Postives: We didn't crumble when French got injured like we have in the past. McLaren, while not dominating in the ruck, played well.

Walker has gone from strength to strength and his dashes from defense were great to see.

Fevola really played well. 11 goals after two rounds, can't complain about that.

- Lance was great in defence
- McLaren in the ruck in the 2nd half (i know he didn't do much but last year when barny went off we lost everything in the centre, i reckon dylan can be alright).
- Simmo, Bentick, Walker, Carrots & Murph all improving and learning at this level, but more so responding well to all that shit freo dished out in the first quarter.


Oh yeah and a guy named fev at full forward

as a whole team positive, we won the second half by a long way and given bit of luck with a few 50/50 decisions could have pinched the unlikely win

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SMFC 1959 : ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE, ONE CLUB

A great effort to kick 6 after copping a cut this large across his left eye.

He showed a lot of heart tonight!

Houla took a heavy knock and refused to leave the ground. Hopefully he'll realise that as long as he goes in hard he's unlikely to die from his injuries.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Here's a huge positive: Thornton beat Pavlich. After last year struggles and a poor pre season match against Geelong people on this website were out to hang Bret from the nearest oak tree. But in the real stuff he's beaten Russell Robertson and Matthew Pavlich in consecutive weeks. Great stuff

Pavlich is indicative of the Freo team. Down-hill skier personified.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Big positive is that tonight would have been a 12 goal flogging in the last 2 or 3 years with the amount of errors we made. But, more experience, determination and gradually more talent prevented a bigger loss.

Walker was good, he is going to be a very good player, have no doubt about that at all now.

Carrazzo, Simpson, Bentick are going to be an awesome unit in 2 to 3 years time.

Houlihan did very well after getting a big hit in the first couple of minutes.

Fevola is becoming the player I always thought he could be.

Just to be a little bit negative I think Nick Stevens should be the player we should look to trade-away for a top 10 pick in the super draft this year. Not value for money for mine.

We just got beaten by a more experienced midfield unit tonight.

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I am not sure why you guys are all so downbeat about tonight. Yes we lost, yes in the first quarter we looked like Carlton of 05, but we fought back into it in the 2nd quarter and were the dominant team after half time. This time there was no Freo taking their foot of the gas - they were crapping their dacks in that last quarter because our boys kept coming at them. Anothr 7-8 minutes in the quarter might have seen us home.

After half time we really applied the pressure (like last week) and turned all their cheap uncontested possessions into very expensive contested ones and our pressure on their midfield - where it was non-existent in the first quarter - was breaking down their game plan. They started making bad skill and decision errors becuase our blokes applied the pressure and really took it up to them. And when we started playing a patient game into the forward line, rather than the same old kick to Fev in a 2-1 contest, we started to score more quickly.

Fev was brilliant. He was held and scragged all night and was sheer class.

The backline was solid. Usually we get murdered by a Medhurst or a Farmer or a Pavlich, but after Livo was replaced by Whitnall there were no leaky holes down there to speak of.

Cory McGrath was great on Medhurst, and though Farmer got a couple of cheap goals I thought Walker was brilliant and really exposed Farmer's poor defensive game. He is really playing confident footy at the moment and his demeanour on field suggests he is enjoying putting an attacking side back into his game. Whereas his disposal has been iffy in the past it was all class tonight and last week - and his decision making is generall very good too.

Houlihan, Bentick, Simpson, Carazzo, Murphy & Sporn all worked hard.

In the end, it was a poor start and a great finish. I think the way we finished will give us great momentum going into next week's game. That high pressure game will work for us if we are switched on for all 4 quarters.

3 years ago Freo beat us in Perth by 9 goals. 2 years ago it was 6 goals. Last year ut was 3 goals. This year it was 2. Next year we'll rub Farmer's face in it and see if he wants to do his God gesture then...

Not that i am happy we lost but i think we prob should have won this game and it was our early errors that cost us the game.

As Simonverbeek pointed out

"1) Lappn's errant kick from back pocket - BANG
2) French;s errant kick from half back - BANG
3) Lappin's back pocket smother - BANG
4) Murphy's dropped mark at half forward - rebound - BANG
5) Simmo's scrubber with his good foot at half back - rebound - BANG
6) Scotland's "I'm gonna run and not kick to anyone until someone catches, then I;m gonna give away 50" - you guessed it - BANG
7) Can;t remember 7 fu.ck ups - it's hard work"

Most of these errors where silly more than just us being really poor.
ie marks normally that be taken or poor kicks into the man.
This is why we lost the game 5-7 goals handed on a platter.. Go to the second half and though there where the normal errors wasnt the silly ones that happend in the first half.
Also the Umpiring was pretty ordinary several holding the ball not played to the blues as well pinging deliberate on Whits

So all in all Freo didnt win this game we lost this game with some really silly errors which happened in the first half. When we settled in the second half we where far better than Freo and forced Freo to make errors and didnt do so many stupid things. The poor errors in the first half by the blues where mostly our fault not Freo making us do these silly things they just had a bit in the tail to capitalise on them.

Great game to Fev has to keep it up all season .. Murph besides the dropped mark did a heap of good things. Simo / Houla / bentick / Walker / Whits all good.

Average games by Stevo / Scotland / Waite / Lappin

Kouta Disposal pretty poor / Deluca agreed did some okay things but many situations turned over the ball

The fact that we bother to respond from a piss poor first quarter and a half to push the dockers enough to make them think twice.

Kinda reminds me of Sydney against the Dons last week, they were asleep in the first.

Very pleased with Fev and Houla to keep pushing themselves. Pleased that Deluca, who can't mark for shit, kept pushing himself and at least trying, unlike a few blokes in the first half.

Just to point out something about the T-Bird/Pav matchup:
Pav
9 kicks, 3 handballs, 6 marks, 1 tackle, 1 free against, 2 goals 2 behinds.
T-Bird
7 kicks, 3 handballs, 2 marks, 2 tackles

T-Bird did OK. A CHF kicking 2.2 is a bit poor by T-Bird but he pushed Pav hard. I still reckon Walker would have covered him fine for the most part, lack of ingenuity in the matchups. I personally forgot how long McPharlin's arms are. Absolute monster length. Needed a ruckman on him to spoil on the lead.

That brings up another positive, DMac's defensive abilities. Very good. Might prove value beyond back up ruck after the next couple of seasons.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

That was great to see. It was a very hard knock and Houla would have been excused for going to the bench for 10mins. Not only did he stay out there, but he was in the play shortly after.

Thats the kind of thing that will turn Ryan from a very handy player into a very good player.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I wasn't able to watch the game, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that the reason the small loss feels so bad is that we knew we could beat them this time. Really glad Walker had a good game, he deserves it after working so hard for the last couple of years.

Oh well, it's hard to be too dissapointed. We're still one good draft away from being a great side - there is no depth in the midfield when Stevens and Scotland don't dominate.

pretty happy with the game after the first quarter.

we got beaten, and i mean beat up by freo in the first half, there shoul be a few interesting days for the AFL to consider.

Carr is a flower rat, simple as that, hitting a 18 year old behind play, flower coawrd he is.

Really happy with Walker - nothing more needs to be said.

And one other, who shits me at times, Houla, was great today, after getting poleaxed by Medhurst (Has to get 2 or 3 weeks) he played really well. Well done Houla.

Fev was great as usual, but i think not having Fish in the Forward Line made us a little one dimensional. Fisher, bring in Chambers? saw now benifit in that what so ever, Chambers will not be at the club next year.

Deluca should not be playing. I dont like being over negative against our players, but we as a side will get far more benefit having Setanta in the side playing the same role and getting valuable experience in the process.

The negative?

Farmer didnt get his teeth smashed in. I flower hate the cauliflower, really i do, there are players i dont like, but i always give credit where it is due (case in point Llyod - i love giving to him, but he is a good footballer) but Farmer, may he die of cancer of the rectum.

I would love to play one game of AFL against Freo where i would have the pleasure to flower kick his teeth in. Wife beating cauliflower

overall though, pretty happy with our game after the 1st quarter, we where the better side IMO, had a few shit decisions not go away, thought the umpires where a shambles with some of their decisions and in the end it was probably the umpries that cost us the game to be honest.

\pretty happy with it all

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

They gave the Dockers a big head start, which was disappointing, but they fought out the whole match, and never gave up.

As has been said, in the last couple of years, after a Q1 like that, we would have looked down the barrel of a hunji smashing.

For the boys to stick it out, especially a young team in the face of some deliberate physical intimidation was heartening.

The fact that we came back to 15 points still doesn't let Connolly off the hook.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

As I said to my mate leaving the ground.

Freo got the points tonight but I don't think they were the real winners.

I haven't seen any mention from anyone, but I'm worried about Lappin getting pinged for lashing out at Dodd in the first Q. Dodd was just a filthy filth-bag behind play and deserved a whack, just not such an obvious one.

Can't wait for Bower to make his way into the side. That boy's gonna be an enforcer. Setanta too.

Aaron Sandilands is just plain wrong. They should name a syndrome after him.

Say, Prez, what's your opinion on Jeff Farmer?

The positive for me is that we can look forward to playing last year's Premiers and be in with a big show.Remember last year ? We were with them until the last 10 mins.
Yep ! The positive for me is that we have a team that is good enough overall to be competetive on a weekly basis.Being old school Carlton,i always believe we can win.Any Carlton supporter worth his salt should think the same way.

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All my dangerous friends

F*cking oath!!

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Well said Hammer. The signs were there for an absolute belting but this team proved they are made of sterner stuff than the last couple of years.

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"Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about puppies." - Gene Hill

Only four players had less than 10 possessions. Last year it was not uncommon for half the team to have less than 10. I know you still have to use the ball well when you get it, but it at least shows that we're getting it.

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Wherever you go, there you are.

Ponkstar, I don't think they showed the Lappin hit on TV. I can't remember seeing the incident & none of the others I watched the game with mentioned it either. So he should be ok.

Positives:

T-Bird - I thought he did a great job on Pavlich.
Walker - Great run out of the backline & looks like his confidence is up which is great.
Simmo, Carrotts, AB, Murphy - Playing in a game where it was tough at the beginning & not going into their shells.
Fevola - Awesome.
Sporn - A great game for him. I've always rated him very highly. If not for injuries he would be in our starting 22 every week.

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