Carlton Supporters Club

thx for letting me have my opinion....glad you are enjoying the way our defensive structures are working currently

Any suggestions on how we stop 5-8 goal run ons v us....?.   its not just out of the middle...

Look forward to your suggestions

I’m fast losing faith in Teague’s assessment of the side and with that Teague as a coach. His statement that we are a flexible team could not be further from the truth, and that starts with Cripps, he is a clearance player only, sure he may be big (not that he is currently playing like it) but his one touch pickups are gone, his vision to get the ball to our advantage by hand has also let him. Instead he wants to burst away from a pack all himself and be the hero. Compare that to Pendulbury or Bont and both are happy to give a little handball if it gets their other players into space.

Cripps is a one dimensional cut out of his former self, and with the game speeding up thanks to a few rule changes over the last couple of seasons, is not going to get any better. In fact if you look at the game against the Dogs, to win the ruck hit outs and to then have a C grade ruck in Pitto win the clearances just shows how far Cripps has sunk. It’s with this in mind that I think if he wants to go at the end of the season via free agency, provided we get a first rounder back for him, then let him go.

While many will howl at the idea, it will go a long way to fix our team. We have two players who attend most centre bounces that struggle to play any where else, Cripps and Ed. Ed is limited but does a great job negating the best clearance player on the other side, while getting the ball himself, not that it’s a great possession most of the time. That leaves one spot vacant which Walsh is the logical choice, because of his level of play this year. So where do we fit Cunningham, Dow, SPS, Setterfield, Stocker, Williams, Fogarty etc? At the moment they are sent to a flank pocket or wing and given 5 minutes a game in the middle, leaving us with the question, why aren’t our young players better. The answer is because of the one dimensional play of Cripps and Curnow.

Obviously Cripps is not going to be dropped or put on a flank, but his time should be diminished in the middle and he put in the goal square for 10 minutes a quarter. Ed needs to be able to tag of a flank or wing, but very rarely should we use both in the middle at the same time.

If Cripps is in use a combination of two faster players like a Walsh Dow Cunningham, if Ed is in then look at a Stocker Setterfield to win the ball inside and move it forward. If neither then that’s when SPS and Fogarty or even Gibbons get a look in.

Down back we are pretty good, however this needs a change too, Williams has been a non event in the middle and should be moved to the HBF to regain form and confidence, Doc I would move to the wing and drop Newnes who is a real list clogger. 12-15 touches a game equals a seconds player who gets a game for injury or bad form of another player. I would also want to see Newnam in as soon as possible, which would mean moving Stocker to the bench.

Up forward we have seen how ineffective Fisher has been when compared to Owies who over the last 2 games has given us 5 goals plus pressure and the biggest thing I saw was Owies rushing a point last weekend, he wasn’t playing on ball, so to be to see him on the last line of defence means he must of followed his opponent into out backline, something that Murphy, Fisher, Gibbons just doesn’t do. Owies should not be dropped for the foreseeable future. That being said, we have no spot for Fisher, he is a forward by circumstance not by choice and to me is tradeable, because he will not get a spot in out midfield. Murphy should be an injury sub on or two times this season, just to get his tally closer to 300 without getting him on the field.

So a team I’d like to see this week;

FB Plowman Jones Newnam
HB Williams Weitering  Saad
C E.Curnow Cripps Docherty
R Pittonet Walsh Dow
HF Fogarty deKoning Cunningham
FF Betts McKay Owies
I Parks, Stocker, SPS, Cottrell
IS Murphy
E Setterfield, Newnes, Williamson

Teague says Cripps back is fine... see AFL.Com.
Im confused....

If Cripps does have a back issue, and is receiving injections to play, then that explains his lack of flexibility and not being able to bend down to pick the ball up and double grabbing etc. The club needs to have a hard look at itself as he is not playing well at all and we need to give game time to the younger mids. I'm sure Setterfield would relish some Cripps free midfield time.

If he does not have a back issue, then my original post remains unaltered, he must be moved on, as the game appears to have passed him by.

Setterfield would have to be the very last option on the list ... and won't be come the much awaited cull of useless duds.

Teague says Cripps back is fine... see AFL.Com.
Im confused....