We won both marsh games last year & Bolton was sacked 10 weeks in.

Just back from the game. If tonight was any indication, we will easily be a bottom 4 side without someone to help Cripps and a forward line minus Harry and Charlie. Quite deflating after half time. Boys against men - still.
Good
The first half. Some slick ball movement and intensity
Doc had an excellent first half
Walsh is a marvel for one so young
Weitering - all class
Martin - we have one. Class, skill, intensity and poise
Dow - showed some dash and kicking much better
Jones - excellent. Fabulous marking.
Eddie - managed some magic amongst the chaos
DeLing - nice mark and goal in the last quarter. Built like a pencil but shows he has it.
Bad
Great concern regarding Setterfield. Very soft physically and just seems to lack confidence. The season hasn't started yet.
Too many ball watchers in the midfield. Cripps does the heavy lifting and the others (Bar Walsh) spectate. Happened so many times.
JSOS - just not good enough. Has no attributes that will hurt the opposition other than effort. We need more that that to make us better
Newnes - started ok but just a seconds player
MK - tried hard but was running up and down on the same spot. Not a tap ruckman at all
Levi - - box of chocolates as ever. While Levi gets a game we are off the pace.
Polson - just no.
Murphy - nowhere near good enough as a senior player.
McGovern. Offered nothing
We have a chaotic forward set up.

If people just say it is just a practice match - lipstick and pig.

CFC - purveyors of false hope.

What a joy reading all this positive feedback ....... Can wait for Thursday week

(Can only hope there's some master plan that we don't know about)

_________________
"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz

Midfield really worries me - hope Teague and team find answers.

Seeing it live was a reality check rather than seeing it on a screen.

Great to go to the footy at Princes Park again.
I just watched the highlights. What was extremely frustrating was how easy it was for Brisbane to score so many of their goals, particularly in the last few minutes of the first three quarters.

Hopefully we can upset Bitchmond.
Remember we used to win a lot of those season openers.

_________________
Our tradition demands success!

More good than bad up until about 20 minutes into the 2nd quarter. After that, we were absolutely thrashed and the final margin flattered us.

Our defensive pressure in the front half was better this week, especially early, but our lack of polish when we have the momentum just kills us.

Encouraging performances from Dow, Walsh & Martin. Great to see Doc clear another hurdle on his way back to playing AFL. Everyone else was fair or disappointing, IMO. Hopefully Plowman & Marchbank are cleared of serious injury.

Cripps has noticeably changed his body shape. Let’s hope he and the club made the right call by doing that.

McGovern or TDK for round 1? Listening to Amos after the match, I reckon McGovern will get the nod.

How does Polson get a game? Fair enough that we want to experiment with a small defender - but why not do it with someone who has a chance of making AFL standard eg. Cunners, Stocker or Lang? It’s a complete mystery to me why Polson was given a 2 year contract at the end of 2018 when a 1 year deal would have been accepted.

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Basically, this.

I haven’t seen the stats, but I would guess that the centre break numbers after halftime would be heavily weighted in Brisbane’s favour. Whereas, aside from the last 10 minutes of the 2nd term, we seemed to have the advantage in the middle in the first half.

_________________
It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

I can only hope ABNS that Polson got the gig tonight before Cunninham, Stocker and say O'Brien so they could all get plenty of game time as Polson virtually only got 1qtr. Gee I hope they had good games. I'd love to be a report on the NB's game, the score doesn't give me much hope though.

Pros:

Easier to find positives than last week. Pretty good for 45 minutes.
Ball movement was better.
Got some goals out of small forwards.
Jones, Walsh and Weitering.
Jack Martin.
Thought SOJ competed when we were actually getting the ball forward.
Dow and TDK were exciting.
Setterfield and Newnes better than last week.

Cons:

Again, the opposition looked bigger, stronger and faster.
Last half uncompetitive. Seemed to drop their heads.
Thrashed at centre clearances. Other than Cripps, didn't seem to have many bigger bodies in there.
Need more run out of defence.
Underwhelming performances by Kreuzer, Murph, Marchbank and Fisher. Even Cripps was a little off.

Ed, Murphy, Cripps and Walsh all started very well, they either tired or just took the foot of the pedal. No doubt our forwards looked dangerous early. Once our mids slowed up our forwards looked out of sorts and our defenders were constantly under pressure.

Just got home from the game (and an enjoyable kick on the ground afterwards).

I sure hope there's a plan, and that players were managed. Because aside from some slick passages of play our boys look like kids compared some of the Lions. Plus we (still) can't kick the football very well.

Charlie Cameron is a f'in delight to watch at ground level. It's like he's on rollerskates... just exquisite timing combined with breathtaking speed.

Saw Cripps' brother walking around... a dead ringer to Patrick from side-on. Tall kid too. Bit skinny. Had a leg bandaged. Anyone know what his deal is - can he play?

_________________
Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

Brisbane had 6 on bench for entire game. Last quarter we were down to two.

i dont understand how we can fade out at the end of quarters in the preseason - surely they would be at peak fitness now?

_________________
my last one was rubbish

Can anyone confirm whether or not the Carlton Show will go ahead this year?
Cheers.

_________________
Our tradition demands success!

Don’t know about “The Carlton Show” but, I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of episodes of “The Shit Show” to catch up on.

_________________
"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

The womens team will keep my spirits up while I await the arrival of the mens team.

Before the draft most agreed we needed clearance support for Cripps, and someone to contain opposition small forwards. We tried but this was not addressed.
Not sure skinny Cripps was what we needed too, we have plenty who cant win their own ball at stoppage to do that running.
I think unless SOS, Setters or Kennedy find something at clearances we can’t regularly hold an a opponent to a beatable score.
We have faded horribly in all three pre season games so hoping that’s loading etc, not base fitness.

_________________
Green Shooter

Yes I want 2019 brick sh*thouse Cripps back please.

I also prefer JSOS in the middle.

If we get the midfield right that will create better opportunities for the forwards.