I have never seen in a Test match (a) the amount of pies our bowlers have served up today, and (b) batsmen play rubbish shots like that to get themselves out from these pies.
Are they playing on a postage stamp today ?? Whenever the ball pierces the field its four every time.
I'm really enjoying the match so far but completely agog at the standard of skills on show.
Thanks for the write up. I always worry pressing a button will send me to the darkest side of cyberspace. Maybe turn this site up side down and inside out.
I can hear him saying "please keep pushing buttons then Mr. Mantis".
There are is no doubting that Levi Casboult is one player on our list who polarises supporters opinions. Many believe he is a long-term project who will end up being very good for us, others believe he doesn't have what it takes and should be delisted or traded as soon as possible.
His positives are his clunking strong overhead marking, his bulk & ability to split a pack coupled with being able to pinch-hit in the ruck. His negatives are the complete inconsistencies & "yips" he kicking for goal plus there are times in a game where he appears lost and doesn't know where to position himself.
It has to be said that he is a "work-in-progress" but there is no guarantee that he will indeed complete the course, its all in the lap of the gods right now.
One area that I'm wondering about his ability to play in a key forward post, preferably full-forward, and whether he could be used to lead out from the goal-square towards the oncoming midfielders and mark on the run (can he actually mark on the lead ??). With a bit of luck, he may end up with the ball closer to goal which could reduce the inaccuracies he suffers from.
Therefore, and based on our desperate need to create a forward-line that has some sort or menace about it, if I was Malthouse, I'd be playing Casboult at full-forward for the remainder of the season to either fast-track his development & influence on a game and/or make the final decision on whether he should be retained or not.
The season is shot, lets use our remaining games to find out more about a small but select group of players so decisions can be made with the benefit of trial & error, not a knee-jerk reaction.
Nice article by Rohan but nothing that we didn't know already. The interesting part is the scoring for & against :
Quote
And significantly, for all the supposed extra focus on the more defensive aspects of the game, Carlton is ranked exactly where it was last year - ninth - for points conceded, an average of 87.1 a game compared with 87.5 in 2012.
Neither has its attacking ranking moved much, the average points scored now 95.1 to last year's 94.5. All that with a much longer list of fit players than Ratten had at his disposal for much of 2012.
Even though he isn't the player he once was, his application & professionalism cannot be faulted. He also commands a solid tag from the opposition which suggests they know he is still very dangerous too.
When Robert Walls speaks, at the time you find yourself agreeing with his comments thinking he is saying exactly what we are thinking.
The problem though as Shakin' has clearly pointed out, he flips & flops backwards, forwards & sideways depending on his feng shui reading, the latin horoscope or which phase the moon is in. There really is no consistency at all in his comments which is not only disturbing but equally destroys his credibility overall (and that is coming from Mr. Inconsistent himself).
I'd really like Rob Walls, when it comes to Carlton, the club he obviously still loves dearly & passionately, to say what he genuinely thinks and is in the best interests of the club overall, not what will sell a newspaper or get viewers to the TV screen.
He can change his views as often as he changes his undies for all I care when it comes to the other clubs, just be honest & forthright when speaking about the Carlton Football Club.
England - Alastair Cook (captain), Joe Root, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Graham Onions.
Australia will not settle their XI until game day.
TV coverage is on GEM (CH9) starting at 7:30pm Wednesday.
After that disappointing loss to Collingwood on Friday night, we are still two games out of the 8 with only eight more games to be played. Thankfully, Port were not able to get over Essendon today otherwise we would be three games out of the 8 instead of two.
Games to come are :
Saints @ Etihad Kangas @ Etihad GoldCoast @ Metricon Freo @ Etihad Bulldogs @ Etihad Tigers @ MCG Essendon @ MCG Port @ AAMI
Based on the way we are playing and have been for the major part of the season, there are no guaranteed wins in that lot apart from possibly the Bulldogs.
The question I'm putting to you all is quite simple, should Malthouse put the 'cue in the rack' now and play whoever he needs to from right across the list to have a good look at them or should he just 'soldier on' regardless ??
The benefit of packing up is that any player who needs surgery or whatever can get it whilst players like Mitchell, Duigan & Laidler can be given a thorough oppprtunity to stake their claim to be retained on the list.
The benefit of 'soldiering on' is that the players will be kept under the pump for the remainder of the season and we are driven to fight out all games with our best side in at all times.
There really is no right or wrong answer here, it's probably going to be based on whether you think we can make finals or not. One thing I'd really hate is to finish 9th and then see the Asadendon get their points pulled and we were to go into 8th position for the finals.
