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61
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 3 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Melbourne
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on
Quote from: Lods – on
There's a fair bit of deja vu associated with the Round 3 Post match thread and the same round from last year.
A lot of the same problems.

https://www.carltonsc.com/index.php?topic=7160.0

But just be a little careful with judging some of the new players at the moment.
The chief whipping boys in that thread were Haynes and Evans. ;)  :D
Evans hasnt hit the form he had late last season and Haynes is at the backend of his career and looks like its going to be a tough year with injury for him. I think we are worse than last season, at rock bottom and lucky to have one win on the board.


Evans has only played one game
Haynes hasn't played any.
But that's not the point...the point is that at the same stage last year these two were basically written off as a waste of space, but by the end of the season they would have just about been in everyones best 23.

So criticism of the new additions to the side is arguably a bit premature.
Let see how they settle.
62
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 4 2026 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs North Melbourne
Last post by rocky -
Dean (injured) out Derksen in - Just a bit of height and weight. Thought he was good pre-season
Chesser (omitted) out Ben Campo in - Crash said he was OK in the VFL and that's better than what Chesser is producing
O'Keeffe (omitted) out Cottrell in (maybe underdone)  - H to relieve Pitto when required.
Williams (injured) out Flynn Young in - Been kicking goals
Kemp (omitted) out Moir in - Not setting the football world alight in the VFL but can only be as good as Kemp who is putrid at the moment
63
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 3 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Melbourne
Last post by ElwoodBlues1 -
Quote from: Lods – on
There's a fair bit of deja vu associated with the Round 3 Post match thread and the same round from last year.
A lot of the same problems.

https://www.carltonsc.com/index.php?topic=7160.0

But just be a little careful with judging some of the new players at the moment.
The chief whipping boys in that thread were Haynes and Evans. ;)  :D
Evans hasnt hit the form he had late last season and Haynes is at the backend of his career and looks like its going to be a tough year with injury for him. I think we are worse than last season, at rock bottom and lucky to have one win on the board.
64
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL Rd 2 2026 Carlton vs Williamstown
Last post by crashlander -
Looking at the replay of the game you can really see some things:
[1] The new ruck rules have really disadvantaged us. Mirkov really dominated because he isn't just tall, he's got a huge leap. He could rarely use it with the old rules. He really gave the Willi mids an armchair ride.

[2] We can't develop players for nuts!
The two players that stood out to me were Parks and Mirkov. Mirkov is a different player with the current rules and it showed in his confidence. He did much better in this game than in any game for us.
Parks played such a negative role when he played for us that he barely got a kick. He is taking marks, and getting close to 20 possessions a week as a defender. Why didn't we see this?
I could mention Cam Polson, but he didn't play yesterday.

[3] Our VFL side is seriously short:
Willi had three guys who were seriously tall. Preuss took marks, Mirkov dominated the ruck and Fullerton took marks.
We didn't have a defender to go with them. Derkson got out-marked quite a lot, but he was 10 cm shorter than Preuss and 13 cm less than Mirkov.
Nor did we have a tall target to kick to. Harvey wasn't on the ground that much and provided nothing much.
Then again, we got very few centre breaks. We actually scored from most of the ones we got.
With Paea and Phillips under injury clouds, we lacked strength and height.

[4] Ben Campo got a fair bit of ball, but he didn't stop his man getting it. Nor did he provide a lot of drive from the centre. It wasn't easy to do when Willi had such a dominance in the ruck.
Lucas, on the other hand, was probably the least effective that I've seen him. He just couldn't get into the game and was about 10 possessions down from his average.

[5] Our game plan reminded me of the 1's: kick it along the line and hope to win a contest, which we didn't.

[6] Cottrell played a half only. He wasn't bad, but he needed the run.
Acres played a half and was less effective. He is still struggling with his shoulder.
Ison did some nice things, but needed to be more involved.
Moir was similar, but the way we delivered the ball into the forward line didn't make it easy for them.

[7] We don't lead:
Our forwards don't lead. We don't make leading lanes. We don't honour the few leads that are made. Our forward line is just so stagnant that it really irritates me.

[8] Disposal:
Our disposal, even at this level, simply isn't good enough. Even good kicks m8issed targets.

Overall, I was really disappointed. You could tell that we needed the run. Willi had already played and it showed.
In the end, we were unlucky, even though Moir's last shot was particularly difficult. But, if we could hit a target, it might not have been.
67
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL Rd 2 2026 Carlton vs Williamstown
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: kruddler – on
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on

Do we need to drop one of Cripps or Hewett  to play BenC as a midfielder?
Do we need to?
Yes.

Will we?
No

So how about this....
Out: HOK.
In: Ben C.

Cripps to FF and changing in the ruck.

That way we have another option at FF....and one that can actually wrestle.
We can play him as a ruck and have 4 mids in the middle.
We give exposure to Ben C in the process.

Yep
Ben C needs to be given an opportunity and there's probably no better time.
Move Cripps to the forward line, give him license to create a bit of havoc and hope that players like Byrne and Evans can capitalise on it.