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21
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 20 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Gold Coast at Marvel
Last post by LP -
We outmarked Gold Coast: we had 133 marks compared to 77. We had 11 contested marks to 5! And we barely had a tall on the ground! In perfect conditions.
I thought we hit more targets, the main reason for the differential.

I had to laugh when GC burst off the HBF, and kicked it to Dean standing in the middle of four opponents, it was like watching us!
23
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 20 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Gold Coast at Marvel
Last post by crashlander -
When it comes to raw talent, Gold Coast had so much more than us that it wasn't funny. But they play soulless, bruise-free football. We had 52 tackles to their 34, and that was much improved compared to their first half. They don't put that much pressure on; we made the mistake and they scored from turnovers, but they didn't make us make mistakes; we did that to ourselves. Nobody tackles like Talor Byrne, who ran down guys and got some reward for a change. Similar with Frankie Evans: he didn't have a huge day, but his tackles and chases got us the ball and got us goals. We had 14 tackles inside 50, they had 2.

Pitto had maybe half the taps that Moyle had, but who won the clearances? It wasn't them, even with 4 top mids available.
Patrick Cripps didn't have a humungous game, but he had 30 possessions, 8 centre clearances, 5 tackles, 15 clearances in total and 8 score involvements. When we won 22 taps to 37, with 5 to advantage compared to 13. We won the clearances 39 to 28!
Granted that Pitto makes it harder to get perfect taps, which we missed badly the last 2 weeks, but the numbers in their favour suggest they should have killed us in the middle. They did, for maybe 15 minutes in the whole game.

We outmarked Gold Coast: we had 133 marks compared to 77. We had 11 contested marks to 5! And we barely had a tall on the ground! In perfect conditions.

We even won the free kicks because we tackled with purpose. We got goals because of our pressure and more holding the balls than we've had in any 2 games this season, because we put body pressure on. That was really good!

Touk Miller used to kill us by stopping our mids and getting it himself. He had 19 possessions, but didn't hurt us at all. Instead, our mids were among our best. We kept Noah Anderson to 8 possessions after half time. He is their captain and he didn't have a single tackle!
The only Gold Coast mid who had reasonable tackle numbers was Rowell, who was their best mid by some margin. But he wasn't as effective as Cripps. Or Walsh. Or Jagga Smith, who went at 92% disposal efficiency!
25
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL 2026 Rd 18: Carlton vs Gold Coast at Carlton
Last post by crashlander -
It is nice to win because we kicked straight for a change. It usually goes the other way.
I will enjoy watching the replay.

Ben Camporeale:  30 possessions, 7 marks, 4 tackles, 6 clearances: not bad stats for the youngster.
Ollie Hollands:  28 possessions, 10 marks, 10 tackles and 2 clearances. 10 tackles is excellent for Ollie.


I hope we are looking at Liam Farrar: he kicked another 3 goals today. At the moment, he is our best hope of a score.
Sam Paea had 17 possessions, but didn't score.
Jack Ison had a quiet day. But he will be back. Just needs to get some confidence up.
For next pre-season I'd like to see him working more with the mids: he can do the job and it would get him into the play a bit more.


To be honest, Gold Coast had so much more talent out there, but still lost. Ugle-Hagan, for example. Witts, who dominated the ruck. But Gold Coast are tracking about as poorly aa side can.
26
Ladies Lounge / Re: VFLW 2026
Last post by crashlander -
Big win to the girls today, defeating Willi.

Carlton:  2 - 4 - 16   2 - 4 - 16   5 - 5 - 35   6- 6 - 42
Willi:   1 - 1 - 7   3 - 5 - 23   3 - 6 - 24   4 - 8 - 32
 
Our girls dominated possessions.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Jim Park Voting AFL Rd 20 2026 Carlton vs Gold Coast
Last post by crashlander -
Voting is as usual: you have 15 votes to award pretty much as you will, with the following provisos:
[1] 15 votes in total, no more, no less.
[2] No more than 10 votes for any one player (even Sam Walsh or Patrick Cripps)
[3] Three players at least must get a mention.
[4] A grade for the game, A+ (what I want to see) to F-.
29
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 20 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Gold Coast at Marvel
Last post by crashlander -
Rising Star Nom this week must be T Byrne!!!
Absolutely. 12 - 14 score involvements (depending on whose stats you believe), 3 goals and some great run down tackles. You couldn't want much more from a youngster (except for maybe kicking straighter all the time).

Actually, our kids were very good today. Cowan was excellent with 10 marks, most of them intercepts. Byrne we've mentioned. Billy Wilson was again good (even if he did have a couple of iffy kicks).
Lord was well below his best, but he did manage 23 possessions. He'll be a lot better next year with a proper pre-season and no injury/illness worries. Harry Dean was probably beaten on the day, but that didn't mean he wasn't significant.