Ready for the game. Hope it delivers our first win.
Love the optimism Crash ;)
Fargum, Go Blues.
Time to start. Let's see if today's game can get some of the negativity out of the site.
Casboult running under the ball, and we've missed two targets by hand and one by foot in just 90s of play!
Buckley traps the ball, takes a run kicks it straight to Fyfe!
Love seeing two blues point the finger at each other as the ball bounces between them.
They have almost doubled our possession count and have kicked 3 points to our 0. Not the sort of start we required.
Apparently Ballantyne has some sort of injury.
7 minutes in and we just kicked our first score: a point to Gibbs.
Freo kick to Carlton's numbers and still win the ball!
11 minutes and the possessions have evened up. Murphy has 6, Gibbs has 5.
FFS, was that 11 possessions within 30m~40m of goal without a single player wanting to take the shot?
The whole game is a ""FFS" so far. that's half a qtr of my life I'll never get back.
Lamb gets a point. Murphy has 9 possessions. Another point: score level.
Must be a chance here of a totally goaless game between the 2 sides....lol.
Is the Tankers Cup in Rnd 5 2016?
Point to Murphy. It might be a goalless quarter the way it is going. Point to Buckley: we doubled our lead. :(
Kiss of death: Crozier got a goal. :(
Jones will beg to go back to the NBs at qtr time...lol.
FMD two clear hands in the contest and punching the ball, FFS!
Are they AFL players or U9s?
Ballantyne takes a cheap shot as usual!
This game makes me sad.
Possessions back to Freo by 30.
Murphy's 11 possessions have been 1 kick and 10 handballs. Now 2 kicks and 13 handballs.
Daisy Thomas has a goal! :)
Great work by Casboult to start that goal set up.
FFS, hit a target by hand, how much do these blokes earn?
Wish I'd seen it. 2 points to Freo: scores level.
Then comes Jed Lamb with a goal! :)
Murphy is having strong game so far.
Goal to Fyffe. :(
Murphy usually does, but a lot of Carlton supporters suffer Murphy Blindness.
The two big offenders so far are Kerridge and Buckley. Pointless getting possessions if you miss targets or deliver the ball to the opponents.
Kreuzer and Phillips doing OK but we are still losing the clearances, must be the ruckmens fault! Hint, hint, Freo smashing us in contested possessions despite Murphy leading the stats for contested footy. Fans need to look elsewhere.
Fast game, Cripps not effective again so far, cannot keep up!
One of the worst games of AFL since Fitzroy folded.
A poor standard game so far, Freo have certainly slipped.
Murphy having a ripper but we sure make hard work of everything we do, Buckley not giving the easy goal to Thomas was shocking.
We still can't take a mark inside 50.
Quarter time and scores are level.
Carlton 2 - 5 17
Freo 2 - 5 - 17
Our possession efficiency is less than 50%, but their's is not a lot better.
Kerridge 10 possessions, Gibbs 9.
Freo push all players onto the ball and in defense.
Leads to a choked mess.
Combine that with some of the worst players in AFL history and you get this.
If we could just carry the ball more instead of kicking long to nobody and have a modest increase in disposal efficiency we're a chance - mainly because they're trying hard to be even worse!
Reckon dockers will come out better in this quarter though.
Missed goals may prove fatal! Same old problem but we're having a red hot go.
Probably right: the NBs get the ball in quickly and well enough that a lead actually works sometimes.
We lead the clearances 11-8
Gibbs got another point. At least it is a lead.
Goal to Freo. :(
Shocking miss by gibbs. Another one.
We've smashed them in the ruck at least 3 to 1 but are consistently losing the advantage, so that must be a ruckmens problem! ;)
Tell Buckley about Joe the Goose, then tell him he's the goose!
Been doing it for years. They tried more attacking footy the first 4 rounds, but they couldn't make it work. So it's back to the same old Ross Lyon crap.
That's enough of those lead statements Crash, you're killing us!
Wright getting busy good to see!
Freo moving the ball too easy after a lot of Carlton hard work.
Goal to Wright.
Wright. Gibbs, Kerrdige and Simpson all have 11 possessions. Murphy hasn't had one this quarter yet.
I've been saying to get Jaksch in. Now i'd put him in defence as right now it should be considered a criminal offence to force anyone to play key forward for Carlton, especially a young bloke finding his`way....lol
They'll win a handful of games this year if they revert to the old slow but cannot win a final using those tactics. Good teams will rip them a new one! The 10m rule means their slow leg speed cannot deal with quick play on teams that hit targets.
We don't hit targets.
I've been the Kiss of Death so far.
Goal to Sutcliffe. We are still about 30 possessions behind. 15 minutes in and Murphy still hasn't had a possession.
Lachie Neale has overtaken him with 15.
You're forgiven, we are into euthanasia Nitschke must be our new club doctor!
Wish we had a guy like Walters - explosive, can take speccies, goal sneak. Hmmm ... Wonder if that guy at the Crows is available ...
Weets - brilliant roll, gather and perfect handball. Just like a mid.
7 point lead to Freo: a match high lead. We are about 50 possessions behind, but still ahead in forward 50s and taps.
Chain of handballs into the clear then the reverse into trouble, WTF are we thinking?
Poor kicking is the problem, nobody wants the responsibility to hit the target.
Gibbs simply DNGAF
Any chance of Touhy spoiling a ball above his eyeline?
Not a defender's butt hole.
Freo have won 6 of the last 8 clearances, with Neale and Fyffe getting a lot of the ball. They are now 8 points ahead. :(
Charlie! He and Weets are giving us a reason to keep going ...
The Liam Jones stage fright has returned!
Wright is a ripper.
Point to Ed Curnow before baby brother shows him where the goals are. Down by a point.
Still over 40 possessions behind, but Cripps, Murphy, Gibbs, Simmo and Kerrdige getting a lot of the ball.
Jones is giving us a contest at FF and bringing the ball to ground. If he has the stamina to keep it up, he'll earn his pay check this week.
13 contested possessions to Cripps, easily the best on the ground. Wright has 6, which is 2nd best on the ground.
Points still coming.
The rucks resting forward bring the ball to ground just about 100% of the time but it doesn't help us. We need blokes the size of Jones and Casboult taking marks and kicking goals.
Gibbs - the worst 14 possession half ever. Fumbles, shirking the contest and missed an easy goal. I'm pretty sure I even saw him actually run away from a contest and behind a shepherd at one point.
If someone had've said we'd be leading Freo at half time at Subi 6 weeks ago I'd have been ecstatic thinking how much we have come on. Time unfortunately changes alot of things.
Jones is such a bad football player. Utterly clueless.
Forget about playing him ever again. Why is he there instead of Jaksch?
Brendon Bolton has got a lot to answer for. I've had a gutfull of his SH#T already. Horrific decision to play Jones. HORRIFIC.
Ruck setup a disaster AGAIN!
Slaughtering them in the ruck and can't get a clearance. Why worry about filming documentaries when you can't get a basic coaching decision right.
Wright's a pleasant surprise. Can find the ball and is a good set shot at goal. Kerridge is a bit of a beast in close.
Fyfe injured makes a massive difference to Cripps, he's main opposition has gone south.
Listening to the call on ABC radio via the AFL website. One point lead at half time. One can see why these teams are 17th and 18th. Shocking stuff.
As long as he can "hand the ball" to a team-mate and not have to handball or kick. Lets hope it improves over time.
Who's going to take a mark in our forward line. I'd be begging to go back to the NB's if I was Jones.
We are having a go and playing with great intensity. But if we don't take our chances, it will be all for nothing other than Bolton will be able to say at the presser, "I thought our effort was great".
Gibbs gets half a million a year and can't kick a goal from 35 metres out under no pressure. Sumner misses from directly in front. Let's blame the grass, say the commentators.
Our ruckmen continue to hit the ball directly to the opposition. We miss targets when we handball. We have got no one to kick it to on the fast break from the backline. They pick Jones to play up forward. Put him up there and leave him there no matter what. Touhey has deteriorated beyond belief. Not that he was ever a great player. Cieren Bierne kill's him for pace and skill and has started 6 years behind him. Kerridge goes in, but kicks terribly when he gets it. Can kick 50-60 metres easily, yet instead of concentrating on having his shot at goal, looked to give it off. Then runs out and far to close to the man on the mark and obviously pulls the kick which goes post high and lands in the crowd, so distance was never a problem. just the lack of responsibility and concentration to have a real crack at kicking the goal.
Cripps starting to come into the game.
When Buckley, dropped the easy mark against the dogs that might just have made the game interesting, it said it all for me. Yes, I know. He loves Carlton etc etc would die for the club, heard it all. BUT he lacks concentration and awareness. That non pass to Thomas said it all. And Simpson. Just a stupid brainless selfish act to a protected player, cost a certain goal.
Wright doing a very good job.
I counted 4 times when we got the ball out and kicked to a vacant forward line. I was at the Swans game and saw it happen time and again, and it was sickening to watch the hard work done to get it out of the back line, only to see the ball come back in. No wonder the players can't run out a full game. They expend so much energy running up and down the ground, because there is absolutely no plan for when we get the ball out and go forward, from the fast break and turnover.
Curnow, Weitering, the real future of our club. Curnow just needs to be harder when tackling.
Gibbs fumbles a beautiful hand pass from Cripps because he's a gutless pr!ck who was more worried about getting hit so he raised his eyes to see what was coming before he actually had the ball.
Obviously, as a Carlton supporter, I'm concentrating on our team, but if I was a Freo supporter, I would be suicidal that my team had deteriorated so much in the space of 6 months.
Just a word about Levi.
Surely the coaches at Carlton must have picked up on the fact that when he kicks for goal, his kicks ALWAYS fade from left to right. Why hasn't he been told to ALWAYS aim at the left goal post to allow for that.
The game is there to be won.
GO BLUES
The episode that inspired my comment was a pass to Jones which went well over his head, leaving his opponent in the box seat. Jones pushed back aggressively and got a hand in. Most big guys would have been happy to just bitch about the pass and man the mark.
Sheer guts and hard work might get us over the line here, it certainly won't be skill.
Probably the worst game of football I've seen in five years.
Docherty very good again, barring injury he'll play 200 games for us.
Half Time:
Blues 4 - 9 - 33
Freo 4 - 8 - 32
Goals to Wright. Thomas, Lamb and Charlie Curnow.
Possessions: Kerridge 16, Simpson 16, Cripps 15, Wright 14, Gibbs 14, Murphy 14
Only 1 possession that quarter to Murphy. On the other hand the other smalls stepped up.
Phillips and Kreuzer winning the taps well, but clearances are close: we don't get value for our taps.
Simpson's disposals have been poor, barely 50 % efficient. But he is getting the ball.
Hopefully Shadesy gives us a 1/2 time report, watching on TV always leaves the assessments a bit distorted.
Fair enough, but isn't that just expected from a bloke who is almost 200cm and 100kg?
A good shepherd in the square as well, but forwards need to get involved, get their hands on the ball and hit the scoreboard and these things seem to be beyond Jones at senior level.
Give Jones his due today. All talls are expected to make a contest when out of position but many fail to do so. At least Jones is living up to expectations atm.
Our guys come in 2 categories: ball magnets and those with barely a possession. We really have a lot of guys who have barely touched the ball, no matter how well they are actually playing:
Weitering: 5 possessions
Buckey: 4 possessions
Rowe: 4 possessions
Jones: 1 possession
Plowman: 4 possessions (all in the first 10 minutes).
Tuohy: 4 possessions
Docherty: 5 possessions
Phillips: 1 possession
Kreuzer: 3 possessions
Byrne: 7 possessions.
Lamb: 3 possessions
Sumner: 6 possessions
Charlie Curnow: 6 possessions.
Too many!
It's close to one of the worst 10 games all time but i'll take any win right now if we happen to fluke it.
Agree on Docherty.
Generally, attitude has so much to do with good disposal. Freo were great at using the ball last year, but the same players couldn't hit the side of a barn door from point blank range right now.
I agree, Jones does seem to be working around the ground pretty hard. But let's face it, he hasn't had a lot of opportunity to really show more especially in the second quarter.
Kreuzer also looks better with more time on the ball and is putting pressure on the dockers mids at the stoppages.
Wouldn't mind seeing C Curnow on the ball as well to work into the game more.
Hope the coaches pull Tuohy, Buckley and Gibbs aside and tell them they'll be in the twos next week if they keep this up.
I know Mav, and I understand that position, if he was a 19 or 20 year old I'd be saying something to work with there. If that was Jack Silvagni give him a gold star for effort.
But Jones and Casboult are 25 and 26 years old respectively been in the system 7 or 8 years, hardened AFL bodies with years of coaching invested in them. They don't get a pass for doing the bare basics, it's expected.
Is he? Fyffe still has 15 possessions. But then, Freo have almost 50 more possessions than we have.
Let's also remember that Freo hasn't lost its defensive skills. The recent failure of the more attacking gameplan has led Lyon to double down on defence, playing loose defenders and the like. Life is pretty tough for our forwards, particularly as the I50s aren't great.
We have managed 3 - 4 - 22 from intercepts in the forward 50! That means we have generated 5 points directly.
Freo have got nothing from intercepts so far.
Third Quarter underway. Thomas gets a goal.
Radio suggesting Fyfe is done for the day.
I'd love to see both of them do really well, just want to see them attack the contest, use their height and abilities. I'm not watching the game just listening on the radio and the commentators are very critical of Jones and his lack of impact on the game.
I wouldn't send a young player to play key forward on our forward line in a fit. It would destroy them for good. I'd play Jaksch in defence watching this as he'd never develop anything on our forward line. Plugger would struggle on our forward line. Casboult has at least touched it 9 times and set up our first goal.
That poor long bomb to Jones in deep F50 says it all. Jones was had 2 defenders to deal with and the delivery favoured them. He tried to get some body on them and gave away the free but that was as much as any forward could have done.
freo have massive problems between the ears.
Fyfe out.. We need to capitalise.. must win game now!!!
Gonna have to beat 21 to win this. It is actually in Freo's interest to drop this... Would light a fire under Lyon.
Hmmm ... 5.10. If we lose, won't have to look far for reasons. Ed Curnow's miss was terrible.
If we can't kick it near him, then there isn't a lot he can do about it. The way Freo defends, there isn't a lot of space for a guy who is trying to lead, unless we get some decent centre breaks. That we are not doing.
For all that, I am sure Fev would have got his hands on the ball more than Jones has, but Jones has demonstrated well enough that a 2nd Fev he isn't.
Half way through the quarter and 1 goal has been kicked.
This is frustrating.. it is right there for the taking on a silver platter!!
Glad to read from folks that are actually watching the game that Jones is doing his best in a difficult situation re Freo's negativity. The Jones that I've seen in the NBs this year is one that does persist.. and eventually get good reward for effort. Hopefully the reward is coming...
The radio commentators keep referring to both teams constantly having to stream forward once a mark is taken. Are both teams flooding ?
And Daisy just kicked a goal.
Byrne is killing me..
Thomas has his 3rd goal! He hasn't had a big game, but 3 goals is a huge effort considering.
Damn Walters!
Jones finally took a sliding mark in front of goal but the boundary umpire called back play as Buckley kicked it outside the boundary.
Jones has had 2 handballs this quarter.
Way to give them the confidence going in to the last.. thats 2 bloody goals we have given them on separate occasions before the siren
We are getting crucified >:(
Curses! Those pesky umps just waiting for their chance to ping us!! Gives the lead back to the Dickers. >:(
Our ruckmen have had 6 possessions and 2 marks between them. Casboult's been essentially playing up and around the ground and has 13, more than double the two rucks put together. May as well ruck him from now on.
2 points behind at 3/4 time. :(
Carlton 6 - 10 - 46
Freo 6 - 12 - 48
They goaled 5 seconds before 3/4 time.:(
Goals: Thomas 3, Wright 1, Lamb 1, Charlie Curnow 1
Possessions:
Simmo 23, Kerrdige 23, Cripps 22, Murphy 21, Gibbs 21, Wright 20
That free against Kerridge was there. Unlucky, yes. But once the ball spilled, Kerridge shouldn't have taken him to ground.
9 free to us, 12 to Freo, but we got only 1 that quarter. Reminds me of last week!
Last quarter underway.
Crozier's fly was spectacular!
Effort won't beat us in this game. we don't ;lack any.
What will beat us, is the Ed Curnows missing from 30 out directly in front, lack of concentration by our blokes, and more than that, poor thinking like Cripps when he kicked to one of our smalls against two tall Freo players.
Curnows hand balling in close, along with Rowes is disgraceful.
And today we have seen , at least in my opinion, a the birth of a coming champion for our club, Cierene Bierne. ( excuse the spelling.)
WTF was Casboult thinking! So selfish ...
Casboult should be dropped on that alone
Wtf is Casboult thinking.. absolutely selfish.
What Levi did then not thinking and hand balling, is exactly the point that I made.
Their rucks got into the play more that quarter. Casboult is having an influence, but he just doesn't kick goals.
I thought he'd been reasonably good but that was a shocking decision on his part.
Get the boy off! Byrne is concussed.
That is jones career summed up!
And that's why Liam Jones should never get another game.
Bolton is trying to get players to play unselfish team football.
That was the opposite, especially considering his goal kicking prowess, and thus the miss.
Send him back to the 2's and it won't happen again.
Lets see if he can redeem himself
Timing. It's everything ...
The AFL should fine both teams for bringing the game into disrepute.
OK he's back in my team ;) ;) ;)
Cripps didn't have a centre clearance in the 3rd: they got on top of him a bit. But he is still getting the pill.
Point to Jones. :(
I just can't get this post posted!
Goal to Jones! At Last.
But we are now being beaten in the clearances. Neale is getting too much ball.
Jones just got himself another game :D
Why can Levi find a target in general play but can't kick a goal ???
How about Cripp's side-step!
This is the most ridiculous game I have ever seen.
My daughter just made a first: she wished Jones would kick another goal!
Casboult's having a good game bar his goalkicking. Enjoying playing further up the ground. Has touched it 16 times
And again with Cripps - an outside-foot volley to a team mate in a stoppage. Amazing for a 194cm guy.
Now i'm wishing he kicks another goal too.
Murph goal.
We were coming back: down just 22 possessions, but then Freo ruin it by kicking a goal.
Goal to Murphy!
They could be our main competition for draft picks.
This is a bit like basketball. Forgettable 3 quarters but a ball-buster of a last quarter.
Just watched Kerridge side step two tackles. Not good enough And I have had it with him looking to hand ball every time he gets the ball, most of the time to a player under pressure.
Weeters possibly injured ?
YAY Kerridge kicked and we get the ball
THe 500000 man to have a shot
Write the man a cheque!!!!!!
Come on!!!!
Has anyone counted the clearences. I reckon they have killed us.
4 points now.
10 points up! No, 4 point. :(
Shouldn't be a long q
Wow Jones!
Horrible turnover - 10 points now.
Deliberate OOB against Murph..............
final siren
Booyakasha
The ugliest 4 points in history.
EAD Carrots
THat was also the ,most biased pro Freo commentary ever!!!!
Not that I'm complaining now
Radio commentary is pretty non-partisan
Blue win!
At this point nothing like a win irrespective of how it happens.
If someone said that 6 weeks ago that we'd beat Freo in Perth you'd be ecstatic thinking we were on a good year. Alot happens in 6 weeks..lol.
Isn't this the sort of thing that got carrots banned ?
Probably, and let's not have any more of it. Time to move threads, people. Party time!