Our line-up for this week;
B: 74 Logan Prout 26 Nick Haynes 42 Adam Saad
HB: 28 Harry Charleson 15 Billy Wilson 34 Rob Monahan
C: 31 Campbell Chesser 50 Darcy Tucker 13 Blake Acres
HF: 8 Lachie Fogarty 21 Lucas Camporeale 30 Jack Ison
F: 45 Flynn Young 40 Hudson O'Keeffe 43 Ashton Moir
R: 25 Liam Reidy 16 Ben Camporeale 46 Matthew Cottrell
Int: 58 Jack Sammartino 77 Will Cookson 67 Tom Evans 61 Dane Harvey 70 Darcy Hogg
No idea who the Emergencies are, as at least one will be required.
[1] 16 listed players, although only 14 or 15 will play. At least one of the Emergencies won't be playing. Which one? Good question.
[2] We look very short in defence. Haynes at FB says it all. Phillips looks off to the 'Aints >:D so he's not there. Paea is injured amd we don't have many tall defenders (or forwards) anyway.
[3] I'm hoping that Reidy and O'Keefe make a serious contribution tomorrow, especially as they are the only talls we really have. Reidy was disappointing last week, especially in the 1st half. After half time he didn't get many taps, but he did get it a fair bit around the ground. He has some strengths, so it is about time he showed us them.
O'Keefe won't have a great key defender on him either, so he hopefully can get some form back. We need him taking grabs.
[4] I'm not surprised to see Saad and Acres still here this week. They were clearly short of a gallop last week and on limited minutes. Both will probably play most of the game this week.
Wilson and Cottrell will also be considerably better for the run. Hopefully, they can step up.
[5] Tucker was pretty ordinary last week, especially considering that he did most of the pre-season. I hope he can show something against his old club. One thing in his favour is that HOK and Reidy probably will be more effective this week.
[6] Who is going to kick our goals?
The game starts in an hour and no idea who is coming in or out. >:( :( :o ::)
All three emergencies are playing in the Magoos.
Lost it in the end, probably from inaccuracy as much as anything given the scores. but I only saw half the last quarter.
Final scores
Nth Melb 17-8-110 def Carlton 14-15-99
Young and Ison 3 goals each-commentators were quite impressed with Young’s game -18 disposals to go with his three goals
Wilson, Ben C and Lucas C were the top possession winners with 21 each.
Reidy looks to have dominated the rucks but also picked up 20 disposals around the ground.
Didn’t notice Saad in the time I was watching but he had 18. Injured or taken off early-not sure.
Haynes seemed to injure his arm right at the end of the game so that’s a bit of a watch.
Someone who saw the whole game will be better placed to comment on the individual performances.
Dunno if my mate is there but he texted me saying we were rubbish. Then again, he is known to exaggerate.
Are there any late change whispers floating around?
I thought we were at least their equal in the last twenty minutes. Could possibly have snatched it.
Can't comment on the play before that.
North may have just relaxed at the end.
Thought the same.
Saad was named as an emergency
My brother texted me as follows
Senior players no good
The campos and the younger boys fought it out
Moir
Fog
Saad
Haynes
Rubbish
Don’t even look at the stats
They’ll trick you
Ruckman that got dropped two games ago looked good but he’ll cop 2 weeks
Suggests Reidy did something that may get looked at or he got reported.
F Young 3.2, 11 Marks. 18 touches. Continues his good form
If only he played a different position.
I doubt we will drop one of our new recruits, Hayward and Ainsworth, for him. Byrne is going alright and Elijah turned things around.
Do you drop Evans for him? Thats a bit harsh
Your bro is on the mark.
Reidy could very well miss a week or two... he flattened a bloke and was lucky the bloke wasn't concussed. It was just dumb. Wasn't in play. Pity, as he took full advantage of his dominance in the ruck and was good.
Flynn Young was really good.
We lost it in the second quarter when we allowed five unanswered goals and just couldn't bridge the gap after then. Lucas C was pretty good, Ben C was okay, only other bright spot was Billy Wilson. Ison has a fair way to go, but you can see the potential. Haynes and Moir, in particular, were horrible.
I would think Hayward would be on thin ice.
Hayward gifted 2 goals to Norp due to stupidity so he can have a week off as far as I am concerned.
Flynn Young was a shining light for the Blues - clean ball handler and has excellent disposal skills.
I don't think any others showed enough to demand promotion.
Reidy looks a likely type and has decent skills for a big bloke but he was far from competitive in centre ruck contests.
Fair dinkum, we are a rabble at the moment. Very disappointing to give up a second winnable game, just like the seniors.
[1] North had 5 of the top 7 possession getters. Yet, do we tag any of them? Not quite a rhetorical question, as we don't use our brains in the seniors, but you understand where I'm coming from.
[2] Liam Reidy so dominated the ruck that it wasn't funny. He had 14 clearances, more than any three other players. And he had 30 taps, better than any two other players. Yet, with a spot in the seniors up for grab, he does something stupid. :'( :'( ???
O'Keefe, on the other hand, seems to have lost all confidence. He didn't get a lot of taps, 8 only, and had less than 10 possessions. I don't know what is wrong with him, but he needs some sort of help. He is just so much better than that.
[3] Ison: 3 goals 2, from 8 possessions. Not sure what to think, but he can do so much more.
[4] Flynn Young should be in the seniors: 21 possessions, 3 goals 2 and 11 marks.
Considering the way some of our smaller players are going at the moment, he should be in. Hayworth, Ainsworth, Frankie Evans: any of these could go back. Frankie hasn't been right since he was injured. He needs to get his confidence back.
[5] Neither Cottrell nor Chesser did anything to impress. 13 possessions each and no scores. Very disappointing, considering what we were hoping to get from them.
Lachie Fogarty: little better. He had 15 possessions and a goal. He has to go.
I'm not seeing the desire, I'm not seeing the commitment, I'm not seeing the game plan and I'm not seeing the any sign of things turning around.
I've got nothing else to say until after I digest the replay. Not looking forward to it.
Just as an aside...
The Devils have gotten good pretty quickly.
78 points over Frankston
Notice that we're next on the chopping block.
another afl propped up club to try beat to a flag. Yay.
Its like fighting with one arm tied behind your back to play catch up and the decisions of the past 15 years have cemented our inability to compete.
Having watched the replay and digested the game:
[1] Reidy won't be the answer. He had the ruck craft to deal with the leapers that North have in Goad and Dawson, but they will be the future (unless the rules change again). When they have some experience, they'll use their jump.
On the other hand, his work around the ground wasn't bad at all. He showed a fair bit in that regard.
He isn't going to be the ruck that helps us back to the top.
On the other hand, he should play more senior footy. Looking at his incident, I strongly doubt he'll be suspended. It was a tad crude, but it simply wasn't bad. We had so many things done to us that were worse for nothing, let alone a fine.
[2] O'Keefe was very ordinary in the first half, but better afterwards. His ruck work, on the other hand, has gone backwards as he doesn't have the leap or the strength. Maybe he can make a forward, but even that is looking shaky.
[3] North's run started in defence. Their small defenders had huge numbers, but our small forwards didn't seem to bother with them.
[4] North's game style is similar to their senior style, and it makes more sense than ours does. When we kicked long down the line, we turned the ball over, as we didn't have the marking targets.
[5] One of the North guys, Tarrant, got 4 goals because we didn't have a defender to match him.
On the other hand, Nick Haynes did a brilliant job on Whitlock. Harvey also tried hard and did a reasonable negative job, but neither of them provided much drive.
Unfortunately, Phillips' apparent defection to St. Kilda and Paea's injury really hurt us. We have not key position types from the AFL side, let alone the VFL side.
One positive: if Phillips is gone, we should be able to select someone to replace him. Hopefully, we're smart enough to get a KP player.
[6] I was disappointed with Ben Camporeale. North's mids were much quicker and he found it hard to match them. That appears to be the future, which we have not addressed.
[7] North wanted it more than we did. Their desperation and our inability to hit targets were probably the difference. Sound familiar? It was.
[8] Charleson started poorly, but after the first ten minutes, he wasn't bad. He, at least, has some pace.
Wilson was similar, and his run was good. He also has real depth with his kicking now he's using it.
[9] Cottrell and Chesser are a long way off where they need to be. Very disappointing. Still, we know that Cottrell can produce; he just seems to take a long time to get form after an injury.
[10] Flynn Young played like Brad Pearce. He must play next week.
If Moir can find some intensity ... but we've thought this before.
[11] Monahan spent a lot of time on the bench with a hip complaint. But he has disappointed so far. he looked so much more impressive in the pre-season. On the other hand, his disposals usually hit the target.
My conclusions:
We are structurally a mess and are unlikely to win unless we can address that.
Most of the guys who showed something last years haven't made any progress. Some have gone backwards.
Our game style is awful. There is no run, no speed on the ball movement. We kick down the line to packs.
I wonder how many of these guys will be here at the end in 2027?
Double agreed, Ye Rat O' the River.
Good pick-up, Capt Crash.
He's one of the very few on our list you could say looks to have improved on their 2025 form.
The test of course, is that he can show that at AFL level.
He should get his chance next week.
https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/1990315/vfl-report-card-how-every-afl-blue-performed-in-vfl-round-3?fbclid=IwY2xjawRBGmBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe6RXk7YamrPU5PjRedrGjQwj0k-UnYTL2rn_yQt1JDygZM-GBq7YGGBVaNl8_aem_MisK7ubUpQquUi5W0q4rMg
Spot the negative comment.
You won't :D
Disappointing really, as a lot of our guys really didn't have games they'd be happy with.
However, that is what it is. Personally, I think the in-house comments might have been a bit different.
Reidy was suspended, which is especially irritating considering he was probably in line for senior selection. And the incident, while unnecessary and ugly, wasn't anything as bad as some that got a fine or nothing. It is really a chook-lotto. :( :(