Carlton Supporters Club

The most sensible thing the Mark Robinson has written in years......

"Fremantle has been working for three years to implement a well balanced defensive and offensive game style under coach Justin Longmuir. The Blues are six week into Michael Voss’ grand plan which means the Blues are a work in progress. Voss is focusing on the contest and clearance and the remaining layers will come over time. That is their ability to transition the ball and to defend transition, which is the hardest part of the game to develop and implement. They can’t win the flag this year, and might even end up in scrap for the eight, and that’s not sweeping criticism of the Blues, it’s just that they are not capable in all facets of the game."

Watched the game again last night, hopefully with a more objective view.

Probably stating the obvious but a few bad habits from years gone by were on display - playing safe, bombing it out of defense and bombing it into the forward line from the wings... hence landing around the 50m arc rather than deep into the forward line to give the small forwards opportunities.

Saad seemed to be the only defender trying to launch attacks after gaining meterage and breaking lines.

The wings were playing safe.

Missing (in fact the last 3 weeks) was the boldness and quick ball speed of the first three weeks.

Parks, the Gov replacement, seems enthusiastic to spoil whereas the Gov intercepts and launches attacks. Newnes is another safe selection.

Player availability has probably affected our ability to be bold. Gov, Willo, LOB, Stocker, even Dow are all risk takers who run and carry and have dangerous/penetrating disposals.

We'll probably be able to sustain bold meterage gains once we've regained blokes who can deliver on this rather than safer selections of blokes with limited abilities/experience. For starters, would prefer to see blokes like LOB, Willo, Walsh or Dow on the wings.

Saad is great but like a lot of our other defenders needs to have cover for his man when he does launch attacks,

Ties in with what I said and have been saying for weeks, too many unaccountable attacking types and not enough manning up.

https://www.afl.com.au/video/749825/-biggest-cop-out-the-area-blues-must-improve-to-take-next-step?videoId=749825&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1650945448001
Ties in with what I said and have been saying for weeks, too many unaccountable attacking types and not enough manning up.

Do we actually have the leg speed to go man on man as a defensive unit?

As they said in the video, nobody mans up anymore. Everyone plays zones.

Yes, it looks bad on Saad because he is in 2 of the clips, but previously it would show plowman and people would lambaste him for the same thing.
Its a bit funny, but the player you see closest to the ball once a mark is taken is usually the least selfish player as they actually tried to get there in the end, rather than everyone else who didn't even bother trying to get to the contest.
That is, Plowman would always be trying to man up 2 players because someone else left a man and ended up being 'the guy' who drew the attention for letting 'his' opponent get an easy mark. Reality was that he was covering 2 at once and could do no more.

In short, its more of a breakdown of the zone, than specific poor individual performances.

Marc Pittonet will be sidelined for the next couple of months with scans confirming a ruptured posterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

Called it at the time. PCL - 8 weeks.