Kouta playing with a fever after getting out of his sick bed this afternoon

Fisher floating

The Hawks being FAR too confident in their own abilities to be a flag threat in the future, so cross them off

Me almost picking the margin in my footy tipping

Having about the same scoring shots (although shocking conversion)

A busier game from Jordan Russell compared to his first

One of Murphy's handballs was insane

WALKER

And Saddington looked better

Signed, an unabashed Whitnall fan

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"In better news for Blues fans, Jarrad Waite was not named on the club's injury list."

I think it is one of those games which it is not good to write after without cooling down a bit - i have waited a couple of hours!

Looking at the game objectively, we really had the chance to hit the lead in the third and put scoreboard pressure on the hawks, but we missed our chance.

Also, it was one of those games where nothing went right for us, ie. the 3rd qtr siren and umpires!!!

I think there are a lot of positives from this game, ie. walker, betts, deluca, whitnall, carazzo, bentick, saddington

I suppose we are all sad that it is unlikely we will be a finals team, something u always hope for at the start of the season, but it is also nice seeing new faces do well and develop. The youngsters will learn from this game and hopefully learn to take the chances given to them.

I thought setanta looked terrible tonight, and although i dont think he will make it, i certainly wouldnt write him off - to be fair, he should probably be given a few bullants games to get some touch, the same applies to jordan russell - both those guys would have been a bit rusty. I think JR will be a bit like simmo, he will take awhile to feel comfortable at afl level being so skinny.

Anyways, i am looking forward to watching our new onballers of bentick, carazzo, simmo etc, rather than last year where we got to see campo and kouta get run off all day.

Also looking forward to see kennedy play tomorrow!

Andrew Walker has 2 dads.

Lots of effort in the first 4 rounds

Walker has taken the next step.

Get to play our first choice forward line next week with Fev, Waite and Fisher hopefully all playing together. Might have won one or two more with this structure already.

We need to beat the Tigers next week, which we should do based on the first 4 rounds.

the biggest postive is without a shodow of a doubt is EDDIE BETTS!!! this guy doesnt know how to give up!!! We just need another 21 players with his heart and determination.

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#sayerscouldbetheman!!

HEY DR SHERRIN - READ THE THREAD TITLE!!!


Positives for me were:

Andrew Walker - he is our "go to" guy at the moment - find a problem and he'll shut it down. One day he'll hang onto one of those screamers and that'll be the day we can say "he has arrived"

Have we found ourselves a marking short forward? Great game by Carrots tonight - now someone help him kick straight!

Russell was quiet but didn't shirk an issue and his head was over the ball every time. Deserves another game.

Lance is on fire - oh I WISH we could play him forward in this form...

Thornton was pretty good against a faster opponent. He's regaining touch.

Fev (and hopefully JW) back next week!

And Walker did stand up for Lappin in the first quarter when the Dorks where testing out his shoulder .. Was right behind the goals and saw Lappin get niggled but was good to see Walker get between lappin and the Dorks and give back to them

Also some of the Walker defensive punches where fantastic to see he is really developing nicely

Hodge was the same in Schwabby's last season. Everytime he had to plug a hole he used Hodge cause he was the only player he still had any faith in.

Good to see the show of faith by Pagan in Walker, although really here was no one else with the pace to go with Croad on the lead.

Agreed.

On tonight's viewing, it appears that Houlihan has started to learn to control the ball when he wins it in the contests, rather than simply giving it up cheaply. Very impressive improvement curve that Houlihan is on at the moment. He's still winning the ball in space and delivering well, but he's learning to compete and scrap and win the ball at stoppages as well. Very well done, Ryan.

Kennedy won't get a game,they wont rush him in,Blackwell has waited 1 year and i presume Kennedy will play at least a month in the VFL before getting selected,unless he stars so much in the next 2 games there.

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Bang Bang.

You Mean his dad has two nads dont you?

You tell us!!

I think Walker came of age last night. Stepped up in a huge way. Fantastic!

Eddie Betts consistantly delivering.

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There's so much I could say...

Andrew Walker has stepped up and appears to have found his niche across half back.

I like the look of Russell and hope he plays again next week.

Murphy, Betts & Fisher are all class.

Saddington was a good pickup for a late draft pick.

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There is no footy god

About time someone mentioned Houla. He was our best player on the night - best game he's played at Carlton

There were several positives for the night but the two standouts for me were two acts performed by players in the last quarter.

Betts and Simpson created turnovers in the last quarter when the game was over and they were clearly outnumbered. It just showed me and hopefully everyone else that they have the right character to carry this club forward in the future.

Yes, I thought Walker was excellent tonight. Disposal was no worse than most and shut down Croad completely after his rampage in the first quarter. Gave us plenty of run across HB.

Thornton did ok considering he gives up a lot of speed to Willliams. Hawks delivery was pretty poor as well though, helped Bret.

We know that this is the kind of game Whitnall is capable of and demanded for years.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

thornton's total disregard for helping his team-mates was on display for all to see last night, he may have kept williams relatively quiet, but from where i was sitting there were more than 3 occasions when a goal could have easily been stopped if he were willing to leave his man, take a risk and help his team-mates.....instead of making sure he didnt have many kicked on him.

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Back like a raging case of pubic lice

I think there are numerous positives to come out of last night. I always enter the season with some hope that we can perhaps push for finals but the hard reality hit me last night. I think we need to form our opinions in the context of our far back we are coming from. We were clearly the worst team last year and we are coming from a long way back.

We played a full strength dawks side last night without Fev (who would’ve kicked 6-8 goals last night) and a player on the cusp of superstardom in Waite. The difference these two would’ve made is unquestionable. So in that context we did OK. The final margin was not a reflection of the contest. We were in it but in the end we’re our own worst enemy. The dawks were a lot cleaner in their delivery.

Houlihan was fantastic tonight. He is our most improved player this year bar none. He may be prone to the occasional turnover but he is finding his own ball and is improving his disposal. Not so much kicking when in space but in close stuff.

Walker – For a 19 yo with improvement still left in him, he’s going to be great. Played an important role last night

Others include Eddie, Fish, Carrazzo (although the shot from in front should’ve gone through!! ), and Big Red.

The thrashing of Lance in the first quarter does pose some worrying questions though about our set-up down back. We were OK against the dawks as essentially they only had Croad as a tall, but against other sides what do we do?

We had a lot of passengers last night and the dawks had three extra team-mates on the field all night. @#$%&! umpires!!!

Just as a sidenote, damn Hodge is a good player. Was a level above everyone last night. Whilst being diplomatic post-game, he was very glowing in his praise of our team. He said that we are on the right track and look out in 2 years time. I think this is a fair assessment of were we’re at. They are a probably a year ahead of us in that regard and have accumulated a larger group of top end draft talent since 2001 (being down the bottom since then). We get another chance at years end. And realistically we still need a lot more talent on our list. 1 KPP and 2-3 on-ballers at a minimum. A ruck as well in anticipation of French’s departure

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C'mon Blueboys!

Positives peanut.