like they did with other players. Have a look at way the Hawks move the football - they keep spreading the ball wide in defense until the find their "quarter back" - those up the ground know whats happening and hold their leads until its time to go.

Where would you rather Stevens played on the weekend? The midfield on Bateman?

Totally agree.

How many times did he spill the ball cause he heard footsteps.

I disagree about it being poor coaching to have a defensive 1 on 1. THe press is up in midfield, and the zone rolls back from there - the stress and tension is on trying to prevent their delivery outside of the D50 rather than just flooding back to go 3 on 1 or 2 on 1. Waite was often back there to help out but if you look at where the spare men were, it was largely within possession of the ball winner and where the Hawks were trying to clear from D50.

OH......... forgot one..............

DENNIS AFMFIELD.
Thought he was, for somebody still so inexperienced and light on the body, solid and impressive. In-fact, he played like a young Glenn Archer.......maturity beyond his years.
Best wishes for the bloke.

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

Pro: MrsKK (a Sydney girl through and through, but has been a member for a couple of years now) asked me at the end of the match, as I was keeping track of the score through the good people of TC, "How much did we win by"

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

She's a good girl Mrs KK.

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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.

BIG Fevvy fan

You should have heard her yelling her lungs out last year, Round 4 at the G against Collingwood.

_________________
And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

You've found yourself a good woman there KK.

Hopefully she'll be doing the same this year - fingers crossed.

_________________
“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.

Forgot one con.

Gerard [REDACTED] Healy - can someone run him over outside the ground one day please. This bloke is the one commenator that shits me well beyond any other. Listening to him crap on about shit he know nothing about when it comes to Carlton or football in that matter has me screaming abuse at the TV all game. He is quite happy to crap on about a player making beautiful position etc if they player for anyone but us but if we do it its shepherding off the ball or just down right genocide.

See this as a compliment as they know we are on the march and going to be back to the Carlton of old very soon - and they hate it! When I hear their ridiculous rants I now smile knowing that they are wetting themselves!

Go Blues!!

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

1. A whole week full of jibes about Hawthorn being a 1-Premiership wonder gain weight.
2. Clarkson, the dirtiest sniper in our glorious history, cops a beating.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

Who was the boring commentator who rather impertinently predicted that we don't have the cattle for the top six?

What's the point of that? Let him be more lucid or should we simply rub his face in it?

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.