No update on Newman since 4/8, but that said 6-7 weeks, so you'd think he's still 2-3 weeks away.
i love newman, but I reckon father timr might be calling. 34 in January hasn't played much footy last 2 seasons isnt a good combo.
Yep.
Newy and Saad moved on at years end. Ollie Florent takes one spot. More time for Billy and Jeff (when his knee is right)......maybe even Ollie Hollands to take the other.
....with potentially Charleson if he doesn't get delisted as well.
Anyone seen the list of restricted items and bag rules for the NRL (Gridiron) game? Very restricted, no food or drink, no solid drink bottles, must be soft plastic and empty. No ipads, binoculars (unless small). Bags of only a small size and must be clear. Etc etc Bring in rules like this to AFL games and i hand in my membership I think.
NRL is rugby.
Gridiron is the NFL.
re ipads and binoculars.....thats because they can be used to help teams on the ground. Teams have ipads, but for pictures only, no video allowed. Showing video of how a play was run, and being able to 'draw' on the screen to illustrate such things is a valuable learning tool for teams. The binoculars is probably due to 'sign stealing' and lip reading. There's a good doco on why this is a thing and how it helps teams by 'cheating' and reading opposition plays.
You'll notice coaches calling plays to the QB via a headset, when he does so, he covers his mouth with the play card so you can't read his lips.....because people are 100% trying.
As for the food, drink and bags......not sure if thats an NFL thing, or if its a terrorist thing. I didn't have those problems when i saw NFL matches in the US. Who knows.
So half (if not more) of my extended family is geelong. Some of my closest friends are also geelong.
I spoke to all of them asking if they got tickets.
Of the 5 of the most diehard geelong members, none of them got tickets. NOT because they couldnt get tickets, no, because they didnt want tickets!
"Prefer to watch this one at home." "Got a kids sport thing i should go to."
That really bothered me. This mob has been so spoiled for success that its almost beneath them to worry about turning up to such an 'unimportant' finals match. 'We'll see the next one'
I can guarantee you that like the melbourne game, there will be a hell of a lot more carlton supporters than opposition supporters and we'll be 10 times louder too.
This means a lot more to us than it does them. Hopefully the boys feed off our energy and smash the pussycats. They dont deserve it. They dont appreciate it.
The thing here for me is that having Hayward in makes a bloke like Young better because Hayward draws opponents, the ripple effect.
But think of the benefit to Cottrell, Gov, Kemp or Byrne of having Hayward in!
Agree Haywood in does make Youngs position a little easier but reality is the weakest link has to be demoted and its Young IMO
Weakest link individually, maybe.
For team balance? Not even close.
Having Young in the team improves our forwardline.....by keeping Harry there. Improves our backline by allowing to drift back and/or cover for injuries. Improves our ruck by giving Pittonet as much rest as he needs.
We haven't played 2 rucks all year with the exception of our 1st game....and a game where Pittonet was coming back from injury.
1 ruck works for us as our 2nd ruck can't play anywhere else. Unless you are including Young as your 2nd ruck, who clearly can play someone else.......and i'd argue not really a ruck.
We managed to beat Melbourne with 1 ruck who happens to be the best ruck in the game.....ever.....if you listen to the pre-match from Melbourne....and given the AA noms, they have a point.
So why would we change that for Geelong??
Cats will beat us with their smalls (if they beat us at all), so losing one to shore up an area that doesn't need shoring up, is silly IMO.
re Hayward.....if he comes in for anyone, based on form.....it has to be Byrne. He played his worst game, potentially ever. He got the lowest player rating in a carlton jumper (4 out of 10) that i saw in a recent article. They play a very similar role.
Who else could it be? Couldn't be Ollie Hollands after his efforts. Couldn't be Cottrell who could've kicked 4 goals if the posts were slightly wider. Despite not getting a huge amount, Lord did a tagging job, which may also be required this weekend
Talk of Weitering wanting a trade, the club wanting to trade him and/or his alleged demoralising presence in our backline is just baseless "supporter" speculation.
Weitering hates losing games and one-on-one contests but he has never been one to hide his emotions when we win or when one of his teammates does well.
It was quite moving seeing Weiters and Crippa leading the team into the rooms last night
I believe the Weiters trade talk came about through those speculating that the only way we can get Cody W is to trade 'a Weitering' to get the draft picks necessary. Fuelled by the fact that in the past GW has traded 'names'. So then these cabbageheads put two and two together and come up with cottage cheese.
We'll just have to wait to find out what the club strategy is to land Cody. Buckle up.
Before all that, there was a story about north are throwing huge money at Weitering.
I agree it was a really weird game to be at and watch and we were very nervous in the first mostly across the board. Difference for me is I felt confident they would settle and win - but for a myriad of just misses/hit posts, we wouldve won by 6-8 goals! Even when it was teetering it felt like we would win not capitulate, and we didnt.
So sure, skills were lacking at times but our push forward and execution and commitment was a different Carlton outfit to the one from months ago. Just feel… more composed.
I thought despite being behind in the first, we looked like the better team. They couldn't miss, we couldn't kick straight.
I think there was a part in the second/third when they clearly looked better and we managed to ride it out without issue. From there i think we had it in the bag.
One feature of the team's improved performance after the coaching change seems to be the willingness and commitment to forwards selflessly kicking the ball back into the corridor within the forward 50 arc to set up better goal-scoring opportunities - just as well as the forwards still miss goals that they should kick.
I don't think its limited to forward 50.
Overall we are lowering the eyes and finding shorter targets and kicking the long bombs less.
I just checked to get some evidence of this and surprised myself.
R1-9 - long kicks (6th in AFL) R10+ - Long kicks (18th in afl)
R1-9 - Short kicks (13th in AFL) R10+ - Short kicks (1st in afl)
We couldn't kick to save ourselves early on which in part contributed to the long bombs, especially under pressure. Since then, with confidence growing, we are taking more 'risky' kicks and its coming off, leading to more short kick chains of possessions.
Imo, we just need to try and reduce Gawn's marking impact around the ground. Not worried about anything else he does, our mids can ruck to his hitouts.
Rediy would be blown up after the 1st quarter trying to chase Gawn around.
As MBB said, Young as 2nd ruck, specifically when Gawn goes forward is the matchup.
thats why hes an emergency on case pitto doesnt get up.
Irrespective i dont share your dire scenario and dont see the fuss.
I expect everyone to get up, so its all for nothing anyway.
But to be clear....
We are going to lose the ruck even if Pitto plays. We are going to lose the ruck by more if Riedy plays 1st ruck and he will be useless around the ground. We are going to lose the ruck by more if Young is 1st ruck, but at least Young can match it with him around the ground.
I would prefer to sacrifice the ruck completely, leaving it to Young as overall he'd be better matchup for Gawn.
We don't need Young to play on anyone else, so we don't need Reidy......at all IMO.
