Carlton Supporters Club

Our line-up:

B:  [42] Adam Saad,  [23] Jacob Weitering,  [2] Lachlan Cowan
HB:  [17] Brodie Kemp,  [11] Mitch McGovern,  [24] Nic Newman
C:  [4] Oliver Hollands,  [9] Patrick Cripps,  [13] Blake Acres
HF:  [6] Zac Williams,  [10] Harry McKay,  [20] Elijah Hollands
F:  [14] Orazio Fantasia,  [30] Charlie Curnow,  [44] Matthew Owies
R:  [12] Tom De Koning,  [18] Sam Walsh,  [7] Matthew Kennedy
Int:  [37] Jordan Boyd,  [29] George Hewett,  [39] Alex Cincotta,  [8] Lachie Fogarty,  [16] Jack Carroll

Em: [19] Corey Durdin,  [33] Lewis Young,  [25] Jaxon Binns

In:  Adam Saad,  Lachlan Cowan,  Lachie Fogarty
Out:  Corey Durdin (Omitted),  Marc Pittonet (Injured),  Caleb Marchbank (Managed)

[1] We will miss Pittonet, who usually plays well against Witts. Tom has a very poor record against Witts and has always played to his weaknesses against him. If he plays to his strengths and moves Witts around ...
Still, I see this is a major danger.

[2] Saad, Cowan and Fogarty in is good for us. Saad defends and attacks. Fogarty keeps the ball in our forward half and provides opportunities for his team mates. Cowan played well last week in the 2's: I'd be thinking of using his in the middle.

[3] GC's strength is their midfield. If we can keep them under control, we should do well. But we should match up carefully.

[4] How Fantasia still gets games amazes me. Corey Durdin was good against Melbourne, but has been too quiet too often. How is he not better than Fantasia though? Fantasia has 1 goal in the seniors for the year and hasn't looked dangerous.

[5] Marchbank - he has to be a worry. If he can't play 3 weeks in a row, then he is done.

[6] Olli Hollands was brilliant against Melbourne for 3 quarters, but that's been it. He needs to stand up this round.

Defence has been our problem this year.

The problem with those simplistic analyses is that they don’t take into account goals that aren’t scored by Charlie, Harry or Tom but are the direct result of balls kicked to them, that is, the crumbing and scrambling goals scored after a marking contest.

In fact, Charlie has kicked quite a few goals after crumbing marking contests.

One thing that has struck me this season is how often we’ve targeted players other than Charlie, Harry and Tom inside 50.   Owies with a total of 15 from both inside 50 targeted kicks and opportunistic goals is our third highest goal scorer.

Ahead of all is the cumulative total of 60 goals from kicks targeting Cripps, Cottrell, Kennedy, the Hollands brothers, Martin, Durdin, Fantasia, Hewett, Walsh, Acres, Cerra and Pittonet as well as goals arising from their crumbing and pressure applied to lock the ball inside 50.

We don’t need another forward 50 target.  We need a small forward who can make the most balls targeting our key forwards that go to ground and who can force turnovers and stoppages inside our forward 50.

odds are in 6 months it will all be over.