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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL Rd 3 2026 Carlton vs North Melbourne at Arden St.
Last post by crashlander -[1] Reidy won't be the answer. He had the ruck craft to deal with the leapers that North have in Goad and Dawson, but they will be the future (unless the rules change again). When they have some experience, they'll use their jump.
On the other hand, his work around the ground wasn't bad at all. He showed a fair bit in that regard.
He isn't going to be the ruck that helps us back to the top.
On the other hand, he should play more senior footy. Looking at his incident, I strongly doubt he'll be suspended. It was a tad crude, but it simply wasn't bad. We had so many things done to us that were worse for nothing, let alone a fine.
[2] O'Keefe was very ordinary in the first half, but better afterwards. His ruck work, on the other hand, has gone backwards as he doesn't have the leap or the strength. Maybe he can make a forward, but even that is looking shaky.
[3] North's run started in defence. Their small defenders had huge numbers, but our small forwards didn't seem to bother with them.
[4] North's game style is similar to their senior style, and it makes more sense than ours does. When we kicked long down the line, we turned the ball over, as we didn't have the marking targets.
[5] One of the North guys, Tarrant, got 4 goals because we didn't have a defender to match him.
On the other hand, Nick Haynes did a brilliant job on Whitlock. Harvey also tried hard and did a reasonable negative job, but neither of them provided much drive.
Unfortunately, Phillips' apparent defection to St. Kilda and Paea's injury really hurt us. We have not key position types from the AFL side, let alone the VFL side.
One positive: if Phillips is gone, we should be able to select someone to replace him. Hopefully, we're smart enough to get a KP player.
[6] I was disappointed with Ben Camporeale. North's mids were much quicker and he found it hard to match them. That appears to be the future, which we have not addressed.
[7] North wanted it more than we did. Their desperation and our inability to hit targets were probably the difference. Sound familiar? It was.
[8] Charleson started poorly, but after the first ten minutes, he wasn't bad. He, at least, has some pace.
Wilson was similar, and his run was good. He also has real depth with his kicking now he's using it.
[9] Cottrell and Chesser are a long way off where they need to be. Very disappointing. Still, we know that Cottrell can produce; he just seems to take a long time to get form after an injury.
[10] Flynn Young played like Brad Pearce. He must play next week.
If Moir can find some intensity ... but we've thought this before.
[11] Monahan spent a lot of time on the bench with a hip complaint. But he has disappointed so far. he looked so much more impressive in the pre-season. On the other hand, his disposals usually hit the target.
My conclusions:
We are structurally a mess and are unlikely to win unless we can address that.
Most of the guys who showed something last years haven't made any progress. Some have gone backwards.
Our game style is awful. There is no run, no speed on the ball movement. We kick down the line to packs.
I wonder how many of these guys will be here at the end in 2027?
