tough listening to it only and having no view of the game so would appreciate some insight.

we were smashed, it appears, in the clearances today.....the radio commentators kept refering to it and the stats illustrate this as well.

Surprising we matched them for hit outs, but the possession rate of some our younger blokes were disappointing i.e AB, Luke Blackwell and Russell all failed to gather over 10 possessions.

were they not up to it?
how much game time did they get?

I know Stevens (34) and Scotland (24) picked up their share - but i was expecting against a young team like the hawks, to gauge the progress of our younger blokes.

That they didn't perform (on paper) was my biggest disappointment in a game marked as a yard stick for our progress with the kids.

would welcome some balanced perspective from viewers.

we were absolutely smashed in the centre clearances everytime they had the ball they always had heaps of numbers running alongside them whereas when we had the ball we'd run with it, then stop then run the other way then get caught then offload a loose handball which would get turned over it happened heaps of times, it just seemed like we didnt have our usual run. i was watching some players i.e. crawford and they'd be with a carlton player and then they'd start sprinting away and the carlton player wouldnt run with him he'd just casually jog, i saw houlihan do this about 3 or 4 times. we have to run harder.

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Last edited by true_blue3 on Mon Sep 26, 1981 5:07 pm; edited 92 times in total

Blackwell didn't have much game time from what i could gather watching it on Foxtel. Possibly 30mins?

Bentick was smashed by Mitchell, was constantly second to the contest. Poor game this week.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

As they say 90% of this game is played above the shoulders. Hawthorn were switched on right from the start and we were not. We were torn a second asshole in the first quarter in the centre square.

Blackwell spent a fair amount of time on the bench. Russell had a 'mare with every pass in his direction just dropping short and he was unable to gather on the half volley. Bentick got beaten by a player who plays the same style of game as he does in Mitchell. Carazzo had no impact and I believe he might struggle to hold his spot next week as he just turns it over so freaking much!

None of the harassment and pressure that was so evident against Melbourne a week before was on display until the latter stages of the 3rd quarter.
We definitely lack leg speed through the middle and the Hawks exploited that at every opportunity with Bateman, Crawford, Sewell,etc taking us on.

We did improve in the second half but the horse had bolted. Lesson to be learnt from the game is the need to be switched on from the start.

Sam Mitchell is as good as it gets when it comes to clearances and he seems quicker and stronger...we couldnt tackle him and he actually burned off Bentick and AW in one passage of play..
In Benticks case its no disgrace to be beaten by the best ...he has to learn from it and use Mitchell as a role model player who he has to apsire to...ditto for Blackwell.
Dont drop them though....Bentick will have Shane Tuck, Johnson etc this week so he needs to use what he learned playing Mitchell and serve it up to Tuck and co...be more proactive..

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

that's one lesson we seem to have to learn at least once every month when are we going to learn it for good?

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Last edited by true_blue3 on Mon Sep 26, 1981 5:07 pm; edited 92 times in total

Teams know that if they run hard, we will not be able to keep up.
Freo, Hawthorn, Richmond, St. Kilda... They all ran us off our legs.

I think today showed the importance of keeping Nick Stevens and the experience of Matthew Lappin. Without these two we would have been belted which would have done nothing for the kids we have in the side.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

Carlton are so thread-bare thin on talent its ridiculous to even contemplate trading Nick Stevens (and its the same as those who wanted to trade Fevola last year). Stevens like Fevola is genuine talent, something of which Carlton has very little.

In all honesty some of our kids will be okay, but most will just be battlers (Bentick, Wiggins, Carazzo, Russell etc.) who will be servicable but not elite, and Walker may be a little more than servicable but his disposal is horrendous and feel he will be massacring the ball with poor disposal and decision making his entire career with the Blues.

We certainly got smashed in clearances. Hawthorn took the ball away with ease time and time again. We looked so different from the week before.

No intensity & No run. Banno and Simmo seemed like the only 2 players that tried to match it with there run and intensity, but can't do it on there own.

Our tackling is not good!!!!
Teams stand up in our tackles and we dont wrap up the arms and it allows the easy handpass. 2nd half our tackling got better and it was making Hawks think twice about taking us on. Say what you will about junk time goals, when we all the players lifted in all parts of there own games we had Hawks worried.

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Not so best of TheSexySquad


AWWWWWW STEVENS.

im glad someone else saw it as well.

i think Russel is about to go through what i like to call a "Andrew Walker" phase.

everyone will bag the shit out of him whilst ignoring the fact that he is a kid, still growing and still learning the game.

what is he up to? 10 games?

i have alot of time for JR, just like i did walker and im as positive about JR as i was walker that JR will become a very very good footballer for the CFC.

He is a little rabbit in head lights at time, but i put that down to him over trying a little, reading the article last week about him, he seems so worried about "stuffing up" that it is affecting his game.

the parallels of JR and walker are almost identical.

im not saying JR will be as good as walker, just saying that the will both be quality with time and now Walker is on the end of his "bashing phase" and it is now "JR's turn.

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

One more black mark against Libba, for mine....

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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.

What was most disappointing was how easily in the last qtr, Mitchell cleared the ball to Williams when we were on the attack and it pushed the Hawks lead to 17 points.

Our intensity went AWOL and we can ill afford to have players go missing, which is what happened yesterday.

Very disappointed that we didn't try hard for 4 qtrs, but that seems to be the pattern for our year.

Only 3 more weeks of this and then bring on the November Draft.

Skills training cannot begin soon enough and under the right match day conditions.

Kicking the ball at training does not make a skills session.

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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.

Bateman, Crawford, Mitchell are all tough and fast footballers with great skills, add Sewell and Ladson (?) and they had a fairly good midfield.

What happened?

They took the risks, ran straight forward in numbers and took us on. They broke tackles easily and we didn't/ couldn't. I thought tacking was not up to scratch, in fact very very poor (not necassarily Libba's fault, because he could still tackle better than those in the middle, Stevens included).

They took risks, and gained confidence because we let them. Blue boys were not switched on.

Russell presented well, and delivery to him was ordinary (Scotland's 2 passes to him early on went over his head and didn't make the distance). Very unlike Scotland circa 2006.

Blackwell appeared to have no one to kick it to when he was on, but was OK given he was not on the ground for long. Damage was done before Blackers was on the ground.

AB was crunched everytime he got the nut. He was tough and applied himself well, but couldn't break the great tackles laid on him. Hawks hunted us in packs when we had first hand on it.

Houla played his worst game for the year, although he did quieten Crawford later in the game. Credit to him, but more is required. Scotland's disposal was not normal. Walker was in a BP and didn't see him in the first half.

The more risks we took as the game wore on, the more lines we broke, the better we played. Free abandon...loved it. I loved the style of play the Hawks were encouraged to play.

A game of two halves.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Not as tough as watching it...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

They showed up to play in the first half and we didn't. It was clear within the first 5 minutes that none of the running/chasing/harrassing from last week was on display by he Blues this week.

Mitchell was awesome but it certainly didn't help our cause that he had no opponent for basially the whole first quarter. Just ran around doing whatever he wanted, it was ridiculous.

It's always hard to tell whether they dropped off their work rate (as teams 60 points up are want to do) or whether we lifted in the second half, but I thought the final score probably reflects the margin between the sides at the moment. You can say what if Fisher, Betts, Bryan, Fevola and kicked even half the gettable goals they wasted, but the Hawks deserved the points.

Buddy is a handful at 19. I don't want to know what he'll be like when he's Fev's age, but I sure hope we have Hansen to match-up on him then cause no one else in our side can.