We play Werribee, who are presently 9th, at Weribee this Saturday at 14:05.
We should have a few more listed players for thus game, especially as the emergencies will be able to play. Last week we lost Binns, Sam Durdin and Cincotta, which was almost all of the experience we had.

Some of our guys need to respond after last week.

Mirkov is really struggling at the moment: not getting his hand on the ball, not getting to contests, etc. You can tell he missed a year of football. A real disappointment, and I'm not sure we'll give him another year.

I don't get some of the proposed changes to laws surrounding domestic violence and deep fake porn, etc., etc., they seem to be based on a rather naïve outlook on society. I suspect the government is being lead by social media factors not good policy.

Firstly, offering cash for abused women you'll get as many spurious claims as you get genuine, some may claim the cost is for the greater good, but really it's just another loophole that will make the process unmanageable. What victims of domestic violence need is physical protection, not a nice dinner before being beaten to death. Pieces of paper are ultimately worthless as defence against weapons or fists.

Banning deep fake porn seems to be a confusion of revenge porn, I'd assert there are as many women making a living out of the deep fake stuff as are being harmed by it, so in that regard a blanket ban probably analogous to banning prostitution. All it will do is send the industry underground making it harder to police. In any case is the producer of deep fakes is doing so for nefarious reasons, the laws related to fraud already exist, and apply not just to porn but also schemes like the misrepresentation of celebrities in online Ponzi schemes.

Finally, bans in general tend to be a lure rather than a deterrent. The people who won't do this stuff don't do it already, and the people likely to do it are almost encouraged by making it harder to do and effectively more lucrative. If you want to stop people doing this stuff, find a way to demonetise it.

There is a game on this Friday night.

Voting is as usual: you have 15 votes to award pretty much as you will, with the following provisos:
[1] 15 votes in total, no more, no less.
[2] No more than 10 votes for any one player (even Sam Walsh or Patrick Cripps)
[3] Three players at least must get a mention.
[4] A grade for the game, A+ (what I want to see) to F-.

Ready for this week.

They're expecting a huge crowd.

When Charlie Curnow calls “iso”, look out.

Much like how LeBron James may clear out the floor on an NBA court, telling his teammates to get their direct opponents away to let him go to work, Curnow does the same when he is feeling it.

Having kicked 165 goals in his last 54 matches, Curnow is the league’s scariest forward, and he knows when to tell others to scram.
“Charlie sometimes calls ‘iso’ for himself and we open up some space and let him have one on ones,” fellow forward Tom De Koning said.

“When he is on a roll he is hard to stop. I would hate to be a defender against him when he is on a roll, he can score so quickly and just the energy he brings is amazing.”

It hasn’t always been smooth forward of centre between Coleman medallists Curnow and Harry McKay, as well as giant De Koning.

But the Blues have found their mojo with their tall attack, as shown last weekend when their forwards took down the GWS Giants in the second half of a tight encounter.

All three talls kicked three goals in the win and De Koning said the focus upfront was to run “dual-threat patterns” to get the power forwards good looks.

That terminology generally means two forwards leading in different directions to create multiple options for kickers going forward, and to ensure they separate opposing defenders.

“We are trying to run those dual-threat patterns and give them looks one-on-one because we know how good they are in one on ones and we have seen time and time again what they can do and how much they can affect our team scoring,” De Koning said.

“Those two big boys have such a big presence and when they are playing well it is hard to beat us.”

When the three talls all share a forward line, the Blues score off an extremely good 62 per cent of their inside-50s, well above the league average of 43.5 per cent.
Carlton leads the competition in scores per inside-50, at a usual level of 49.1 per cent.

In past years when the three all shared one attack, the Blues battled, scoring with 36 per cent of entries last year and 35 per cent in 2022.

But this year, the taller they are the better, with Carlton scoring off 51 per cent of attacks with two talls and just 42 per cent with one big man inside-50.
Curnow has been in 20 attacking one-on-one situations this year and won 42.9 per cent of them, while McKay has won 44.4 per cent of his 18 isolated battles.

The league average winning rate is just 27 per cent.

Carlton’s forward line faces a stern test on Saturday against a miserly Geelong unit who boast the league’s best defence, even with All-Australian Cat Tom Stewart out.

The Cats are top of the AFL in losing just 14.1 per cent of their defensive one-on-one contests.


Carlton's score per inside-50 percentage when Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Tom De Koning play forward.

No. of talls playing forward
2022
One 38%
Two 43%
Three 35%

2023
One 38%
Two 45%
Three 36%

2024
One 42%
Two 51%
Three 62%

The 2's play Geelong at Carlton this Saturday at 12:05. Not on TV, alas.
Interesting to see who gets up to play this week.

OK, so time to do this again.

Can't pick SOJ or Doc.
Everyone else is deemed fit for the exercise.

Pick your best team/lineup.
Personally, i think its best to pick a side using this...
http://jimmae.epizy.com/teamboard.html?i=2

Another 16:35 game, which is a pain. Such is life.
Geelong look like they're going to be inbeaten into the game while we still have real injury issues.