positives:

- The only worry that I had previously had about Carrazzo was his kicking. Maybe that was because he looks awkward when he kicks. But yesterday proved me wrong by a fair margin - even on the run he was pinpointing passes. He also seems to have the time and poise to get out of sticky situations - that baulk around an opponent on the wing and then delivery to Lance on the chest was special.

- Whitnall is back. For a game. Everyone has been saying it - he really needs to show some consistency now.

And do you know what was good about his game yesterday? HE TOOK MARKS. Contested marks. Even if he is not kicking goals, he NEEDS to take more marks up forward just to give us a reliable target up there, and to prevent the ball from rebounding just as quick as it came in. Will be interesting to see how he goes next week - hopefully he can pull down as many marks.

As Garry Lyon said though, he was matched up on Andrew Schauble. You'd expect Lance to have a good game against him every time.

And did everyone see Lance's handball to Morrell before he hit the ground after taking a contested mark? Special, and, dare I say it, pretty clever.

- Waite. Denis would be grinning from ear to ear about the development of this guy. Not only is he kicking goals, his defensive pressure and tackling is great. Seems to be toning down his horrendous habit of giving away free kicks. And he is providing a 'link' marking player from the backline to the forward line. His marking is proving quite outstanding.

- Livo is showing enough to suggest that he'll make it. I have been a big critic of Livo for a while, but I genuinely hope, and now think, that he'll be a valuable long-term Carlton defender. Still has some development to go yet though - namely his bad habit of going to ground in a contest. It's necessary in some situations, but he will be caught out if he continues to do it all the time.

- Good to see Fev not chuck in the towel after a bad start. His defensive pressure has been excellent in recent games. Although I disaggree with someone who earlier said in this thread that it's because of his suspension. I think he realises that to get anywhere near the level of money he wants in his new contract he has to play at a high level. And that means that his defensive pressure has to be as good as his offensive form.

- And Bryan. Hopefully it's not flash-in-the-pan stuff. Great to see some long penetrating kicks into the forward line.

negatives.

- Houla's game. Didn't touch the ball much, although when he did he still had the usual polish. Is he carrying an injury?

- We should have won. We controlled the third quarter completely and should have kicked more goals. Although the loss doesn't hurt as much as it should.. I can see a PP on the horizon I guess.

- Campo, Kouta and Lappin's game. They didn't get as much of the ball as they normally would.. But I guess it was great to see us still be competitive when these senior statesmen had bad games.

-Teague had a bit of a shocker by his standards, but he'll bounce back.


I just realised that my positives far outweighed the negatives. Despite the loss, I was reasonably happy with us being competitive again, which is a far cry from our performances a couple of weeks back.

Although we only played Sydney I guess, who are a bit of a shambles at the moment I reckon. With the forward line that they have got they should be winning more than they lose, imo.

The was probably a little dishonest though.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I heard after the game that apparently Kouta has a wrist injury and was doubtful going into the game. Might have even been broken???

Apart from Bryan's debut, the biggest positive for me was Jarrad Waite.

Provided two of the best highlights of the match for mine. That courageous "running back with the flight" mark in our forward line. And that "over the left shoulder" snap for a goal.

Fantastic game defensively.
Fantastic game offensively.
Good on the ground.
Good in the air.
And he seems to have made huge strides with both his marking and kicking for goal!

Would have to be our biggest improver this year.... with bigger and better things yet to come!!

GO JARRAD! The sky's the limit!!

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

Agree - I'm glad he bounced back well from a poor game against Adelaide. Shows true determination to succeed, to back up a poor game with a very good one.

That snap was truly special, under enormous pressure and really out of nowhere, reminded me of Hird, McLeod at their best.

Goal kicking improving as well. Set shots were on target.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Hear Hear killpies,

Bloody spot on. I've been saying all year that it's all Gieschen's fault. Paying of pissy tiggy-touchwood free kicks which is causing the diving epidemic.

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If you'd given me the choice of going out and beating four men and smashing a goal in from thirty yards against Liverpool
or going to bed with Miss World, it would have been a difficult choice. Luckily, I had both. - George Best

I've had enough of the shit the umpires serve up every week, and we're supposed to treat it like it's Mum's roast lamb...

Tomorrow begins the start of the letter-writing complaints campaign to get The Giesch booted from here to eternity.

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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.

I was really pleased with the games of Walker and Davies. Neither had ballbusting numbers, but the the third and fourth efforts were fantasic... how good was Walkers chase to the wing in the 2nd. He must have sprinted 100 meters to force Bolton (I think), and then give another three efforts once he got there. Awesome. Went to the bench later in the game, absolutely spent.

As for Davies, he keeps making the contest. Yes he can be careless with tackles, but I'd much prefer that he keep hitting the ball and man (hard) than use the corralling tactic which has been adopted by Heath Scotland. I too, would love to see Justin get more time in the middle.

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Patrick Smith - Just another reason to HATE Essendon*!

We do corrall (spelling ?) a hell of a lot rather than tackling - quite frustrating especially when we do it around our defensive 50 then they hit the forward on the lead.

We would be leading the league in the corrall.

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Good point on Davies. He is a careless tackler.

But up until round 2 or 3 or so of this year, Jarrad Waite was a horribly awkwards tackler with those flapping arms. The stats say he is giving away more frees against than in the past (1.3 a game), but as a percentage of his own stats won per game, frees against has halved over the last two years.

So maybe Davies can learn over time?

Waite is developing into a quality forward and had a terrific game on the weekend with four majors. But is his chasing in the league of the Judas ? I noticed at a critical stage when O'Keefe took off down the ground and ended up delivering to Hall or another Swan for a goal, Waite was trailing badly and looked slow. Is he suffering from an interrupted Wizard Cup with fitness or does he need to improve his chasing like Fev has?

Players tend to do this when they know that they're slower than their opponents, and are worried about them baulking them and then speeding away. Hopefully as we draft and develop pace onto our list, we'll see less of this tactic.