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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by Lods -I'm not feeling as negative as some...
Lots of suggestions for things to fix.
Areas where we need to be better.
Many are valid.
The run on goals was still there last night.
Improvements aren't going to come all at one time.
So we should take the little improvements where they come.
In the bigger scheme of things we were comfortably beaten by a better team.
But we weren't disgraced and played a team who...
Were on their home turf...one were we usually struggle.
Were minor premiers in 2025
Have beaten Collingwood
Lost to the Western Bulldogs by the current ladder leader by 6 points
Lost to Geelong, last years grand finalist by 8 points
Lost to Fremantle currently sitting 4th by 2 points.
They may not have been winning games but they're matching it with the best.
We matched them for large portions of the game
Were actually better for periods of the game...missing our key defender.
We lost the game in about ten minutes of the 'usual' lapse, but kept fighting.
The rain may have helped, but well into the last quarter we were competitive (in the play, if not on the scoreboard) so I suspect it's not the 'fitness' issue some suggested.
Not happy to lose.
But I thought there was enough improvement there that will be the 'theme' of the week, rather than the 'coach sacking' talk.
Honorable loss time again
Nah
I don't think I've ever used that term.
A loss is a loss.
It's particularly harder when you've predicted we'll match or exceed our 2025 ladder position.
But you take the "little bit betters" when you can.
Because a few weeks of 'little bit better' and you end up with much better.
What we can't afford and what some expected was a massive drubbing.
Watch the media his week.
It will still be Voss under pressure but there will also be talk of some positives. Things that if we fix up, may set us on the path to actually winning a few games.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by shawny -They 'complained' about the umpiring last week.
That may be the trick.
We should take our 'diary' to the AFL this week.
On another point...did anyone else notice we tried the old "over the head not looking handball" a few times last night.
This is another pet hate of our current list and club.
We are too nice and too honest to play the game like the better teams do to maximize results and give us any edge. Examples of last night, Tex gets hit in the back in a marking contest and flops holding his head and sucks the umpiring into a 50. Adel player handballs into the shin of our player on the boundary and forces a free. Its within the current rules and not something we would ever think to do.
Our forwards never exaggerate any pressures, any push/shove to the back to help the umpire see it they just hope the umpires pick it up.
The umpiring last night was very poor yet we never complain like other coaches in post match pressers. If the umpiring last night was against a Hardwick, C Scott, Nicks, etc coached team it would be raised strongly and clearly in the presser. Not us we cope it on the chin and move on to next weeks upcoming loss.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by LordLucifer -"To be honest with you, it just came down to wanting a different midfield mix," Adams said on Triple M before the game.
"Clearly, we've been beaten in second halves of late, whether that's been contest and spread, we feel like we need to mix it up with getting different guys in there with quicker feet at times to see if that works for us.
"I don't think, in particular, the George Hewett one will have much to do with our ball movement.
"It's more contest to contest, the ability for our guys to cover the ground. Just getting those guys with the big tanks and the ability with their fast feet to get contest to contest.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by shawny -I'm not feeling as negative as some...
Lots of suggestions for things to fix.
Areas where we need to be better.
Many are valid.
The run on goals was still there last night.
Improvements aren't going to come all at one time.
So we should take the little improvements where they come.
In the bigger scheme of things we were comfortably beaten by a better team.
But we weren't disgraced and played a team who...
Were on their home turf...one were we usually struggle.
Were minor premiers in 2025
Have beaten Collingwood
Lost to the Western Bulldogs by the current ladder leader by 6 points
Lost to Geelong, last years grand finalist by 8 points
Lost to Fremantle currently sitting 4th by 2 points.
They may not have been winning games but they're matching it with the best.
We matched them for large portions of the game
Were actually better for periods of the game...missing our key defender.
We lost the game in about ten minutes of the 'usual' lapse, but kept fighting.
The rain may have helped, but well into the last quarter we were competitive (in the play, if not on the scoreboard) so I suspect it's not the 'fitness' issue some suggested.
Not happy to lose.
But I thought there was enough improvement there that will be the 'theme' of the week, rather than the 'coach sacking' talk.
Honorable loss time again
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by LP -On another point...did anyone else notice we tried the old "over the head not looking handball" a few times last night.
There were plenty of them from both sides, and it's pot luck, it's not a good tactic if you are slower than your opponent because every wayward disposal becomes a foot race that you can never win.
The bulk of the AFL now basically dispose of the footy by brushing a knuckle against the pill as they throw it away. We hate it, but I can see why the AFL have made it this way, because handball by the "ye old definition" was basically a roadblock for female participation in the AFLW.
In that regard you might as well just permit a throw like the many we saw last night.
You have to laugh about the commentary saying the umpires have become lenient because of the weather, but that lenience only extended to one team. Three weeks in a row we've seen opponents take possession, run 2 or 3 steps to be tackled like Tex last night, like Uniacke the week before, and our players have not been rewarded. We can't even blame it on being obscured by traffic, because it's happened in the clear, full view of multiple umpires, players, fans and commentators.
One thing from last night, there is no point our blokes trying to run off stoppages, they aren't fast enough, and absorbing the tackle drawing in the tacklers just screws up our disposal efficiency. Dawson showed what guys like Cripps, Kemp, McGovern and Cerra need to be doing more of to the smaller / lighter opponents instead of towing them around the field like backpacks.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by Lods -That may be the trick.
We should take our 'diary' to the AFL this week.
On another point...did anyone else notice we tried the old "over the head not looking handball" a few times last night.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by LP -If Hary got the same umpiring that Tex does (he umpires, not the umpires) he'd be a bazillion times more effective.
Tex is a cheat and has gotten away with it forever.
Nothing on the broadcast about how Derksen ended up on the deck well off the footy holding his guts with Tex the only other player within 25m.
Cripps tugs on an opponent in the midfield and gets pinged, at one stage he attacked the footy being held by three opponents and it was play on or worse still holding the ball even though he was being held before he took possession like that one in the goal square, more than once actually it's a regular event.
If we want a damning criticism of our players and / or coaches, it would be given we are a slower than average list, where are all the blocks and shepherds for each other, they are invisible! We regularly see Harry flying against 2 or 3, of course he doesn't mark you can't be expected to mark in that circumstance, but he brings the ball to ground and we still have less numbers at the fall of the footy. We regularly see Cripps battling 2 or 3 opponents on the inside, but we do not have the numbers on the outside of the stoppage. Something is very very wrong.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by LP -But this isn't a problem of players or coaches it's a problem of umpiring, the AFL have made the rules and the implementation / interpretation of the rules so complicated the game is now basically impossible to officiate without shooting yourself in the foot.
The only concern I have is why it seems so lopsided from a Carlton perspective, but it probably makes sense, because we have a list built to play a completely different version of the game to what the AFL currently offers, the game our list is built to play no longer exists. As a result we probably serve up more opportunities for it all to go wrong!
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 5 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Adelaide
Last post by Professer E -Tex is a cheat and has gotten away with it forever.