I agree, I just don't know how you can say he was ok without starring? He hit Fev lace out 3 times for three great ... points. He passed brilliantly to Murph for a great goal, and he often got the ball out of packs. Also put on one great shepherd which is more than most did, and had one good smother.

What do you all call starring? His game was better than at least 18 other Carlton players (and imo, 21 other Carlton players).

I think Carlton Fans have lost the Plot......too much negativity and Frustration at a Team that is just rebuilding...


robert Walls has issues with Carlton.. he is a Bitter person... i dont know his history, but everytime i listen to him, he is Whinging..... I lost total respect for him when i hear him talk crap about Holihan.....


We all know hola's terrible disposals at times, and his eratic decision making which sees him give up the ball so cheaply, but for a guy who is built like a Winger and never a hard core midfielder, i think we owe him a round of an applause, 35+ disposals last week, and 29 this week... he is at least 5th or 6th on the AFL list in disposals, and for the first time in his career, he is becoming damaging when he gets the ball in his hand...

Gary Lyon made a smart call when he said, Holihan must never be left alone or he will Hurt u, and he is hurting them, i Watched him closely, he hit the Targets most of the time, BUT he also did stuff up and turn the ball up on few occasions.....however when u consider how much he is getting the ball and using it, it suggests that he is muc fitter and much improved this year.....


Our disposals needs to be addressed for the whole team... its becoming embarrasing..... We are bringing down teams with us, the way we handle the footy....They labelled it a Comedy Show in the paper, and the week before " a game of high school kids "...

Rpbert Walls is and always will be a proud and passionate Carlton man. You won't agree with all he says but the reason he is so bitter is that he bleeds for the club.

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T E A M

He's actually 4th!

No, Hoola was good at getting the ball and very good in the opening half. he, much like other key players in the second half, caused a few significant turnovers that by the end of the night had infected all including the normally brilliant Murphy. 3 in the last quarter stay in the mind - horrible little chip kicks from half back. I dont think this is the normal Houla but he's effectively become our midfield leader as Kouta and Stevens deal with their own issues - and so we notice when he makes an error.

I think the lack of a CHF on the night (in teh second half) really cost us too. With Whitnall down back (at which point the game was lost), Waite chained to the goal square and De Luca having an 'Adrian' night of dropping marks, we had no real targets from HB to HF, meaning that the chip was the style we went for more often than not. I mean, Fev is a great target but not at 70m with 2 Tigers on him. Without that key forward up there helping him we're in trouble.

In Kennedy and Waite will be better for the run.

Wojee Wojee Wojee.

What's this all about from you?

"If you can't play the ball then I'll ignore your posts in the future."

"I'm not So if you're not Shane Crawford your opinion is worthless?"

"Just like your opinion that I'm a couch potato who knows nothing and is prone to sensationalist remarks I guess. "

I'm not sure what you mean by " [I] can't play ball" . Have I said something to offend you?

Why are you taking my comments personally? For the life of me I can't find anything that would offend you in my statements. And I certainly didn't suggest your opinion is worthless, nor did I make a comment stating that you were a couch potato. They are your words.

I'm playing the ball and am rebutting to comments describing Houlihan as

"F**!!))g hopeless"
"Softcock"
"turn it over every two minutes"
"shouldn't be tolerated"
"pathetic"

Just scroll up and you will find these comments and they aren't made by you. I have every right to make these comments; don't I? Is that not playing the ball?

I draw a comparison between those comments (I regard as loose and sensationalist, and no where near reality) and Shane Crawford's comments. No where in your 7012 posts do you mention this, so I can't see your point. I am merely suggesting a couch potato would have made those type of comments, because not too much thought goes into those types of comments; they certainly lack empathy.

It's half time on the replay of the game on Fox, and Brereton has made the comment..." [Houlihan] may not be in the Top 3 Carlton players, but if I was coach I would tag him, he's very dangerous out on his own, and one of the few players who can pass lace out onto the chest of a leading player. He's getting enough of it too."

Furthermore, in answering your questions (if directed at me) "So there's no scope for improvement? There aren't particular players who seem to get fended off regularly?" I agree with you that there is room for improvement for all our players, and probably every player in the competition. If they make you wince, that's understandable but I don't see you bagging our players with derogatory comments because of this.

Every ex AFL/VFL player I speak to states that the game is getting faster (no two ways) and mistakes are bound to happen often, but you can't call all of them mistakes, as sometimes in a team game players are made to look silly, when really there was nothing more that could have been done than hope your team mate could have been there to help; and that's a fact of life. That doesn't mean they are softcocks.

As stated I don't know where you are coming from with your comments. If it's an apology you are looking for because I am not playing the ball as expected, then, "sorry".

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

If it's the incident I think it is ... he tried to take the ball out oft he contest and the ball jarred free. Kouta had the chance to clear it but prodded it forward and it went out the back door to the richmond player.

It's amazing the level of criticism Houlas gets. If he doesn't get it, he gets criticised. If he gets it 30 times, he STILL gets criticised. His disposal wasn't spot on in the 2nd qtr but for the rest of the game it was superb. Look at the 3rd qtr and he does not miss a target, including hitting Fev lace out more than once ... can you say that about many of the others.

Also, the criticism of Stevens is appalling. He has been criticised for being too much of an outside player but when he plays a more defensively oriented inside game like he did on friday he gets abused. His pressure in close to win the ball was good ... and i can't recall him turning it over. If only Walker, Lappin and Bentick had the same level of skill as TC's 2 favourite whipping boys we might actually retain possession and occasionally hit a target.

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In WADA we trust

You quote my post then go on about couch potatos who are prone to sensationalist remarks. Is one not expected to infer you are referring to the person you quoted?
If not you need to be more clear.

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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

Wojee, to answer your question, the one's who should infer that I'm referring to them are the one's who make sensationalist negative comments, that are baseless. I've highlighted the examples for you above in my response to you.

I'm sorry, but apart from my explanation to you, in my response above, my references did not use your quote nor did I refer to your quote prior to this. There's no need to take things personally when a direct reference is not made to you. You don't need to read between the lines as I have merely attempted to be as blunt as I could towards the negatives; in fact, just as blunt as the negatives' comments were in this thead.

In future, I will try and be more clearer, perhaps I should have been directly referring to the actual quoting posters. Sorry.

Go Blues.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

If you are going to bag Houlihan then you would have to give Kouta a bake as well..thought he wasted the footy by foot more than Houlihan and got little result for his work....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

The problem with Lappin is he can not lift his are up more than a foot from his body.

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"Go blues"

Feel my love...............

Thought Houla was our best player .... his clearance work in the packs under pressure, with clever handball, was fantastic, and he was virtually the only Blues player who was able to do this the whole game.

Walls doesn't rate him because he knows he is not a collision style footballer, and this will always colour his thinking. He was the most damaging mid-fielder on the ground, despite having no targets forward of 50 to kick to most of the time.

Not sure what turnovers you are referring to Molsey ... I thought he only had one for the whole game.

The ones where he shanked the kick?

Incidentally, I'm not saying that Houla was bad, I agree he was our best prime mover on the day and together with Walker, Murphy and Mclaren (yes, on defensive efforts given the huge inside 50 count) was in our best. I just felt our senior players led the juniorplayers into skill errors when it mattered, and I noticed Ryan's mistakes (and Scotlands missed shepherd !) more than others. perhaps my expectations wre too high?

That was a defensively orientated game on Friday night?

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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

He was good at times but also terrible.

Good points:
Passes to Fev. Hit him on the chest every time

Bad points:
Kick out of the half back line on the southern stand/punt road side of the ground
When Richo came at him, he didn't stay down long enough

I'll excuse some of the bad kicks given he had no one to kick to

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Personally I think that Houlihan is playing quite well and the one who I think is having a bad season is Bentick and to a lesser extent. I'm not sure if this is because opposition teams are paying more attention to them or if they are having that second year dip that most players go through.

I never thought that Houla would be leading the team in hard ball gets and that Bentick would have 12 possessions with 5 of them clangers. Did someone change the jumper numbers and forget to tell us?

I think that is great for Houla and don't ever expect him to be a battering ram but he has obviously developed that side of his game and if Benitck and Carrazzo can lift we may be able to kick a winning score in a few games.

thpought Bentick was doing fine until he crashed into Richo. Don;t know how well he was after that hit. Oh apparently that was denis pagan's fault also. (yeah yeah...couldn't help myself...)

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Houlihan should be on 600K a year.

Dream team is rotting your brain.