Pros:
Our A team - wow, Kreuz, Murph, Judd, Gibbs ... what joy they'll give us over the years to come
Bower - outstanding (was credited with 9 spoils of the teams 27). Took sublime delivery, mark and goal from outside 50 on the boundary for Buddy to get his first
Carraz - was given the job and executed. Can't ask for more than that. One of the reasons we were close all day.
Stevo - good game and agree with PKLZ, that bump on Whitecross was exactly what every supporter wants from Stevo, a bit of physical commitment
FEv - can't be a con people, the only reason we were in that position was due to his other amazing goals from impossible angles
Joseph/Army - we've unearthed a couple of gems. Every week we'll know what we're getting with these guys
Perspective - we pushed a strong Hawks unit to the line ... they were missing players but so were we: a fit Warnock, Walker and Grigg would have been in this side today.

Cons:
Cloke - at the game and they paid him zero respect. His man ran off and linked up and just left him. Sadly, Cloke will be good enough to get us into the 8 but the Hawks showed he'll never get us a flag.
Wiggo - not as bad and he worked all day but again: good enough to get us into the 8 but the Hawks showed he'll never get us a flag.
Russell - had a day he'd rather forget
Simmo - was injured early and reduced his impact
Ruck - must bring in a competitive backup for Kreuz, Cloke and Carlos aren't it. Rather Hammer than Jacobs for games like this ... Jacobs would have been killed around the ground today.
Bentley - what role was he brought in to play exactly? Run around without a man and turn the ball over role? Revolving door theory - in and straight out again. Nobody can honestly tell me that Robbo, Ando, Hadley or even bloody Bannister would have given as rubbish a performance as that. THis impacted the whole team as Ratts tried hiding him on the bench FFS!! Others carried him. I'm guessing he didn't play to instructions so out.

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"It was like calling your ex girlfriend after a night on the booze, just a really bad decision".

Seriously the negative garbage written on this site tells me some people just watched another game, or relied on commentor "In the moment" calls to backup their posts. I just watched the replay and that was outside of Geelong vs Hawthorn the highest intensity game of the year clearly. We played the reigning Premier, the team that plays unsociable football, the team that prides itself on it's attack on the ball and physical prescence. At present we are a top 4 side, only Hawthorn, Geelong and the Saints are better than us at this stage.

Pros:

- Tackling, Pressure, Courage, Never say die attitude.
- Players who had quiet games still did the 1 percenters when required.
- We took it up to a Hawthorn team that was giving 100% and matched it with them.
- Previous years 10-12 players wouldn't turn up against a quality team and we would get smashed. Yesterday 2 players didn't turn up and we just missed the win. It's not always what we do with the ball, it's what you do without it that makes you competitive.

Cons:

- Cloke
- Bentley
- That frigin post.

I stopped reading after the first two pages of this thread.

I missed most of the game yesterday because footy clashed and then we had a function straigh afterwards - All that aside the amount of Dorks supporters who didnt give it to me was amazing - Very complimentary towards us and just very happy to scrape a win.

Labelling players as pathetic and gutless is a pretty shit low act by people who profess to support this club - Grow the F up.

For those bagging Ratten and the Match Committee do the same. Ratts has barely been in the job considering how long Pagan had the boys yet the improvement in everyone on our list is plain to see.

We are 3 and 3 but honestly we should be 5 and 1 given we threw the other games away with poor conversion and a drop off in intensity - Yesterday however we were beaten in a thriller by the reigning premiers - Shit happens, we are not a legitimate chance yet given the immaturity of our players - People should be happy we are now able to go - watch - listen with an air of expectancy rather than just praying all week for a miracle to occur.

Another pro:

Our percentage. In a lot of ways, percentage says more about how a club is really going than it's win-loss record. When we win, we're winning comfortably. When we lose, we're losing narrowly.
2 good efforts in successive weeks against quality opposition.
Still need to learn ways to restrict the opposition scoring. We've got one of the higher 'points against' totals.

PRO
Improvement is possible and likely with the young group Carlton has. It is likely that you learn more from a game like this than you do if we squeaked the win in the last minute.

Hawthorn could not have executed better given their inside 50 ball movement. This is an issue of mid field pressure, the backs cannot stop excellent delivery just as Campbell could not get close to Fev with the delivery inside 50 he received.

Scoring from stoppages of play. we just need to take the opportunities that present more quickly so that more goals are scored.

CON

The fumbling and poor ball movement when the opportunities arose meant that many opportunities to score were wasted. The only solution to this is more game time into the playing group, more games at this level of intensity as playing in the VFL will not teach you to perform well in a high pressure AFL game.

A second mobile small forward was needed. Maybe it is time to get Yarran in the side and see what he can do.

Con;

The Hawthorn cameramen zooming in on Mclaren at half time to award him a $5000 online bank account.

For those of you old enough to remember - Bentley's perfomance yesterday was eerily reminiscent of Mark Athorn in the 93 GF....the memory of which haunts me still.

Something else that needs work on is our ability to give away free kicks pointlessly by ploughing into someone's back at the stoppage or allowing an opposition player to engineer a high tackle at a stoppage.

Pros

Matching it with one of the best teams in the comp for four quarters. Could easily have laid down when they got 25 pts up in the last. Show fighting qualities when it counted.

But for poor kicking at goal could be undefeated.

The usuals, Judd, Murph, Fev, Bower

Cons

Lack of support for the club/team on this website by some

Posters puting blame on Ratts for guiding the team to what should have been victory

_________________
I support the Navy Blues whatever happens!

PROS:

- FEV - simply outstanding effort and without him we wouldn't have got as close
- Carrots - He did a good job on Hodge
- Judd - I knew he was good - but while he was at WC I didn't appreciate HOW good he was. That changes once you see him play every week.


CONS:

- If we were ever going to beat them it had to be this game.
- Hadley needs to come in.
- We fumbled too much at crucial stages
- Waite's disposals. I think he cost us about 3 goals with tunovers. There was one in the 2nd or 4th qtr (not immediately from kick out) when he could have well and truly cleared our defensive 50 and instead tried a short kicked which missed it's mark - easy goal to the Dorks.

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That's right. Gather the nector my little drones and make honey. Honey for your children.......Fools!!!

Lots of pros as noted
Cons are largely as noted

Congratulations for a few attempts at constructive criticism, but a lot of negative sh!t here after am improving if inconsistent team performance
(In the past some on this site have accused Richmond of eating their own!?!? Gadzooks whipping boys and scapegoats retain their popularity)
Move on!!
BTW
Does Fev practise kicking at goal from inside 50? He gave a 20 meter shot a ride that hit the post way up. Only needed to clear the player on the mark. Didn't need to clear the top tier of the stand!
Perhaps some coaching from Eddie Betts ... ?

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It's the jumper

... but a few weeks ago you said



Maybe not be so negative eh?

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Chris Judd: 'I've since watched some Steven Seagal movies and realise pressure points are no laughing matter.'

PRO
Those with views that are more positive/bullish about our season so far, our match committee performance and our short-medium-long term future prospects are not censured or rebuked by those with a more negative slant

CON
Those with views that are more negative/bearish about our season so far, our match committee performance and our short-medium-long term future prospects are censured or rebuked by those with a more positive slant

Last time I read the name of this website, it was called, "TALKING CARLTON", not "TALKING UP CARLTON"

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

is that a pro or a con?

@ jamo

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

I only posted it because of Jammo. That pic of him is a massive pro.

That might have something to do with the years of bullying the "pragmatists" spent bullying all and sundry and talking up tanking.

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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.

CON: Ratten and the Match committee. Grow some balls and send Waite forward. Cloke wont and never will work. Jamison should have been played on Rough from the start. Costly Costly mistakes by Ratten and MC.


PRO: Waite is consistently awesome. just awesome. love him. really really love him. can play anywhere and be awesome. AWESOME!!!

Verbeek & Livlovers posts spot on. To the guys who think the criticism is negative, it is more that there appears to be a group on here what needs to be done to turn a potential finals side into a premiership side

1. Selection has to be proactive and developmental not suicidal. Greg Bentley- Hampson?

2. Ratten is a young coach a great midfield coach and a players man but he needs to improve his match day coaching or get some assistants who can

3. MC & Ratten need to pick a side & position players for the long term
- Kreuzer is our second Tall Forward. Why? Unlikely to draft one in the compromised drafts. We can not win a premiership with one key forward who maybe 32 when our premiership window fully opens

- Hampson Ruck now & give him half the opportunity that Russel has had

- Hadley, Robertson, Yarran over Russel, Wiggins, Bentley

So, MJ, you think that anyone who criticises the team/MC/Coach actually know what it takes to turn a young team - with the attached inconsistencies - into a premiership team? And by that logic, anyone who refrains from that, and sees a few positives from matches like yesterda, regardless of the outcome, don't?

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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.

No, they displayed a lack of understanding of what's required to establish and perfect the structures they expect.....just like your post has.
Our players are coming from miles behind. The set ups and structures required take years of practice and implementation to perfect. Meanwhile, our team which finished bottom 2 for the majority of the past 6 years ran the reigning premiers to within 4 points. We had more scoring shots, more inside 50s and in reality, were unlucky to lose the game. That doesn't happen by accident.
It occurred because the coach that recieved a paragraph of "cons" has the most exciting young team in the AFL playing strong, consistent, competitive footy.

Some of the ill informed rants in this thread are mind numbing.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.