Carlton Supporters Club

In the real season work rate and experience defeats speed, it's pointless being fast if you do not get the right spots at the right time.

That is why the older smarter guys keep getting games, they do the work to get in the right spot or dispose of an opponent before the ball gets in the area. It's how guys like Gibbs keep racking up 30 possessions a game.

SPS, Pickett, Le Bois, Fischer would just be chasing tails all season because they cannot work their way through the game, where to be and when they have to be there.

Weitering is such a stand out for this reason, he looked smart and ready to work from day one, but by late last season opponents started putting doubt in his head and we saw him caught out of position.

It's naive to think pace is all you need to be a better football option, guys like Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge, Gibson, Viney, Cripps make a mockery of that idea. Betts had plenty of pace his whole career at Carlton, has probably lost some pace now, and is becoming a far better footballer.

I think that it's about having time to use the ball LP.  Pace can help but it's due more to quick thinking, good decision-making, alertness, peripheral vision, communication with team mates, etc (and work rate and experience of course).  I wouldn't class SOJ as quick but the first time I saw him play I was surprised by how much time he seemed to have. That convinced me that he would be an AFL player.  At the other end of the scale, Daisy now doesn't seem to have any time when he gets the ball.

I seem to remember that the very first game we played last year was against Drug Cheats FC and they absolutely pantsed us with half a list missing and a bunch of top-ups who had done no preseason.

We didn't do much better in the next two games either.

And then, should really have won in Round 1.

As they say in the classics, 4 weeks is a long time in footy.

I will only get worried if we see the same lack of effort in the real thing.

BTW Melbourne used 8 interchange players throughout the game, while Carlton only used the 4 (as per the normal season).

Ed Curnow would be in "The 22" of most AFL teams based on recent seasons.

I remember a lot of posters on here telling everyone how bad Laidler was and how he wouldn't get a game at any other club!

How about those who claimed Betts wasn't worth more than $350k, and all but accused him of highway robbery?

The message from those posters seems the same diatribe for just about every player who isn't a flash in the pan speedster or goal kicker.

Gorridge done his Achilles.

Footage of him punching the table in the rooms indicated it was a serious injury.

Felt for him - had a small opening with Phillips out for a few months.

Cruel game sometimes. 

We better nurse Kruezer the rest of the pre season. Can't afford him to break down with no reasonable back up.

They're all fair points sbf.

It's the example that always get trotted out in these circumstances, but if you cast your mind back to 2005, we won the pre season comp, then won the spoon. Conversely the Swans have never played in a pre season final, and they've done ok in the h/a season.

In fact, as someone else suggested, you can find every pattern imaginable if you do a historical comparison of team performance in the ps v h/a.

The long and short - what happens in the p/s has little bearing on what happens in the h/a.

No doubt yesterday was yucko. I don't have an issue with this in the p/s, but if this is a portent of what to expect in the h/a, then it will be an awful season.

Remember also, we have the highest number of u/21's on our list (I think Emily or Grace said 13), so this may also be a factor. Young bodies IMO can't be relied upon week in week out (through no fault of their own), and this, for the present, contributes to a lack of depth. They will tire as the season progresses, and their bodies won't stand up to the rigours of footy for an entire season. Which then means the senior players carry more load, which then etc..............

I'm going to be so pissed if we ruck McKay!

PS: To all those ruckmen haters, we got loads of options too many of them already!

So they'll ruck McKay, you can see it coming!

I'm going to be so pissed if we ruck McKay!

PS: To all those ruckmen haters, we got loads of options too many of them already!

So they'll ruck McKay, you can see it coming!

My preference would be for Harry Mac to not be on that list at all. I'd rather have Murph do the rucking.

Thats what i was implying.

Good to hear.