Carlton vs Brisbane Practice Match

[Lods]

But Lods, there was not even a glimpse (to me) that we can fight when the 4 points are up for grabs. Read my post carefully, we are making the same mistakes over and over and over. Not being able to compete for 4 qtrs is a real worry. For example, Setterfield had a bread and butter shot from from around 30m out directly in front at the Royal Parade end. He sprayed it badly. This is an end where they train this week in week out and have shot after shot. You tell me there is no intensity or pressure in these games and yet he simply misses. Just plain UNACCEPTABLE. Excuses keep getting made year after year, I am effin sick of it. I say again, Its not the loss per se', its the way we lost, same as every other loss for the last 5 years. If we were trying something totally different and we lost, I would get it. But it was a full dress rehearsel for round 1, David Teagues words pre,match on FOX not mine. Well if thats the dress rehearsal, we're forked.

It might very well be that what we're seeing is an indication of how our season will pan out.
I sincerely hope not.
But the way I look at it is this....It's a long season. Players know that in the next few weeks they're  going to have to switch up to another level. Experienced players like Kreuzer, Simpson and Murphy have been around long enough to know that they need to pace themselves at this time of year so they can see the season through. Even Cripps seemed to dial it down a gear as the game went on. It doesn't require a massive drop in effort but this is nowhere near the level of attack on player and ball we'll see in round 1.
These matches are really just a run, a bit like a racehorse racing at different distances before settling into the main focus of a campaign. While it's nice to say they should be a '100% all the time' in these games or 'you play as you train' it's now a bit cliché. Training loads and intensity are much more sophisticated than they were back in the days. We have no idea of the training loads in the days leading up to these games but I suspect there will now be a bit of a freshening up as we head towards the Richmond game. Skill errors by players are likely to  hurt their chances of  selection, so those who don't execute will be lucky to play unless they bring  other attributes.
We'll find out in a few days if what we've seen is what we'll get.