Carlton Supporters Club

. They need to be willing to keep at it against good sides when things aren't going well. I think we get open up at the back because the last player in the line is getting drawn to the play too early. Bryce Gibbs was excellent at holding his position whereas too many players get sucked into the contest when they see the ball.

Quote from: Milhanna13 – on April 08, 2025, 10:28:15 am

Too many footy shows at the moment, all need to make noise.   Make an opinion based on a couple of clips of vision and then state it as fact.  then the other shows pick up the theme then run with it.   they all think they are US opinion shows now (colin cowherd, steven a smith   etc)

A few on this thread have made great points saying this.  none of the "experts" watch carlton as closely as we do.  And, yes, some of them have access to "data" - but we know how misleading this can be  

I dont necessarily agree with some of the above Mil. I'll pose to you that many of "us" watch the Carlton with the navy blue goggles on. I reckon the good analysts watch all teams without biased, you can tell who these one are. I happened to be with the brother of one the TV analysts last week actually who shared with me the power of work his brother does watching every game pouring over the stats and tactics to arrive at what is presented.

i agree with lods regarding Harry and Elijah  because we played 1 week in reserves we go straight in (seniors ) no way time to get tough 3 wks in ressies and maybe. 

Quote from: northernblue – on April 07, 2025, 06:11:16 pm

So tell us which senior players and their replacements and why they’ll improve things…?
I mean Moir had a ripper game on Friday after kicking the selection door down.

Maybe there is nothing to bring in, how about changing some roles (within reason). E.g. The turnover stats for Gov are horrible, 17 (worst in the comp) and 7 have directly resulted in goals to the opposition (that's 42 points of our 58 point total losing margin).  Thats unsustainable. Im sure they are working with him to rectify this however if it continues, there must be a tipping point surely.

Quote from: Lods – on April 07, 2025, 03:52:16 pm

One of the problems we're facing is we are being judged in the moment.
And that's fair.
The question is..."Is what Carlton are producing at present the best they are capable of?"... and I reckon the answer to that is an emphatic "no"

McGovern,Saad, Curnow and Boyd are actually pretty gold field kicks. Cripps has a pretty decent handball.  And that's for starters. The problem is that they all seem a little off at the moment. No one seems at their best, except maybe De Koning.

Just grabbing the low hanging fruit with no insight or analysis at all.   Pretty much what First Crack is.

The only adequate replacement for Williams is lij hollands.

The rest are hail Mary's with only will white an unknown quantity.  Moir is a second year player with currently a light body and minimal tank.

Until our season is completely dead we need to reward effort and form as much as possible and now it's on those on the cusp to come to the party, press for selection and perform once in. 

Look no further than Lewis Young for the example.  He's thus far been mich better than anyone thought this season, because he's giving it a red hot go.  Where are the others?  It's why I'm not bagging out Evans.  He's on his 3rd club, he's occupying spot 46 on the list because players further up it have been ruled out for the year.  If he's playing we have no other options that are doing their bit.  He's an easy target to bag for the right reasons, but doesn't deserve the ire.   Go higher up the list.   Mcgovern was one that really was found wanting yesterday late.  Dropped a couple of efforts that he's usually safe with and we couldn't get the ball in hand.

We are desperately missing Newman.

We get absolutely nothing from our small forwards, because the ball comes in so slowly that the F50 is jammed by the time it gets there, and they are not talented or fast enough to be much more than witches hats.  To compound things, there is very little forward pressure, so the opposition can get it back out to the wings with ease.

At every centre bounce, I look at the half-forward line of Motlop, Cottrell, Evans, Fogarty and the like - a set of midgets against serious running half-backs who chop us up game after game. 

We have little or no run out of the backline, and our only strategy is to dump-kick it to the wing and hope for a contest (and based on the midget half-forward line, that gives us little or no hope).  Or dump kick it into F50 for an uncontested opposition mark.

I have been saying since mid last year that we need to start playing the kids to try and get some enthusiasm going.  We keep putting the same try-hards out there every week, and we get surprised when they come up short yet again?  That is Einstein's definition of insanity.

There is no way forward with the team they keep putting out there ATM.   Play the kids now.

Having just watched the Dawks game again - our defensive game was sound, we held them to a potentially losing score. And our pressure certainly 'panicked' them plenty of times. However...

...our offensive game was simply, I'll be kind, perplexing. So many times we were running through the wings or through the middle, aggott in hand, and not give off to a team mate running free nearby in a better position to receive a handball, grab more grass and then better target forwards on a lead or in a one-on-one contest, but rather a long bomb from the wing/middle! Just not smart or productive... inefficient! Inefficiency results in loss of reward for effort - stagnant scoreboard, so then fall back to a greater reliance on defence (safety mode) / loss of offensive confidence...

Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with fitness, endurance or attitude. Just reward for offensive effort. The backline defence and team defence looks good, we're keeping opponents to potentially losing scores.

My greatest concern against the Dishlickers is that we repeat the offensive errors of the first two rounds - not sharing the ball with runners nearby offering a good option to gain more grass AND those panicky long bombs into the forward line. With H and Charles probably up the front the temptation to drop it on their heads will be there. H and Charles, please move about a lot forcing those up the field to consider their kick, not bomb.

IF we deliver into the forward line properly and we get our offensive reward for effort ticking over (scoreboard), and that offensive confidence returns I would not be at all surprised if we knock over the Dishlickers by 44+.

Quote from: LP – on March 24, 2025, 12:12:26 pm

So dependant on which perspective we take, the rules are more of a guideline!

Isn't that the crux of the issue everybody has with the MRP, and the umpiring in general, that there are too many "interpretations of the guidelines!"

I can't help but wonder what the sport might be like if not run by lawyers.

Not really.  The rules Lods linked are general rules that the AFL provides for all competitions and they allow for local modifications in some circumstances; 6-6-6, stand rule, etc.

The rules of the AFL are fixed at the start of each season (although there have been occasional changes during seasons).  The penalty for 19 players has been fixed at a free kick and 50m penalty for years.

It seems that my “earpiece” theory was wrong; an umpire counted seven players in a zone and it was assumed that another zone only had five players.  It was an interchange steward error rather than an umpire error.  Although you could argue that the umpires who counted the players in the other zones should have twigged that there was an extra player on the ground.

We have some issues no doubt.
Folks have pretty much covered them.

But on the flip side, you look at the position we're in...

We played arguably the form side of the competition.
We were essentially without our two key forwards because Curnow's contribution was only to draw an opponent.
As a result our forward structure was nowhere near its optimum.
Motlop and Silvagni both had close misses. Jack a poster, Motlop overturned on a late review.
I think there were a couple of others.
Scoring shots were the same.

They only scored 80 points.
Only two teams since they began their charge in the middle of last year have restricted them to lower scores.
The inside 50s were almost even...they had one more.
We won the clearances
Tackles were fairly even

In the end it was their efficiency which was the difference.

We play different styles of game.
They're at the top of their game with their style at the moment...run, skill, precision
We're a bit off the pace with ours....pressure, clearance, stoppage wins

Some have suggested ours is out-dated and their's is the new modern way to play.
Lets see how that develops if we can get back close to our best.

Quote from: LordLucifer – on March 21, 2025, 09:02:58 am

I'd like to point out something to everyone .....

Last year's final against Brisbane, we were held scoreless in the first quarter, kicked two in the second quarter & three in the third quarter (five goals overall in three quarters).

In the first game against Richmond, we kicked two goals in the second, 1 goal in the third & 1 goal in the last (4 goals overall in three quarters).

Last night against the Hawks, we kicked two goals in the first quarter, two goals in the third quarter and zero goals in the last quarter (4 goals in three quarters).

Adding those all together, in 1.5 matches, we have managed the stellar total of 13 goals which is not enough to beat the Little League at half-time. 

Seriously, we are kidding ourselves if we think this sort of utter crap is going to get us into finals contentions, we are so far off the pace it is embarrassing.

The common factor in all those games though is that either Harry or Charlie has been missing.
And when they've played they've both been below their best.
Our structure, the one that works well, is missing.
With those two playing it also takes a better defensive effort from the opposition and frees up other players to score.