2018 Rd 4: Carlton vs North Melbourne in Hobart

[cookie2]

I don't understand what the posters here are on about, Norp look bigger and heavier than us on paper, and a centimeter or two means diddly squat!

They way Kruddler carries on you'd think that a 2cm difference is like swimming across the Atlantic!

The bigger problem for us is we are carrying too many slows players rotating through our midfield and forward line that cannot hit a target. They miss targets by hand and foot then get run off by the opposition defenders on the turnover. This creates havoc for our defense as that have to deal with unmarked and unhindered opposition players streaming into 50m.

Banging on about our defense is basically complaining about the symptom and ignoring the cause!

Agree. Therein lie too many of our woes. We are too often totally wrong-footed especially now we are trying to be more attacking.

[LP]

Agree. Therein lie too many of our woes. We are too often totally wrong-footed especially now we are trying to be more attacking.

Further on the skills front.

You can get away with being slowish in the midfield if you are A-Grade on left and right foot, so good that people cannot tell which leg is your natural leg.

We have slowish players, many of them are mostly one sided.

[Lods]

Norp look bigger and heavier than us on paper, and a centimeter or two means diddly squat!

It's a fair point
Height is only one variable, and if were talking centimetres....leap, reach, weight, strength, maturity, speed all have a bearing.

In the first couple of weeks our guys seem to have been out-bodied and out positioned many times by shorter players.

Form, confidence, awareness and effort are other factors.
All seem to be in play at present.

Some are fixable short term...others may require a season or two of experience, training and maturity.
Still others will be measured and found wanting.

[ElwoodBlues1]

It's a fair point
Height is only one variable, and if were talking centimetres....leap, reach, weight, strength, maturity, speed all have a bearing.

In the first couple of weeks our guys seem to have been out-bodied and out positioned many times by shorter players.

Form, confidence, awareness and effort are other factors.
All seem to be in play at present.

Some are fixable short term...others may require a season or two of experience, training and maturity.
Still others will be measured and found wanting.

North have a lot of weak bodied players like us, they dont play a physical game, Goldstein is one of the more gentleman like ruckman, their toughest player is Cunnington but he isnt a sniper type.
They dont have any real A grade superstars and their coach isnt the brightest either.....no excuses this week, I expect to win and comfortably, if we cant beat North then we have gone backwards.

[rocky]

I have no confidence at all going into this game. I can see the logic in playing a couple of the bigger bodied boys based on the weather forecast but I'm kinda glad we're giving the younger blokes a run at it as I think we need to start adopting a sink or swim mentality after 3 years of drafting.

Weather could help us a bit with combating Brown and Waite in the air but the seasoned north bodies around the ball are better placed than our tiny tots (excluding Crippa). I'm hoping and praying that the worst of our football is behind us and we can start to play better. I think a 20% improvement by our boys would be enough to get over these flogs.

[cookie2]

North have a lot of weak bodied players like us, they dont play a physical game, Goldstein is one of the more gentleman like ruckman, their toughest player is Cunnington but he isnt a sniper type.
They dont have any real A grade superstars and their coach isnt the brightest either.....no excuses this week, I expect to win and comfortably, if we cant beat North then we have gone backwards.

I will stock up on a few frothies EB, based on your confidence! I guess I'll drink them anyway.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I will stock up on a few frothies EB, based on your confidence! I guess I'll drink them anyway.

Cookie, I just think the club have to draw a line in the sand and say this is a winnable game and our experienced players need to lift and drag the kids along
for the the ride. No more green shoot excuses or synergy cliches, this is a simple game of footy to be played in real football weather more than likely, between two clubs who probably lack real
depth in talent and its going to come down to effort more than pretty skills.
This is backs to the wall stuff, members/supporters want a win not another cliched press conference of excuses.....if we can harness the same effort we displayed vs Richmond that should be enough to win over a very ordinary North Melbourne team also stranded in the wilderness....Bolton needs to do a Moses, buy a compass and take us to the promised land....

[cookie2]

Cookie, I just think the club have to draw a line in the sand and say this is a winnable game and our experienced players need to lift and drag the kids along
for the the ride. No more green shoot excuses or synergy cliches, this is a simple game of footy to be played in real football weather more than likely, between two clubs who probably lack real
depth in talent and its going to come down to effort more than pretty skills.
This is backs to the wall stuff, members/supporters want a win not another cliched press conference of excuses.....if we can harness the same effort we displayed vs Richmond that should be enough to win over a very ordinary North Melbourne team also stranded in the wilderness....Bolton needs to do a Moses, buy a compass and take us to the promised land....

I really hope you're right EB - those beers would taste especially good as I watch the game. It would be especially "delicious" (to borrow a phrase!) if we could win whilst playing the young guys.  8)

[rocky]

On a side note it will be interesting to see how Dow v Davies-Uniacke go in this game. Neither has set the world on fire so I'm expecting one or the other to improve significantly to earn some cred re their draft order selection. Hopefully our boy shines through.

[slikguy]

On a side note it will be interesting to see how Dow v Davies-Uniacke go in this game. Neither has set the world on fire so I'm expecting one or the other to improve significantly to earn some cred re their draft order selection. Hopefully our boy shines through.

Our boy can’t kick! It’s stupendous that we picked a kid at #3 and he can’t kick. Call me crazy but I fear we may have made a grave error.