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When evaluating a business, campaign or a football team there needs to be a post mortem conducted to identify what went right and what went wrong. Whatever the situation, whether it be a success or failure there are always positives and negatives to be identified if proper due diligence is to be executed. Call it Yin and Yan if you like.
Focussing on the negatives alone is imbalanced and not a true account of the whole situation/scenario. Those who do not want to participate in proper due diligence ie not willing to consider the positives, are not going to bring a balanced situational analysis, and therefore their input is not considered balanced and constructive. From my experience they are not invited to dine in future constructive forums, due to their destructive nature.
I along with most always expected Adelaide to be in the box seat and especially so on their home ground. On paper they are more than a 10 goal better team than Carlton. The Adelaide midfielders are one of, if not the most accomplished in the competition. Against such a background Carlton did fight out the game right through to the finish. They were not disgraced in terms of spirit, effort, desire and committment. That was a real positive for me, and a complete turnaround from the St Kilda performance.
At times throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters, despite poor execution by hand and foot, Carlton gave most observers reason to believe that the game was up for grabs, and a steal was a possibility. That's a positive.
To win the hard ball as often as they did against the formidable, proven Adelaide on ballers was a big positive. You do have to get the nut to have any show, and that they did; albeit they gave it away too easily. But there's many reasons for this and most times can be turned around when confidence improves (that's another issue). They've proven they can kick and handball, but just not doing it to our satisfaction atm.
Adelaide players ran hard to spaces, and when they have the space it does tend to make the opposition look ordinary, just as it does to all teams in all games at times. Lets not get too carried away with the Adelaide performance, as it was only 3 bursts of 10 mins football that gave them the game; it was by no means an avalanche.
Simpson and Walker are both JETS (good one gezman), and they are the two that possess the pace modern footballers and football teams need to be successful. They certainly showed they can break the lines and that they have the confidence in their own ability to do so. Murphy showed so much maturity for a kid, and over the next 2 years his pace will further increase in speed, and by the time he is 23 we will have 3 very, very fast, exciting players that will take our game the next step. ala McLeod and Johncock, Tyson Edwards.
Prendergast really impressed me with the ground he covered. He added a new dimension to the team dynamics with his height and body strength along with his pace. Despite his first kick and kick for goal in the last he certainly had presence. It's no good judging Prenders game on his first kick which was shithouse, but I suspect many posters only choose to remember this; leaving their analysis quite skinny and imbalanced. Have a look at the game and you will see him in the backline competing, and less than 30 secs later he is on the HF. Signs of a big engine; sadly a quality missing with most of our players at this stage. It's agreed by most non Carlton observers that Prenders earned the right to be patted on the back for his game. Well done and welcome back.
Scotland was getting a lot of receives, and that's because he positioned himself in the right spot to make this happen, but you cannot dismiss the fact that strong body work in the clinches and his ability to win or nullify in the hard ball gets was another side of the game that seems to have been missed by some. Just because he ran backwards at times, this is not something you can look upon negatively, especially if you consider that most good players create space like that; in particular, Goodwin, McLeod and Johncock. He played really good for 4 quarters. I'm sure he will learn from the kickout mistake. Ah shit happens to all.
Lappin in the fowardline. The memories of 1999 came flooding back. He's a freak, and it looks as though he is recovering well from the shoulder he's been carrying over the last 5 weeks. He really had a dip. In addition to him in the forardline, Whitnall looked good and dangerous when he was down there with him. This luxury could only have happened with Livo at FB. Livo did really well. Solid. Given that the ball was in their forwardline so often in bursts, I thought that both Livo and Thornton did well. Keep them both there, they understand each other, and I thought they had the better of their opponents.
No doubt that Bentick in the middle added strength and tenacity when he was there. That proved once again he is worthy to be in charge of the clinches. If it were not for the ball slipping out of the packs the Adelaide outriders, Adelaide would have been starved, and the easy penetration into their forwardline would have dried up if it wasn't for a bit of luck. Footy's like that. I was not convinced that Adelaide won the game because of brilliant teamwork in the packs, as we did it hard and luck was not on our side, whereas so many times the ball popped out in dispute and landed in the hands of a Adelaide. Bloody bounce of the ball.
We also need to be mindful that Fisher and Waite are out, and that we have a lot of kids still developing their game out there; Kennedy, Murphy, Bentick, Simmo, Walker and Blackwell. So the more game time they are given, the better they will be for us in the future. French coming back was another positive, because we did look stronger in the ruck when he was up against the huge Biglands.
The scoreboard did not reflect the effort, and all I want at the very least is to watch the boys have a dip for the whole game and for mine they did. I'm not easily pleased, but I consider myself reasonable, and have realistic expectations from this list. Skills, confidence may well be a reflection of the game plan, and we can't blame the players for the game plan.
Gee we looked good when we were playing attacking footy this week, it showed to me that the boys can play positive footy when allowed.
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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue
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