Carlton Supporters Club

If I had to nit pick, someone mentioned earlier about the poor mids-forward connectivity. This was an issue under BB and Teague was one of the protagonists in that debate. He should have been working on this and fixed it by now seeing he was aware and knowing the problem existed. As I said, its nit picking.

Dow, SPS and Obrien are all top tens and you expect a return when you invest your hard earned top picks and that hasnt happened.
As MBB has suggested Charlie is the real deal but cant get on he park and stay there and there has to be doubts about his future..
Weitering and Walsh have lived up to the hype and are cornerstone players who should play 250 plus games....
Stocker is the mystery player....so far he has impressed me everytime I see him play but where he is at only a few people outside his family know..

Dow, SPS and Obrien are all top tens and you expect a return when you invest your hard earned top picks and that hasnt happened.

Dow has played 40 games and O'Brien 35.   Most of those were 'development games' in a crap team in the big league. Spots weren't earned because of outstanding form in the twos,  they were given to fast track development. By all reports Dow has been really finding his feet in the scratch matches (best we can offer at the moment) and has, this time around 'earned his place'....a first for him!  12 disposals, 3 marks, 3 clearances, all on 67% game time is a pass mark for me and he will improve as he is given more opportunities.......like Will Setterfield.

O'Brien is not being given a free ride this time, he needs to earn it, or waits his turn. If he wants it enough, he'll keep working hard to get there. Not everyone is a ball buster after 35 games, especially some of the 35 that he experienced!  

Personally, i think we lost this game when the teams were picked.
I reckon the teams were picked with 1 eye on thursdays game and i reckon there will be plenty of changes. There should be.

Polson banished for all time.
Dow back to the 2's.
Pittonet/TDK/Harry/Levi.....one has to go. Too many players who all trying to play the same role. Pick 3, any 3 and leave it at that.

SPS, Kennedy, Cottrell all need a recall to the side. I'd even bring in Honey too.

If ANY of our boys are running at 90%, rest them. We have enough depth (of sorts) to play AFL level players while resting some. Do it.

We still have a chance to play finals, and while we do, we should be picking a side to win.

I'm not sure we gave ourselves our best chance on Sunday.

I brought up the fact we dropped 1 kid who could kick and brought in 2 that couldn't. We were already struggling going inside 50, so i thought this was the wrong move.
I also questioned pre-game that Stephenson was a player i didn't see a matchup for.
I also found it difficult to justify playing 2 rucks, when it was clear we needed pace.

We all know the end result.

Personally, i think we lost this game when the teams were picked.
I reckon the teams were picked with 1 eye on thursdays game and i reckon there will be plenty of changes. There should be.

Polson banished for all time.
Dow back to the 2's.
Pittonet/TDK/Harry/Levi.....one has to go. Too many players who all trying to play the same role. Pick 3, any 3 and leave it at that.

SPS, Kennedy, Cottrell all need a recall to the side. I'd even bring in Honey too.

If ANY of our boys are running at 90%, rest them. We have enough depth (of sorts) to play AFL level players while resting some. Do it.

We still have a chance to play finals, and while we do, we should be picking a side to win.

I'm not sure we gave ourselves our best chance on Sunday.

Dow has played 40 games and O'Brien 35.   Most of those were 'development games' in a crap team in the big league. Spots weren't earned because of outstanding form in the twos,  they were given to fast track development. By all reports Dow has been really finding his feet in the scratch matches (best we can offer at the moment) and has, this time around 'earned his place'....a first for him!  12 disposals, 3 marks, 3 clearances, all on 67% game time is a pass mark for me and he will improve as he is given more opportunities.......like Will Setterfield.

O'Brien is not being given a free ride this time, he needs to earn it, or waits his turn. If he wants it enough, he'll keep working hard to get there. Not everyone is a ball buster after 35 games, especially some of the 35 that he experienced!

Well said - Dow has been injures and has earned his recall. People need to give the guy a go because he does have that breakaway speed we currently lack. I’d play him for the rest of the year.

When you are a top ten pick you get more opportunities but are also judged more harshly, thats the reality.
Dow's 12 possies are interesting, he only had 4 kicks with 8 handballs, I noticed he didnt want to kick the ball..DE was 67%.....by foot thats reasonable but the majority by hand thats not so flash and thats his problem. IMO he has been ordered to handpass more and kick less. At U18 level he would get enormous amounts of ball every game..35-40 was common but about 25-30% were no good but the volume of possies made up for it. At senior level he cant get the ball and if he goes at 67% with what I call simple kicks/handpasses he is a liability.
I liked Dow at U18 level and think he can still make it but its going to be interesting to see if the club can carry him long enough in the senior team for him to improve enough to become a fixture. The kids coming through like Kemp, Philp, Ramsay etc are all much better users of the ball and the latter two all have Dows pace, so he has two problems, himself and the competition from other younger players.
Obrien was pick 10 but IMO it was a weak draft and he was a poor pick for us and when the coach has labelled his attack on the footy etc needing work thats a label that sticks and is hard to shake. Not being contested enough is harder to fix because its instinct...Cottrell is raw as a piece of fresh beef but contests well and you can see Teague has preferred both him and Philp over Obrien for one main reason.

SPS is Yarran without the fire in the belly...when CY was wound up he was top shelf, pace, intensity, skill etc etc...we know his story and it was sad to watch his decline. SPS doesnt have the CY problems but he is just too laconic, lazy and inconsistent for a No 6 pick and we all know it. He can play the game and doesnt need skills training, just needs a can of "whoop arse" before each game to fire him up but so far neither Bolton or DT has found that formula...76 games is a decent sample too. Not sure we can continue too long waiting for him to become consistent, hiding him down back to protect him from critique has to stop as well.
He needs to be back in the midfield somewhere providing the run and carry we recruited him for or he will prove the " mugs to the backline theory" right...

No point having breakaway speed if he just kicks it to a 50-50 at best. You can do that from the middle of a pack.

Where is the benefit?

Look, the kid has shown glimpses....but not enough for the pick he was taken. He's almost played 50 games and we still don't know if he is any good.

I thought he did well to pick up the pace of the game after such a long absence and I can’t recall any howlers over the weekend. I’m a believer in Dow and think he’ll be just as good a Walsh given an extended run and with confidence I’m sure his disposal efficiency will improve.

I thought he did well to pick up the pace of the game after such a long absence and I can’t recall any howlers over the weekend. I’m a believer in Dow and think he’ll be just as good a Walsh given an extended run and with confidence I’m sure his disposal efficiency will improve.