2018 Rd 9: Post Game Calm: Carlton vs Melbourne

[LoveNavy]

To some extent, but we are missing a group of mid 20's players due to drafting failures.
Watson, Bootsma, Austin, Menzel, Lucas, etc. etc. etc.

Yes. Spot on. Add Boekurst to that and it's a telling tale :'(
Not on our list anymore but their shadow continues to haunt us.
Many of us have said it. Our middle tier flopped, leaving the elders to bring up the babies. Tall order.

[PaulP]

Quite apart from the issues presented thus far, we have probably got the worst bottom 6 players in the AFL, and as Robert Walls and no doubt others have said, a team is as good as its bottom 6 players. Mullet played 18 games for North last year, Vickery played 17 in his last year at Richmond - both those players  are cut, and the team improves ? Of course there is much more to it than that, but I really wonder sometimes whether the focus on maximising high end talent is overstated, and whether we should be trying to shore up our bottom end instead ? Richmond don't have much elite talent, but they have managed to sort out their bottom 6 beautifully. 

[PaulP]

Oh, and the scroll bar on the right side of the page is behaving strangely again.

[Lods]

Oh, and the scroll bar on the right side of the page is behaving strangely again.

It's only displaying really active topics.
If you want to post in another thread ...do so and it will become active on the scroll bar.

[Baggers]

Apparently Bolton blew up at the three quarter time break.
Even the commentators were impressed by the venom.
But...
Are our coaches making 'promises' our players cant keep?
Are their expectations exceeding the player's ability?
The players obviously weren't following instructions.
We've seen that a couple of times over the last decade...where a coach's plan is too demanding, or complicated, for the players at his disposal.
In that case either the plan changes or the coach changes.(We usually choose option 2 )

They key difference between last week and this was the effort and attitude...yep, you'll get that with young sides but that's one hell of a roller coaster.
The thing is...If we throw it over to the kids then expect the losses to exceed 100 points on many occasions while they develop...and we can't go whinging about that.

Actually Principal LODS, I think it is simply that last week we really didn't have an opponent and this week we did, and when the pressure came we folded badly, very badly. This is a theme with us, when genuine heat comes from an opponent, we fold.

I won a dubious bet with Mrs Baggers... she bet at loss by under 34 pts. I bet a loss by 10+ goals, just knew it in my bones that an in-form side would tear us up. Oh, what was the bet? Let's just say I don't feel as bad now...

I really believe that even with the Curnows we would have still suffered a heavy loss, not 100+ pts, but probably still around 10 gls.

Unfortunately I really don't think we know much about where we really are at present. I said a few weeks back that I suspect after the bye, when we have most players available, we should do better, and win a few games - if not, then I wouldn't want to be BB at year's end.

By the bye, or just after, we should have (by year's end, anyway), Williamson, Pickett, SOS - CUZ, Marchbank and Byrne. And we'll know more about the SOJ experiment as a mid/fwd, whether Weitering has regained consistent touch, Polson as a run-with, whether Cuningham can actually put more than 2 qtrs together, whether Kennedy is injured or another GWS dud.

Bottom line is that we need two gun, mature aged, BIG BODIED midfielders at this year's draft...no more little bodies FFS.  Murphy, ZF and SPS should be outside mids, not inside... just to fkn small.

If not for Cripps, god knows how many huge losses we would have had.

[cookie2]

Fair point.....our senior players apart from a few are not good enough to carry the newbies, Saints have the same problems.....then you look at Stephenson from Collingwood who has been playing really well but its on the back of a dominate Collingwood midfield who can get him some easy ball and use his running strengths.
Dow and OBrien have to win contested footy at the coalface which isnt their job, they are creators/runners like Stephenson but forced to do it harder.....

Does this mean we are on Mission Impossible? I.e. you can't do a ground up rebuild in a live AFL environment?  ???

[Lods]

I won a dubious bet with Mrs Baggers... she bet at loss by under 34 pts. I bet a loss by 10+ goals, just knew it in my bones that an in-form side would tear us up. Oh, what was the bet? Let's just say I don't feel as bad now...

Too much information, Baggers ;D

[hanwell]

I thought it was persecuting me!!!! I also can't quote or use the emoji's....

[Lods]

Does this mean we are on Mission Impossible? I.e. you can't do a ground up rebuild in a live AFL environment?  ???

That's always been my concern.
Had we not cut so deep and done it gradually would we be better placed.
Time will tell.

[Lods]

I thought it was persecuting me!!!! I also can't quote or use the emoji's....

That's a different issue....give it till the morning and then let us know if you still have that problem.

In the meantime if you want to quote just copy/paste