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Robert Heatley Stand / AFL Rd 3 2026 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Melbourne
Last post by crashlander -
I know the AFL hate us, but the scheduling of the next few weeks is seriously diabolical.
[1] Rd #2 Bye. Then an extra long wait before our next game when we really need game time into our players.
[2] vs Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon - not bad in itself, but then we have 2 short weeks in a row, Can't they schedule us for a Saturday? Or a Friday night?
[3] Good Friday against North
[4] Thursday night against Collingwood

Do other teams get screwed around like this?

Enough rant for the moment. After our bye, we play Melbourne at 15:15 on a Sunday (29th March).
I have no idea how good Melbourne will be, but they are going to miss their stars eventually.
Gawn is too good for our rucks. I'm not sure what we can do about that.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by crashlander -
I will be looking at the replay with interest. But, looking at the highlights and the stats:
[1] Fog has to be dropped. Missing from 10 m, directly in front. Not good enough. 6 disposals, and only 1 kick, which was a shocker. 3 tackles, but Hudson O'Keefe did that.
Flynn Young to take his spot, or Frankie Evans. Both of them hit their set shots.

[2] Kicking at goal: Cripps had 3 points. Fog's miss. Simply bad football.

[3] Not running out games:
We are either not fit enough, or our game is not efficient enough, but playing a half simply isn't good enough. This is something that should have been addressed over the break, but doesn't appear to have been. Not good enough.
If we cannot play more than half a game, then we aren't going to win many games this year.

[4] Ollie Florent:
24 disposals is good, 9 Turnovers is not. Got to work on that before we play next.

[5] The ruck:
Pitto started like a house on fire, but drifted right out of the game. Nankervis getting dominance almost killed us again.
We aren't go to threaten until we get a ruck who can dominate games, or, at least, stop 'better' rucks from dominating games.
Last week it was Grundy, who had a lot of the ball and a heap of taps.
As was noted elsewhere, when we lose control of the middle, we're dead.

[6] Key defensive roles:
With Weitering a long way from his best, we struggle in this area. I gather than Young was 'crucified' by the umpires. Fair enough, I'll see it when I see it. But we should have another mature key defender, and we don't. Eventually, O'Farrell and Dean will be good key defenders, but they're both young and inexperienced. What do we do in the meantime? Young? Derkson? Derkson plays well as an interceptor.

[7] Not taking the opposition's best players out:
We don't really have a tagger at the moment, and most of our defenders are not the guys who can starve their opponents. The opposition's best players always have a picnic against us. If we are going to prosper, we need to tag good players into oblivion.
Notice Daicos: one week he is shadowed out of the game and Collingwood loses. Ross Lyon allows him to run free and they win. The lesson is crystal clear.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by MickyO -
Carroll i thought was very good. He remained composed.

I think we definitely tire ourselves out then its panic stations when it starts turning to crap.

We held on, well Lynch screwed them for us but we also missed a huge amount of gettable
Shots.

Can we please make it a thing that if you miss from Right in front, 10m
Out, youre bloody dropped! Seriously so Sick
Of that! 
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by Thryleon -
I really dont know what to make of that.

I walked away flatter than ive been in years after a win.  Is it too extreme to call it devastating?

I heard a soccer analogy the other day.  You can play over, you can play through or you can play, around.

We are being played around far too easily at times which is how teams go end to end in 3 posessions against us.

I made an observation in the 4th quarter.  We go static far too easily.  The Richmond players were always on the move. 

We carried too many again.  Elijah struggling for form and the pace of the game.

Harry fails to impose himself and is too easily brushed aside.

Kemp, did some good things had some brain fades.  Hes better back than he is forward as he isnt dangerous enough around goals. 

McGovern's a better forward than he is defending.  I felt safer with him kicking for goal than not.

Fogarty and skull do a job but we need upgrades as neither are imposing.

Ollie hollands form is terrible.  He's a worker but needs to lift. 

All in all we had an evenly pretty ordinary performance with pittonet, walsh, jagga, cripps and mcgovern leading the charge and williams put in a good shift.

A feature of the Carlton footy club has become making the easy look difficult. 

The game was begging for some composure at times in the 4th, and what became a last gasp hang on, could have been an easier 4 goal win.

The current thing im battling with is where the improvement comes from.  Haynes? Newman?  Acres?  Cotters?  Evans?  Boyd?  Im starting to see why so many are pessimistic about this season.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by ElwoodBlues1 -
Quote from: DJC – on
Some of the whipping boys did OK tonight 🙄

Zac Williams was good in defence and when he went forward.  No midfield minutes this week but Vossy must be rapt to have such a versatile player.

Lewis Young was crucified by the umpires but took some crucial marks and made some critical spoils.  It was good to see him throwing his weight around and supporting his teammates.

Mitch McGovern was good as a forward and when he went back. His work as a forward probably set up or win and his work in defence helped save the game.

Matt Carroll continued on from where he left off last season and any question marks over his selection were answered in full.

Campbell Chesser was probably the least impressive of the whipping boys but still had a decent game.




Thought Chesser was very ordinary with his  disposal but Ollie Florent was even worse with nine turnovers and  I can see why Cox
had him in the twos. When your only job is to distribute the ball he has to do better than nearly a 40 % turnover rate especially with zero tackles.
FWIW I'd suggest Acres will replace Chesser for the next game..
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by shawny -
Quote from: RiverRat – on
Quote from: crashlander – on
Positives:
Cripps: 32 possessions, 9 clearances, 3 tackles. Must be BOG

Would have been if he could kick for goal - still woeful after all these years

love crippa but like his teammates kicking skills are subpar.  reckon your being generous if you can name 5 players on our list that you would say are consistent good users by foot. So hard to watch.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by DJC -
Some of the whipping boys did OK tonight 🙄

Zac Williams was good in defence and when he went forward.  No midfield minutes this week but Vossy must be rapt to have such a versatile player.

Lewis Young was crucified by the umpires but took some crucial marks and made some critical spoils.  It was good to see him throwing his weight around and supporting his teammates.

Mitch McGovern was good as a forward and when he went back. His work as a forward probably set up or win and his work in defence helped save the game.

Matt Carroll continued on from where he left off last season and any question marks over his selection were answered in full.

Campbell Chesser was probably the least impressive of the whipping boys but still had a decent game.