Pros:

Fev coming back after a selfish and pretty ordinary first qtr to be the difference...Anyone who says trade him you are on drugs!!!! Carlton CANNOT will a final without this man.. He will love the big stage come September. Once he has a better forward line structure around him and not 3 on 1 every time we will also see more of good fev IMO.

Kruez... its amazing one minute you think Gibbs will be the best, the next murph.. the next this kid. Just doesn't give up. Once Warnock comes in the side I think we will be much better off with him at CHF (although he has been great in the ruck) or could even play the ruck rover role!

JR.. I have to say I have been a big knocker of this kid... but last two weeks have been good

Harts.. On the way to the ground today I was saying that I feel sorry for the kid that the one time he gets a chance is in conditions like we saw today. I thought he did well.. His man did take quite a few grabs, but 80% of the time the marks were hard in the pocket. His long kicking and switching of the play was very good too. Don't know where he fits in through once Bower and Austin come back in.

Carazzo - Another whose displosal has been suspect over the years.. used it well in general in tough conditions (a few shanks in there I must add!)

Anderson.. Need to mention something about him.. He wasn't in our best and put team mates under pressure at times.. but he used his long kicks well to give us some drive today I thought.

CONS:

Disposal - Yes, it was tough out there but 35% disposal efficiency in the front half of the ground to half time!?!? Too many handballs I may add! It was blowing a gale and a handball is more effective BUT kick the bloody ball our of defensive 50 and THEN handball!!!! I could go on forever here.. but our use especially from the HB line was ordinary at best.

Last qtr - Today we should have got our % back to where it was before the Essendon* game. Against a good side they would have run over the top.. Need to get that killer instrinct.

The move of Jamo to full foward in the last- Still baffled about that! OK, when you are 39 points up try something.. but Jamo WILL NEVER be a forward.. rather give Harts a run up forward or maybe thornton if you wanna see how they go... but Jamo??? If he is injured he should be on the bench. If he is ok to be on the ground he should be in the back half. Amazing that once he went back we didn't conceed another goal!?!?

Fish - Just don't think he is up to it. Very slow and often makes the wrong decision or takes too long to make it and by then what would have been the right decision is no longer!!!

PROs

- Hollywood Fevola - all class
- Kroooooooz - played very well
- JR - 31.3km...speedster!
- Joey good to see him get a run.
- No Stevo.

CONs

- Bentley still in the team
- Trash game
- Not smashing them
- Not feeling much

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dane's trolling again

Pros:
- Kreuzer proves he is consistently good every week
- Russell backed up a reasonable game with anther reasonable game
- Fev's 9
- No Stevens, no Scotland (keep Stevens out for ever!)

Cons:
- Should have beaten that rubbish side by 80 pts
- Richmond should have won that game as they missed EASY goals in front
- Backline is disgraceful - why is Johnson still playing?
- Bentley is a disgrace
- Fisher is even more of a disgrace... at least Bentley can make space and pick up a ball between his legs (sometimes)
- Ratten is still a useless coach and he is being made look good by our run of playing easy sides. Next week will sort him out.
- When we get the ball nobody makes space and we stand still... its almost like nobody wants it. WE ARE A LAZY SIDE!!!!!!

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Why are the Blues such a frustrating side!??!?!

PROs

Fev - getting 9 (despite looking awful in the 1st quarter)
Garlett - good pressure all day
Judd - a class above
Russell - the knockers need to take a look, a lot worse than him out there today
Krooze - does anyone work harder
Hampson - he is learning from Krooze

CONS

We still have a number of players that are really just not up to standard
We are playing worse than we were at the start of the season
Wasting the afternoon at the MCG, the game was a shocker

Pro
Well done Harts on a good 1st up effort in sh*thouse conditions.

Con
Umpires killed us

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There's so much I could say...

Pros:

We won albeit in the ugliest fashion....so it still made my weekend....
Hartlett should be perservered with.
Fev's two canditates for goal of the year...the guys a freak.
Ando had a shocker but should be persisted with IMO as Bentley Fisher and co need to be weeded out ala Stevo and Scotland were.

Cons:

We barely beat probably the weakest Richmond team fielded for a long time.
If our poor kicking has cost us some close ones this year then their poor kicking cost them this one..so what does that say about us?
Fev had a day out kicking 9.1. He kicks 5.5 and we lose. Still have fwd 50 entry issues.
We still have no system kicking out.
Passengers galore in this side...i.e. Bentley, Houlihan, Fisher...these 3 offer absolutely nothing, nada zilch, SFA to our side.
Poor performance by Ratten and co in the box....by that I refer to our setups in the middle, setups from kickouts and our structure going into fwd 50. It was obvious Fev being one out against a non existent Richmond backline was going to be to our advantage so the kick it to Fev at all costs strategy worked. I'd like to see some more thought go into next weeks game.
....Oh and Jamo to the fwd line in the last was a gem....

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"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

Just a note, Jamo started on the bench in the last complaining of a sore groin.

jesus, the way some people are carrying on in this thread, and others on the main page, you'd have thought we lost.

a win is a win. you play the game to win, and we did that. playing a team that's not very good, and one you beat by near on 15 goals first time out, can be a bit trying because, on whatever level, youre more relaxed than when you'd play a geelong or st kilda. on whatever level you reconcile that this team will require less to beat than another. not to mention the conditions! my god it was blustery and almost impossible at times to hit targets. all things considered: the short turn around, trip back from perth, our undermanned backline and the conditions... i think we faired ok.

we won the match. we won it comfortably in the end. 4 points in the bag and all without waite, bower and austin who've been 3 of our back 6 this season. all are certainly in our best team. also setanta being out was a bit of a blow on the back of his recent form.

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"In fairness it did seem in the early days of the draft teams would just pick a name totally at random out of a hat. I'm pretty sure we picked James Cook at #2 one year. The mediocre forward, not the explorer" - Me, 12/9/2011

Carlton 2012: Lets remind them why they once feared the Dark.

I agree houla was shit too.

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dane's trolling again

Pro- Fev
Garlett will be a player
Thorntons mark in the last was everything you don't see at Carlton a courageous strong body taking a one grab mark

Con
We will never be a top 4 side until we either coach our players or find players who can

a) make a tackle stick
b) Hold body position in the backline
c) learn to spoil
d) learn to kick out

some people need to watch the game - Houla was one of our better players today. Apart from getting caught in the last quarter, he was one of the few with clean hands and good decision making in tough conditions.

houla?

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dane's trolling again

But he stayed on the ground and was then moved back to defence after they kicked 2 or 3 in a row...so what was the point. If a player is injured he goes off usually.

_________________
"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

Pros:
- Fev. FFS, he infuriates and exhilerates us all in equal measure.
- JR. Wow, a couple of weeks in the 2's and knowing that he's not guaranteed a spot have seen him lift his performance and workrate, who'd have thought
- We still won without Waite, Walker, O'Hailpin, Bower, Warnock, Scotland and Stevens
- Our kicking was accurate in shocking conditions
- Carazzo and Grigga close to our best
- Kreuzer MUST play regularly in the forward 50. Hampson's development and Warnock's (possible) debut could see this become reality.
- Judd, GIBBS and Murph their usual wonderful selves
- Good to see Harts get some solid gametime. With his kicking, could he be our 'Luke Hodge'?

Cons:
- Minus Fev, we'd be stuffed
- Eddie was quiet
- Thornton was beaten soundly by a couple of first gamers (wonder how long it'll be before the Yarran vs Vickery threads begin)
- This side is CLEARLY messed up in the head. It just seems that they'll simply believe victory will magically appear if they get a bit in front, or if Fev/Judd are having blinders. We're developing a side of 'names', not a team.
- The fact that we had a semi-decent lead on one of the weakest tigers teams we're ever likely to see again, and if not for the brilliance of a few, would've been overtaken.
- Bentley and Joey were poor, and Garlett needs more time.
- Kickin-ins FFS!

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Don't ask me, i just telling you what i heard from Doc Larkins.

Pro

Protected position in the 8

beaten Tigers twice this year

Krooz -last goal exemplified his day

Hollywood 9 goals - brilliant

Judd clearance work

Thorton another good game and mark to save the game again today

Carrazzo kicking for goal improved immeasurably - kicked another beauty

Won again at the G -the home of finals football

Perhaps I was at the wrong game but hoola was the only one who hit up targets in the swirly breeze - I also thought both johnston and russell both played well

Con

Too much handball - better to kick it more often in todays conditions
need work on skills

Kicking out needs work

Eddie looks injured to me

forward line needs more dimensions missed Setant

Pros

-discovered a new and better use for fries - hand warmers mmm
- Fev is a great entertainer, made the game bearable
- we won (ok Richmond lost, but still 4 points)
- we won with a very ordinary / inexperienced team on the park
- we won with Murph, Gibbs, Simpson below par
- Kreuzer stood out with his all-round class
- Bentley and Johnson looked good at times
- Carrazzo and Judd superb until 3/4 time - both made multiple errors in the last
- Grigg and Russell were good
- Walker, Waite, O'hAilpin, Bower, Austin, Scotland and (I hope) Warnock all in our best team

Cons

- Houlihan, the bell tolls for thee. I saw one great handball and one lovely kick, otherwise too slow too often
- Garlett can't really compete at this level yet
- Fisher - not a game for the high markers but his blatant inability to compete at ground level made him a huge liability - the same bell is ringing for Brad
- Betts out of form
- Tough game to watch, but to be fair the conditions were shocking - I thought the Southern Stand was going to lift off - an eerie wail kept whistling around the stand in Q1

Top post Sean.

The fact is that it was an ugly game and not one to watch a second time, but we won. I was actually worried about this game as I thought it was a real danger game - Richmond haven't been that bad lately and we haven't been that good. The conditions today can't be underestimated, in perfect weather we would have won by a lot more.

Pros:

Juddy
Fev - finally broke the 8 barrier
Kreuz
Russell
Harts - really happy for the guy to get a whole game and do pretty well, he has got a great leg on him!
More signs from Hammer and our young rucking duo in general
Finals likely to be on the cards now

Cons:

Should have gone for the throat in the last 1/4, need to keep the % up
Umpiring - Yeah Fev is a sook, but he and Murph got raped today
The weather
Ordinary game to watch
Bret Thornton and his tendancy to look sideways and f@#$ around with ball in general. Please come back Bowser, we need your attacking instinct.....
People on here carrying on like we lost the game

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"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself" - Henry Ford

If we were playing any other team in the eight we would have lost by 6 goals.

CONS: Yarran over Daniel Rich (WE ARE DESPERATE FOR A RICH) and we pick up a player who will be another Wells, Tambling, Clarke, Varcoe, Djukera and so on.

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It's the vibe.........Tell him he's dreamin' Darryl!