Carlton Supporters Club

Never helped Geelong in the 90s. In big finals defence is a big key. any coach will say that. 1995 and 2007 were simply massacres, simply one side being far superior to the other. 70 and 72 were simply another era.

I don't doubt that but given Port smashed hawthorn about as much as any team is going to smash anyone and still only scored 13 goals for the match, I'm not worried.

I know with better execution we'd be scoring more.

We will see how it all pans out soon enough. I'm not stupid enough to think that everything is going to be fine, but I'm not worried about stuff at this stage.

You won't lose too many games, finals or otherwise, if you kick 110-120 points per game.

I'm not saying it's easy, I'm not saying it's necessarily possible, but it should be the aim.

Any coach with even half a brain will hopefully tell you that both defense and offense wins you games and flags. If defense was king,  Ross Lyon would have a few flags by now.

Any coach with even half a brain will hopefully tell you that both defense and offense wins you games and flags. If defense was king,  Ross Lyon would have a few flags by now.

http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/08/13/defence-may-be-the-best-form-of-attack-but-attack-is-the-best-method-of-winning-premierships/

I guess though it comes back to..... do you concentrate on tightening up the defence as the first part of the puzzle and once you've stabilised that area then work towards developing the scoring power as the finishing touch.
That seems to be the path we're taking.

That's an interesting example - Port had 64 i50's and 35+shots on goal. The fact that they couldn't convert and only kicked 13 goals is more about their terrible conversion and Hawthorns extra numbers in defence rather than a lack of scoring power. They should have easily kicked 20 goals based on their numbers alone.

I'm curious at what stage you do get worried about our attack? We've been bottom 4 for scoring for the last 3 years, and dead last right now - our kids up forward have some 'potential' but none have even had a breakout game that says they can kick goals at the level. Our key forward is a 27 yo who has only played 80 game and averages a goal a game and less than 10 disposals - in a forwardline where he has no competition. Do we wait until end 2018 or 2019 before we wake up to the fact that our lack of forwards means we will never move off the bottom rungs of the ladder?

Our key forward is a 27 yo who has only played 80 game and averages a goal a game and less than 10 disposals - in a forwardline where he has no competition...........

Don't you see its a subjective stat??

Three teams kicked over 14 goals for the round.

Two of them played against each other in a shoot-out with one kicking 18, the other 15.

Leigh Mathews said, first to 15 goals wins.

 Adelaide's much revered forwardline was useless this week.

Don't get me wrong,  I think we do need some improvement in our forwardline but I can see enough improvement in jack Silvagni and Charlie Curnow to suggest that they will do better in future.  I also believe that with some different players we could kick more goals. 

Why I'm not worried is that we are getting in there often enough but not hitting the scoreboard as often as we could be as we turn it over entering our fifty by hitting up speculative targets or not playing the percentages.  We are trending upwards here too.

What I'm thinking is that the we don't kick enough goals is alarmist. Goals are the finishing of work.  An example of why I'm not worried is that if we hit better targets inside forward fifty we could kick more goals with our current cattle.   To suggest that they won't improve that is false, and that's without factoring growth or recruitment.

SBF.........Shhhhh...Shhhhhh.....,

you must whisper those facts or you'll be labelled a Casboult basher!

In fairness to Casboult, his first 80 games is about the same as Betts!

OMG, could Casboult become the highest rated small forward in the AFL?

Ha Ha - like for many here Casboult to me is the most frustrating player on our list. It's an interesting comparison, but Betts played 80 games after his first 4 years and was improving his output each year. The big thing with Betts is how he has developed and gotten better nearly every year he has played. Playing in a good side with a very talented forwardline has also [unsurprisingly] helped him a lot at the Crows.

Cas on the other hand is simply not smart enough as a footballer to ever be a good forward. He is an awesome contested mark, but is just in the wrong place at the wrong time way too often to ever build a forwardline around, as he is also often putting the other players out of position as well.