Carlton Supporters Club

His discussion pre-game about Chuck on SEN sounded as if he couldn't run until late in the week.  He was never fit.  It was very desperate stakes and maybe we should have just blown it and got ready for next with fresh players.  I know that's an anathema to the processes, but maybe it was the week to try a different forward set up - Kennedy, Lemmey etc

If we're honest with ourselves, taking off the blue coloured glasses, the Dawks had our measure well before the injuries started. They had all their blokes on the same page... an entire side versus our individuals. No doubt the injuries inflated the winning margin for the Dawks but they clearly had our measure early.

For weeks people have been observing that 'Charlie had turned lazy.' Charlie has been playing injured for weeks. Brad Lloyd said 'a number of weeks' which translated into 'Carlton speak' means at least  6! Walsh is definitely hampered, I'd suspect with a back problem, I can't use his best weapon.... pace and quick reaction therefore he gets caught a lot and is restricted in his delivery. To win premierships you need a consistent list, a high degree of talent, no injuries and a fair bit of luck. What chance did we have.

They were the better side early on...
But a side will often be the better side early on, and the match will turn on it's head with a momentum switch.
What the injuries meant was that there was never going to be that momentum change...and as the match wore on it became even more depressing as players went down.
As well as the obvious injuries there were another couple where players felt for knees (Williams) and shoulders (Acres).

I watched Voss' press conference very closely.  I thought his comments about various aspects of "consistency" were illuminating.  Consistency of effort, application of system, concentration and availability weren't good enough before he joins the club, and still aren't.  I thought it was very insightful.

If there's one thing the Dawks have demonstrated over the past couple of months is that their pressure and game style is sustained. Our history over most of this season is that we're terribly inconsistent. The extent of the Dawks winning margin can in part be attributed to our injury toll... but not the loss.

So the questions remain:

Who is responsible for our always-injured players being retained?
Who is responsible for putting injured players back before they’re ready?
Who is responsible for the fitness of our players?

Because that’s been a complete Fail.

Or is it a matter we recruited X amount of alwsys injured players then tried to paper over the issues until it overcame us?

Yet they were run over by GWS in the last quarter last week so they aren't invincible. They were beatable. We were never in a position to turn things around once the injuries started to impact.

If we're honest with ourselves, taking off the blue coloured glasses, the Dawks had our measure well before the injuries started. They had all their blokes on the same page... an entire side versus our individuals. No doubt the injuries inflated the winning margin for the Dawks but they clearly had our measure early. What Mitchell has done with a reasonable list in short time is impressive. We've been at it for years.

If we're honest with ourselves, apart from the Pussycats game (and they were out of form), we've not been consistently convincing for a very long time. If you Wikipedia 'inconsistent' you'll find an image of us.

At our best we could beat anyone, but you could say that of any of the top 10 or so sides. Our best was and is too easily quelled by opposition sides that bring serious, persistent heat - the body of evidence for this is considerable. 

Leadership. Sayers and Cook seem to be doing an excellent job. All departments within the club seem to be performing well. Except the football department. Our sales, media and marketing departments seem to be delivering a sustained high level.

Leadership: Unlike some I don't see the on-field issues lying with coaching, in particular the senior coach. Is he getting the support he needs? As far as the on-field performance stuff goes, the buck stops with Brad Lloyd. Personally, I was surprised he kept his job 2 years ago when the major restructure took place. Was the Terrier a scapegoat? And let's not get started on the MC.
                                                                                                                        

Great post. Fans and even the media over focus on our best performances believing that our true standard but its not and its been proven with this list since the rebuild started. Last 2 narrow wins in the finals were very good wins but could easily have gone the other way yet we hang our hat on them thinking we automatically improve this year while everyone else stand still. We needed to make important changes during the offseason and while E Hollands was a great get it wasnt enough. 

We are flakey and easily coached against and rely on the brilliance of a few of our stars. We are way too slow whenever the ball gets out of congestion and opposition teams know it and we are powerless to counter it.

Need min 3 decent users with genuine leg speed, cut the dead wood and i hope we don't just think the campo boys are the answer there as they are not. We need to be ballsy and be willing to do whatever it takes at the trade table if we want to improve on this year or 2025 will mimic this year and be another fail.
    

I watched us score wins against real sides in games that counted....

Lions rnd 1
GWS
Freo when up early in year
Port on own dungheap
Cheats when flying
Geelong
Dees with Petracca et al.

Don't tell me they were fluked or sneaky wins.

TdK gets taken down then the dynamic totally changes....  Can't defend, can't spread, can't win centre clearances, suddenly too slow to defend on transition.

Change a few key personnel - look how quickly the dynamic changed, there's our true fragility