Yes, details matter. The VSC came too early for him to suit his strategy.
The VSC came too late for Russell, Norris and Antonelli to suit their strategy, they had only just pitted.
If the VSC happened a few laps later Hamilton might have already pitted and would have lost the advantage, it was lucky and there is nothing else to say about it but it doesn't detract from Hamilton's good drive or Ferrari's better strategy.
Giants have exactly the type of game style that bothers us the most - slingshot footy with big run off halfback. We will need some significant plans for Whitfield and Ash, and hopefully Weiters is back to take care of Hogan.
I don't want to sound pessimistic, but this week is a big ask......
In the past Hogan has done well against us, but that might have been in the absence of Newman, and now we have Dean, Cowan and Newman all in reasonable form, it should make a difference if we stick with the team first ethic.
Our biggest problem this week might be Briggs, he pretty much bullied TDK and Marshall yesterday, made the pair of them irrelevant. We won't want Harry spending too much time as Briggs' opponent as he likes to hurt people.
He was catching at 1.5 seconds a lap for most of it.
Detail matters, the last few laps before Russell and Antonelli pitted, which they did just before the VSC, Hamilton had stopped gaining ground and was only able to hold station.
Some might argue that was a tactic, but I doubt Hamilton would voluntarily cease the chase for anyone!
I'd assert Mercedes had already decided the Ferrari strategy was going to win the day, because they were telling Russell and Antonelli to race Norris who had already pitted and was 25 second behind Hamilton. But make no mistake, the VSC made a huge difference because without it those laps that saw Hamilton build a lead would have been instead laps helping him close a gap to the leaders. He would have had Russell, Antonelli and Norris to pass as after the pit stops only 5 second separated all three.
Hamilton had the race in hand and the VSC helped, but wasn't needed.
The VSC let him pit and retain the lead, so of course it made a difference!
If there was no VSC he would have surrendered the lead returning a full 10 seconds behind Russell and Antonelli.
The Ferrari looks to be quite good in turbulence and when the track suits, most cars suffer when following but they are able to hold and close without too much trouble, as long as they don't crash or break.
I think it's no accident that the coached dropped some of the old school who probably wore too many battle scars to shake off the stigma of not being good enough, we had a unified team, and a team that was full of kids who did not know they were supposed to have an honourable loss.
I hope the tossers suggesting we tank to get high draft picks take notice!
Imagine if or when Nestory gets fit enough to play 90 minutes?
Good win for Ferrari and Hamilton, they identified an opportunity existed using an alternate strategy, and the safety car played into their hands with about a third of the race remaining. A strategic win, but Hamilton still had to drive well to put himself in that position and to get across the line.
Interestingly, I think the race hinted at some weakness in the Mercedes, and I have to wonder if opponents will be able to exploit this. They just could not stay with Hamilton lap after lap and were forced into management, even by the 1/2-way mark when they were still leading Mercedes told the drivers they were in a race with Norris not Hamilton, as Hamilton was slicing his way through the field.
Strategically, it was the best race I've seen all season, I hope it persists.
The best way to do that may be for the club to give Vossy the credit that's due and move on. Of course, that could draw more attention to the club's amateurish handling of Vossy's resignation.
They can't avoid the controversy now, they backed themself into a corner, either way rocks are being gathered up with any trivial excuse to throw them.
What the club needs to think about is not so much time trying to explain and justify the past, the more they try to justify decisions the stupider they look.
It needs to focus on the future and how to move forward without shooting itself in the foot again!
Too many fans think giving credit where it is due is some sort of first step in back peddling, that's just a foolish assumption they make. There is no going back, but you have to learn from mistakes to go forward, and the first step is learning not denial.
Of course, things can work the other way as well, for example exonerating some for the mistakes of the past simply because they are past favourites, that can be a mistake too, a mistake we currently see being made at CheatsFC.
Interesting that Jagga Smith still felt the need to credit Vossy for win in his post match interview.
I wonder if the club will put a stop to that.
When clubs try to rewrite history is usually when they fall off the shelf.
They need to control the narrative, but in the process they must not ostracise the talent. The smart thing to do is for the club to shut down the ridiculous media and fan commentary by recognising the Voss contribution. Otherwise it will end up with egg on it's face yet again, and further disgruntled players wanting to move!
As a club to make genuine progress we must stop the rinse and repeat, and further to that we must stop acting like Cortés and burning our ships every time we make change. Why can't we have a Carlton that has good will with those who have contributed in the past?
On Fraser's comments, I had wondered if he really doesn't want to the job, because tactically his comments about Voss basically put him at loggerheads with the club Admin.
Ever since I started watching AFL I thought the game, which at times is a great spectacle, was over umpired. I know that there are long established traditions but I think that a deep review to significantly lessen umpire involvement and intervention could be very beneficial for the game. I’ll probably get crucified now by the traditionalists! 🤪
I think they could easily go back to one umpire, and bring in heavier MRP review and penalties for infringements.
Sure, I get that one umpire might miss a lot, but I'm not sure that makes things worse.
If the MRP penalties for sneaky crap were heavy enough, the game would self-regulate.
I watch a lot of Ammo and local footy, most games only have 2 umpires, and they move the footy as fast as the AFL. Only two umpires is not a big deal, and in the local footy the umpires are not fit and do not get regular Ad breaks to recover!
Going back to 2 umpires cuts away 50% of the variability, and to me variability is the biggest frustration.
I'm not saying only two umpires per game, but perhaps just two umpires on the ground at any one time would be a big improvement. Why can't umpires interchange the way players interchange?
Glial cell tumours pop up anywhere nerve cells occur, it's a pretty broad category and the big current problem is that there is no effective treatment for Glioma of any type.
My understanding it gets labelled glioblastoma multiforme because several neuroglial cell types can all be affected together in one glioma. Unlike tumors in other areas of the body not much progress has been made in treating tumors based in nerve cells, or even knowing why they occur, there doesn't even seem to be a strong hypothesis regarding the reservoir.
And that brings me to Dean and Derksen. I was concerned about going in with two inexperienced key defenders but they were fine. Having Haynes, Newey and Florent to organise the defence is a big help.
I know Florent has become a whipping boy for some fans, but he keeps doing the right things at the right moment.
More than once Florent was the one intercepting the CheatsFC attempts to go through the corridor, he left his direct opponent and took the risk for the team and it paid off. Furthermore, in the first half when much of the team appeared to be on holiday he seemed to be making an effort, effective or not, and it kept us in the game.
I can't say the umpiring made much difference either way, but it was contributing the low quality game. Sometimes having all those umpires just seems to make things murkier!
