Carlton Supporters Club

Betts kicked 0.4, and 2 of those he would normally kick in his sleep. Add to that Stocker's own goal (behind) and there's 13 points wiped off the deficit right there. For a team with apparently low work rate and at times terrible skills against a top 4 contender..................

One of the problems with looking at 'what might have beens' though is that you can't look at in the isolation of only our team.
You have to look at the other sides near misses and 'stuff ups' as well.
You then also have to factor the change to the game that might have occurred if the ball went back to the centre rather than being kicked out.
It s a Butterfly effect.

And importantly if a side is pressed by a team coming at them, rather than having a comfortable margin, do they lift their game to meet, and see off,that challenge.
Port last week seemed to do only as much as they had to for us to be kept at bay.

Whether Brisbane respond positively or negatively is something no one can answer. Perhaps they go into their shell instead ? We won the centre clearances, so I'm not sure Brisbane would have an advantage in that space. The what ifs I posed above are regulation stuff, not wild scenarios - 9 times out of 10 Betts would kick those, and 9 times out of 10 Stocker would not skew the kick so badly.

I'm still of the opinion that we are not as far off as some people think.

Whether Brisbane respond positively or negatively is something no one can answer. Perhaps they go into their shell instead ? We won the centre clearances, so I'm not sure Brisbane would have an advantage in that space. The what ifs I posed above are regulation stuff, not wild scenarios - 9 times out of 10 Betts would kick those, and 9 times out of 10 Stocker would not skew the kick so badly.

I'm still of the opinion that we are not as far off as some people think.

Whether Brisbane respond positively or negatively is something no one can answer. Perhaps they go into their shell instead ? We won the centre clearances, so I'm not sure Brisbane would have an advantage in that space. The what ifs I posed above are regulation stuff, not wild scenarios - 9 times out of 10 Betts would kick those, and 9 times out of 10 Stocker would not skew the kick so badly.

I'm still of the opinion that we are not as far off as some people think.

I'm in the same boat. Only problem is it's been like this for longer than we hoped. We're not that far off but the good teams are still too good for us when they have a crack. Injuries to key players are still hurting us. Easy misses are still hurting us. 20 minute lapses of concentration are still hurting us. We're not quite there yet.

Dont care as much about the misses as the qtr long MIAs. How many 5 unanswered goal turn arounds is that now?

I think the thing that frustrates a few of us is not so much the skill errors as the intensity and pressure.
It was good in the first quarter.
It was exactly what was expected after the criticism aimed at the club through the week.
In the second quarter Brisbane matched and exceeded that pressure and it was pretty much the game done and dusted

I watched two Carlton sides today.
One had very little pressure applied to it and the result was a 12 goal first quarter.
The skills displayed were slick.
Passes hit their marks and good average players looked a million dollars.

In both games the pressure came from the opposition in the second quarter and we struggled with runs of goals against us.

Point is...if you come with intensity and effort you can make the opposition look like unskilled fumblers.
We often see the trick shots at training.
Attend training and the drills will quickly show you that our players don't lack basic skills
No way can that be duplicated under the pressure of 'real' match conditions.
But the side that comes with the greatest intensity will always look more skilled as they dominate the other team.

I guess, for me anyway,  the truly skilled players can execute under pressure. Any player that couldn't at least do that under no pressure or at training would not make it to an AFL club?

Old Betts might have, but he's been having trouble hitting the scoreboard, so no guarantees.
And you still have to factor in Brisbane's 'what might have beens' too.
If we looked at the game again we'd probably find three or four of those.

But you may be right on where we stand...I'm actually a bit surprised at some of the level of early angst in regards to this match which, while justified in some cases, seems to have gone up a level again this week.

The angst is probably due to the repetition in our losses.. 5 goal bursts from the opposition, same opposition players burning us ie Rich and poor defensive and contesting in those vital minutes. What has really changed or improved from the last season or two?.. Some supporters now want to cling onto honourable losses for comfort but can't confront reality...thats bottom team thinking.

Bob Murphy slammed our second quarter as
selfish and lacking soul.
The lack of urgency to defend and the lack of appetite to contest (was alarming),” he said.
Same old same old, our blokes won't man up and refuse to contest like their life depends on it IMHO. We had the Lions where we wanted them with Gardiner out of the game and Neale on one leg but still struggled.
If Walsh gets injured we will be struggling to win another game such is our reliance on him to wallpaper the cracks in our midfield...

My ability to both confront and deal with reality is quite sound. I'm simply trying to take a holistic view. Our draw has been one of the toughest over the first 6 rounds. I never thought we would play finals this year, irrespective of what Cain "fast Eddy" Liddle wants us to believe. Apart from arguably the Pies game, the results are all pretty much as expected.

My ability to both confront and deal with reality is quite sound. I'm simply trying to take a holistic view. Our draw has been one of the toughest over the first 6 rounds. I never thought we would play finals this year, irrespective of what Cain "fast Eddy" Liddle wants us to believe. Apart from arguably the Pies game, the results are all pretty much as expected.

I don't see progress, I look at Melbourne, Swans, Dogs etc and I see progress.
We look the same, nothing is changing, even the pattern of our losses.
How many wins would we have had with Melbourne's draw? ..