Was sitting in Bay 120, right in front of where the boys warmed up.

To be honest I didn't focus on Fevola in the warm up, but I saw him at the start slot one, then right near end of the warm up he missed 3 in a row, the last one being the easiest was met with a typical Fev reaction. But I am not saying Fev played a bad game as he at least was pro active in getting into the game, just he still doesn't seem on song with his goal kicking, hence his usual frustration.

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The AFL equalisation policy (designed with StKilda firmly in mind) is the only reason they exist.

we won the second half

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Did his job.
Ran up the ground.. chased ... helped out in defence..a couple of assists .. and did the team things...
just what ratts has wanted from him...

Love the new fev.... we dont need to rely on fev... cos ratts has some super duper structures going to make us more effective..

we have been trialling these strcutures behind closed doors .. and we used them on an unsuspecting collingwood before really unleashing them this week.

I reckon when Craig saw Fev in the backline he was shaking in his boots and knew he was being spanked by the genius in ratts...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

...but not the second half of the second half.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

a wins a win

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

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dane's trolling again

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Hmmm thought I was dreaming, obviously not.

That was the most insipid display of football I've seen in a long long time, at least Collingwood didn't kick straigh last week in the first half.

ONLY Browne, Bower, possibly Stevens, Jamo, Austin and AJ could hold their head up high over four quarters.

Our stars in Murphy, Judd, Gibbs went to pieces, Murphy had a great third quarter but was still very poor.

JR was ordinary at best.

Armfield was even worse than ordinary at best.

Whoever played in the midfield aside from Stevens was worse than worse than oridnary at best.

Well there has been lots of negative spin and even some positive spin eschewed here already.
Im not sure how anyone with 2 eyes wide open can put a positive bent on the absolute
insipid first half display.

Hello ??????????
Was there a fire sale on WITCHES HATS coz we had about 15 of em !!!!!!

We need a line in the sand game.
We need a line in the sand from MC.
We need to put recent years behind us.
Thats happened to a minscule degree.......but FFS.
We need the coach....to coach !
We need on field leaders....... to lead.

Last but not least the whole team collectively needs to .......
be courageous, lift that noble jumper back up to where it belongs
and to make it feared, not laughed at like today.

If there arent at least 4 (positive) changes next week im gunna go postal !!
At myself that is.

Now you cant call that a rant !

Wheres my nasal spray ?

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I wore number 25 on the back of my jumper 40 years ago..... yes, pre Marchesani !!

Ok that was total rubbish what we served today, and justified my pessimism before the game, while not slashing my wrists we are no where near as advanced as Hawthorn 2 years ago and we need to stop pretending we are. I think we did catch some sides by surprise last year, and teams are more ready for us last year. I think Essendon* are slipping under the radar this year in a similar fashion to what we did. We did win a few games we had no real right to (Port, Brisbane, Bulldogs comeback). If we only won 8 last year, would of our expectations for this year been lower? I think almost certainly yes.

Looking at our draw, I predict we will be 5-9.

Observations after todays game:

All potential premiership sides need a settled defence, we have good reliable defenders in Jamison, Bower and Thornton, but we really need a big bodied defender to help them out. Hurley would have been great, instead we have a lazy, soft poor mans Richard Tambling in Chris Yarran. Ok that was harsh but nothing has shown me thus far that overlooking Rich isn't going to leave us with egg on our faces. Yarran has class, but doesn't work hard enough.

I saw Essendon* tonight, they actually have a structure, with key position players! Hooker and Pears are raw, but they have a role. Who have we drafted who can play key position? Why did we pick up Armfield at pick 46 when we could have got Hooker? Essendon* lack our midfield class, but are miles in front of us with their key position talent they have coming through.

Jordan Russell - Why? It is beyond a joke, the guy simply is not good enough, has poor skills and makes the wrong decisions. Every now and again will be 'hard at it'. This is not 1988 anymore, if you don't have good foot skills but are 'hard at it;, goodbye to your ambitions of being an AFL footballer (unless you have some other unbelievable skills to make up for it).

Armfield - Didn't think he was as bad as some have thought. Worth persisting with for a bit, but I definitely have my doubts. More doubts to why we even got him in the first place.

Game Plan - What the hell was going on. All good to not have Fev as the main target to mix things up every now and again. But replacing the main target with nothing whatsoever, probably isn't the wisest move.

We were totally shown up for hardness in the first half.
they smashed us, we fumbled, we looked to the umps, and before we knew it we were down by 50.
They just came at us harder than we liked.

I like the way Ratten is trying to settle into a best team/lineup, but surely he and the MC need to evolve into a slightly more Horses-for-courses mindset. Just because we won the week before doesn't mean players should be immune from being dropped.

I'm not sure whether he was our worst player tonight, but I think it would send a reassuring message that Dick Pratt has not paid some '$1 million bequest for his lovechild JR to play every game' if Ratts were to drop Jordan. I really think his performance tonight warrants a drop to reserves in favour of setanta, or joey, or someone else.

hard to gauge yarran tonight... looked silky and more agressive with tackling, but who knows.


Hampson is going to be a really fantastic tap ruckman when he overcomes his colour-blindness and figures out which jerseys to tap it to.

Judd went missing for once, but he's only human.

I wish someone would explain what's happened to hadley, cuz he has dropped off the cliff edge form-wise.

I am starting to really flowering dislike Knights.

also browne is too slow.
ridiculously slow.
lumbering, unco, gangly, awkward, brain-dead slow. almost slower than jacobs

no AFL player should get tackled that many times compared to the possessions he had.

the coaches need to put some lobsters or yabbies in his bed to give him some spright and zip.

Yarran has played just three games and you're calling him a soft Richard Tambling.

Yarran oozes class, skill and poise.

Yarran is nothing like a poor man's Tambling with his build and physique.

Austin?

Hooker had five goals kicked on him by Franklin a week after Bower held Buddy to two goals.

Who is Hooker?

I look at Cale Hooker and see another Kepler Bradley...

I like him as a player, not writing him off, but flower he needs to get some fire up hi a$$.
otherwise he will always be on the fringes

What next young players on the list? They are it

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WE ARE CARLTON, WE ARE ARROGANT AND WE LOVE IT!

The Yarran comment was harsh, but his work ethic and fitness are very questionable to say the least. He has class though, I remember a quality kick he did in the 3rd where he pin pointed a pass 50 metres, which is something I have never seen Tambling do!

Austin - I like Austin, and think he has potential. My point is Essendon* have a lot of key position options coming through in Pears, Hooker, Daniher, Hurley, Neagle & Gumbleton (if he ever gets on the park). Hooker may turn out to be Kepler Bradley, which is still preferable to turning out like Hartlett. My basic point was, overall there is precious little in terms of key position talent coming through on our list. We have a-grade midfield talent for sure, and other guys in Robbo, Bower, Jammo, Hammer, who are getting there at their various levels of development.

I would love Warnock in our side as I think it would make a massive difference to our structure, allowing Kreuze to spend more time up forward

We need to put things into perspective in regards to this game. Adelaide were coming off three straight losses so their attack on the footy was going to be fierce while we were basking in the sun of a hollow win the previous week against Collingwood. We realised at halftime that we had another game to play this week but alas it was too late. Waite going down didn't help.
As far as the competition goes you have two sides that are way ahead of the rest of the pack and everyone else can please themselves. There really ain't much between 3rd and 15th and it's a week to week proposition depending on what eventuated the week before. We need to understand that we are part of the 'rest' and results will be frustrating on a weekly basis. We are not ready to tackle the Geelongs and St.Kildas of this world so we have to settle in playing lotto against 14 other clubs. In saying that if we go with the trend so far this season we will beat West Coast next week which means we will be back in town temporarily until our next demise the game after that. That's where we're at unfortunately. Maybe if we can string two wins in a row somewhere along the way we may steal a finals spot.

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WE ARE CARLTON, WE ARE ARROGANT AND WE LOVE IT!

Maybe if you had a gameplan and the players knew what to do you wuldnt have to "steal a finals spot"... and that sounds like the more long term sustainable option ....

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I was going to put in my 2 cents worth, but the anger is somehwat overwelming at the moment. Granted that there are a couple of reasons from yesterday's debacle, but....
I am looking forward to the Bullants' game today to see what we can come up with.