Another Friday night game, starting at 19:40. We'll be on TV.
Sydney aren't travelling well, but we don't all that often either.
Do we have enough fit players to make the line-up for this game?
Will we manage to field a side?🙄
The Spine should be fine. TDK looks tired af.
Sydney being flogged by the Drug Cheats. :o :o
This is a great opportunity for us, if only because of the Swans significant injury toll. According to the AFL website, Amartey, Cunningham, Gulden, Papley, are all out for the next few weeks, Melican suspended, Adams, McDonald and Mills are listed as tests / TBC.
The problem is we've been in these positions before and failed miserably to such an extent where we actually assist the opposition in playing themselves into form. I have no confidence in any game this year.
Agree Rocky but at some farken point, that cycle needs to be broken, lets hope its now.
syd gave ess 38 pts and could have won game ,quick ball movement WORRY
Spot on Pew, that's how they'll get us and probably the only way.
It's our archille's heal.
Also, Dean Cox is no Horse yet, he and the players still getting used to one another.
Cox has about nine senior players out and some good ones so Id be wanting to bank this game and take advantage of our opportunity to win away where we have found it difficult over the journey.
Agree that Cox is no horse, more of a pony in training and his coaching has come under criticism of late for poor body language, screaming at players on the bench and putting his head in his hands.
Perfect opportunity for us to give him something else to scream about, nail an important victory and really get us back on track, this is a very winnable game imo.
winnable game ,swans have players missing and we won last week ,this only means 1 thing in Carlton land , I HOPE NOT
The HS reckon we have the easiest draw, I reckon there is no such thing (at least as far as Carlton is concerned).Every week is an elimination final now. With 14 games to to go we need to win alot of them to make finals and this one is a must given the circumstances.
I wouldn't give much credence to any "journalism" coming from that rag, may as well be called "bomberblitz" or "black & white united".
Apart from the lack of objectivity from the Hun as the Prof pointed out, the evenness and unpredictability of the competition makes it very hard to claim easier or harder draws.
The only real draw inequalities are frequency of interstate travel and short breaks between games … not that clubs shouldn’t have worked out how to deal with those.
The bottom line is that we have to keep winning, regardless of who we’re playing, when and where we’re playing, and what players are unavailable.
Based on last season (previous seasons are similar), 13 wins is the minimum for finals, 14 wins you should be comfortably ensconced in the top 8, and 15+ is top 4. Based on that, we need another 9 wins minimum, from our remaining 14. There isn't a lot of margin for error. Not impossible, but a tall order for sure.
We do get North and WC twice and the last 3 weeks are all in Melb.
We travel interstate 4 times, twice to Perth, once to Adelaide and Sydney this week. There is no margin for error.
Ask Brisbane about North 😇
Take any team for granted and you’ll pay the price.
For whatever quirky reason, we have 3 'hoodoo' sides/ground. Croweaters, Aints and the Fluffy Ducks at the SCG.
If we're to get the chocolates Friday night we'd better approach this game as a final... and factor-in, heavily, the SCG and its unique dimensions. This assignment has many similarities to the Croweaters game. Just for starters, more will depend on defenders than usual. They'll need to adapt and adjust to this ground and be looking for quick movement out of defence, avoid the wings, and move the aggott through the middle - quickly and with precision.
Personally, I have way more concerns about this game than the previous 3 weeks.
I'm spewing we didn't get Melbourne in the first 6 rounds. Their form was putrid.
Gws similar although they turned it around against the cats.
Throw in the Qld sides as well...
Given our current ladder position, even if we do make the eight we will probably have to travel interstate at some stage of the finals.
We're not a great 'away' team.
Sydney are depleted at the moment.
We have to win games like this one.
And how's the Filth travel arrangements? I think they only travel twice.
Three times if you include Marvel. ::)
As an aside.
This is an example of the AFL shooting itself in the foot.
The Filth have convinced the AFL that the Filth doesn't travel because crowds won't go to Filth games travelling away from Melbourne. So they argue it's "better for everybody" if the Filth stay in Melbourne and share large gates with visiting teams.
But if you think deeply about that logic there are a bunch of contradictions in terms of growing the game nationally, even without pulling apart the concept of "sharing"!
Also one of the ugly truths for the Filth, Carlton holds the bigger national supporter base and also rates higher in national broadcasts. When confronted with this the Filth tend to take the MAGA approach, buts behind the scenes it sticks and it burns. FWIW, I've heard the Filth difference / deficit in national appeal is primarily driven by the prison bar conflict between the Filth and Port Adelaide scuppering it's chances of closing the gap. A couple of years ago the Filth were also caught out quoting survey results that showed the prison bars as the leading brand symbol in the land, except they had included Port Adelaide's contribution to this result.
Is this really a fair whinge you guys are having?
They've already gone to:
GWS up north.
Freo at Optus,
Brisbane at the Gabba
Sydney for Gather round in Adelaide.
Theyll go to Gold Coast later on in the year, and
Adelaide at Adelaide.
Aside from playing west coast at home (better they dont get an away bye against them too) and Port Adelaide in Adelaide (one match against last years top 6 side, which was at the G and Pies home game), where else would it be fair for them to play again?
Given the spread of interstate teams you either travel early or you travel late, or you spread your travel out. Usually you see a run of melbourne games coincide with shorter breaks between matches.
Each Melbourne based team will only realistically play roughly 8 true away games if the fixture works against them.
Ours this year:
Gather round was a home game vs West Coast (dismiss this, everyone goes to gather round, be it home or away).
We travelled to Adelaide against Adelaide.
We are going to Sydney this week against the Swans.
We play west coast in Perth round 14 is the next true travelling game.
Port in Adelaide round 16
Freo in perth round 21
We have dodged Queensland altogether this year.
You can only hope for an equitable amount of travel. The pies have managed to get most of it in prior to round 10, and had they lost most of those games this conversation would be very different. Instead, they have managed to win, and win well.
The way I see it, we will go interstate 6 times, and they will go 6 this year. Hardly "grossly unfair" particularly with us not even touching one of the Northern states although we are travelling to Perth twice which is arguably more difficult due to time differences and jet lag. You can only hope for a longer turnaround on the back of that travel.
I might have rants, that more designed to set the record straight as opposed to expecting any change. I gravely doubt it would be economically viable to force a balanced competition. But we shouldn't accept some of the claims of privilege based on a false premise.
Personally, I trust Cook. AFL is not fair, never was and never will be! :o
syd v car dont care about anything else this week " 1 week at the time "
Bit of talk around in a few different places that we have a few sore...TDK mentioned.
As is often the case it might be rumours feeding off one another.
Watch this space
Tom looked pretty sharp in the training footage … but so did Gov and he’s a test.
Star Blue in doubt is the headline on the news going to the commercial with footage of TDK.
Watch it not be him lol.
It had to be. :(
So who replaces TDK now that he has been officially ruled out? Pitto is also doubtful isn't he? Might have to be Youngy and H.
More than happy for O’Keeffe to get a shot if Pitto is unavailable. Think he's improved since the first day I saw him run around.
I would be rapt for the young fella if he could debut. At some point, he will have to step into the ruck role when TDK leaves. I think he is made of the right stuff.
Voss confirmed Pitto will play
Exactly why i said you don't pay him the money he is being talked about.
He can't stay fit.
Never played a full season.
Its a shame, but it is what it is.
Haynes was pretty good last week, has been good for a few weeks in a row now, usually playing the Aints is one of his bogey sides but he's corrected that last week without doubt.
I don't want to jinx him, but I'm keen to see what he can do against the Swans, he often has better games against them.
A knock to the throat could happen to anyone
You're distracted from the bigger puzzle, how can it be we have blokes like Ed Curnow, Plowman and TDK ( I think there may have been others too! ) being ruled out of games from knocks to the throat, never having received a free kick?
I post this in context of frequently seeing umpires ignore Cripps being hit head high at stoppages just because he has to bend in half to reach the ground ball! I suppose they think he's ducking, put that in your Jack Higgins and smoke it!
As Vossy said, Pitto comes in for De Koning, and Matt Carroll and Jordan Boyd come in for Acres and Cowan.
Don’t mind the ins but I’m not that happy with the outs. It is what it is!
I suspect the MC is beginning to grow up. The sentimentalist on the panel would have loved Doc to return. Love Doc the person, but the Doc the player has reached that inevitable place where deep thought is required in relation to his playing career.
I don’t think that we’ve seen the last of Doc, but he has a way to go before he earns a recall.
Our line-up:
B: [4] Oliver Hollands [23] Jacob Weitering [42] Adam Saad
HB: [26] Nick Haynes [11] Mitch McGovern [1] Jack Silvagni
C: [20] Elijah Hollands [9] Patrick Cripps [25] Jaxon Binns
HF: [36] Cooper Lord [10] Harry McKay [18] Sam Walsh
F: [19] Corey Durdin [30] Charlie Curnow [3] Jesse Motlop
R: [27] Marc Pittonet [5] Adam Cerra [29] George Hewett
Int: [37] Jordan Boyd [44] Francis Evans [32] Matthew Carroll [38] Will White [33] Lewis Young
Em: [21] Lucas Camporeale [40] Hudson O'Keeffe [15] Sam Docherty
Evans is lucky. He didn't do much last week.
Boyd and Carroll were reasonable selection.
We'll miss de Koning. Hope Pitto is OK.
Nice to see Hudson O'Keefe as an Emergency. Lucas Camporeale is probably a little lucky, he wasn't as good as his brother recently.
Pitto is the worry for me, hopefully not short of a gallop but really there was no choice.
Played the last 4 weeks in the twos, match fitness shouldn't be a problem. Just as long as he's recovered from his 'altercation' last week.
We look small but Sydney is awash so it's not a bad thing, maybe luck is on our side as it's not a bad week to be a bit forced smaller.
Following the passing of Robert Walls this week, if our guys don't come out breathing fire for the whole match then they should be ashamed of themselves.
Wearing black armbands is just not enough !!
I thought that Evans was OK last week; his tackles stuck and he applied pressure. Then there’s the fact that we’ve run out of small forwards 🙄
They should wear their mouth guards…
After I collapsed and was taken by ambulance to hospital with what doctors said was a small stroke, Carlton best not give me another one tonight!
I'm pretty confident.
Hope you are on the mend Jim, I'm 50/50 prefer TDK was playing for us and Mills wasnt back for them..
sorry to hear it at Iaj.
@those saying the boys should come out breathing fire for wallsy, some perspective. Im 42. i barely remember Walls being involved at Carlton. I know he is a club legend based on history. The guys wearing the jumper today likely know him as the bloke that reviewed the coaches box before he got the sars last couple of times, and not much else about him aside from his playing history. Obviously they have more connection to past coaches and players, but the meat in this post is that the guys will likely not have the same level of connection to walls that fans do.
IMHO, they should want to win with similar level of appetite each and every week irrespective, and dont need something like this to beat it up.
It's a fair point Thry.
Perhaps the strongest link to Walls might be through the coach who was a Carlton supporter growing up, and just entering his teens when Walls's Carlton one the flag in 1987.
It would probably be the first one Voss really remembered.
Walls was also his first coach.
There might be a Walls story or two he shares in the lead-up, but I don't think it will provide an extra spur for the young-uns.
Our mob are pretty easy to read.
We'll probably know in the first 5 minutes whether it's worth a watch, or the 'Travel Guides' are on another interstate jaunt. :D
Seriously though, they usually do show their intentions in the early stages and if the intensity and pressure is there early we'll do OK.
Spot on Thry ... although Wallsy has been around the club more recently than during the Bolts days, players don't need the death of a club legend to get them up for game of footy. Virtually every game is a knockout contest for us now and that should be more than enough motivation.
Hope all is now well Jim.
Agree, but the Spirit Of Carlton crew ensure the players and current stuff understand the club history and former greats. Wallsy was involved at the club in 2019 in a developmental role so alot of the more senior players would have worked with him.
Point is, he isn't unfamiliar to alot of the people at the club now.
Get better soon! Live Long and Prosper!
Yep
Take care Jim. All the best.
Look after yourself Jim 🙏
Hopefully we can pay a proper tribute to Walls before the game next week.
I think he has been pretty good on that front. First ruck is a tough position and like Pitt its hard to go thru a full season in that position without a few games off.
He is a star and worth every penny of our offer imo. Saints offer is utter madness and hence why its a tough decision for the young guy to make.
l