AFL Rd 1 2023 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Richmond

[crashlander]

Four umpires yet none of them saw McKay, Cripps & Curnow continually being held or blocked, somtimes they were bearhugs, other times they were sleeper holds.

Woeful umpiring !!

To be honest, I wasn't that disappointed in the Umpires. For much of the game they quite reasonable. But the way Grimes, in particular, and the Richmond defence as a unit, held and scragged our forwards without being penalized was beyond me. I recall Charlie being held in a headlock in one confrontation on the wing (which I think H marked anyway). That is something that really needs to be addressed.
Mind you, we also need to give Charlie a chance. We delivered the ball incredibly poorly to our forwards all night. Never once did we open the forward line and give a forward a chance to lead towards the ball. Some of that was because we won so few centre clearances; Richmond was usually given time to match up on our forwards. But, until we have our ruck combination right, that is gong to be elusive.