Carlton Supporters Club

He and Fasolo have been REALLY bad recruiting decisions.

How long does Dow continue to get a game when his stats consistently match what Polson delivered.

Surely a stint in the 2nds can’t hurt him and might just be what he needs. At the lower level he will get his hands on the ball more and have more time when he has it.

Hard to practice on his disposal when your only touching it half a dozen times a game.

Fishers development as well has stalled. Just doesn’t get it enough to be damaging. Had massive hope for him but like Dow doesn’t go hard enough when he doesn’t have the ball.

JON RALPH’S BEST
BLUES: Silvagni, Kreuzer, Casboult, Newman, Setterfield, Curnow, Murphy

Apologies for the long post, but these are my thoughts from watching at the G today:

.......................................

@ Jack Burton
Thankyou for your comprehensive comments

I didn't realise Dow was playing small forward  That's a tricky position let alone for a youngster already underperforming. Just the same, has much to gain from a run in the 2's. If only we had the depth. Deluca probably worth bringing in for Dow or LOB.

SOJ and Kennedy keep their spots for mine. Add Cunningham and Crippa and we should be stronger in the midfield.

Apologies for the long post, but these are my thoughts from watching at the G today:

1 Jack Silvagni. Outstanding game. First half in the midfield was very good. Second half as a forward was even better. Took contested marks today which is very important for his development, and kicked 3 goals. Definitely in our best players
2 Paddy Dow. Played exclusively as a small forward today, can’t remember him starting in the centre once. Didn’t do a lot, but kicked a good goal and set another one up. Would like to see him more involved in scoring chains
3 Marc Murphy. Excellent game, probably our best 4 quarter player. Stood out like a beacon in the first half as our only player that could hit a target by foot. Our only mid who had a good day in terms of clearances and contested possessions, also laid some important tackles. Very very good
4 Lachie O’Brien. Very quiet, well beaten. Disappointing after really improving over previous weeks, hopefully this is just a blip in his development trajectory. Did kick a nice goal though. He’s definitely worth persisting with
5 SPS. One of many who were almost invisible in the first half, but I thought his second half was pretty good. He loves to tackle this guy, and we really need that. Won some contested ball and generally used it pretty well
6 Kade Simpson. Quiet game from him, didn’t do much wrong, but didn’t have much influence. That kick late in the last quarter shouldn’t have been under that much pressure but for a bad fumble by Newman
7 Matt Kennedy. Didn’t do a lot, but what he did was pretty good. He’s a very good set shot at goal, and he times his leads pretty well. Kicked 2.4 so could have had a monster game. Not sure what his role will be when Curnow and McKay come back? At the moment he’s starting out of the goal square as a leading forward. It certainly won’t be that
8 Matt Kreuzer. Interesting game. Preuss probably beat him in the ruck hitouts, but Kreuz got a few good ones along the way that resulted in clearances. He also got a bunch of clearances himself. Preuss is a massive human
11 Mitch McGovern. A complete non-factor today. Again. No decoying for anyone out there. I specifically watched him today and he just does not work very hard at all. You can argue “bad delivery” if you like, but Kennedy, Silvagni and Setterfield kicked 8 between them today when playing as lead-up forwards. McGovern got to about 3 contests for the today. He was just plain awful, and didn’t seem to care
14 Liam Jones. I’m a big fan, but gee he was awful today. Made bad decisions regularly that resulted in McDonald goals
16 Darcy Lang. Horrendous. Never again please
18 Sam Walsh. Quiet first half (had a lot of mates), very good second half. Just works very hard, need some of his teammates to do the same
20 Lachie Plowman. Was defensively good in the second half, particularly with some good spoils in marking contests. Let himself down with poor disposals in the first half, a few of which hurt us on the scoreboard. Still our best lockdown defender though
22 Caleb Marchbank. Thought he was pretty good again today. Took some intercept marks and used the ball pretty well. Just didn’t seem to be involved very much, but didn’t do much wrong
23 Jacob Weitering. Was good again, took some telling intercept marks at the right times.
24 Nic Newman. Got plenty of it, and gave plenty of it straight back to the opposition, especially in the first half. Some of his kicks under no pressure that went straight to opposition players unopposed were baffling I the first half. Worst game I’ve seen him play I reckon
25 Zac Fisher. Very quiet first half, barely saw him. Second half was better, but still not great. Got on the outside a few times and did ok, also got smashed a couple of times. Would really like to see him get himself in positions to receive the ball more often, needs to work harder
35 Ed Curnow. Another who had a very quiet first half. Lifted to become one of our best players with a strong second half. Worked super hard as he always does, and was very strong at the contested ball and tackling the opposition. Very solid performance from Ed
39 Dale Thomas. Didn’t do a lot, but what he did was pretty good. Competed very hard and made it hard for the opposition, used the ball ok compared to some of his mates
41 Levi Casboult. Good game from Levi, he’s probably ow our best set shot at goal. Worked hard, competed well in the ruck, took his chances forward. No matter who comes back next week, he’s a certainty to keep his spot
43 Will Setterfield. First half was awful, beaten badly by Fritsch early, and had no influence on the game playing on a wing. Went forward I the second half and was outstanding, kicked 3.2 and should have kicked 5 in the half. Clever footballer, reads it well up forward, Keep him there

re: Kennedy and Setterfield are meant to be the bigger bodies doing the grunt work in the middle, both look better down forward but you cant go with Fisher, SPS, Dow, Walsh etc vs a midfield like Melbourne who have some big units especially without Cripps. Walsh is a freak who continues to soldier on but the others look shot and in need of some rest.

re: Jack...been great, genuine utility, not many players who can play forward and then go in the middle and be effective in both positions.
Need Cripps back and a more seasoned player like Deluca in the middle..