They changed their coach mid-season and suddenly started winning. Now there's an idea! Then they might see our side has some talent with the right attitude. In the end that's all it is, want and attutide, the difference between last week and this week. This difference between having talented young players ready to go one week, to everyone getting the sh1ts and wanting to trade them all the next. Let's find someone who can get our list to play with want and attitude then you'll see more performances like last week. Hopefully just 3 more weeks and he'll be gone.

Here's a comparison of our team on the weekend with the current best team in the comp:

Carlton

Brownlow contenders
Fevola (F)
Stevens (M)

Top Shelf

Scotland (M)
Simpson (M)
Whitnall (D)

2nd level
Fisher (F)
Thornton (D)
Waite (F)
Walker (M)

Fringe/Serviceable
French (R)
Bannister (M)
Bentick (M)
Bryan (R)
Carrazzo (M)
Houlihan (M)
Koutoufidies (M)
Lappin (M)
McGrath (M)

Kids
Betts (F)
Blackwel (M)l
O’hAilpin (D)
Russell (M)

West Coast

Brownlow contenders
Ben Cousins (M)
Dean Cox (R)
Chris Judd (M)
Daniel Kerr (M)

Top Shelf
Michael Braun (M)
Chad Fletcher (M)
Andrew Embley (M)
Darren Glass (D)
David Wirrpanda (M)

2nd level
Daniel Chick (M)
Tyson Stenglein (M)
Mark Seaby (R)
Quinten Lynch (F)
Brent Staker (D)

Fringe/Serviceable
Ashley Hansen (F)
Steven Armstrong (M)
Rowan Jones (M)
Ashley Sampi (F)

Kids
Adam Selwood (M)
Sam Butler (M)
Jaymie Graham (D)
Beau Waters (M)

And we wonder why we can't compete? I realise I'm mostly stating the obvious here but to move forward you have to know where you currently are. We have too many fringe players and not top shelf players. Murphy will join the elite eventually but we need at least one tall defender to replace Whitnall and three or four midfielders to join the top two columns before we can give the comp a shake. As it stands we are well off, and our nothing on our list looks like fixing that in the near future. It doesn't matter if we pick up Gibbs or Hansen with our first pick because either one of them fills a need on our list and we'll still have the problem with our 22 being stacked with a bunch of fringe players who should only be filling at most four spots in any in team.

Waite needs some decent coaching. It is not good enough to allow him to go to sleep, wandering around aimlessly when the opposition gain possession in the back pocket. Often stands in a preset defensive zone like a zombie,ignoring the moves the opposition telegraph when it is clear they are going to kick to his direct opponent, then suddenly decides to sprint at the opponent, who sidesteps and watches Waite sail past at full speed.

These are fundamental skills, easily addressable by proper coaching, but there is no evidence of them being addressed.

I thought Pagan's comments in his post match interview on JR were interesting. He basically said that Russell is tracking similarly to Kade Simpson and that they see his development taking a similar path.

Patience people. Patience.

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I agree with what you are saying about Waite. I think he could be one our top-sehelf players but he has to learn (be coached ?) how to play smarter. There is a lot of raw talent there it would be a travesty to let it go to waste.

Personally, I think he should be played on the wing especially when Josh Kennedy is in his rightful position at CHF

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I would prefer Buddy and Deledio over him.. and he lacks real confidence BB2005.

He might be a Jordon McMahon type if we encourage him to play like that.

His best attribute is his pace but you would never guess it by looking at him.

Watch Danyil Pierce and see how he plays footy using his pace????

JR is in his second year and has a long long long way to go..

Needs a heap of confidencve instilled before he will be anything. Right now he is playing very timid footy.

Id like to see him given full games and instructions to take the ball and run.

thats his strength.

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Waite is a bludger... he is a show pony.
He is beginning to develop some terrible habits.

He needs a stint at CHB.. so he can become accountable and have a task to follow through.

In the forward line he gets in everyones way.

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No fair enough...I actually agree with you, Jordan doesn't really look as though he has much confidence and belief in himself and looks a bit lost. I think he just needs somehow to have a breakthrough game where he gets a bit of the footy and his career might start from there. Then again Kade Simpson didn't have the most fantastic of starts to his career either so maybe there's a parallel there.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

The difference between Kade Simpson and Russell, is that Simpson doesn't jump at shadows.

Blackwell and Bentick had very little game time. Houlihan on the other hand had heaps of game time but if we're going to classify Waite as a Prima Dona then let's start with Houlihan first, though I do agree that Waite is fast approaching the crossroads.

AB was taken off after 5 minutes - that's great for his confidence. Blackers comes on, he's on for 10, then off. Great for his confidence. Then AB comes back on for 5...............whilst Houlihan stays on?????????

Coaching was appalling...........after half time, when we are 8 goals down, we line up exactly the same as we did in the first half. Once again, no innovation, no risk taking, flat as.

McGrath on Franklin for 2 quarters? Excuse me! After quarter time, Bannister was the man for the job.

Lance, once again, kept deep in defence - the opposition love that. Even when Fev went off in the last, do you think Pagan would consider moving Lance forward? No, he had an important task on a 3 game rookie to take care of instead??????

Just watched the first qtr and what was noticeable was the one on three contests in our forward line (what's new?)

Why isn't this addressed?

We are never any chance when we allow the opposition to play someone loose behind the ball (Hodge of all people )

Hawthorn youngsters seem to have a lot of confidence - all of them take risks and run the lines. Besides Simpson and maybe Walker, our youngsters look shit scared that they'll make a mistake and be dragged.

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I'm starting to think Waite will become our version of Chris Tarrant.

Jordan Russell has all the attributes to be a very good player. Remember he is only a lightly built 19 yo playing in a weak side. Give him time fellas....

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And that summarises the reasons for today's poor performance compared to last week. Not a talent issue and not something that a pick 18 will fix up.

Well, Denis was not prepared for that, it only happens every time we play them.

Who says pick 18 will fix it up?

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Great Post BW. Totally agree with you.

I'm gonna read the paper tomorrow and it's gonna say that the Blues just don't have enough talent and that's why they lost.

Was anybody else totally and utterly disgusted at how much we flooded today? Why? Why would we do that?
We spent more than 15min of the entire match without a player in our forward 50mtr!

We had forwards at home last week.................ones to lead, and others to crumb! Fev/Fisher/Waite were the reasons we won the flower game!

A week later......................we're either kicking to an empty forward line, holding the ball up waiting for our players to flood back, or kicking to a Fevola who's got two or three defenders on him and is forced to pull some magic out of his ass!

Disgracefull coaching. Sick of it!

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Love your posts, Frank, but can't agree with you on this one.

I know expectations were up because of the recent form of both lists, but I didn't think it was too bad today.

We played against a team with more talent, who smashed us in the clearances, got a good run with the umps, and kicked a lot of goals from snaps (only about 4 from set shots - 2 of them from Campbell Brown passes !). And we kept competing and got back in the game.

(And we kept that extra draft pick safe as well. )

Right now we have deficiencies all over the field. From French and Fisher missing basic shots at very important times, or Setanta being hammered by a young champ, to Walker and Stevo coughing up the footy and being beaten man on man through the middle.

The puzzle won't be complete until the ruck and defence is sorted - how long that takes is anyones guess.

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There was so much to hate about our first half yesterday.

Fighting back was great to see but it all came off Fev's boot.

God help us if he gets injured.

I honestly believe that we thought the game was going to fall into our lap, but what we are yet to realise is that we are nowhere near that type of team that can get smacked in the first half and then fight their way back into the game and win.

JR had 53 minutes of game time out of a possible 125.

He looks scared and nervous because he is not on the ground long enough to get a feel for the flow of the game. Our season is shot, so why not persist with the young guys and rest the older players a bit more.

Whitnall's 2 marks yesterday were unacceptable and he provided no service sitting deep in the back line.

Jarrad Waite, is talented but is seriously turning into a show pony with his efforts in taking the most basic of marks.

If we cannot get rid of DP at season's end then his support crew has got to go.

I said to my brother after the first quarter, that this must be an aberration after last week and he turned around and said, that last week was the aberration.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

The worst aspect of yesterday was the tackling. Anyone who tries to defend this by saying we had 56 tackles was not there. Absolutely pathetic!! What is the point of having TL on a coaching staff if it's not to improve our tackling???? Should be sent packing on that aspect of our game alone.

Agreed…it's been ordinary for years & although we have the occasional game where it improves (like last week), it is a weakness in our game that totally seperates us from Sydney, Adel etc. It's such a fundamental part of winning matches - keen to hear from training watchers just how much time is going in to practicing technique.

Disappointed yesterday Frank but surely the Coll & St K losses were worse?

A lot of the younger players had quiet ones yesterday which was the main downer for me, although you will get inconsistency week to week from youth. But Simmo was good I thought & Carlos' attack at the ball didn't waver, despite a rough trot against Franklin in the 2nd.

I thought Fisher played well but badly needs kicking practice.