Post Game Passion: AFL 2019 Rd 13: Carlton vs. Western Bulldogs

[Thryleon]

^^  I don't disagree with you EB.  It is half expected though.  He isn't the first, and wont be the last.  In fact, brother Jack might be the way he is because of brother Ben.  Less talent, more determination.  Anyway, we will see.  First year players get a bit of a reprieve for mine simply because there is a massive culture shock and playing at our footy club appears to be a burden that weighs heavily on better players.

Speaking of which, I understand that lachie O'brien is a youngster and you review youngsters too harshly at your peril, but have a look at what an independant scribe says about him.

https://themongrelpunt.com/afl/2019/06/13/gbudogsblues

PS GOING MISSING

Sam Petrevski-Seton is a smooth mover, and when he gets the ball in hand, he can look like a million bucks.

So, where was he in the first half tonight? Six touches running through the midfield is about as bad as it gets in a half of footy. No hard tag. No one giving him special attention – he just could not get near it.

For mine, this bloke, for all his talent and all his ability, goes missing in games way too often. Bundle him in with Paddy Dow if you like, but I actually rate SPS higher. He had 35 touches in Round Five, and fast forward eight weeks, he can go virtually unsighted for an entire half of footy?

He is now 55 games into his career. Carlton are waiting for someone to leap out of the box in the midfield and provide a spark. Sam Walsh will provide a steady, solid hand, but they need someone explosive. It should be SPS. It could be Zac Fisher. It definitely won’t be Lachie O’Brien – he’s a spud and if you argue against that, I think you run the risk of exposing your footy ignorance. Watch him duck his head in a marking contest on the lead in the second quarter inside 50. Unnatural forward, unnatural midfielder.

People talk about the Blues building, or the Blues coming, or smelling what the Blues are cooking (my favourite), but unless SPS is prominent more often than he goes missing, it probably isn’t going to happen. At some point the distance between a 35 disposal whacking and an 18 disposal cameo has to close, and it has to be sooner rather than later for the Blues to improve.

I can handle form slumps when they have shown ability.  SPS is showing waivering form, and Dow is having second year blues.  I wrote off any expectations of him having a good year about 4 or 5 weeks ago when he was going backwards form wise, and that is continuing.  He will be better next year, that I know because his first season showed he had more in him.  This is why we haven't been better this year.  In fact, the kids are playing about as well as we can hope given how much load they have to carry.  There are others around the traps that have shown more, and are delivering less.  Its the senior players that are really going missing when we need them.  We seem to lack fulll game footballers at the moment, and its a real problem.

In fact Teague has got ahead of himself already.  Jack Silvagni has been one of the few 4 quarter players we have had this season and dropping him last week sends entirely the wrong message to the playing group.


Finally does anyone know what Ed Curnow has done to himself and if he will be available next week?  Rumour has it he went off in the final quarter and didnt come back on.