NAB Challenge: Carlton vs. Essendon Sunday 28th Feb

[flyboy77]

White didn't play afaiaw?

My take, having watched some chunks on TV (in replay).

Must be hard to switch on knowing half your senior team (and the entire midfield) had a training session in the morning and were getting a massage/having a cup of tea when the match was on.....Everett & Rowe looked as interested as a snail post choofing on a joint.

Poor onfield leadership? Arguably, but all our players knew it was a scratchy.....

Agree that it was a poor PR effort from Bolton & Co putting a no names team out there.

Find it beyond ridiculous that people slam the forward line - if your mids aren't winning the ball, let alone kicking around corners/sideways/backwards - well, of course your forwards aren't going to dominate/kick goals.

22 scoring shots to 12 says it all. Poor conversion rate by our lads again.

Remember the names that were out yesterday:

Gibbs
Cripps
Murphy
Kerridge
Thomas
Wright
Kreuzer
Walker
White
Armfield (?)
Plowman (will be a gun)

Key takeaways:

Weitering is/will be a gun.
Tutt - as one example - will only ever get a game if we have large scale injury issues
McKay to play ahead of Jones - from Rd 1. Might as well get the kid battle hardened asap.
Clem has a ways to go but i reckon could get there (but in what position)
Phillips/Gorringe - did Korchek play at all?

That some punters canned Cuningham mercilessly after 1 pointless fluffy game is simply shameful.

[Lods]

Find it beyond ridiculous that people slam the forward line - if your mids aren't winning the ball, let alone kicking around corners/sideways/backwards - well, of course your forwards aren't going to dominate/kick goals.

I don't think folk were critical of the forwards....there were no forwards to be critical of until Jack and Harry came on and they put in.

[Barbs]

Well it sure was a bitter pill to swallow going down like that to the bombers. I have to keep reminding myself it is just preseason - Bolton is clearly experimenting with players and treating this more as a training activity than the opposition (limiting the number of interchanges for example).

While I expected to lose I did hope for a better showing at the old home ground. As many posts have already pointed out we did go in with a very young and inexperienced team, and it seemed that the experienced players weren't given much of a run (were simmo, casboult and jammo subbed out after half time?) Hopefully for the final pre-season game we get to see a bit more of our core group playing. Perhaps the match against Sydney is also the time to finally try Jones out as a full back too?

Perhaps my main area of concern is still the way we use the ball though and I'm not sure just brining Murphy, Cripps, Gibbs, Walker, Thomas and Kreuzer back will fix it. As with last year we still seem far too reliant on long kicks in hope - especially in clearing the backline. The whole team need to get better at linking up and running (harder) with each other to control the play and work it up the ground better. We seem to really lack players willing to just tuck the ball under the arm and run hard these days, especially in the back line. I had hoped Bolton would have made this change to the game plan in the off season.

Some positives - the new kids did some good things. Weitering almost looks ready to make CHB his own, SOSOS looks really lively (how big were the cheers every time he got his hands on the ball!) and it was great to see some mongrel in Mckay and Curnow (they are both going to be beasts when they fill out). The 3 qtr time mini melee with our new young guys was great!

If anything, the match was the reminder we needed that there is probably more pain to face this year before things get better. Nevertheless I'll still be buying my membership this week - have to support the team now more than ever.

[BluePhantom]

Nice post Barbs.

I'm worried we don't seem to work hard enough when our players don't have the ball. All that gut running, all the 1%ers.

People talk about our kicking being poor, I see it as the people without the ball don't work hard enough to create options.

[cimm1979]

Nice post Barbs.

I'm worried we don't seem to work hard enough when our players don't have the ball. All that gut running, all the 1%ers.

People talk about our kicking being poor, I see it as the people without the ball don't work hard enough to create options.

Not sure yesterday was a day for assessing work rate.

Half the side would have been cooked after 40 minutes.

BB also said we are in the middle of a very heavy traing load. That means you can't finish as well.

[Jeffy38]

As others have stated though the facilities there would need a massive improvement/renovation. It was a nostalgic journey to go back again for sure and the playing surface looks great - BUT! The rest of the spectator facilities look very run down, verging on the derelict, and that made me somewhat sad. Almost like being in a ghost town visited by tourists.

Grigg said as much this morning, any return of games would require massive capital which we don't have. A lot comes down to the afl and would they
Schedule games there. It is still a long term proposition but I get these sense there would be a groundswell of support for our return there

[BluePhantom]

Not sure yesterday was a day for assessing work rate.

Half the side would have been cooked after 40 minutes.

BB also said we are in the middle of a very heavy traing load. That means you can't finish as well.

That's fair enough for yesterday Cimm but what about our other games?
Hopefully BB has something up his sleeve, he seems to be pretty savvy.

[blue4life]

I cant believe the majority of posts after yesterdays game. 

It's a practice game after all, a game to prepare for the real thing. Our best 6 players on the list were not there, and replaced with 6 players who had never played a single game!

Given that 12 of Essendon's best 15 were missing most of us probably expected a tighter contest, particularly at Princes Park, or at the very least to see some acceptable level of skill.

[blueday]

Given that 12 of Essendon's best 15 were missing most of us probably expected a tighter contest, particularly at Princes Park, or at the very least to see some acceptable level of skill.

This what we were asking for, no half measures, commitment to what is best for the long term. This is what we need and we stick to that plan the coaching team we have invested in has developed. If people are going to get upset about a round 2 NAB cup game, in which we blooded every single kids we drafted the prior year then god help us all.

PS Seeing SSOS live a PP was great, moves just like the old man.

[ItsOurTime]

BTW, what was up with SOS Jr playing? I thought that shoulder was going to put him out of action for most of the season?