Post Game Analysis: AFL 2020 Rd 2: Carlton vs Melbourne

[Baggers]

Newman out for 2020?
Recover well son.

Losing is always disappointing, and for some, infuriating.

Losing as many suggest, through poor goal kicking, inept adaptation to what's in front of you, and mental unpreparedness, heightens emotions. No doubt. The sought after W is so close yet so far.

Many have provided sound analysis of the problems and suggested plausible solutions. In the end we were caught short. Imo our shortcomings fell in areas amenable to correction.

I empathise with Baggers demanding mass reform. I also believe we have what it takes to climb the proverbial. Albeit not consistently for 4q. 6 of our last 8q has shown just that. I expect most footy fans would agree with that to some extent.

Aside from minor adjustments across a few areas, I see one main glaring flaw, and it's not new. Get another quality inside mid or two. Not an athlete or fly weight with fancy footwork, but an inside bull with footy smarts and effective disposal.

This could be SOJ and Kemp in future. Right now though, neither were available. We're still trialling young men in different positions and playing seniors in positions they no longer own. Fix that, and master the 4q focus, and we're in the frame.

Go Blues

Greetings LN, and happy New Year... ? ?

Many good points though I think you've confused me with someone else re 'mass reform'. Nuh, we're fundamentally on the right track and the 'comebacks' in our past two games were full of merit and fight and indicate we're, in the words of Renee Geyer, heading in the right direction.

However...

As I mentioned earlier our issues are fundamentally above the shoulders. Plus being 2 HARD mids short and some coaching intelligence for the midfield. Our midfield started like it was at training... bruise free/lacking mongrel, trying to finesse/easy way out and no initiative/boldness to respond to the Dees smart coaching in nullifying the Cripps influence. This is where one of our Directors, C Judd, should be exerting his expertise and experience... in terms of attitude and strategy, on the group and the midfield coaching staff (FFS, would someone please wrench Barker off the security of the CFC tit and bring in a midfield coach with smarts and a bit of shyte on his liver). And Stanton... really?

It was embarrassing how soft we started. How the hell does Murphy play as an inside mid and have 0 tackles... WTF? Even if we'd won, there'd be forceful questions being asked about our soft attitude and lack of smarts at game commencement.

I understand that we probably went for Lang when SOJ went down due to his speed... but fair-fkn-dinkum, the bloke fills his durps when he's confronted with physicality - we can't carry blokes like this (fair finisher but there's a reason the Pussycats were glad to see the @rs end of him) when you've got a bloke like Kennedy warming the pine who has a forward presence AND a physical presence. Blokes like Lang only add to 'softness' above the shoulders.