I’ll add,

I actually felt there was a small semblance of handball to players on the outside of the pack last night. Not just backwards but wide of the contest. It actually looked and felt like we structured up to receive the contested ball within some clear space. I like!!!

Just keep working on the f50 entries and creating the space for the hit up lead and the 100 extra possessions will translate into scores!!

26 picked for praccy match and we can only pick 23 for Round 0.

I'd have Fog, Chesser, McGovern and Byrne (he will get his chance) as outs with Weiters coming in.

Can we please pick Boyd. His kicking is elite.

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Go Blues

Did nothing wrong. Played multiple roles and did his part. Ollie was fantastic as well.

Williams kicking was woeful, I'm not sure I'd have him in the seniors for round 0, maybe need to go back to VFL and gain some confidence.

Yeah , that's the way I saw it . Just add a bit of polish to our inside 50 's .

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All my dangerous friends

Good win.
I hope that builds on some confidence.
The team looked a lot better this time, you can see what they are putting together.

Like i said in another thread, mids and smalls kicking goals will negate the loss of Charlie and they showed that last night.
Our key forwards kicked 2 goals, medium forwards kicked 4, small forwards kicked 2, our mids kicked 3 goals and our wings kicked 2.
That is a good spread of goal kickers and harder to stop than the long bomb to Charlie or Harry and our eff. inside 50 was 55% which is 15% up on our average last season.

There were some nice passages of play from the backline to goals and the tempo changes entering F50 looked a lot better, even if a lot of them didn't result in goals.
Still nowhere it needs to be though, but at least it is moving forwards.
Poor disposals affected us again last night (including some inside 50s), teams will be less forgiving in the main season.
Williams, not sure what was up with him but his kicking was off, so too McLovin.
We still have too many slow players on the team, especially around the contest.
I don't think we can have both Hewett and Cripps in the midfield at the same time IMO.
There were times at ball up that Geelong made them look like witches hats, even when we won the ruck.
I know this is something we are going to have to live with over the year until Cody and Butters (fingers crossed) get in the team, but I hope at least we give Lord more CBAs, he played well last night and has some toe.
I would've also liked to have seen Byrne get some midfield minutes, geez that kid is going to be good.
Jagga, nothing to add, he pretty much showed us what our midfield should look like, too bad we only have 1 of him.
Walsh showing the world that he deserves an 8 year contract, more of that please.
I thought Pitto rucked really well last night and Reidy done a few nice things around the ground.
Chesser showed us some more, the kid has a nice leg on him, he will be a steal in a few more games.
I thought Ollie played a lot better this game, although he still has issues with his delivery into F50 at times, nice goal.
Elijah played some good football in the second half, good to see him get into a groove again.
Ainsworth went missing a little but was working hard and Florent had a few questionable disposals but also some really good ones.
Kemp and Moir are tough to watch at times, Kemp was trying hard but just lacks that x factor and Moir has it but can't use it.
Not sure what we do with them, play 1 only maybe, but like Harry, all they need to do is provide a contest.
Our backline looked good (aside from Williams disposals), Young played well and Derksen, he may well be a steal also, great game from the kid.

And Dean, aside from Jagga this is my new favourite player, that kid has shit on his liver all the time.
In the rooms after the game when they were all sitting around listening to Voss, you could just see the anger in his eyes, he's nuts.
I had to laugh, he's a proper grenade.
Forwards are going to be shitting themselves in a few years when he lines up on them, he'll put the fear of god into them.
About time we got one, just don't get suspended before a final.

Overall, a good step in the right direction.
Well done Blues.

Absolutely 100%.

If we are to be better we have to move past these players and put other players in before players that continually don’t measure up
I get the fact that younger players need to earn their stripes and injury forces you to play some players

I think finally we are on the right track but let’s games into Flynn Young, Ison Wilson etc ASAP and move pass the players mentioned
This year is a year of development
Walker and OFarrell will be welcome additions
I love the recruiting of Byrne at pick 45
Derkson has to replace Lewis Young when Weitering is right to go

Hope your not so dismissive in real life

He’s not, but he does occasionally get tired of posters making calls from their lounge after watching a small snap shot of 2 preseason games. I agree that Saad and Gov are not in my best 23 if everyone is fit. But at the moment that is not the case. So Voss is trying to integrate a lot of new faces and some 18 yr olds. He can’t just snap his fingers and it all gels.

Really, what is your call for Young based on? 4 goals in the VFL? Did you see the game?

How about we all give it a few Rounds and then reassess.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

We looked much better moving the ball.
Still too many bombs into F50 but hopefully we get less of those.
(Although still want a few every now and then to keep opponents guessing…).

This was a practice game so I’m not so critical of Williams poor kicking or Cripps fumbling.
Williams sees opportunities that others can’t. His kicking is usually great but sometimes this appetite to take the game on will come unstuck. I’d rather that he has a go at creating attacking opportunities than plays it safe.

I think Derksen should play almost as a first choice KPD - I reckon he will complement Weitering in a similar way to JSOS last year.

I’m not sure we should play an extra ruck with the 5 man bench - think it might be more advantageous to include another runner. Especially against Sydney.

Scratching my head. I watched the replay and I thought Williams did some really good things.

Also want to say there are still many players in the side that are bad decision makers including Walsh. I don't think they are bad kicks ... they just make the wrong decision.

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

My biggest positive so far has been the form of Pitto. I think he playing some of the best I have seen.

Derksen gives me confidence. He will have bad games but I think it will be more positive than negative. A D50 of Weits, Deano, HOF and Derksen in 2027 looks pretty good.

I also loved the work rate for the 4 quarters. The majority looked switched on all game.

Ollie is off to a flier. His kicking has improved. Lord is a certainty for Rd 0.

Walshy is back to his best. That running goal was a ripper.

Harry is having limited impact so it is encouraging that we are still kicking goals around him.

Kemp needs to make the most of every opportunity. HE has AFL talent but his skill errors just take the polish off. Missed goals, dropped marks and ground ball fumbles are not good enough.

If he is going to be a big foil for Harry he has to stay in the game and stay involved. We can’t afford for him to simple float in games.

Loving what Ainsworth is bringing. Class and decision making.

It is very positive. Going inside 50 we just have to keep lowering the eyes and hitting targets.

Fingers crossed Weits is back Rd 0.

Regards Cazzesman

_________________
Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

I"m with you . Thought Williams went well particularly in the second half when it easily could have turned to shit . He was calm .

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All my dangerous friends

I think you and I are on the same page to a degree
But it’s based on output from some players over a number of seasons
Young looks a decent player to me
He also isn’t a kid
How many chances do you give Williams and McGovern
You know what your going to get
And their both into their 30 s
There not the future
The psychology of selecting players can work the other direction

I’ll argue that the selection of our senior team last year was so conservative and basically unfair
Eg Saad was shit
Wilson played consistently good footy in the twos for an extended period playing the same position but only got a couple of games at the backend of the season when there was nobody left
Not good enough
Voss is coaching for his survival this year
It will be interesting to see if older players are gifted games at the expense of youngsters performing in the reserves
And like you I’m entitled to an opinion

If you are anything like me I cringe when I see all the turnovers and missed kicks and handballs
Both Geelong and Lions actually turned the ball over more than we did
I thinks with this fast up and back basketball style of play that seems to have taken over the AFL the turnover is going to become the norm for all sides - Its taking advantage of these is what is going to separate the good sides from the bad.
I liked the fact there were times last night where they actually slowed the play down and controlled the ball

We are going to get frustrated watching it but we are going to have to live with it . Fitness and bench rotations are going to become critical

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

If you look at Carlton’s last 2 seasons
In 2024 we were the 4 th best offensive team but the 14 th best defensive team
In 2025 we were the 13 th best offensive team and the 10 th best defensive team
That’s a massive fall from grace offensively
If you look at the last 26 years teams have to be top 6 defensively
You are almost certainly have to be top 6 offensively
Only 3 teams have finished outside the top 6 offensively that have won a flag
2005 Sydney(14 th)
2016 Dogs(12 th)
2017 Richmond ( 8 th)
In a nutshell defense is more important than than offense
The club with its recruiting has tried to balance it all out
We are a work in progress
The watch overall this year is a marked improvement in scoring compared to to the other clubs without detracting from our defense improvement in 2025

better than being frustrated by our one dimensional play over the last few years

Derksen is a find, liking his output

Dare I say

Still undefeated in 2026

I'll add, we all know that Geelong and the Lions will reduce their turnovers and increase disposal eff as the year goes on.
We on the other hand are an unknown, given the additions this year surely that can only improve, hopefully others come along for the ride.

Interesting stats from last night.
We only had 1 player in Evans, have less than %60 disposal eff. at 47%
And we only had 4 players kicking at 50% or less, well down from last year when we had over half the team at times with poor kicking.

The bigger issue for us is sometimes we let ourselves down disposal wise at crucial times in either defence or attack chains and under little pressure.
Clean that up and we will start to dominate more in games.

I also noticed a few times last night that when we were under pressure from opposition players and had the ball, our handballs/knock ons/kicks were too rushed/fumbly and we went from hot player to hot player to sometimes clearing the ball to sometimes not. And when Geelong were in the same position, a lot of the times they were able to make better decisions and create space from the contest quicker and cleaner.
Not sure if that is a speed/reaction problem or decision making problem but I hope we work on that a bit more as the year goes on.
Jagga was by far the more superior out there for us in creating space from nothing, hopefully a few more can join him.
I would hate for him to stop giving off hot handballs because his team mates can't dispose the ball quick enough when they get it.

Either way it is good to be finally having discussions about players playing more of the current game style.
A lot of positives out of last night.