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Messages - Macca37

2
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 20 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Hawthorn
We keep going down the line because too many of our players know they have average foot skills at best and lack the confidence to try to pinpoint a pass.

There were quite a number of occasions last night where a player coming out of defence with the ball would hesitate, fail to take the option of passing to a player presenting for a pass, and take the soft option of kicking down the line.

This slowed down the game and made it so easy for defenders to cover our forwards.

I am sure that many here remember the way Hawthorn, year after year at Marvel with players such as Isaac Smith , Bruest, etc, used excellent kicking  to rip us apart.

Clearly we learned nothing from those defeats.

It doesn't matter whether we have plans from A to Z if we do not have players with the necessary skills to carry them out.
4
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Mental Health/Illness Education, Empathy & Responsibility
Quote from: DJC – on
Having gone through primary and most of secondary school being mercilessly picked on because I barracked for Carlton, this period of lack of success is disappointing but not debilitating.

It must be tough for supporters who were born in the 1960s and are were used to regular success.  I think that may be harder than for supporters born in or after the 1990s ...

It's even tougher for supporters born in the late 1930s.  I missed the 1947 Grand Final because I was away on school holidays and then had to endure twenty one unsuccessful years before our 1968 premiership.  When that time is added to our lack of success this century and where the club stands today,  I do find it getting harder to maintain enthusiasm for the football club.
5
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Mental Health/Illness Education, Empathy & Responsibility
I am fast approaching Prof E's position.  With so many years of promises producing, at best, mediocrity, and with no end in sight, I have lost my passion for the game.

I now record the match.  In the unlikely event we win I can sit back and enjoy watching it.  If we lose I rely upon comments in the post game thread to let me know what happened.

The one positive I get from doing things this way is that I can keep my blood pressure under control.
6
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 10 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Sydney
At the start of the last quarter I could see, and so could the Carlton supporters around me, that the players were down mentally.

Skill levels dropped below what we had witnessed in the third quarter and we got the feeling that a number of the players had lost the belief that they could win.  Real physical effort dropped off, as did teamwork, and some players, for whatever reason, appeared to be going through the motions.
7
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 10 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Sydney
It seems to me that all an opposition coach has to do is have his backline play one on one and we have no answer.

I'm reminded of Jack Dyer's saying "You can't pull your socks up if you're not wearing any."  Maybe Voss feels that he is in that position.  The skill levels and decision making on Friday were so bad that we ran the Swans into form in the third and final quarters, so it's hard to know what part their coach played.
8
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 10 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Sydney
I have just got home after flying to Sydney on Friday to watch the game.  After reading the comments on this thread I thought I might add a few of my own.

The playing surface was in very good condition.  There was no rain, humidity or wind during the game.

In the first quarter the Swans began hesitantly and we would have been goals ahead by the end of the quarter except for the fact we have such a dysfunctional forward line.  The Swans backline played one on one and our mids and half forwards did not know what to do.  When our mids went forward with the ball, rarely did our forwards lead up but seemed content to remain static. More often than not, when they did lead it was to the pockets.Consequently, we fell back into kicking the ball long onto the heads of the forwards.

The second quarter was a repeat of the first, and we could sense the Swan's confidence and teamwork growing.  In this quarter Motlop seemed to find new ways of stuffing up.  He dropped simple marks and seemed incapable of picking up the ball, just fumbling all the time.

The third quarter reopened old wounds for supporters.  The team was dreadful.  I think it took until the eighteen minute mark before we troubled the scoreboard.  Turnovers occurred almost every time we went into attack.  On the times when we went from the halfback line through the centre we always seemed to handball to a player under pressure, or kick straight to an opponent, scrub kick the ball along the ground, collide with another team mate, hesitate before making a decision, or kick the ball on top of a forward who had two opponents.

This quarter also exposed problems on our backline.  At his best McGovern is a serviceable CHB, but on any other day he is just not up to it.  Saad has also lost form. Instead of getting the ball, outpacing opponents and delivering the ball deep into the forward line,
on Friday night he had difficulty breaking away and had to run in a semi circle before kicking the ball high into the forward line.

The last quarter was a repeat of the third, only worse.

There is no way that we are going to get into the top four with this list.  I'm sure TDK will take the money and run.

9
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Hi Baggers. I've just caught up with the last few pages of this thread and read about your operation.

All the best for a speedy recovery.  Let's hope a happy ending on Saturday will let your thoughts wander into positive territory.
10
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Lods, you mention that we dominated for a quarter.  Surely  our inability to dominate for no more than that is simply a continuation of the form that has kept us rooted to the bottom half of the ladder for so many seasons.

An excuse offered for our mediocre form over the years relates to the high number of injuries we have had each pre-season causing players to miss training and resulting in their never being able to recover their form fully during the season.  That excuse cannot be used this season.

 With the return of Silvagni and Docherty, together with new blood added to the list, supporters could be excused for expecting a performance that would give them hope for the season.

I hoped we would win, but if we did not we would at least show promise.  No wonder supporters are angry, the second half was an embarrassment.  Some of the mistakes were almost comical - what you see when people are having a kick to kick session in a park.

I know that the club is under pressure following the number of complaints from supporters. Let us hope we do not have a repeat performance this week.



11
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Lods, I hope you are right, but from where I was sitting I saw fumbles, bad handballs, mis-kicks, kicking to the opposition when under pressure and not under pressure, getting in the way of a teammate when going for a mark etc, etc.

The play was of a standard that wouldn't be tolerated by the coach of a Sunday amateur team let alone an AFL club.

The players are well rewarded and it is not unreasonable for us  to expect players to deliver  a standard  of play certainly way above the rubbish we saw on Thursday night.
12
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
The only good thing that happened to me last night was getting a train home before the Richmond mob arrived.

I agree with all the comments made so far on this thread.  After so many decades watching Carlton I knew we were in trouble half way through the second quarter.  Unlike our glory years when we would come out after half time and belt the opposition into submission by three quarter time, we once again showed the mental fragility that has been on display  every season this century.

Despite numerous coaches and hundreds of players moving through our list this century, the two things supporters can expect to happen with certainty are mental fragility and players crumbling under pressure.

I just give up.

 

13
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Several hours after this incident there was a call to Radio 693 from a woman who said that she lived a street or 2 away.

She said that water had been running from the top of the hill for several weeks, the volume similar to that from a fire hose.  In addition, she said that council had been advised of the problem on a number of occasions.
14
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
If any of Trump's threats to smaller sovereign nations come to fruition under the guise of defence of the USA, then we will enter a new phase of imperialism.

I see Trump taking the States back to the Fortress America attitude of the 30s leaving China and Russia to deal with their neighbours as they wish.

On another topic, I watched a recent Malcolm Turnbull interview relating to the AUKUS agreement.  He described the contract as the worst he had ever seen entered into by any Australian government and held the view we would never see one submarine delivered.

 One clause states that a submarine may be delivered provided the president at the time is satisfied that it is surplus to USA needs.
.
At present the US is making 1.2  submarines a year.  It needs to be making 2.4 a year to keep up with the US navy needs.  The current backlog is seventeen submarines.  To make enough submarines so that we get our first would require production to be boosted to 3.4 submarines a year.  I am not sure whether we have given 3 billion or 6 billion dollars to the US shipyards to boost production - whatever the amount Turnbull believes it's gone for good.
15
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)
If Trump goes ahead with his threat to take back the Panama Canal because it was a "bad deal", then sure ly it is reasonable for Russia to ask for the return of Alaska on the basis that receiving 2 cents per acre from the USA was also a "bad deal".

Also, under Trump's  "might is right" policy, it would be reasonable for China to take back Taiwan, and to take control of the South China Sea.

The upside for Australia is that we would not have to worry about trying to curb China's territorial ambitions in the future.