NAB Challenge - Carlton v Hawthorn @ Aurora Stadium

[Juddkreuzer]

Sloppy game by both teams. Bolts now has a better idea of what he's working with. Kerridge, Graham and Levi were all fairly solid. A lot of work ahead though.

[crazyjoedevolamk11]

pfft

[crashlander]

Done and dusted, yet we were not embarrassed. But our forward issues appear significant.

[madbluboy]

Gonna be a long year.

[shadesy]

Jones sucks

[blue4life]

Good to see us play again, I was looking forward to the new look Blues.
Some positives:
Jamison, Kreuzer and Thomas all look very fit which is very good to see at this time of year.
I like Kerridge a lot, he handles the ball cleanly and absolutely busts a gut, his third and fourth efforts in the last few minutes when the game was lost were outstanding.
Our better players all look to be going OK but we are desperately short of a small forward or two and our key positions remain weak.
Sadly the longer the game went the more ragged our skills became, once again our skills will be our achilles heel.
At least we seem to be a cohesive unit but I can't see us finishing out of the bottom four on tonight's showing, surely the Liam Jones experiment is over.

[DJC]

Kerridge and Wright from the Crows showed they will play plenty of senior footy, Nick Graham I thought was handy and made some good tackles.
Not much system up forward but I guess with plenty of rotations and both teams crowding the backlines it was to be expected..
Hawks cleaner with the footy and kicking by foot better was probably the difference, they did just enough to win and I guess thats how i thought it would go...

re: Jones....as Jack Dyer used to say he gets where the ball aint too much and flys for marks that he has no hope of taking......plenty of athletic ability but zero nous...

Major problem for us will be kicking goals with only Casboult looking like he can take a mark down forward...

I liked Jones' tackling but he never really looked like taking a mark.  What happened to Gorringe?

I reckon Bolton has a lot to work with but there's also a lot of work to do.  At worst we'll manage 6-8 wins if we can consistently play as we did in the first half.

[shadesy]

Done and dusted, yet we were not embarrassed. But our forward issues appear significant.

jones, Curnow x2 and Casboult all dropped easy marks in the last.

[cookie2]

Apart from F50 I thought we did show more purpose and that we are trying to play to a plan which reflected in the boys knowing what options were available and keeping the flow going. Big contrast IMO to the dithering and uncertainty of last year. We are without doubt still a bit rough around the edges skill-wise and this shows up against a well-oiled machine like the Hawks. We must persist and I think things will get better - we showed good spirit, contested very well and kept on fighting it out.

Kerridge definitely looks like he'll be valuable for us and Boeky showed more glimpses of what he might become, just to mention a couple. Graham looks handy too, as I expected.

Early days but we must improve our F50 play especially, that's where we are still falling down, failing to score and turning the ball over. 

We're pretty much where I was expecting to be tbh.

[Mondy]

Liam Jones will only play a game this year if the bubonic plague spreads through the club. Yeah, laid two gold tackles, but fug me his attempts at marks were unspeakably bad.

Thought Thomas was great.  Loved Bolts marking and attack on the ball.  Kerridge is a great get, even if his disposal is a bit rubbish at times.  Doherty was good.  Jamison was good. Rowe had moments - good and bad.  White does nothing for me.  Nicky Graham needs to play round one.  So does Wright who may not be a superstar but has footy smarts.

Overall quite happy.  Our delivery killed us - as it did last year - but it was a nice to see a system of attack and ball use that didn't involve hugging the boundary or stopping for ten minutes to think who to give the ball too.  My concern is that we will run like heck in the first half, miss opportunities and then tire out only to be overrun in the second half.

Still, I can see what Bolton is doing and at the moment I'm happy.