Carlton Supporters Club

On a positive note, Talor Byrne had a great debut for the club. A great first game. A goal with his first kick after using his body to edge out the Melbourne player and a couple of great bumps to clear the way for a couple of goals. Nice work young man and good luck for the future.

Today was humiliating. There is no other way of describing it. We haven't learnt anything from last year.
[1] There are others who may not agree, but Gawn's game today showed why having a decent ruckman is a necessity. He lifted and dragged his midfield with him. Pitto tried his heart out, but he isn't a top ruck.
HOK has also gone backwards, which doesn't help us at all. Reidy doesn't look like the answer either, although he does, at least, get a few possessions.
We need a top ruck if we are to ever get back to being a contender! We had one but he is no longer at the club!!

[2] Our fitness levels remain suspect. Our 1st quarter was as good as any played this season, but after that ...        Not fitness. Its mental. I remember an interview with Florent after the first game and he said that all the clubs have the same fitness base and that it is more of a mental issue.
This was clear last year, yet we don't appear to have addressed it at all. If anything, we conk our earlier. We've been in front at half time in all of our games, again! Yet, we've won one and were lucky to do so.

[3] Our disposal: Another point we noted last year. Has it improved? Well, I couldn't say yes. Our disposal at times was diabolical. Nothings changed!!

[4] Our decision making also appears no better. Again, it was obvious last year. Nothings changed!!

[5] Our style of play: it was incredibly obvious that we our game style needs work.
(a) We don't stay close enough, or put enough physical pressure on to make a difference. That was so obvious when you looked at Talor Byrne's efforts, which really stood out.
(b) we don't lead and we don't honour a lead. We just fill in the spaces, so there is nowhere to run into. Instead we kick long down the line to a contest, which was so predictable to the opposition that they know what we're doing better than our players do.
(c) Run and carry: after quarter time we barely had any. Melbourne continually had guys open because they ran hard and kicked long. We stopped until everyone was covered before we tried to kick.
(d) We don't run with anybody. Opposition good players feast out on us as nobody picks them up. Pickett doesn't get a kick on a negative player who sticks close to him. But allow him to run around and he kills you!
(e) We kick the ball to the opposition's netter players instead of to ours. The number of times we kicked the ball to Gawn was ghastly!

[6] Psychological help: we clearly need it, as we lack belief. We don't think quickly. We make poor decisions. Most of that can be cured if we have faith in our teammates. We don't. We really need to have this self-belief if we are to improve.

[7] Leadership: we really are missing a fair bit there. Our 'leaders' don't go the extra mile. When things get hard, they don't stand up. Melbourne's leaders really stood up when it was needed. Ours did not. We cannot afford that.

I don not think Voss will be coaching us next year. No matter how well he might speak, his tenure has been one of lack of leadership, being unable to run out games, not being able to react to changes and not improving our game plan.
I don't know who our next coach may be, but we need one. We have issues that need addressing and Voss isn't doing the job.

You can see at the ground we were tired towards the end of half time.

We lack fitness.