AFL Rd 6 2023 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs St Kilda

[Lods]

Saints are well coached. We knew that.

You need to move the ball fast, long and accurate to beat them. We didn't have Docherty and Saad today who are our best at that by a country mile. I'd like to come up against the saints later in the year with those 2 playing and see the difference. They were able to flood back chop off the space and force us to play the possession game. As soon as we stuffed one up, they swooped and scored.

That was the difference.

We had a shocker in front of goal. Easily 5 shots missed we'd kick most weeks. I think it was acres who chose not to toe poke one through from the goal square, instead letting it dribble past him....and the goals...in for a point.

But, its not all doom and gloom. We played poor, against the top side, and absolutely dominated them in the first half in every area except the scoreboard. Gives us something to work from, and we'll get better as a result.
I'd rather find out this now, than come finals time.

I'm going to agree with Kruddler.
It's early days but our seasons probably at a bit of a fork in the road.
How we handle the weeks leading up to the bye rounds will tell a bit of a tale about our coaches and their ability to rectify the issues holding us back at the moment.

We've come up against the form team of the competition after 6 rounds.
We've been all over them in a lot of the general play in the first half of the game.

Individuals are showing some good signs,
Some of the newer players on the list are especially promising and look to be set for long careers.
We go off a bit about McKay and his costly brain fades but he's been strong in the air and presenting well up around the wing area as well as in the forward half.
The midfield is getting a lot of the ball.
Walsh has had his two weeks 'easing'   into the season and is now back to normal

But there is still lots of room for improvement.
There is a group on the fringe who are probably looking at their last season as Carlton players.
We are falling down in both execution and decision making.
You would expect those things to improve as the season progresses, and if we have a bit of fortune with injuries we may do a reverse 2022 and come home much stronger in the second half of the year.

I was much happier with the effort this week than I was with the effort last week.
A word of caution though.
Outclassed and outscored, West Coast came with a pretty good effort against Port.
They had one bad quarter where things fell to pieces but it was fairly even apart from that.
Next week back at home for them will be a challenge for us.
It may actually be an opportunity to get a bit of confidence and system back, but take if for granted and it could also have the opposite effect.