Carlton Supporters Club

Best game I can recall ever seeing from Levi. Big H will be an absolute star imo. Moves and acts like one already, full of assured confidence. That's star quality imo.

Won't say too much as I risk sounding like Cliff from Clematis, but I was talking to an old footy-going acquaintance who I sat next to yesterday. He's attending more games again this year, having been missing for a while. He has a connection with the club through an iconic Carlton figure. Reckons the possibility of letting Murph go at the end of last year was considered but rejected. A major factor he said was that it would have been a very bad look for the club. Anyway, take that for what it is - I cannot verify it but the guy who told me is not a trivial character.
What I noticed yesterday was that the new era midfield is now starting to emerge with the younger guys rapidly becoming its core. Murph added value without doubt, and probably will for rest of the year, but it is clear now that his era has passed.

The then-Carlton skipper had read the article [by Bob Murphy and published 27 June 2018]and thought it had some merit. He told the ex-player he enjoyed the read but what he did not tell Bob was that he had already made the decision to remain a Blue before the article was written.

"I had a look at it knowing I had made that decision. I bumped into him and we had a brief chat about it," Murphy said.

"I couldn't tell him at the time that I had signed but I told him I enjoyed the article."

CARLTON

What a difference a week makes. This time last week, Brendon Bolton looked doomed. Now the pressure has been released somewhat after a stunning performance on Easter Sunday. And it wasn’t just the win, it was how they won. They were rarely challenged by the Western Bulldogs — and they recorded three digits for the first time in 60 games.

IN THE VOTES

If Patrick Cripps isn’t leading the Brownlow Medal after five rounds, he will be in the top handful after he produced another brilliant display on Sunday. He will face a challenge from Sam Petrevski-Seton after he played the game of his life at Marvel Stadium, amassing 35 disposals and seven clearances. Liam Jones fired down back again, completely shutting out Aaron Naughton, while Marc Murphy has a new lease on life since relinquishing the captaincy. And then there is Harry McKay who booted an equal career-high four goals and marked everything that came in his direction

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Imagine when the Blues get Charlie Curnow up and running. The young gun was a late withdrawal after injuring his knee again at training on Thursday, paving the way for Levi Casboult to come back in and kick three goals. Brendon Bolton didn’t miss Curnow on Sunday, but when he builds cohesion with McKay and new recruit Mitch McGovern, the Blues are going to have a formidable attack.

THE MAGOOS

The Northern Blues pulled off a three point win over Collingwood on Saturday, with Matt Kennedy (22 disposals) one of their best. Young gun Liam Stocker had 19 touches, while Pat Kerr booted three goals from 12 touches.

GRADE

A

Love to agree, Fluffy One but he dropped too many sitters. Liked his game but have to realise that he had a lot of v.g. delivery and many opportunities and could have and should have kicked 5.

Love to agree, Fluffy One but he dropped too many sitters. Liked his game but have to realise that he had a lot of v.g. delivery and many opportunities and could have and should have kicked 5.

He had a great game up forward and around the ground. The only issue was the 10-15 min patch in the 3rd qtr where he couldn't catch a cold and dropped a few he shouldn't have. That may be confidence.  Still, we showed you can get away with alot up forward if the ball is brought in quick and efficiently. We are at the stage where we could think about Charlie playing midfield, where he generally played as an u18. We have plenty of forward depth, with McKay, McGovern, Kerr and Levi.

No he didn’t!

Charlie played as a key defender, ruckman or key forward at TAC level, but not in the midfield.

Charlie’s great strength is his marking, why would you give that to add a less than agile tall to our midfield mix?

Not what Terry Wallace was saying this morning. He said he saw alot of him playing u18 midfield saying that's where he played most often with only some time up forward.

Charlie endured a lot of setbacks during 2015, beginning with knee and quadricep injuries during the pre-season, and a dislocated kneecap that sidelined him for 12 weeks. As a result, he missed playing in the Under-18 National Championships and for a while it seemed that he wouldn’t play again that year. However, his determination got him back on the field for the Falcons’ final five TAC Cup games. After impressive efforts in defence or in the ruck earlier in the year, he was sent forward on his return and kicked 13 goals, averaging 12 disposals and six marks per game.

I could also see a Tom Lynch linkman type role for Charlie. Many of Lynch's marks are taken out in the open rather than big pack marks. I think Charlie would be worth trying in that role and on his best form also has the finishing power.

it finally clicked.

this is what we've been very patiently waiting for.  will it take hold for a while or will we be back in the wilderness for a while longer yet?

i liked the 4 quarters of proper football.  went quick and slow at the right times.  hit targets. took the game on when we had the pill and applied good pressure when we didn't.

i suspect very little has changed in the game plan, but the boys decided to be men this week.

when they get some more continuity and game time together, AND if the lads keep that resolve they played with, then we can expect to see some good footy for a good number of years.

it's just one win i know, but it was the way the youngsters stepped up and delivered the win that i liked.

It was great to see the win (albeit today, having recorded the game).  I did hear a snippet on the radio as I had to go home to get the ice cream I forgot for lunch!  The bit on the radio was in the third, we were 5 goals up, which reduced to three.  Parkin and the other commentator were particularly harsh on a couple of errors that we made during that time, making it sound as if we were going to let another one go.

The couple of periods where we lost some momentum seemed to me to be when Kreuzer was having a breather. We seemed to get done at the clearances and that's where they have been damaging this year.