First quarter wasn't bad at all, but from then on it was one way traffic the wrong way.
Disposals: Armfield 28, Cripps 27, Cattapan 22, Lucas 20, Wilson 18 Cripps appears to be best, but he got hurt in the 3rd quarter and had a huge icepack on his quad from about half way through the last quarter. He did come back one in the last quarter and got 5 possessions, but he probably shouldn't have. If he can be fit, then he probably deserves a senior game. But I would think it unlikely he could be fit enough. Maybe against Geelong?
Armfield getting 28 possessions is also a very good sign, as he has been pretty ordinary for quite a while now.
From the twitter feed, it sounds like Watson was OK at FF, even though he was not a prolific goal kicker. He was sent back to FB around Half Time, but does not seem to have been particularly effective there.
[Team: B A bitter – sweet result if there ever was one, it makes rating the game problematical. To play so well for so much of the game, but to get so few rewards and a heartbreak to finish…. I look forward to visiting the Undiscovered Country: the Future.
Explanations: [3] Judd: Until Judd got injured, he was so far BOG that it was a reminder of just how much we have missed him this year. Superb. Unfortunately his ankle injury changed the game, as he only managed a couple more possessions for the night. [2.5] Simpson: 3.5 brilliant quarters and a goal that should have been match winning. Simmo gave his all. [2] Waite: For the 2nd week in a row Waite really stepped up and took some excellent marks. Our forward structure works so much better with Waite playing well. [1.5] Thomas: Probably his best game for Carlton, even though he did make some ordinary decisions late in the game. He did a good defensive job and his ability to get the ball was excellent. [1.5] Gibbs: Started a bit quietly, but he really lifted his game and managed a lot of clearances. His snap at goal came within inches of winning the game. [1] Murphy: 21 possessions was probably his best return against the hard tag all year. The way he stood up to Crowley and the way the other players supported him was pleasing. [1] Yarran: Another strong game from Yazz in defence. His run out of defence was excellent. [1] Curnow: Played on Hill all night and really made him ineffective. [0.5] Carrazzo: Like Curnow, Carrots played an excellent defensive game and helped to totally smother the Freo midfield. [0.5] Docherty: Very good for much of the game. Unfortunately he still makes some terrible errors under pressure. [0.5] Rowe: Took Pavlich apart until Pavlich was injured. After that he no longer had a good match up and ended up forward.
Honourable Mentions: Jamison: Took his man to the cleaners, even though he didn’t have huge stats himself. Tuohy: 3.5 quarters of totally blanketing Ballantyne, who managed only 8 possessions for the night. Henderson: Got a fair bit of the ball, but generally too far from goal. White: Did a very good negating job.
Casey Scorpions vs. Northern Blues Saturday, August 02 Casey Fields at 11:00am
Casey Scorpions
B Corry Corrigan Godfrey HB Welsh Rutherford Hillard C Anderson Scott Barry HF Symons Rennie Paredes F Page Fisscher Rosier R Waters Lang Petropoulos Int Bundle Westrupp Winderlich West Thomas (Jnr) Jackson Murray Currie Pears Saunders Davidson Collins Del Papa
Northern Blues
B D. Watson M. Gleeson Grimes HB Johnston Reynolds Posar C Russell McCann Taglieri HF T. Thomas Bolger Haynes F M. Johnson Dufficy Dorman R Kur Totevski J. Gleeson Int Callaway Jenkins Curnow Dowse Tardio Perry Roberts Yelland Young
Casey Scorpions vs. Northern Blues Saturday, August 02 Casey Fields at 2:00pm
Casey Scorpions B: Kent Georgiou Panozza HB: Strauss Davis Terlich C: Blease Morris Nicholson HF: Jones Fitzpatrick Salem F: Best Smith Kennedy-Harris R: Gawn Michie Riley Int: Petropoulos Scott Hillard Page Harmes Godfrey Evans Paredes Gawley* Clisby Rutherford Barry Symons
Northern Blues B:Armfield Dirago Byrne HB:Sheehan McInnes Walton C:Holman Cripps Lucas HF:Garlett Coulson Temay F: Wilson Anthony M. Watson R:Warnock Wilkinson Cattapan Int: Dorman Reynolds Johnston Hunt* D. Watson Russell Bransgrove Bolger Totevski
To be honest, this does not look the strongest team we've fielded this year, particularly considering the poor form of Garlett. However, we are running out of fit Blues, so beggars have few choices. Hopefully there can be some sign of the spirit and endeavour the senior Blues showed last night.
I don't mind the loss at this point. We played good footy and weren't embarrassed against a top 4 side.
I don't think we'll miss Carrazzo or McLean next year but Judd needs to play on and Graham needs to play every game for the rest of the year. I'm starting to have faith in Malthouse and our core group of players.
At the end of the day, Pick 6 and a favourable draw for next year is what we should be playing for IMO.
At the moment I can't see Broke going on: being the sub is not the role he needs. He needs game time to make an impact, while our team needs to reinvent our midfield and get a replacement for Judd.
Carrots, on the other hand, had a very good night getting clearances and negating Freo mids. Curnow also did an excellent job negating Hill to almost complete impotence.
Barlow and Fyffe were the only Freo mids to get away from us, and that only in the last quarter.
Similarly for us was Tuohy: he didn't get his usual numbers, but he killed Ballantyne for all but about 5 minutes. That was enough for him to make a mark, but Tuohy really did keep his man to 8 possessions for the night, half on them in the last quarter.
I was really surprised that Tom Bell had only 9 possessions: he had plenty of good taps ons and tackles and chases and spoils and was really quite good until Fyffe outsprinted him in the last quarter. Similarly Graham, who had only 10. He had more impact than that suggested. I think he missed out a bit because he hasn't spent the time in the senior midfield enough yet: he is not the guy they think to handball to yet. He is used to being the primary clearance player to a winning ruck. In the seniors we no longer win in the ruck and Judd, Murphy, Carrots and Gibbs are the primary targets for clearances. Graham should improve as they players around him get more used to him and confident that he will get the job done.
I don't mind the loss at this point. We played good footy and weren't embarrassed against a top 4 side.
I don't think we'll miss Carrazzo or McLean next year but Judd needs to play on and Graham needs to play every game for the rest of the year. I'm starting to have faith in Malthouse and our core group of players.
At the end of the day, Pick 6 and a favourable draw for next year is what we should be playing for IMO.
In the days and weeks to come, and especially on Draft Day, I won't mind that we didn't win: we will get a lot more out of the game than Freo will. They may have won the 4 points, but that is all they got out of the game. Their next opponents, especially those with a bit more talent than we have, are going to use tonight to really hurt Freo in the weeks to come. They will probably not get a top 4 spot.
On the other hand, we will get a top pick and will get a slightly easier draw, as MilkIt noted. With the year we have experienced, that is the prize for us at this point.
A couple of weeks back, I didn't expect to win another game for the year. I was hoping we would not get thrashed. I have to re-evaluate those thoughts: on present form we are playing much better than Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and maybe Essendon. Even Sydney only outplayed us for 1 quarter (granted that we played our worst quarter for the year, while Sydney played their best, but that is another tale).Those teams had better take us seriously, or even with our present weakened line-up, we are going to give them nightmares. I look forward to that. I want them to have nightmares about us for years and years to come. To quote Merlin the Magician: "A dream to some. A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS!"
I thought Wood was pretty good tonight considering who he was up against and its a shame that his errant rushed kick ended up giving them the winning goal. He shouldn't be held responsible for the loss, there was a myriad of other reasons for that.
Agree
It was not all of Wood's fault we lost. About half the team can take their share of the blame. As for Wood's game, he wasn't bad. He gets the ball and gives a target. Unfortunately he gets pounded at the taps: according to the stats, Sandilands had 46 taps and Clarke 21 taps. Wood had 12, while Casboult had 10. That means we lost the tap 3 times for every one we won. For all that, Wood's pressure did make Sandilands and Clarke less effective, while his ability to get the ball around the ground was good. But he is no more than answer to our ruck woes than Warnock is. We need someone who gets taps and who gets kicks around the ground.
I am pleased that Wood is getting games: his efforts in the VFL deserved it. I am also pleased with his efforts. But, as well as he does, he still does not give our mids the taps to advantage that we need, especially in tight games.
From the way some people post on this forum criticizing Micks moves, you would think that we can make the eight.
I have got news for you, we can't. So nothing wrong with putting Bell on Fyffe. If Mick thought that Bell was ready, now he knows how far away Bell is from being a top footballer, let alone about his poor skills.
We are not a top four side and won't be with blokes like Rowe and Ellard. Yes, I know some of you defend Rowe, but he would not get a look in at Hawthorn, the Swans, Geelong, Freo, and I won't go on. Neither would Ellard.
They are plugging a hole in our personnel. The usual suspects kept us in it.
Levi was asleep, White just went, Docherty fks up too much, and when he needs to, can't hit a target. He'll be O.K. but needs to improve.
It was a nice effort with the usual result because we lack the 6 class players to get us into the top 4.
As far as Wood goes, the only reason he panicked and kicked instead of handing off to Simmo, is that he has been out for two years. but I thought he was pretty good tonight.
I hope they re-sign Mick for another 3 years.
In the last few weeks Malthouse has really shown that he still has it as a coach. For much of the year I wondered, as have many here. I still wonder with our team selections: having to play Broke as sub was not a winning move. However, the guys appear to be playing more for him lately and his skill and strategic planning has been more evident. Now we need to improve the list and get all the talent on the same page.
Did something tonight that we haven't done for year. Sat a tagger on his ar$e more often than not and protected our man. We are maturing. Juddy might even be enjoying his footy again too!!
That was such a good thing. Murphy stood up for himself and his teammates did too. Even Judd took Crowley away from Murphy. That was excellent to watch.
Also...WHY THE FRIGG ARE THE UMPIRES SO AGAINST US.
ALWAYS THE 50/50 BALL GOAS AGAINST US, AN UTTER LOAD OF CRAP.
I even had my Richmond mate, who absolutely hates the Blues asking why are the umps so bias towards Freo. UTTER BULLDUST.
IF THE UMPS BLEW THEIR WHISTLE AND PAID LEGIT FREES....
How many more times are we going to be robbed?
I thought the umps were not that bad tonight, on the whole. They gave 6 frees against Crowley, a first, I am sure. We were stiff at the end when the umps forgot what a mark was (and we forgot to show them how it was done). Considering the home town decisions that ALWAYS flow, we did as well from the umps as we could.
As to how any times more we are going to be robbed? That is going to depend on how soon some of our lads get used to the pressure and start to keep their composure. A little more talent, especially in the midfield and the ruck would help too. But I think we are not that far away. We start to win one or two of these and we'll start to win a lot more of them.
I don't think we deserved to win. We didn't earn it. They played with 2 men down from half time, was a very fair effort by them. But, I think we were a much classier outfit tonight then we have seen. Disappointed with the result, but not crushed as I have been before.
Chris Judd- 3 votes
Sorry mate, but I can't agree with you. We really did deserve to win it. They played 2 men down, but neither of them had got a kick while they were on. In half a game Pavlich got 4 possessions. It was in our interest to keep him on, good player though he is. What changed the game was when Judd got injured. He came back on, but he was severely restricted and had no impact from that point. He was BOG by far until then. I hope he can get up for next week, but I do have my doubts. Judd also showed just how important he still is to us. We got slaughtered in the ruck, yet we had more clearances and better clearances.
Unfortunately tonight also showed that we need a couple of players and a tad more composure. Even guys like Thomas, who is normally very sure, stuffed things up terribly when he needed him to hold things together. Nor was he alone. Docherty's kick on the full and Wood's kick down the middle of the ground were very ordinary. The 50 m given away by Tuohy was unnecessary.
Casboult: fair dinkum he had a shocker. Mind you, he should have been paid 2 really important marks in the action of the last quarter, either one being paid would have probably won us the game. But he had hands on concrete tonight: the ball bounced off every time.
We showed so much courage tonight that it pains me to lose, especially as we did. However, I hope the voters were able to get over their grief: I will when we pick up a better kid on Nation Draft Day. But we really showed a lot tonight, so I hope plenty of people feel they saw enough to vote realistically.
Remember: [1] At least 3 players need to get a mention. [2] No more than 10 votes for any one player. [3] Give a rating of team performance [4] Votes must add up to 15.
