KP players aside...

I also think we need a "Frazer Brown" type to support Judd at clearances. A tough little bugger that will block and crash players hanging off Judd.

A tagger for the taggers, if you will.

Judd usually has three or four player hanging off him - god knows what happened to the holding the man rule...

We've lost big Josh Kennedy, but we haven't done anything with Hartlett. What good is it to us playing Hartlett in the Ants and not giving him a good run ala Russell to prove himself, when this is his perhaps last year?

Wiggo, sorry to offend but SHIT....

There is no way in hell adding O'hAilpin and Walker to tonight's team would've meant a win.

Take a deep breath and reflect on these names:

Jamison
Browne
Grigg
Kreuzer
Anderson
Edwards

62 games between 6 players.

Get some perspective you lot! Reading this sort of crock is just infuriating. Do you lot actually know what's going on out there?

The equation is simple - against a team with a good ruckman and and a half-way intelligent set up at clearances and stoppages, we'll get smashed. You've got Ross Lyon coming down from coaching the Sydney mids with Steven King having to do nothing but monstering Cloke and Kreuzer. At his feet, he's got Hayes and Ball who are great in the contest and support players who are drilled to set them up for the clearance.

Our mids have done a mighty job winning the clearances they have with a minimal contest provided by the rucks, and even mightier considering we haven't had Hadley for virtually the entire season to provide a big body and some blocking in there as well.

This team will rise with improvements in the ruck division and improvements in CHF/CHB. Nothing more, nothing less.

punter22 wrote



As usual punter well said.

I have no doubt that would give us an advantage and with this there would be less stress on the backline. Our tall stocks in the backline and backmen in general have improved exponentially this year.

In addition, imo:

With all that in place I think Setanta (till a very tall backman replaces him) can mind the dangerous ruck sized forwards when they're there to release Waite to his rightful and more dangerous position on a wing or if/when needed CHF.

Pfeiffer, Hadley YES

Wiggo, sorry to offend but SHIT...

Does maybe 5 good things a game, and you all think he has arrived...... Does not have a footy brain....... He has had long enough, needs to be moved on.

People saying Ratts is holding this team back are either pushing an agenda or clueless.

The equation is simple - against a team with a good ruckman and and a half-way intelligent set up at clearances and stoppages, we'll get smashed. You've got Ross Lyon coming down from coaching the Sydney mids with Steven King having to do nothing but monstering Cloke and Kreuzer. At his feet, he's got Hayes and Ball who are great in the contest and support players who are drilled to set them up for the clearance.

Our mids have done a mighty job winning the clearances they have with a minimal contest provided by the rucks, and even mightier considering we haven't had Hadley for virtually the entire season to provide a big body and some blocking in there as well.

This team will rise with improvements in the ruck division and improvements in CHF/CHB. Nothing more, nothing less.

This isn't to say Ratts is the best coach in the league. But he is not holding this team back.

What would that agenda be????

Tonight's game was terribly frustrating, but a loss will always highlight a number of our deficiencies. If we had won tonight then we would have glossed over them all, forgot about the first three quarters and just sat up proud that we were in the eight and had performed another miraculous comeback. As it stands we are not.

The glaring problems that I see are:

1. We do not have an effective ruckman against most sides and so we lose a lot of the clearances. Cloke battles hard but is not tall enough, Kreuzer is in his first year and Hampson just not up to the level reuquired at the moment. We are heading in the right direction after many years of neglect in this area. We just need to be patient.

2. We turn the ball over way too much. Our foot skills are just not up to scratch. They are just not.

3. We are not bold enough. We rarely take the first option when we have the ball. Rather than play on and move the ball forward we stuff around with it, often kicking sideways or backwards to hit a teammate in an uncontested situation. The problem with this is that by the time it takes us to make a decision the other team floods, we panic and then turn the ball over as above. If we took the first option more then we would create more one-on-one situations, put the opposition teams under greater pressure providing us with a better chance to score. I hope we can get Walks back in next week - I want to see someone willing to take the opposition on.

4. Our forward line is very impotent. Shut down Fev and you shut down Carlton. We had 45 inside 50s to St.Kilda's 47, had 27 scoring shots to St.Kilda's 29 yet we lost by 32 points. We lead too much to the boundary line and consequently make it harder for us to kick straight. We need to lead in front of goal more. Tonight Fev took 3 marks, Fisher 5 marks, Eddie 3 marks, Russell 6 marks, Wiggo 4 marks and Jake 3 marks. Riewoldt took 12 marks and Koschitzke 9 marks. The ball comes in to our forwards and too often we spill the mark and the ball is easily rebounded. Our delivery is not always the best, but we need to hold onto more of the pill.

That will do for now. I can go to bed confident that I have made a contribution to society.

On a positive note Gibbs is not one of our problems. He is developing very nicely at the moment and will be a star. Gibbs' decision making is always first class. He rarely turns the ball over.

What would that agenda be????