Carlton Supporters Club

As optimistic as I usually am, that optimism has deserted me for tomorrow's game. In fact my concern is that they'll rag-doll us. I pray to all the gods that I am wrong. For us to win tomorrow we'll need an amazing and enormous spirit and ruthlessness to get on top of the Aints, then stay there. Not something we've seen a lot of against a strong defensive side in good form.

Excitement or disappointment over a result is directly related to our expectations.

Prepare for the worst,  and hope for the best...we might be pleasantly surprised.

We will try, but the problem is our form over the last 7-8 weeks has been very ordinary. Whilst the performance last week was admirable, it was against West Coast who Geelong are currently rogering by 84 pts. StK whilst not world beaters are a different proposition and in another league compared to WC. We are in this position because of our own fault so the consequences are the consequences. Our second half of this year has been played nothing like the second half of last year, in fact the complete opposite which is a real shame. Two steps fwd one step back is how I view 2023 - 2024.

One thing I would do this week is play Crippa out of the goal square at FF, lets see how the Saints deal with that.

Don't mind the idea of resting him at FF swapping with Kennedy but we need him to be prominent in the middle if we are to get on top.  Maybe start him in the square just to stop the tag from the outset.  My concern is that the mids and half forwards might just target Crippa all the time a la the way they can do with Charlie and allow the intercepting defenders to have a party.

Cripps needs to be BOG or close to it for us to win, we need to dominate the midfield/clearances/stoppages not just break even...

If Cripps plays at FF who going to get it to him?

I'm not suggesting that Cripps should play at FF but he should go forward like he did last game.

While Cripps was the standout with a dozen score involvements, we had seven players with eight or more score involvements.  We also had 16 players with two or more inside 50s.