Carlton Supporters Club

On Docherty, I have this uneasy feeling he is suffering the David Teague or    Corey McKernan Best and Fairest syndrome.
Burst onto the scene and then disappeared.
I'm hoping because he is younger than the other two this is not the case.
Only two games in... so there is still time 

Two options if we're going to send Weitering back.

1) Marchbank forward for a game or two to see how he goes.

2) Rowe goes forward permanently and let the combination of Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman settle. If this rebuild is to take as long as anticipated Rowe is probably not going to be a piece of the final puzzle. If we go this route I'd also send White forward as another mature body.

Youngsters back...old guys forward...and rotate the young forwards through there with a bit of support.

Interestingly during the commentary Leigh Mathews was strongly advocating for Weitering to go back to defence in the belief that we are very close to having that area close to fully built. In his thinking, you build on a great defence so we should consolidate that.

I guess the MC's and BB's thinking is that we also need to win a few games, hence Weitering going forward. Be interesting to see where he plays this week.

Free kick counts, as with all stats, can at times be misleading.

We won the frees 25-12 against the Tiges.

Apart from a couple of things, I didn't think the umpiring was any worse than usual.

I think AFL footy is pretty difficult to umpire to be honest.

I don't care about the count.  The majority of them are fair enough, but I did see Levi push Max Gawn in a marking contest in our defensive half near our goal the free kick immediately paid, whilst Max Gawn went two hands into the back of Kreuzer in our defensive fifty resulting in a shot at goal for the Dees with play on being awarded.

Two options if we're going to send Weitering back.

1) Marchbank forward for a game or two to see how he goes.

2) Rowe goes forward permanently and let the combination of Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman settle. If this rebuild is to take as long as anticipated Rowe is probably not going to be a piece of the final puzzle. If we go this route I'd also send White forward as another mature body.

Youngsters back...old guys forward...and rotate the young forwards through there with a bit of support.

Am no where near sold on White and Armfield still. Nothing to get enthused about there IMHO.

When things are not working, I'd consider -

Docherty & Gibbs switch - Doc to the midfield and Gibbs to half-back.
Simpson to half-forward
Wright & Pickett rover/wing more often
C.Curnow key back

Weitering stays forward IMO. He and Jack Silvagni are working.

My point being, we need a little bit more flexibility. We seem to stagnate and have a plan A and that's it. Nothing wrong with settling players but I'd like to see some more rotations when things are not working, and players are flat footed and getting beaten.

I'm afraid I don't agree with much of that.

Docherty like Simmo is a straight line runner, he won't work out in the midfield.

Simmo might have been that HFF option a year or two ago, but he's lost a yard and wouldn't get separation from a defender. I'll be pleasantly surprised if he doesn't pull the plug before seasons end.

Pickett is nowhere near fit enough to run on the wing for more than 1 or 2 minutes, then he'd be cooked for the rest of the game.

Wright is a good one, I'll back him in to have a crack wherever and whenever he is played. You won't see him standing next to a taller opponent watching them mark.

C.Curnow might make a HBF, but the best we saw from him at the weekend was a few limited minutes in the midfield. He's a serious chop-put option for Cripps but needs far more core strength before he can fill that role. He has the lateral movement combined with height that makes him a massively difficult match up, but he has to learn to tackle. Off to the wrestling coach with him!

I've said my piece about Weitering, he's being wasted in F50.

SoJ worked hard after an injury, but the Dees are probably one of the weakest defenses we will come up against and he didn't look like scoring except when they fecked up! We need blokes who look like scoring when we get clean entries, not only when they turn it over. Neither Weitering or Silvagni have the speed to get separation in a clean one on one contest.

Am overseas, so haven't seen the replay, only highlights and match reports, like the dog acts from Hogan and Lewis (great leadership style!).

I am confused.....We lost by 24 pts ( many predicted 80-100), our backs stood up (young, enthusiastic, have a real future) and our forwards let us down again.

Melbourne's midfield boasts Jones, Pettracca, Viney, Lewis, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson etc.  Highly ranked engine room. Yet we got within 4 goals and apparently Cripps, according to many reports, was the only one to really fire a bullet!!! Surely there was some significant work done by others that has not been acknowledged???

Thry, I'm not saying the umpires don't make mistakes, but as I'm sure you'll agree, believing "we woz robbed" by the umps is part and parcel of every footy fan's repertoire. I'm sure if you talk to a Dees fan about yesterdays game, they will have their own examples of biased umpiring. 

I would really like to see either a video referee, or an extra umpire on the field to help minimize these issues.

I also think that any half decent coaching panel would anticipate some dodgy calls, and hopefully take this into account when coaching / instructing players - how to set up, not dropping your head despite putting in hard work etc.