AFL Rd 4 2023 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs North Melbourne

[Baggers]

Cerra had his best game for the season for mine.  He has been another good investment.

Absolutely, 3 Leos. I was also really impressed that he played through the hurt, every bit as hard, having difficulty with the right eye and potential shiner as well.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I found that game very annoying & irritating.

We we were behind at the first two changes even though they were fielding a seriously undersized defence.

Furthermore, when we booted 10 in a row to get out to a handy 40-point lead, instead of powering on further to a 10-goal percentage booster, we rested on our laurels and allowed them to reduce that to the final margin .

McKay should have kicked 10 on his own, he had everything in his favour to do so ...... and as for that OOTF from the goal-line ........ FMD !!

Our players are not desperate enough, our players prefer to let a team-mate pick-up the slack plus we have some serious brainfades & yips when kicking for goal. I'm also frustrated at the skill level when it comes to player disposal, we make it near impossible for ourselves at times.

Granted, North are a better team this year under Clarkson but they are not a big player in the scheme of things. They were ripe for the picking but we either didn't want to do it or didn't have the ability to which is IMO, unacceptable.

The draw against Richmond was good, the win over the Cats was 'okay' (don't forget, they haven't won a game yet and got rolled by the Suns) & the win over the Giants was nothing special either.

It's great that we are sitting on top of the ladder for the moment but we need a collective improvement if we are going to challenge for a flag.

Serve up that crape next week in Adelaide and they will make us pay for it.

Richmond are still an unknown quantity and hard to measure imho, I dont rate them as yet and it will be interesting to see how they go vs another midpack 50/50 team in the Bulldogs who are also hard to fathom.
The North game wasnt a great spectator watch imo and was full or errors but you often get dragged down into the gutter with these crape teams playing their type of football which doesnt suit our skillset.
The good thing was we won comfortably enough and that was an improvement on last season where we lost these types of games.
The Crows will be the same type of game and another test in our ability to get the game on our terms for long enough for our greater talent to take over and win us the game.
The brand of footy we are playing isnt great and we have been lucky with umpiring(GWS) and injuries to other teams ie Nth in key areas that helped us but this is the best start to our season since 1995 and we know what happened that year so I'm going to expect the brand of play to improve and our wins to improve by greater margins as we get our best team on the park.

[PaulP]

North had more scoring shots, more I50's, won the contested ball, won the clearances. My big hope is that this victory means we are getting closer to winning becoming habitual, so even if we don't win every stat we still find a way to get the 4 points. But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

[cookie2]

North had more scoring shots, more I50's, won the contested ball, won the clearances. My big hope is that this victory means we are getting closer to winning becoming habitual, so even if we don't win every stat we still find a way to get the 4 points. But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

I think Vossy is focused on teaching us how to 'control ' games for wins and part of that is to let teams use up their petrol tickets before we really  turn on our attacking mode.

[PaulP]

I think Vossy is focused on teaching us how to 'control ' games for wins and part of that is to let teams use up their petrol tickets before we really  turn on our attacking mode.

Interesting that you should mention that, I was thinking along similar lines. North threw everything at us in the first half, whilst we played the slow, kick mark game, which apart from denying the opposition the footy, also means we conserve energy.

[Lods]

I think Vossy is focused on teaching us how to 'control ' games for wins and part of that is to let teams use up their petrol tickets before we really  turn on our attacking mode.

Yep
Their best chance was to hit us hard and fast with pressure and speed.
It was a taxing style that they couldn't maintain for four quarters....yet! (give it a year or two and they might be a worry)
We took control, and set up a pretty much insurmountable lead, before taking the foot off, and no doubt tiring a bit ourselves.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I think Vossy is focused on teaching us how to 'control ' games for wins and part of that is to let teams use up their petrol tickets before we really  turn on our attacking mode.

Good Carlton teams would win the premiership 3rd quarter even after poor first halves where the other teams controlled games and had the better of the stats. Its a good sign when you can play one good quarter and put rubbish teams like Nth away imho.
Save your 4 quarter games for the better teams....

[crashlander]

The feeling after the game was a bit like last week in a way.....4 points but a lot of improvement to come. To be 46 points up...should've nailed them to the wall and won by 10 goals or more but it just isn't something we're able to do. The first half was bloody hard to watch to be honest and North, to their credit, seemed to drag us down to their level. Apart from Shiels (post-retirement), Tucker and young Sheezel playing his 4th game, it was basically the same team that won the wooden spoon last year....and missing McKay and Logue...and Larkey on one leg.

North's style of play has improved a lot. They move the ball very quickly. They've had talent, they haven't had a style of play.

Goldstein was killing us in the ruck and Simpkin, Cunnington and LDU were dominanting in the middle.

It amazes me that Goldstein was not their 1st choice ruckman. He was the reason their midfield was so effective. We probably got more clear wins in the tapouts, but when he got his, North players were able to run onto the ball and get a destructive clearance. Our clearances were not that great, because our rucks didn't supply our mids very well. We really need to work on that, as North's clearances were much more effective than ours were.
Honestly, Goldstein almost was the difference/

But the 3rd quarter was exceptional to watch. The ball movement improved dramatically and we seemed to be able to chase and tackle...something we didn't do in the first half. Cripps looked buggered in the first half and plenty of blokes couldn't get near it.

We should be taking more advantage of the fact that so many of our defenders, for the most part, use the ball by foot really well. Weitering, McGovern, Saad, Newman, Docherty, Cowan......Young probably the only one who can be really shaky by foot.

O'Brien, Honey and maybe Ed out for Walsh, Kennedy and Acres next week? Not sure Owies will come up after only a week off. That should stiffen us up even more and make the midfield better again.

Thought Cerra was exceptional yesterday and his last few weeks have been really good. Newman was good again. McGovern played probably his best game this year and is incredibly important to us IMO.

Charlie is Charlie....he just finds ways to hit the scoreboard week after week. Harry should've kicked at least 6 too but his strong marking around the ground was a big feature.

One and a half of quarters of footy won't win games against the top sides but it shows that if we play at our best, it's exciting footy and Walsh, Kennedy and Acres in will have us as close to full strength as we've been for awhile.

[dodge]

Harry offered a week. Surely we'll appeal?

[ElwoodBlues1]

Harry offered a week. Surely we'll appeal?

There was contact but it wasnt malicious and the player continued fine, not much remonstration from the Nth players either.
Dont know how they missed Zurhaars stuff and yet pinged the gentle giant Harry...?