AFL Rd 6 2022 Post Game Permutations Carlton vs Fremantle

[Mav]

By the way, straight after the siren Darcy and Pittonet strolled onto the ground talking in a very friendly and jocular way (including Darcy ruffling Pitt's hair). As we saw with Taylor Walker and Trent Cochin, players who think they've been subjected to dog acts don't do that. At the best, there'll be a perfunctory handshake while avoiding eye contact. To me, they seemed to respect each other as fellow warriors. Make no mistake, every centre bounce with 100+ kg players jumping into each other takes a lot of courage, precisely because both ruckmen know the risks.

[Lods]

We've had some funny reactions to the result across the various Carlton forums and pages.
There seems to be a wide range of opinions.
Was it a bad result or about what we expected?

When I was thinking about it pre-match I thought if we could get within about three to four goals we would have done alright given their current form and the home ground advantage.
The injuries to McKay and Pittonet probably added an extra weight to the task, so I'm pretty much OK with it.

Just a few thoughts.
Whether or not it was a deliberate tactic I thought we were better at "pacing" ourselves
Rather than a frantic first half and a 'die in the backside' second half we seemed to save ourselves and were no where near as tired at the end as in some of our previous games....five goals to their seven in the second half.
There were several times in the first half where we seemed to slow the game for a bit.
De Koning was a good example of that...83% time on ground but was still jumping well in the last quarter...whereas in the past, when he's shouldered the main ruck responsibility he's been buggered by the last.

Just on De Koning...He's lost the ruck duels, but with 17 disposals has been a presence around the ground and I liked some of his second efforts. Great leap and if a few of those mark attempts could stick they'd be sensational. He probably needs another pre-season in the weight room....but as a second ruck he's probably tracking OK.

Our mids had plenty of the ball but our forward line was just dysfunctional.
Curnow and McKay were often in each other's way. The injury to McKay no doubt hampered him...but I thought he may also have had some type of shoulder/arm injury. He was not confident going for his marks and on a number of occasions only went with a single arm.

Owies and Durdin were pretty much unsighted. Martin, showed a bit last week but went missing again this week. Fisher....just not enough.
Curnow is a bit of a 'cameo' player at present. Does some really good things but often goes missing for big parts of the game. Even last week when he kicked 5 he was fumbling the ball a fair bit. He's missed a lot of football so hopefully as the season progresses he starts to really hit his straps. If he's getting amongst the goals now, a bit out of touch, he could be a huge asset later in the year.

I'm not sure about our defence. We haven't had 100 points kicked against us this year (We have had four games over 90 though).
We're missing Jones. I also think we're missing McGovern. Weitering is doing a sterling job as usual....but I just wonder whether the weight of the effort will affect him as the season progresses. Young is doing OK but his real value may be as a swingman.
Our half backs seem to be a similar type of attacking/running players, but in terms of shutting down dangerous small forwards  they can be a little loose.
Boyd, great smother, but that was about it. A few silly costly errors....I guess some of those were because he was being a bit proactive, he just failed in the execution. The thing that intrigues me is that  he seems miles away to most of us yet those who know his skills better keep playing him. What do they see that we don't. Is it a case of using him as the medical sub so players like Dow and Stocker get full games in the seconds. Doesn't make a lot of sense when he comes on early in the game.

[Mav]

Lods, there's no doubt TDK will be able to rack up more possessions around the ground than the traditional big unit. That's true also of Jack. But the problem is that we're currently a clearance driven side. We need a ruckman who is able to either tap the ball to Cripps or at least stop the other ruck from punching the ball outside the contest. Then our mids can go to work and win the clearance.

The more mobile ruckman who can rack up possessions around the ground is of more use to a side which bases its game more on turning the ball over and then slingshotting out of defence.

St Kilda lost its ruckmen against GWS leaving them exposed to a very big unit in Preuss. Their fill-in did rack up possessions too but the key to their win was that Ratts closed down the game, congesting the ball-ups to ensure Preuss couldn't clear the ball. It was ugly to watch but was effective on this occasion. But it would be a mistake to read such games as showing that the big units can be taken down by a midfielder opposing them in the ruck.

[Baggers]

Undecided on Boyd. His costly errors were mainly due to inexperience and over zealousness. But he should be learning in the Magoos, not the seniors.

I suspect that had Pitto not gone down, H would have been subbed out. As Principal LODS pointed out, he not only seemed to have a knee issue but went for marks with only one arm from time to time - shoulder?

I think Lewis Young shows something. Demonstrates composure under pressure and seems to make good choices when disposing of the aggot.

Agree with Principal LODS that TDK gave his all and did some very handy work around the ground. His 'break-out' game is not far away.

Prepared to cut Martin and our small forwards some slack... the talls they rely on were down and delivery into the forward line was haphazard and scarce. Crippa was our best  'tall forward'...

[Mav]

I'm also not sure the more even pacing we displayed through the game was evidence of increasing fitness. I suspect we went into the game with the mentality of a boxer who is wary of his opponent's ability to counter-punch; we tried to get into clinches with Freo. Rather than the helter-skelter attack that allowed us to open up big early leads against the Hawks and others, we tried to go down the line and limit Freo's ability to get some width. That produced more subdued scoring and also reduced the amount of flat out sprinting.

[Lods]

Lods, there's no doubt TDK will be able to rack up more possessions around the ground than the traditional big unit. That's true also of Jack. But the problem is that we're currently a clearance driven side. We need a ruckman who is able to either tap the ball to Cripps or at least stop the other ruck from punching the ball outside the contest. Then our mids can go to work and win the clearance.

The more mobile ruckman who can rack up possessions around the ground is of more use to a side which bases its game more on turning the ball over and then slingshotting out of defence.

St Kilda lost its ruckmen against GWS leaving them exposed to a very big unit in Preuss. Their fill-in did rack up possessions too but the key to their win was that Ratts closed down the game, congesting the ball-ups to ensure Preuss couldn't clear the ball. It was ugly to watch but was effective on this occasion. But it would be a mistake to read such games as showing that the big units can be taken down by a midfielder opposing them in the ruck.

Absolutely, That's why I said it was as a 'second' ruck he's tracking OK.
I think he'll be an upgrade on a player like Levi

However the situation that faces us at present is that Pittonet will be a big loss...and unfortunately Mirkov isn't ready yet.
So in the meantime term it will fall on DeKoning.

Now the worry here is that there is a danger that players like DeKoning, Silvagni...even Young will be up against bigger units and the risk of injury is probably high.
We have a problem...mid-season draft perhaps, as a short term insurance.

[northernblue]

Regards to Harry’s shoulder… he’s got that big very red, very recent looking scar on his right(?) shoulder just on the guernsey line ?

[Lods]

I'm also not sure the more even pacing we displayed through the game was evidence of increasing fitness. I suspect we went into the game with the mentality of a boxer who is wary of his opponent's ability to counter-punch; we tried to get into clinches with Freo. Rather than the helter-skelter attack that allowed us to open up big early leads against the Hawks and others, we tried to go down the line and limit Freo's ability to get some width. That produced more subdued scoring and also reduced the amount of flat out sprinting.

Given our recent performances...

I'm wondering whether the plan might have been along the lines of....
" Last week Freo had a great third quarter we had a poor second half.
They may go in expecting a similar game.
Let's take a measured approach to the first half and hit them hard in the third quarter."

The intention would have been to focus the players on what has been the danger period for us.
The problem was, we had a poor second quarter and when the effort was needed in the third we just didn't have the ammunition

[cookie2]

Absolutely, That's why I said it was as a 'second' ruck he's tracking OK.
I think he'll be an upgrade on a player like Levi

However the situation that faces us at present is that Pittonet will be a big loss...and unfortunately Mirkov isn't ready yet.
So in the meantime term it will fall on DeKoning.

Now the worry here is that there is a danger that players like DeKoning, Silvagni...even Young will be up against bigger units and the risk of injury is probably high.
We have a problem...mid-season draft perhaps, as a short term insurance.

The way Darcy hit Pitt was bone crunching even from a short run up. Buckley commented on it in the post game show, saying that it was a "skill" that had been perfected and refined over recent years.  It makes Ruck a very tough gig for skinny young ruckmen.

[Mav]

Absolutely, That's why I said it was as a 'second' ruck he's tracking OK.
I think he'll be an upgrade on a player like Levi

Agreed. TDK is currently a forward/2nd ruck, so it isn't fair to expect him to give us what Pitt gives us. He was certainly the next best man for the job and it was good he was playing.