Round 10: Carlton vs Adelaide After Game Thread

[PaulP]

Beaten but far from disgraced !!

Today, the Carlton Football Club drew a line in the sand, there was serious attack on the contest all game & 100% effort from everyone in the team, makes you proud to be a Blues fan doesn't it ??

I'll put up with losing if that is the standard of performance we get from the players, they were committed and desperate, cannot fault that approach especially when you take into account the season we've had thus far.

Where has "that" Marc Murphy been all year ?? Best game for 12-months.

Also, nice to have a big bodied player in the forward line who can take a pack mark and kick straight, Kreuzer has been badly missed.

Casboult's witchdoctor is working wonders, cannot believe he nailed that banana from the wrong pocket. There is definite improvement in his kicking accuracy, still has the occasional yip (that shot on the run then went OOF) but I don't look away like I used to. You know, if he keeps up this level of improvement, he may just make it as a genuine player.

Graham & Buckley showed why playing the younger players works for us, they have youthful enthusiasm and attack all the time, its an infectious quality.

This close tussle suited Bell's bullish game-style, he did very well as did Simpson, in fact it was hard to find a "poor" player for us today and its been long while since I've been able to write that.

Judd's career ended today which is sad, he won't come back in 12-months time, crap way to end a stellar career but that's football.

One thing that stood out last week and again today was the move of Everitt to the forward-line in a permanent role. He is a good lead, good mark and good kick at goal, he looks like a natural in this position.

Kudos to Barker for that one.

Also, how good was it when Kreuzer marked and goaled and all of the players got around him, that is team spirit, something that has been missing for some time. It also happened again when King Tutt laid that strong tackle on Sloane, inspirational acts that were acknowledged by the rest of the team.

Bloody good stuff methinks !!

Whilst we had the effort, our players are either not experienced enough or just plainly lack the skill-set, to carry out the basics with precision & consistency. Some of the younger players will get better with another 30-40 games under their belt whilst the older ones with the skill deficiencies will be replaced by others who do.

We have the nucleus of a decent team, we saw it out there today, we just lack some polish in the middle plus some important key position players.

It will get better in time though as we turn over the list. Small steps today, but at least they were in the right direction and certainly give us some much needed hope for the future.

Lastly, what was the reason for todays improved performance, the change of coach or the change of game-plan or a combination of both ??

Fair summary.
I don't know the definitive answer to your question.