Carlton Supporters Club

Ground is actually the same size as the MCG, it's bigger but they bring the boundary in further.

1st quarter the boys looked sharp, the defensive set up behind the ball looked like a basketball zone, triangles every where and we were sending 2 players to the contest and tackling hard, Kerridge and Lamb doing a lot of grunt work both on and off the ball. Rowe basically played the Jason Cloe mop up game and got some easy ball thanks to the body work of others further up the field, there was a real team defensive structure, something that I've not see with Carlton before. I looked at at the coaches box, we were just in front and saw that their monitors had ABC2 on them playing Spicks & Specks. Amen

Then the umpires basically started to ruin the game, a 50m that was barely there the free that White gave away for holding 30m out from goal he was held first and the small frees that they paid in Hawthorns favour was embarrassing. The large Carlton crowd I was in were going off their heads.  2nd & 3rd quarter the umpiring was disgraceful. Hawthorn players particularly Gibson were holding the arms of Carlton player going for the mark, if you noticed Kruezer, Jamison and Casboult all failing to get to the contest that was the reason. One sided affair umpiring wise, looked shocking on the telly

Boekhursts run bounce and evade, then deliver was simply beatuiful to watch, he looked really confident out there and did some gut running both ways with no reward. He looked grouse, he should only improve on that

Graham does nice things but he stays off the play too much, if he's going to be a Mitchell type player then he needs to get around the ball more rather than try and make space. Big fan of Nicky G, not perfect but plays with a bit of ticker

Kerrdige is a hard man, sure his disposal is not silver service but he busts his ass our there to the point of exhaustion. There was movement at the station watching him play, great recruiting move, had something to prove and he did that well.

Lamb was another who surprised with his forward pressure, I think he was kept off in the second half to give others a longer run. Has mongrel and had some crappy frees paid against him, already showed more heart than Menzel and Yarran. Tick.

Whiley did some nice things but gets caught too often but got first use a lot early. Encouraging signs, might be used as a tagger that finds his own footy. Wasnt displeased and isnt a softy, something we've had in spades previously.

Tutt still scared But hes quick, something that we need imo. Will probably still play 10+ games

Jones runs quick and straight but that's it laid a lovely tackle in the last that bought the crowd to life, but was very poor apart from that. this

Phillips meh. A plodder nothing more. Has a great leap and showed a fair bit of mongrel and wasnt afraid to push the hawks around from what i saw on the telly, something to work with hopefully.

Gorringe played CHF early and took his man away from space which allowed moves made by Casboult and Everitt to have a use, he still went to a dangerous spot on the field but it was far enough away from the others not to allow a third man up. When he went off teh spacing up forward was all wrong and we didn't look like kicking a score. Looks like a bigger version of Everitt, hope he makes it

Daisy looked slow, although did some smart things when he had the ball. I thought he looked as good as he has since he came to us, 6kgs lighter, quicker, ran harder, more penetration in his kicking. 20 touches and decent enough efficiency, tick from me but given he's our highest paid player id like to see him average 20+ touches a game and kick 20 goals unless he plays predominantly back.

C.Curnow had Gibson who put him into the ground when ever he could, he actually kneed his head into the ground straight in front of goal but of course the umps didn't see it (surprise) and Charlie came up bent over holding his head for the next couple of minutes. Gibsons a dog with funny elf ears and his face scares children

Considering who we had out and the crap umpiring, I'm not discouraged, the effort was there there was a major change to the play and a lesser team may have been beaten by the set the players were trying to perform. Hawthorn with their team boast a starting midfield were simply a class above, but the gap didn't seem as huge as last time we played them, and yes I know it's pre season. I concur, thanks for your insight Ray, much appreciated

Weitering rolled an ankle during the week. Right decision not to risk him.

...and we used half the rotations the Hawks did which wouldn't help.

I thought our guys looked stuffed in the 2nd half, makes sense now.