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91
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 18 2026 Pre Game Predictions Carlton vs Hawthorn at MCG
Last post by laj -
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on
Hawks had their weakest team in for the year with 4-5 players I havent seen play so they were ripe to lose.
Id be expecting a rebound after the poor loss to Melbourne but Id be wanting to see the teams first before I make a prediction... 
Interesting with the Hawks having 5 blokes out. A good side needs to cover better than that. We did in 2023 and alot of 2024 without absolute heaps out. West Coast won a flag in 2018 with 6 of their best out. Hawks want to hope they get their players back and get few injuries for the rest of the year. I thought we were looking at a 130 to 140pt defeat until the Hawks made up 73 points in just over the equivalent of a qtr of footy when the game was well over. Have to be one of the biggest drops in deficit ever, and still lost by 6 goals. Hawthorn and Essendon came back from from 63 and 69 pts once, late 90s and 2001, and won by a few goals, so they might be bigger, but they won.
92
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: Shakin77 – on
Quote from: crashlander – on
[4] Ollie Hollands: Ollie really struggled last night. He fumbled a lot and his kicking was woeful. Also, we didn't see his run and carry either.
Will we bring Acres in? Or do we assume Ollie will be better for the run? To be honest, I don't expect Ollie to be that ordinary two weeks in a row, but I think Acres is important to us.

Not suggesting for a moment that Ollie was one of our best, but he played on the wing in front of me mostly against Retschko.

He works incredibly hard pushing back as that defensive winger (Acres also very good at this) and had 17.1 metres covered.   The most on the ground of any player on the ground.   Seth Campbell with 14.9 and Newman with 14.2

I thought his game was fairly unremarkable.     He had 1 clanger for the game and 0 turnovers.   He also went at 84.6% with the ball and 77.8% by foot.

Would love to know what the coaches thought of his game

I'm a fan of OH, but i found that selection a bit puzzling.

What did OH provide that Acres wasn't providing already?
Did OH do anything better than Acres?

Long term, sure, get more games into Ollie.....but i thought it was a bit of a risk and a slap in the face to Acres.
I would've had both in the team and dropped Ison personally.
93
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by laj -
Quote from: PaulP – on
By rights we should all be doing cartwheels, given we've just notched our 7th consecutive win. That’s pretty rare for any team. But last night has left us feeling flat. The gap between our best and worst is large, and the struggling teams are able to drag us down to their level. We won’t get within 10 goals of Hawthorn if we have a repeat of last night.
As we've found, our form goes up and down according to the level of the opposition. It was the same against Essendon, then we won the next game well against GWS in Sydney, and a 53pt win last week.

I feel more confident beating a side like Freo more easily than beating Richmond. Not to say we would but I'd feel more confident in it.

Looked like last night we were content to do enough and no more then a couple of nasty umpiring decisions caused us real issues suddenly late in the game.
94
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL 2026 Rd 15: Carlton vs Richmond at Carlton
Last post by LP -
We have to get fair dinkum about the KPP / Ruck types, I think this continual attempt to convert rucks to be KPFs is a dead end. HOK and Riley are clearly rucks, the ruck role comes natural to them, I thought HOK was better at the follow up efforts than Riley. I was impressed by Riley's contested marking yesterday, that is what you want to see, blokes his size dropping into space and filling gaps and actually clunking marks.

The difference between Harry and other converted KPFs, is that even when the disposal and decision making turns crap up the field Harry is still effective at drawing the focus, the part timers only become useful and effective when they are directed into the right spaces by the kicker.
95
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by Baggers -
Quote from: Shakin77 – on
Quote from: crashlander – on
[4] Ollie Hollands: Ollie really struggled last night. He fumbled a lot and his kicking was woeful. Also, we didn't see his run and carry either.
Will we bring Acres in? Or do we assume Ollie will be better for the run? To be honest, I don't expect Ollie to be that ordinary two weeks in a row, but I think Acres is important to us.

Not suggesting for a moment that Ollie was one of our best, but he played on the wing in front of me mostly against Retschko.

He works incredibly hard pushing back as that defensive winger (Acres also very good at this) and had 17.1 metres covered.   The most on the ground of any player on the ground.   Seth Campbell with 14.9 and Newman with 14.2

I thought his game was fairly unremarkable.     He had 1 clanger for the game and 0 turnovers.   He also went at 84.6% with the ball and 77.8% by foot.

Would love to know what the coaches thought of his game



No-one could or would ever question Ollie's work rate. It makes him a sentimental favourite with many fans. Personally, I also love his commitment and endeavour.

Stats don't tell us the quality of his disposals, choice of options or footy IQ. Statistically, Acres had almost three times the metres gained in his game against the Weagles last week. And in a territory gained game, that's an important stat... provided disposal accuracy and choice of options hurt the opposition.
96
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by LP -
OH just gets whipped by fans for pushing hard and getting to the contest, then under fatigue much like Acres disposal can be variable, but they are running themselves into the ground to get to the contest.

You don't see this disposal variability from other players, because they didn't push hard to get there in the first place, and the opposition had a free uncontested possession. Acres, OH, Cottrell, when they are on automatic they close the gaps.

Of course many fans ball watch, so they don't ever see the lead up effort.

FWIW. My criticism of Acres last week wasn't about his effort, he always works hard to get to the contest. My criticism was he was a bit variable on contesting, to me there should be no choice, no hesitation, contesting should be automatic and instantaneous. Especially a player of Acres size and shape, he's no lightweight frame. Maybe he is still not 100%, as I think was Cripps last night.
97
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond
Last post by Shakin77 -
Quote from: crashlander – on
[4] Ollie Hollands: Ollie really struggled last night. He fumbled a lot and his kicking was woeful. Also, we didn't see his run and carry either.
Will we bring Acres in? Or do we assume Ollie will be better for the run? To be honest, I don't expect Ollie to be that ordinary two weeks in a row, but I think Acres is important to us.

Not suggesting for a moment that Ollie was one of our best, but he played on the wing in front of me mostly against Retschko.

He works incredibly hard pushing back as that defensive winger (Acres also very good at this) and had 17.1 metres covered.   The most on the ground of any player on the ground.   Seth Campbell with 14.9 and Newman with 14.2

I thought his game was fairly unremarkable.     He had 1 clanger for the game and 0 turnovers.   He also went at 84.6% with the ball and 77.8% by foot.

Would love to know what the coaches thought of his game

98
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL 2026 Rd 15: Carlton vs Richmond at Carlton
Last post by crashlander -
Watching the replay was instructive, especially as I didn't have to abuse the TV.

[1] We still lack talls. However ...
I was much happier with Matt Duffy and Dane Harvey this week. Between them they kept the Richmond forwards almost possession-less, and unlike last night, they had no help from the weather. Harvey had 14 possessions and 7 marks, while Duffy had 7 possessions and 2 marks, but it was how they defended that pleased me. Duffy also ran much more effectively than he has been in recent weeks. He looks much better as a defender.

And then there was Sam Paea, who took the mark of the day and had 14 possessions and 7 marks as a key forward. Not a huge game, perhaps, but he looked dangerous.

For 3 quarters we didn't move the ball well into the forward line, which helped Richmond's defence no end.

[2] Liam Farrar:
Liam kicked 3 and was within a cm of having 4, all after half time. He has a good pair of hands and kicked straight for a change. I think he would be worth giving a train-on spot. Not that he couldn't do more, but he is a goal kicker.

[3] Ashton Moir:
Ashton has a bit of the early Fev about him; not doing enough of the things when he doesn't have the ball. Well, he moved up-ground a bit and had 18 possessions and 8 marks. But the thing I like was the run down tackle: I don't remember him doing that before. He wasn't close, he worked hard and got the reward. Once Fev realized that, he was reasonable at it. I hope Moir can do the same.

[4] Hudson O'Keefe:
HOK had a very ordinary game as a forward, struggling to get a possession. he had 8 possessions and 2 marks, but gave away a few frees and a 50. Things just didn't go well for him, which is a real worry.
However, his ruck work impressed me more than it has for most of the year. he didn't get a lot of time on ball; we clearly are working on Riley. However, it was his leap that impressed me, something we haven't seen enough of in recent times.
Have we limited his progression by bringing in guys like Reidy? Maybe. But he has always been a ruckman first.

[5] Flynn Riley:
Clearly the best ruckman on the ground, some of his ruckwork was brilliant. We got goals because of his taps. He had 17 possessions, which was better than 18 Richmond players(!) and took a couple of excellent marks.
he must have read my comments from a couple of weeks back, as he has been much more engaged in general play since then.
I think we can afford to bring Riley into the seniors, as we should be getting Reidy back from injury.

[6] Our VFL players stepped up:
During our run of losses, you could easily lay the blame at the feet of our senior players, who didn't do as much as we would hope. But one of the less obvious issues we had was that our VFL cadre were off the game as well. Sammartino fell out of form and then was injured: his last 2 weeks have been like we saw early in the season. Prout wasn't huge, but he is doing his job: he was down as well. Liam Farrar has come in and not kicked straight. Now he is kicking better, our forward structure doesn't look as dysfunctional. Darcy Hogg had probably his worst couple of weeks in our colours, but yesterday he was back to his best. Harvey had been ordinary for a few weeks; he was excellent yesterday. Paea has been a decent inclusion. Tucker: well, he has missed most of the season with injury. His return has given us a much more effective midfield mix.
Cookson and Gresham didn't have a lot of game time, but both did important things at important times.
It is important that our VFL guys make an impression if we are to win with our structural issues, which are much easier to see at VFL level. Hopefully, we can find some key position types in this years draft.