Pro's:

Judd - couldn't carry us over the line but by God, he tried.
Wiggo - looked good at times, but kicking costly again.
Robbo - didn't always get the results, but tried hard and at least put on a bit of pressure. That 40m stab pass the Cloke in the 1st was outstanding.
Murph - tried and when he was in the game looked dangerous. We needed a more 4-quarter effort though. Almost got that last kick off...
Kreuzer / Jacobs - did well. Hille killed us last year and they held their own. Well done boys.


Cons:

Fev - his kicking really let us down tonight. Would not pass it off though...
Crumbers - where did they disappear to tonight? Robbo looked decent in the middle, but it meant he wasn't forward. Garlett was nowhere and Eddie was more out than in tonight.
Thornton - it's easy to be a tough guy after your opponent's kicked the goal on you, mate. The free that caused the hissy fit looked soft though. Eyes for the ball and made contact with the ball well before the contact with Lloyd.
Simmo - his left foot has deserted him too so far this year. Poor start. Bring Army in.
Gibbs - did nothing, mostly ran around in circles. Was stunned to read he got 19 touches. Poor game from him last night.
Witches hats - we didn't run to make options, we sure didn't run and carry, we let them rebound with impunity and they cut us up.
Carlos - looked the goods in the Ants today. Fat lot of good that did us. Jamo is a huge out for us, in terms of best defender and disrupting the whole back structure, especially around Waite.
Garlett - needs a spell in the 2's. Maybe he doesn't bacause Yarran's not up to it?
Umps - Kreuzer gets smashed, then paid for holding the ball. WTF???
Bombers - won again, the sods.
Supporters - a lot of us got well ahead of ourselves.

_________________
Gaga and The Hoff party hard in London

Bit hard for Johnson to kick to stagnate targets who are covered by an opposition player.

Was the biggest con for me and summed up our last 3 quarters to be honest the lack of run.

Cons:

Well, we know them, but mostly, it was losing to that pack of ****. I could take losing to almost any other team. But not them.

Pros:

It will get the guys focused on not underestimating the opposition next week. Sydney in Sydney after a dispiriting loss by the Swans will be a hard task, one which will need every member of the 22 playing their part. This loss should get the guys heading back that way.

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

Pros
We are improving and do have more scoring options
Cons
Once again we were outcoached. Sadly we lost to the same team we lost to last year and they used the same tactics again and once again we didn't have an answer. I'm hoping this is more about a lack of playyers to carry out instructions that a set game plan that does not vary.
We were too Fev focused and didn't use the other options going forward. Yes Fev was way too good for Daniher but by continuing to go to him after the first quarter it allowed the other Essendon* backmen to drop off their opponent and help out and then score on the rebound. Maybe Cloke and Kruezer to the forward pocket playing out of the goal square and tell Fev to be a decoy full forward and all attacks to Kruezer or Cloke. Both are pretty accurate close to goal and can take a big mark.
At CHF Cloke seems IMO to be getting caught too far out from goal and I think maybe he and fev should both lead out from the goal square in opposite directions and the players should look to feed it to the player in the best position with the most room.

Pros:

Judd was awesome
Jacobs and Kreuzer in the ruck - until Kreuzer was kneed in the head
Joseph showed some outstanding defensive work
Yarran was poleaxed from behind in the 2nd quarter, did well to return to the field fairly quickly but don't judge him on his work after that

Cons:

Went with two Essedon supporters
Hird makes a comeback and plays one last game for the Bombers
Need a magnifying glass to read the team lists in VFL Record

_________________
Bawditawaba

It's amazing.
We're sitting 4th on the ladder with a healthy percentage for the first time in years yet some people here know how to coach better than our MC.
Imagine how good we'd be if some of TC's coaching experts were at the helm.

_________________
Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I hope the MC know that they have as as much to think about as some of the players. IMO they took them too lightly going in with so many inexperienced players. We had Scotto who should be a walk up start on the MCG in any game if fit.

That fed on to the players themselves who played flashy footy that that was unaccountable and disrespectful.

They'll learn from that!

_________________
end of message

- we lost by 4 points tonight because in general our game plan is working and this meant we kicked to spots and players were there
- clearance work was fine (so Meley not sure what Rich could bring although I believe he will be gun)

we lost because:
- the Dons were more accurate with their kicking for goal
- the coach stuck with the game plan but the player did not execute. I thought we did not work hard enough, we looked flat at times (ie no leads and very stagnant) and perhaps Ratts could have changed it up a bit
- Waite playing too deep in defence, hurt our run going forward
- forward pressure not there. not sure if this was because Knights out coached us here or because the forwards did not work hard enough - result the same. in last half they ran it out of defense too easy

this game was so fustrating because we expect better now - we showed in patches we are an awesome team but perhaps we forgot that you need to work hard 120 min and not 1 qtr and expect to win

I am really looking forward to the Swans game - they are the barometer for me. If we beat them we a) need to do the basics well and b) execute our game plan. They never give you an easy win and you earn victory against them. Quitely I think Ratts will be delighted the swans are our next opponent

_________________
The glass is neither half full nor half empty. Rather the glass is twice as big than required.

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

How could a Carlton fan say such things? You aint one of us Melvey, own up

just because he says some home truths, he suddenly isnt one of us

its been said before, but posters like melvey make this forum interesting, so stfu.

Well said ali.

vive la difference, I enjoy reading Melvey's stuff much more than most of the crap posted here, even if I disagree with it.

_________________
|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

I don't care who likes him and who doesn't, but please don't quote him, some of us that have blocked him don't want to read his crap

_________________
Between our dreams and actions lies this world

Pros:

Another good score from our forwards and midfielders.
Very impressive effort from our young rucks.
Judd, Wiggins, Murphy.
First 15 minutes of 1st and 3rd quarters.
Whatever his merits as a coach, quite enjoying listening to Pagan on 3AW after the game. Thought he's been pretty measured and encouraging the last 2 weeks.

Cons:

I only get to about one game a year. Ahhhhhhhh!
We struggled to penetrate Essendon*'s defensive zones for much of the game. Not enough run and carry. Regardless of whether Santy played or not, we need to work out ways to free up Waite, as he is easily our best defensive rebounder. (We probably need to find a couple of real dashers for this role soon - Armfield? Hill?) Even with Jamison in the team, teams are going to 'tag' Waite or drag him back to the last line more and more.
We couldn't stop the game being a shoot out. We probably needed to play with numbers behind the ball, given their superior pace and our superior foot skills.
I was disappointed with the performances of Gibbs and Grigg and Hadley and Simmo. Surely they can't play as badly next week.
Still don't think we're getting the midfield return we should be consistently getting from both the quality and depth of our midfield talent. I thought last week we were beaten by Black, Power and Rich in the 2nd half. And we really only broke even against Watson, Hocking and Stanton this week. Very, very disappointing!
Tackling pressure.
2 game turning shocking umpiring decisions in the 3rd quarter.
Our kicking for goal vs. that from the opposition.
Having to listen to the absolute crap coming out of the Essendon* rooms after the game.
Losing to Essendon*. Again.

Its round 3 FFS

Con: No one was blocking for our midfielders when Essendon* appeared to have a million players around the ball.

Gibbs read the ball beautifully off Jacobs' hands and dished off to Murphy who had four Bombers in his path.

Jetta had run off Stevens who read that it was coming out.

Yet Lucas ran into the square and ran down Stevens without a block

You can see Bower lagging behind Lucas and Davey's man Joseph standing alone at the back of the square. Joseph let Davey run into the middle to be an extra man to smother our midfielders and didn't go with him. There are seven Bombers in front of Stevens as he receives the ball and Lucas closing on him.



We were lucky that Stanton turned it over with a clanger and AJ was good enough to drag it down to clear to Garlett under pressure.

Lovett was waiting to pounce on Stanton's kick and take off just inside the centre square if the kick had made it to him.



Poor set up when they had McVeigh, Welsh and Lonergan out, but were just as effective at clearing the ball out of the middle.



No one blocking wrecked Jacobs beating Ryder and Gibbs taking it off his hand at almost shoulder height with Dyson stretching his jumper.

Ryder had a kitten in that ruck contest and took his eyes off the ball to look at Jacobs.

Gibbs' hands were clean and quick under pressure.

PROS:
- We did enough to win by 3-4 goals without really playing that well. In my book that's the sign of a good team.


CON
- Inaccuracy cost us, plain and simple. Not only Fev, but there were other misses Wiggins took a great grab but missed from 20 out, Betts missed one he should have kicked etc. We only lost by 4 pts, the game was there for the taking and we couldn't convert when other weeks we would have. Just one of those games.

No need to be overly concerned with the loss IMO, we're better than we were last season but it will be incremental improvement.

_________________
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you cant take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop!

Absolutely agree...he should never be played down back...NEVER!!! I know I've said this many times on here but he is just the most laziest player defensively. Has no idea at all as regards defensive pressure. His position in our existing lineup is off the bench changing with Houlihan across HF. They are two similar types ...very skillful very smart around goals and weak as piss when they don't have the ball. Cannot afford to have too many of these types on the ground at the same time and certainly none of these types down back.

_________________
"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

BV surely you weren't satisfied with the game? Do you really think the MC showed the sort of imagination and adaptability that would win us the game? Were you really satisfied that we had learnt the lessons of last years two losses to the Bombers? Do you think the senior players apart from Judd showed adequate leadership? Did you expect us to lose and therefore think it was a good effort from the boys to get so close? Did our failure to be able to clear the defensive 50 suggest we had great kick out strategies, or any flexibility to change when things weren't working ?

Or do you think that whatever the MC does shouldn't be challenged? Surely supporters accepting the club's decisions unquestioningly over the last ten years has resulted in some diabolical times for supporters. I expect improvement and I think one measure is how we go in games against sides we should have beaten last year. So far our 4th on the ladder is a result of having beaten a dreadful Richmond and the Lions who only played a quarter. If we have improved we should be beating the sides thereabouts with us.

On Saturday most players sat back and watched Judd. That may be acceptable to some supporters, but I thought with a better effort and better planning, given that the Bombers gave us a blueprint of how they would play both times last year, we should have won easily. Knights had his players primed and his plans worked. Ours didn't. Does our MC have any responsibility for that. After 7 years of mediocrity I don't think losing like we did on Saturday night is okay. The MC have a responsibility to plan better than the oppo coach and to have the players primed and ready to carry out those plans. Did they appear to do that on Saturday night, If not are they above criticism?

The fact is the team that takes it's chances and capitalises on its opportunities usually wins the game.
Fev missed from 10 metres out and had 3 goals 8 at one stage. Wiggo missed from 15 metres and Simmo missed sitters.
IMO, had we taken our opportunities, the game would have been over.

We didn't and the Bombers came out and kicked 14.3 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

The match committee can't be held accountable for poor goalkicking. All teams go through it including the best team in the competition.

Too many posters subscribe to the Terry Wallace method of coaching. They think coaching is about tricks and game day tactics. The sad fact is they have little idea.
Talk to most elite coaches and they'll tell you game day is a result of the developing instincts and decision making over a sustained period.
When a player is under pressure or in the middle of a pack he doesn't think about the instructions the runner just gave him or what the coach said at quarter time.

Zones, structures and strategies to counter them take months or years to develop. Every player must know their role or it is dismantled by a well drilled opposition.
Have a think back to where we were 18 months ago and look at us now.
Hugely improved at stoppages and set plays. Improving at kickouts and defending them. An enormously improving spread of goalkicking options and a good feeling of comaraderie within the group.

I dont mind the MC being challenged but lets be realistic in our expectations.
If anyone thinks we could have pulled a rabbit out of the hat during the game or implemented some fantastic strategy during the week that 22 players would have perfectly understood and implemented, they are either immensely ill informed or just plain fools.
IMHO of course.

Give it time. we're 4th on the ladder and on the improve.
We had more kicks, marks, handballs, tackles and scoring shots.
We're younger and our key players aren't over 30 like Essendon*.
Our opposition had a better scoring conversion on the night and took advantage when they had momentum.
It happens to the best of them. We're still one of the youngset teams in the comp and sitting 4th on the ladder.




Yes it is.
Well done.

_________________
Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.