Our whole side has lost confidence, it makes them hesitant, and when they hesitate they look slow and are under more pressure using the footy than they need to be.
The trick will be to go hard regardless of making mistakes, you have to forget the past and plough ahead knowing you can never be perfect.
For me this was the only disappointing aspect of Kemp being dropped, he made some early mistakes the past few weeks, but he at least persisted and come good later in games. He won't be perfect, nobody is perfect, and we can't expect all our defenders to be like Weitering, that is just unrealistic.
Pitto dominated early. Went off and the pies dominated. He came back in and we held our own again. Pies nullified his influence in the second half well. Tdk was just another body in the ruck. Thankfully he kicked a couple.
I reckon that broken nose care of Cripps took a bit more out of Pitto than we suspect, but we must not ignore the change in the umpiring of the ruck contest after the first few minutes of the first. It seems the AFL can now change rules dynamically during the game.
Charlie did not play great, but he was probably up against his hardest opponent of the year who is more slouch, both physically and intellectually. Still kicked a couple.
Charlie is not in great form, but he is working at it, he always looks a bit laconic.
Williams has a big target on his back and it was made bigger with the early frees against. They were a bit harsh and just about pushed him over the edge. His hammy will probably come as a relief for him.
Why he was singled out by the umpires and not a bunch of others is a mystery, it seems if you are a Filth KPD you can hold a Carlton KPF all you like, but if a Carlton MD holds a Filth SF and you are done!
Young was not terrible for his standards, but is still not performing as well as we need him too. We better have an alternative option lined up in the off-season.
He's just not physical or reactive enough, spent a lot of time watching others run around him.
Watching our VFL, there is a sameness about the problems facing both AFL and VFL teams, it suggests a systematic cause.
We seem to demand contested marking from our talls, like giving them an easy mark on the lead is banned, yet despite having that contested marking approach we have few or no smalls crumbing front and square. In our F50 we basically surrender the footy if we fail to mark it.
Watch last night, nobody is out marking Harry or Charlie more than very occasionally, our KPFs regularly bring the footy to ground against 2 or 3 opponents, but there is hardly ever a Carlton small at the foot of the contest. Watch the VFL, it's very same same.
It can happen when the facility knows there is going to be a disruption for whatever reason, they will bring the print run forward to make sure they can get enough copies out for subscribers.
Walsh, Harry, Pitto, Cripps basically played four quarters with an opponent arm around their waist like Williams did to Elliott, and not one free for it.
5 clearances in the opening quarter, then the umpires went back to the old ruck rules, that is adjudication by opinion. TDK gets penalised if he jumps at opponents like Cox started jumping at Pitto.
Andrews needed a “That would be a very courageous decision Mr Premier,” rather than the unqualified agreement of sycophantic political advisors.
I think there is a specific case, and a more general case.
My assertions are the more general case, regarding the hosting and bidding for Commonwealth games in any location. It seems those in the Commonwealth Games supply chain have learned quickly from the IOC and it's perceived corrupt ways, it's no longer about sport.
In the more specific case of the Commonwealth Games Australia, I'm not sure the embedded bureaucracy is trusted and to support that assertion we could point to the ever growing use of "Consultants" by the state governments. Even more bizarre is the perceived distancing of the event by Federal Politics, surely it's a national event, this competition between states seems ............... When you have entities that profit from failure as much as they profit from success, a win win for some, the path of least resistance will be the ultimate result no matter what the cost!
Nice for the athletes, good for us spectators because medals come thick and fast, but in the scheme of things with Olympics and world championships every two years as well as the lucrative circuits, like the Diamond League in athletics, the event has lost a great deal of its prestige.
My understanding one of the next major targets for the Arabs will be athletics / Olympics, they are planning to disrupt a swath of the games in much the same way they have disrupted golf.
