Is it just me, but are the blues continually playing along the wings to get to the forwardline, rather then going more down the corridor?

Going down the wings it is a lot easier for teams to flood that side of the ground going into the forward line. Which means forwards will be on a sharper angle or on the boundary line to kick a goal.

The other thing l don't get is why Carlton always has 6 players in the forward line, rather then 3 or 4 players. Put the other 2 forwards further up the ground or in the backline and leave the forward line open. The more Carlton players in the forward line, the more opposition players are in the forward line, hence more double teaming on Fev.

Just a couple things l have noticed lately. Fev rarely gets beat one on one.

Am i the only one that notices these things

Trust me, you ARE NOT the only one to notice this. It's excrutiatingly difficult not to notice right now

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Playing the wings is a safe option. The closer you move the ball around the boundary means when there is a turnover the ball is not run through the corridor where its most damaging.

Playing the boundaries means you take more shots on difficult angles and also decreases the space. Some teams like to push teams to the wings as there is less room to hit up players and we played into the swans hands yesterday.

I think its a negative mind set and its like Ratts has programed our team to chip the ball around, be less creative and attacking. This is why our first option is to look back, kick sideways and not link up with run and handball. Sydney just kept pushing the ball forward at every option running and linking up MOVING THE BALL FORWARD TOWARDS THERE GOAL where as we always looked and went backwards with our hands and kicks. NEGATIVE STYLE

Nice theory, Melvey, except that yesterday there were many many instances of us skirting the boundary, looking for all the world like we'd then put the switch on and go back inside to the corridor, but instead fartarsed around so much that we turned it over, and the Swans ran it up the corridor.

We gave them several easy goals that way.

And at the SCG, the Corridor is valuable real estate, as it's so much shorter than other big grounds that you can get from D50 to F50 very quickly and efficiently if you back yourself.

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yea but the last couple weeks have reminded me of the pagan days. He always instructed the players to go around the boundary, so we didnt lose by 100pts

You dont win premierships playing safe and if your always going to be going along the wings you will continue to see more behinds kicked then goals as there is less chance of goals being kicked on the boundary.

I watch better teams and a lot go down the middle of the ground in to the forward line and that means their forwards can lead either left or right, just not one direction.

would be nice if we could change the safe way and look more dangerous.

Do we need to handball more. I think we need to link up and create more run off half back with more handball

RUN CARLTON RUN

Mate im not supporting this style of game plan used by many coaches and Ratts.

I think it has a complete negative mind set to it. We need to put on our running shoes and link up off half back with handball and run run run

..i don't think it's Ratts coaching us to use the boundary, but more the young/scared team that opts for the edges when they feel the heat.. ..we can't cope with any actual pressure.. ..we blitzed the tuggers cos they were woeful.. ..brisvegas turned up the heat and we struggled.. ..bummers put the pressure on us, and swans only play pressure footy.. ..with more experience we should cope better with it.. ..also a few players go stat/kick chasing as well.. ..no point demanding the ball if yer not in a better position to use it..

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We played the corridor in the first 2 games. It's like the "T" in squash, most teams want to own it, but under pressure only good teams can find it. I've got no doubt Ratts wants them to play through the corridor, certainly at the SCG.

I think we're short of pace, fitness and confidence coming out of the backline. There's very little urgency at the moment. I can only suggest that Jamison's injury is affecting our structure, which has a domino effect on our ball movement.

Grigg and Armfield need to take the game on from the backline. Walker would be handy Simmo's poor form isn't helping, and while Waite is dominating as a floater, his turnovers killed us.

Our list is looking a bit slow at the moment. Johnson, Scotland, Hadley, Thornton, Jacobs, Gibbs, Robinson, Houlihan and Cloke all lack pace. Add that to lack of accountability and efforts without the ball, If you're not maintaining possession, you'll be hurt.

Hadley is a liability if he's not getting clean hands on the ball. His last two weeks have been Bentick-esque, slow to dispose therefore getting caught or turning it over.

Good post.

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If a single injury to a (albeit, very good) player who's only just been taken off the rookie list, causes our entire structure to fall apart like a house of cards, then we're in deeper shit than I thought.

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#GUILTY

Oh thank god! I thought i was the ONLY one getting frustrated by this. Pagan used to do this all the time.

It's piss-weak footy...... Hardly very creative either!

We kick out to the wing, we stop.......we wait - while the opposition get numbers back - then we shrug our shoulders cause we don't know where to kick (all the while there is NOBODY running into the empty space that is the centre of the ground), we get the hurry up for the ump and we kick long to a contest!

My god!

This type of play is why teams like Richmond and Melbourne are on the bottom of the lader.

MAKE SOME GOD DAMN PLAYS.

You can blame inaccurate kicking all you like Ratten, but in the 3rd & 4th qtrs we barely even got a touch to the ball, such was the ease of reading our style.

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Its not just you, I was sitting in the nosebleed section behind the goals against the scum and saw the corridor vacant...except for about 6 Essendon* players, they killed us going down that path and Ratten didnt fix up the problem at all

Safe option ... that's the problem. There's only a handful of our players willing to take a risk, take on the opposition over the last couple of weeks ... and that makes me think about why they've become risk averse. Is this instruction (surely not) or are they losing a bit of confidence in themselves and each other. Good teams run in waves, run in support and when things go wrong you've got another player there to mop up/assist .... not seeing that at the moment with the Blues, they don't seem to be working for each other as much as before.

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NO

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Poor options, poor tackling, poor skills.
That was yesterday.
I believe Carlton are better than that, but they need to believe it.
They need to have more faith, they will make mistakes on the way.
But that is better than being dictated too like they were yesterday.
Sydney suck you into ugly and predictable football if you let them, it's horrible to watch.
At the end of the day I hope we learn from that debacle.
Regards Pedro.

Quite simplistic.

It's like when you sit in front of the old bloke at the footy as he yells 'KICK IT DOWN THE GUTS!'

Not that simple anymore.

Mind you, the old bloke yelling that is also the guy who yells 'HAVE A LOOK BEFORE YOU KICK IT' after the ball falls into the sweeper's arms...

Good teams go through the middle because their run, confidence and execution allows them to land the ball on a 10c piece. When sides lose ONE of the these things, Melvey is right *cough* it's the safe option. Players go into their shells and push it wide to retain possession.

In the two games we've lost, we've opened up really strongly and should have blown our opponents out of the water in the first quarter and a half.

When you go in a goal ahead after you have blitzed the opposition, self doubt creeps in at the same rate that belief that 'we're still in this, amazing' hits the other side.

When you don't take your chances you open the door for your opponents to play on their terms.

And Sydney are not a team whose terms you want to play on.

Or I want to watch.

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Congratulations CK95

Listened to the Doggies/WC game, and the commentators were saying that the noticable thing about the Weagles this week, compared to last, was the direct play and willingness to take risks and play on etc. Unlike last week where they just kept chipping sideways and backwards etc.

Message to Ratts......

I disagree aramari.

I commented to people after both the Richmond and Brisbane games that our game plan seemed to be to go wide. It was noticeable even in those games that when a player got the ball, his first look was towards the boundary. If there was no loose player there, second look would be across field. There didn't seem to be a look into the corridor (which is not to say we never went into the corridor, but we didn't do it often). On many occasions there were players loose inside the corridor, but they weren't seen because the ball-carrier didn't look that way.

I think it is a big problem. It appears to me to be the gameplan, would be interesting if one of the journos asked him directly.

It's time we backed our midfield, and instructed them to go through the corridor. When we play teams that are better than the ones we have played (and remember, we've not yet played a team that is expected to play finals this year) or who use the rolling zone (like Sydney), we're going to struggle big time if we continue to play wide.

Two other requests:
1. No more of this holding the ball up to slow it down in the last minutes of a quarter, when we have dominated the quarter. Did it against Brisbane and Sydney, and both times, they came out and dominated the following quarter. We surrended momentum and let them back into the game.
2. This one comes courtesy of Teddy, who first pointed it out last year. When you watch Geelong, their players don't try and break tackles. They get the ball and IMMEDIATELY handball to a player who has more space. Too often our players get the ball and try to break tackles, only to be caught or shut down for a ball up. Scotland is especially guilty of this. We need to be instructed that when in heavy traffic, get the ball and dish it off immediately...don't try and burst through.

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Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

Good point about the backline being the start of it and they are not taking the game on. Mediocre, safe players like Thornton their first reaction is to chip to the side because ti's easier to do that and play it safe rather than take the game on and be daring, like Geelong.

Other thing I think is opposition teams are maybe trying to protect the corridor to make Fevola lead to the flanks.

All this, this is where coaches earn their crust.

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