Thilthorpe had a pretty ordinary game but still had twice as many disposals, twice as many marks and double his supercoach score. Harry was poor last night.
Thilthorpe was paid marks for attempts that were less than what H was called to play on for, multiple times one of them at the top of the goal square was seconds after the very same mark had been denied to H on the wing, and that's not counting the chest mark Thilthorpe was paid that basically come off the ruckmen's fingers, yet no Review. In the end even BT became embarrassed about it which forced him to later utter his "umpires have become lenient" remark, and BT hates us with a passion, he was probably holding back a giggle as he said it. I think at one stage, I can't recall if it was Fox or 7 because I've watched one live and the other as a replay, said something like "They better hurry up and kick before the review happens."
btw., I thought the AFL was supposed to be reviewing the whole scoring chain in 2026!
Nothing but silence on Haynes taking the footy in the air over the boundary line, goal Crows, imagine if that had happened to Pendles or Dangerflog, it would be front page news.
None of this is a conscious decision being made by anyone, it's the result of subconscious anticipation of events, and we're fostering that environment.
Not as bad as Florent who had another 7 turnovers and is the leading turnover merchant in the comp. His disposal is killing us and we got sold a lemon by the Swans...
I know he had two bad clangers at critical times, but 7 turnovers isn't a genuine thing, I think you are exposing some bias.
Even if he did he was far from our worst, I'd be more focussed on the spectators than the blokes winning the footy and not using it. For example, Boyd went into full terrier mode, running around the back of the big dogs barking like a goalkeeper snapping at heels from behind, while leaving SF opponents free to snap goals from front and square roving. You know front and square, the basics, the very same thing absent from H's contests at the other end!
If we had Rankine and Rachele do we think they'd be absent from the front and square on H?
For me this started years ago, fans and media turned Charlie into a hero for being Joe the Goose and snapping cheap goals off the back of the pack, now we have an entire list of forwards who all think they can do the same!
I think his resilience is underated given the way he continues to front up with the numpties "delivering" the ball to him.
Our running HBFs and BPs miss targets on barely legal kick lengths kicking form the open when the target is 5m in the clear, and we miss 35m targets by 5m on running disposals.
Our opponents kick better than that from inside stoppages.
Harry was better in the last term but he was close to worst on ground for the first 3 quarters.
Sorry, but he wasn't out marked once that I can recall, and was continually flying against 2 or 3 opponents in non-ideal conditions for KPPs.
In terms of game impact the difference between H and Thilthorpe wasn't that great on the night, but Thilthorpe had below average opponents and mates blocking for him to get a free run at every opportunity. In that respect, Young didn't do such a bad job and most of our blokes got stuck one on one. Furthermore, give H someone like Tex to work besides and the scenario changes dramatically.
Well if it's good enough for the AFL to sign off burying your knee into Weeter's head in an "marking attempt" it continues to upset me that our big blokes are too nice to dish a bit back. Coming back into or holding onto the likes of Harry should be at your own risk Kemp is a passenger ATM and I'd play F Young to add more run and crumb.
We need one KPP who is a complete mongrel, which is why I suggested May, just one completely changes the opposition headspace, they hear footsteps instead of freely attacking the footy.
Cameron does it for Geelong, King for the Aints, Andrews for the Lions, Larkey and Zurharr for Norp, Nankervis for Nthmond, etc., etc., nothing too illegal just brutal.
I thought H was good and don't get the criticism. He attacked the contest and often did his job, but he must work on taking one grab marks.
I don't think there is general criticism or negativity of H, but for someone his size he isn't the physical threatening presence you normally expect, like Cameron or King. You won't find a KPD being walked off concussed from one of H's big knees in the back of the head, but he competes and wins or draws fair contests, we as a team do not take advantage of that.
There is something to be said about becoming a team that is difficult to play against, I'm not sure that we are.
Cripps is continually getting pinged for high contact, opponents basically burrow their head into him and he's got no hope of avoiding the contact that happens.
I'd coach him and Pitto to stride forward lifting his knees higher in the stoppages, if small opponents want to draw that type of contact make it come at a price, but I don't think Cripps is the type, Pitto might have a crack though!
Some see that as a no win scenario, quid pro quo, but you only have to create it once or twice and the hesitation becomes institutional in every game except the GF.
Last night from late in the 1st and early in the 2nd, the Crows surrendered the front spot in the midfield and basically started the momentum shift by forcing turnovers from whoever we had on the spot. Our natural tendency is to try and pick up the footy, and when we turn it over we try and tackle to create the holding the ball free. It's pointless because the circumstance doesn't suit our list, especially if we can't be clean, and when tackled opponents drop the footy cold on their terms to favour their team, and it often becomes a foot race into any available free space, which more often than not we lose.
I'd be surrendering the front position, and instead of tackling I'd be training to knock the footy free in the tackle on our terms rather than allowing the opponents to drop it on their terms. Don't trap it, but don't let it favour the opposition either, make it a contest that favours the bigger, slower, heavier bodies that expect the ball to be on the ground.
Haynes back, if he can stay on the park, will make a huge difference when Weiters returns, assuming we can get Weiters, Haynes and Newman all out there together, at least for this season. I think there will be many changes next round.
Walsh gets better every game, a good sign for a bloke who has just earned a hefty long-term term deal, he is far from putting his cue in the rack.
Our midfield at the moment is Cripps, Walsh >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> whoever. We need to find them genuine support so they have some longevity, in each game and in their remaining career.
Kemp is going nowhere as a F50 target, he's unnatural at it and consequently predictable, Cripps is much the same. They have a role as a pinch hitter, but not in perpetuity. Moving Gov into D50 to try and stop the bleeding comes with too high of a price, we have no release valve when Harry is solo. Harry is effective on the aerobic scale, but he's not a physically intimidating type other than his height, and he's a terrible wet weather mark for someone with such a clear reach advantage. Even so nobody is going to outmark him, so where in the hell were the guys who are meant to be crumbing?
Fans complain about our kicking to contests in F50, but there is a reason for it. So often it is a contest because we are predictable and every opponent knows the ball is going 9 out of 10 entries, the opposition are there in the zone waiting. It won't ever change until we see players creating space in F50, and we use those options, and that will be hard for us as a team because we are nearly always slower than the opposition. Ainsworth is a ray of hope, he's capable.
As a group we have such a lack of physical presence that we do not even mark when we have a 2 on 1 in our favour, a couple of times you saw two Carlton players at the fall of the ball, in the clear free of opponents, yet punch the footy! Who's talking, how can this be, where is the teamwork?
I'd give up on Kemp in F50, he should perhaps have midfield time just as a chop out for Cripps, if for nothing else but to have a role in stalling the momentum swings. Hayward might also be useful, but I do expect Hewett to return.
@Thryleon good post, much of what I've been staying for a while now, I'm glad it's not just me that sees it.
For me even Gov goes to ground too easily.
The tell for me is most of our blokes get up and play on in the absence of further treatment, it's a Carlton pandemic and a further sign of headspace issues, a lack of physical resilience brought on by a lack of mental resilience. Pavlov's Dogs, but are they naturally so or is this a creation of our own doing?
On another point...did anyone else notice we tried the old "over the head not looking handball" a few times last night.
You mean the throws.
There were plenty of them from both sides, and it's pot luck, it's not a good tactic if you are slower than your opponent because every wayward disposal becomes a foot race that you can never win.
The bulk of the AFL now basically dispose of the footy by brushing a knuckle against the pill as they throw it away. We hate it, but I can see why the AFL have made it this way, because handball by the "ye old definition" was basically a roadblock for female participation in the AFLW.
In that regard you might as well just permit a throw like the many we saw last night.
You have to laugh about the commentary saying the umpires have become lenient because of the weather, but that lenience only extended to one team. Three weeks in a row we've seen opponents take possession, run 2 or 3 steps to be tackled like Tex last night, like Uniacke the week before, and our players have not been rewarded. We can't even blame it on being obscured by traffic, because it's happened in the clear, full view of multiple umpires, players, fans and commentators.
One thing from last night, there is no point our blokes trying to run off stoppages, they aren't fast enough, and absorbing the tackle drawing in the tacklers just screws up our disposal efficiency. Dawson showed what guys like Cripps, Kemp, McGovern and Cerra need to be doing more of to the smaller / lighter opponents instead of towing them around the field like backpacks.
If Hary got the same umpiring that Tex does (he umpires, not the umpires) he'd be a bazillion times more effective. Tex is a cheat and has gotten away with it forever.
When Cripps tried to enter a contest like Tex, by pushing his opponent forward into the pack, Cripps got pinged.
Nothing on the broadcast about how Derksen ended up on the deck well off the footy holding his guts with Tex the only other player within 25m.
Cripps tugs on an opponent in the midfield and gets pinged, at one stage he attacked the footy being held by three opponents and it was play on or worse still holding the ball even though he was being held before he took possession like that one in the goal square, more than once actually it's a regular event.
If we want a damning criticism of our players and / or coaches, it would be given we are a slower than average list, where are all the blocks and shepherds for each other, they are invisible! We regularly see Harry flying against 2 or 3, of course he doesn't mark you can't be expected to mark in that circumstance, but he brings the ball to ground and we still have less numbers at the fall of the footy. We regularly see Cripps battling 2 or 3 opponents on the inside, but we do not have the numbers on the outside of the stoppage. Something is very very wrong.
I'm shocked by fans being shocked about the growing lasso abomination, like the AFL coaches and players were never going to bend this rule to the extreme! What we are seeing is the difference between the part-time semi-amateur AFLW result of this implementation and the fulltime AFL version, in my opinion it was inevitable and I warned as much last year.
But this isn't a problem of players or coaches it's a problem of umpiring, the AFL have made the rules and the implementation / interpretation of the rules so complicated the game is now basically impossible to officiate without shooting yourself in the foot.
The only concern I have is why it seems so lopsided from a Carlton perspective, but it probably makes sense, because we have a list built to play a completely different version of the game to what the AFL currently offers, the game our list is built to play no longer exists. As a result we probably serve up more opportunities for it all to go wrong!
So the fans calling for Cripps head now complain about him being benched. He wasn't even out there and it's still somehow his fault!
Cornes and others implied he would be dropped if he wasn't the captain, then they effectively begged for him to have 100% game time, stop listening to the media they are full of crap.
9 minutes of the alternatives and nothing to say about them.
I suspect it showed the true Cripps problem, without him the rest are overrated.
