I remember about the same time last year that Carlton began running games out better than the opposition, and we got a few wins as a result. I am thinking that we seem to be set up for a similar run now. If you need your memory refreshed, this was one of the articles from July last year talking about this and our fitness guru.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/ ... 42,00.html

I saw that we ran out the Dockers game a hell of a lot better than they did. We ran almost all game against the Saints. (Let's ignore the Bombers game). We did stop for a bit late in the Lions game, but then finished off well.

What do those who get to see the training think? Are we going to see the Blues running over the top of sides in the next few weeks? Has Cordy worked his magic and set us for a good second half of the year?

Or was it just because it was the Dockers...?

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I would like to thank Collingwood for helping me keep faith in my old man. He always told me that 'People are thick'.

It will be interesting to see what approach the club has taken. Have we designed our fitness program around peaking towards the end of the year?

We will soon find out.

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Have I run too far to get home?

yes but despite our so called superior fitness we lost 5 out the last 8

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

True, but im yet to read a post or hear someone sight fitness as the reason for any of those losses.

Saints we played well, ran out 4quarters but simply played a good side and didnt get enough luck

Essendon* everything went wrong. .

Adelaide we had an ok 2nd half, but like Essendon*, everything was wrong from the opening bounce

Freo we were fit enough, just played like fairies.

Hawthorn we ran the game out hardest . . Hawthorn stopped with 3mins to go and we were still running. .

Sydney was a question of toughness, not fitness

The first Essendon* loss was again one we ran the game out ok, just that we didnt run hard enough or get to the ball first.

I'd be thinking there's no question towards our fitness. I hadnt given this much thought, but as i wrote this post it became apparent to me we've got no alarm bells sounding in this area of our game. .

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Cuck Follingwood

It's not about fitness.

It's about straight kicking for goal and taking your chances when they're there.

That's where we've lost a heap of matches this year.

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NOW YOU'RE JUST SOME CLUB THAT I USED TO KNOW.

Fitness and workrate are two distinct things.

You can be fit and not work hard to get the ball / support your team mates etc, but it's very hard to be unfit and have a high workrate although there's a few exceptions around the traps.

But I think part way through the second quarter our workrate lifted for the first time in a few games and continued through to the end of the game, particularly in the second half!

So, if for every game from here on in we can work hard and our fitness levels stay high, we could be threatening the top 4!

Here's hoping!

Rich

We faded big time against the football team formally known as Ninthmond. We will have to wait another week and see if we make a last quarter charge. As the Swans always finish games with a wet sail, we may need it.

hopefully yesterday was a sign of this kicking in.

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Last edited by true_blue3 on Mon Sep 26, 1981 5:07 pm; edited 92 times in total

We have actually been running out games well this year for the entire year, building on the work that Justin Cordy and the fitness staff started last year. I think the fact that our younger blokes are developing their bodies has helped, as has the belief that the boys got from the way they finished games off last year. If we break down our record in final quarters this year, we stack up pretty well against the competition:

1. Western Bulldogs: Won 12 Lost 4, Avg Points For: 30ppg Avg Points Agst: 19ppg
2. Carlton: Won 11 Lost 5, For: 28ppg Agst:24ppg
3. St Kilda: Won 9 Lost 6 Drawn 1, For: 24ppg, Agst: 15ppg
4. Port Adelaide: 9-6-1, 27-22
5. Adelaide: 9-6-1, 25-22
6. Essendon*: 9-7, 24-20
7. Melbourne: 9-7, 21-20
8. Collingwood: 8-7-1, 25-22
9. Geelong: 8-7-1, 25-24
10. Brisbane: 8-8, 22-22
11. Hawthorn: 7-8-1, 22-27
12. Sydney: 7-9, 21-24
13. West Coast: 6-9-1, 19-22
14. Richmond: 6-10, 19-26
15. North Melbourne: 3-12, 15-24
16. Fremantle: 2-12, 14-19

Last year surprisingly we only won 11 final quarters, so we have already achieved that this year. having said that, we did win 8 out of our last 12 final quarters for the year. Lets hope we have a few more final quarter wins in us this year - and we are ahead at three-quarter time when this happens!!!

That is a great set of stats. Cheers Chief. Hopefully we can continue outscoring the opposition in the last term, and then bring back that great Carlton tradition of owning the premiership quarter.

We'll see how things pan out as September approaches, but we are certainly fitter than before, and seem to be running out the games well at the moment. In any case, we are a far sight better off now than a couple of years ago when our fitness was at VFL standard.

Walker, once he gets some matches under his belt will only add to this, and to our running ability.

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I would like to thank Collingwood for helping me keep faith in my old man. He always told me that 'People are thick'.