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

[Thryleon]

Dow is a genuine worry for me. He was thrown into the deep end from the get-go but his disposal can still be quite erratic, all too often in fact. Not sure whether this can be fixed? Perhaps more quality time with Diesel?

Although hailed as the MF type we so badly needed, Kennedy has not really delivered much and looks very slow. OK he has been injured but he does need to start to show the goods soon, with some really convincing performances in the NBs, otherwise........

LOB is another kid who has been thrown into the deep end to sink or swim and at times does it tough. Ideally he would be playing NBs, probably for this year at least, but our lack of depth has seen him prematurely thrown into the front line. Hopefully this does not result in a premature fall from grace. CFC can be a cruel place indeed!

There is plenty of talk about us going into the market to bolster our mature MF stocks - let us pray that this talk turns into action this year or else we will likely regress as our existing elder statesmen come up for retirement and our kids get broken or disillusioned.

The entire draft year is struggling.

I wouldnt worry about using the current sample of work for anything in particular.  They are all experiencing second year blues with the exception of Tim Kelly who is a mature player who is in his mid 20's and plays in a team sitting two games clear top of the ladder.

Luke Beveridge made a point on TF that Footscray had less game experience than Carlton on Sunday. I checked this out and he is right by a total of three games overall. This is where stats are misleading. If you take out our three most experienced players and take out there most experienced players then the differential is over 300 in our favour. Our six most experienced players make up 65% of our total games played. Because of this our players will be up and down with form.
I was also reminded on FC that McGovern broke his back in the pre-season which will explain the issues with his hamstring tightness and gives some context around the lack of impact he is having in games.

Precisely the point.

Statistics are being used to display all manner of data but when you drill into it, we are simply 2 years away from having the kids all coming along to the magic number of 100 games  where they will all be ready to hit their prime and be consistent 4 quarter footballers.

The people in the know will see this and realise that this is when our window begins.  For now, they just have to continue learning through matches, and part of that is figuring out how to arrest momentum shifts in games which seems to be the theme of the season for us.