Review 2020 Season Review - Pros & Cons

[F_therest]

Didn't see a thread on this so thought i'd make one to review the season.
What's everyone's reflections on this year both good and bad?

Cons

• Consistently unable to stop opposition momentum, often coughing up 5+ goals in a row.
• Our ball movement but mid-forward connection in particular was pretty poor for most of the year.
• Some players I have high hopes for not showing improvement like Cuningham/Dow/LOB/Stocker.
• Kreuz & Simmo retiring ...(though not actually a bad thing for us to move past them).

Pros

• On the flip side of the opposition momentum point above, we also often kicked multiple goals in a row or controlled large portions of games.
• Our best footy this year was scintillating and the best footy I can remember us playing...eg first quarter vs Hawks, first three quarters vs Geelong, Bulldogs game.
• We blooded and saw some promise in young players like TDK/Cottrell. Honey & Owies got a taste.
• Martin/Newnes/Pitto look like solid pick ups.
• Our future spine looks great - Weitering bossed it and McKay improved and had a strong end to the season. Walsh is already a proven A grader.
• We finished 11th which for me is a pass and I think most of us would have had us finishing 9-12th on the ladder before the season started...and we did.

 

[NumberEight]

Cons
- Lack of hardness/willingness to succeed at all cost.
- Conditional effort.
- Worrying lack of ability to deal with pressure within games and within the season.
- Small forwards non existent.
- Speedy mids non existent.
- Foot skills still lacking


Pros
- Scoring more heavily now.
- Fairly solid and settled backline.
- Ruck stocks looking good.
- Even though there were games we were never really going to win, we were never blown away this year.

 

[gandaal]

Pro: Harry McKay
Taking huges steps towards becoming a top class AFL forward.

Cons: Charlie Curnows surgeon
**** that guy. Seriously.

Pro: Sam Walsh
Not bad...

Cons: 2017 draft
Trash draft. Trash. TDK is our only hope.

Pro: Jacob Weitering
One of the best defenders in the game

Cons: Carlton Defense
worst in the league?

 

[therubbernub]

Pro
I think virtually every team we played looked beatable. That we didn't beat them is more mental/experience issues than a talent issue.
DT always seemed to be able to get us going with a plan B when we had a bad quarter.
We cut our reliance on Crippa.
Our defence looked very reliable and only struggled when the midfield didnt exert enough pressure
Walsh Weitering Martin Harry
Kemp to come in along with marchbank and charlie

Cons
We still don't have a read on a few important players: Dow, SPS, Cunners, LOB Stocker
You can have super talented forwards but if the delivery is not there we will struggle to kick a winning score

 

[reg_lower91]

PROs
- Hell of a lot better defensively - averaged 63 points against vs 86 points in 2019
- Competitive in every game. Biggest losting margin was 31 points. Average losing margin was 16.5 points.
- Finished 4th in Clearances
- Finished 4th in tackles
- Even with a terrible showing from our players in certain games, the game-plan still held up against teams. It works.
- Walsh
- Weitering
- Doc great first year back
- Martin great first year
- TDK showing greatly early signs

CONs
- Inability to play 4 quarters
- Structure down forward/ F50 entries were crap all year. We ranked 4th in I50s this year. Didnt get our bang for buck.
- Ranked 3rd for Clangers per game. Need to fix our crappy disposal.
- We got out-coached too many times. Teague needs a director of coaching. Must get this off-season.
- Cripps. Not a bad year. Just not up there with his lofty standards.

Overall rating: 8/10

Most of us tipped a finished somewhere 8-12 this year. 7 wins in a shorter season = around 9 in a normal season. A few of those close finishes fall our way and we'd have pushed higher.

If we can improve on our consistency over 4 quarters and our F50 entries this off-season (Curnow will immediately help here), we should expect to push up the ladder.

Frustrating year which could have seen us playing finals but otherwise I'm happy with what we achieved. We did what most us of expected/ tipped we would do.

 

[athensblue]

Pros
Showed many good signs consistently, were in most, if not all games
Walshy and backline, Harry in the end, Cas early

Cons
Mental toughness, cost us several games
Leaked goals consistently
Dow, LOB, SPS and Cunners, they need to be pushed and if they don't make it, make the tough call end of 21. Last 2 should be further along by now, even though they are being played out of position
Crippas year was a fail for him
Doc will be better in 21
Gov

Opportunity missed 5/10

21 with CC, March, and organic growth from within we should push late into Sept or October

Its time

 

[The Blue Baggers]

Pros

Walsh Weitering Setterfield TDK ... all went next level
Docherty ... come back
Martin & Newnes ... have both been v good pick ups

Cons

Midfield .... Cripps needs support .... Crouch Wines Kelly .... one of a must

Game turnarounds .... Hawks , Collingwood , Giants ... all ordinary teams .... we get in a position to win & lose !!

 

[HBF]

Pros
Sam Walsh has shown he is going to be a star. Just got better and better and better
Harry McKay could be anything if we can sort out our F50 entries
TDK towards the end of the season
The amount of quarters that we won, and how competitive we were against the best teams in the comp
Our biggest losing margin was only 31 points
Newnes' goal after the siren
Our game against the Dogs - our best and only 4 quarter game of the year.

Cons
Our inability to stop momenum during games (this is our biggest issue to work on in the offseason)
Simmo and Kreuzer retiring
Not being able to see Charlie play at all in 2020
Dow and LOB
Teagues game day coaching at times, he needs a mentor/director of coaching in 2021
Losing to Hawthorn and Adelaide

 

[Jabba73]

Cons: Carlton Defense
worst in the league?

Slow, one way running midfielders who can’t tackle effectively are the issue. The best midfields run into defense to take space and help run the ball out, our defenders are too often left one out needing long kicks down the line to be marked for any release of pressure.

Us not having cricket scores against this season is a testament to how strong our defenders are until an overwhelming amount of unpressured trips through the centre of the ground open up too many opportunities to stop.

Defense starts in the forward line and extends through the midfield. Fix our deficiencies there are you will find that our defenders are very, very good.

 

[HARKER]

Pros -

1. The growth in Weitering, Walsh and McKay in particular.
2. Easily identifiable weaknesses in players and system.
3. First full year under Teague is now over. Has to have learned to become somewhat more proactive.
4. So many shiny new recruits next year, even before we trade/go to the draft; CCurnow, Marchbank, Dow, Kemp, Stocker, Honey & Philp

Cons -

1. The fact we're still trying to find what our best team may be. Injuries haven't helped.
2. The fact we're trying to manufacture roles for players they're not adept at (Fisher & SPS) and the likelihood it will continue next year.
3. Still too many injuries and some that probably should not have come about. (Cuningham, Martin, Dow)
4. What's going on with Stocker

Concern -

1. The football department has to be able to operate under its own steam.
Outside influences will not help anyone in the long run and will only diminish the value of what we have in place.

 

[ferrisb]

Cons: Carlton Defense
worst in the league?

I thought you were going so well until the end...

 

[Stamos]

CONS
-We underachieved
-As a team, we did not improve from last year. Went from 6-5 at 95.5% to 7-10 at 94.3%
-Not rocking up mentally for winnable, very important games in the context of our season (Melbourne, St Kilda, Hawthorn, Adelaide)
-Giving up 5 goal + runs
-Whether due to injury or development: Charlie, Marchy, Dow, LOB, Stocker
-Cripps
-Our structures around the contest
-Transition from mid to forward
-Lack of crumbing and pressure in the forwardline (and good small forwards)
-Dominating for long periods in our forwardline but not putting it on the scoreboard
-McGovern
-We only had 1 really good 4 quarter win

PROS
-Weitering & Walsh
-Doc & Willo
-Martin
-Setterfield
-The backline
-Positive signs from Harry and TDK
-We only need to fix a few things to rocket up the ladder

 

[Blue_Fusion]

Players

Pros:

• Walsh - kid is a genuine star... He'll win every award there is by the time his career is done
• Harry - kicked 21 goals...imagine once we fix our i50 delivery and have Charlie there to support...
• Weitering - extremely impressed... he's become the most reliable defender in our backline
• Martin - Got him for free and what a pick up!
• Setterfield - Very important player imo. We needed him to step up and he has... look forward to seeing more from him now
• Plowman - Has a tough gig and he usually plays it well... pulled Walters', Papley's and Cameron's pants down...
• Willo - Got through the year and showed great signs
• TDK - Been really impressive with his ground level work for a big man. Was huge in our win against Sydney and showed he's the main ruck going forward.

Cons:

• Dow - Yes he was injured, yes it was a s**t year for development, but still expected more. Once he got into the side, he pretty much went straight out... and it was for good reason. BIG 2021 for him.
• LOB - One game. ONE.... and dropped straight after it... maybe undeservedly so, but still Cottrell and Philp played more games. No excuses he needs to lift next year big time.
• SPS - Played out of position but was very quiet in a lot of games... but he did finish the season well so hopefully good sign.
• McGovern - Seriously the one player that irritates me. Didn't really want him back then... really don't want him now. Can't stand footballers that go about it the way he does.

The rest have had an ok year without being overly impressive or bad imo.

Club/Gameplan/Structure

Pros:

• Membership numbers are on the up. Very important especially given the year we've had
• Last year, after 22 rounds we'd won 38 quarters...14th in the comp. This year, after 17 rounds we'd won 39...equal 3rd in the comp...
• No games where we got totally belted. Sure we pegged margins back late against the Hawks and Saints but still much better than last year
• When our game clicks we've shown we can outplay anyone
• We have some decent trade currency with draft picks and now look an attractive destination for a gun mid to want to join us
• Our back line has really gelled together. Add some more attack off half back and we'll be set. Don't let the s**t midfield pressure fool you into thinking our back line leaks goals with those 5 goal swings.

Cons:

• Those God forsaken 5 goal swings...
• Player management was terrible...
• Too many old blokes in the team. Murphy, Levi & Betts are done yet they'll be selected for the whole of 2021 unless something drastic changes. Ed and Jones are going ok, so we can keep playing them till we find replacements.
• Really struggle under pressure. i50 entries are just as bad as they were 3 years ago...
• We've been lacking pace for 4 years in a row... was the main reason we drafted guys like Dow and LOB. That was the 2017 draft!
• We are ranked dead last for games where we've had more effective disposals than the opposition... Some hope around that is that Richmond are 13th and WCE 14th in that category. * are 8th! So we don't need to shoot from last to top 4 in that category to win a flag...

 

[ferrisb]

Con: we gave up a real chance to make the finals with bad fadeouts against GWS and Collingwood.

Pro: we won the equivalent of 9 matches, with a % approaching 100%.

Con: we rarely played 4 quarter footy

Pro: we played many dominant patches of footy. We had some H2 fadeouts, but otherwise mostly played until the final siren.

 

[FRUMPY]

No particular order but just from top of my head.

Pros:
1. Weitering, Walsh & Setterfield, Gibbons taking a step, some bigger than others
2. Harry finishing the year well.
3. In just about every game this year - a lot more competitive.
4. Introduction of some youngsters - none set the world on fire but got a taste.
5. Pittonet & TDK were servicable - pittonet first half of the season and TDK showed some good signs. You can see him clunking a few of those marks he drops in a couple of years.
6. Newnes addition worked very well
7. Willo getting a full season under his belt. Some games looked great while a few he looked poor, was always going to happen. Love the fact he takes the game on, one of only a few we have who look to do it. Will be better again next year.
8. Martin showed he is a classy addition. Does need to get the ball a bit more and finish his work in front of goal better.

Cons:
1. The last 5 or so weeks - very poor way to end the year
2. Cripps, Cripps ******* Cripps - that was a terrible season for a bloke who has delivered every step up until this year.
3. McGovern being as useless as **** on a bull
3. Non development of players we needed to step up - O'Brien, Dow, Stocker. Obrien in particular......i mean wtf?
4. Players played in wrong positions and therefor didnt see the best of them: SPS, Cuningham, Fisher etc.
5. Injuries (but all clubs have them) robbed us of not getting close to fielding our bet 22: Charlie, Marchy, FIsher, Dow, JSOS, Stocker, Newman, Kreuz
6. Casboults 2nd half - THat was dropped to the 2nds form.
7. Callum Moore getting games

Should see the back of a few players which will make us a better list: Lang, Kennedy, Macreadie, Polson, Bsos, O'Dwyer, Goaddard and Moore. Im tipping they wont all go but most should.

 

[gandaal]

I thought you were going so well until the end...

Yeah well, we've got to face reality. This year we were embarrassing.

 

[Stig O'Hara]

Pro:

Competitive in games

Cons:

Lack of player development

Inability to control tempo

Season overall: Pass

 

[gandaal]

Slow, one way running midfielders who can’t tackle effectively are the issue. The best midfields run into defense to take space and help run the ball out, our defenders are too often left one out needing long kicks down the line to be marked for any release of pressure.

Us not having cricket scores against this season is a testament to how strong our defenders are until an overwhelming amount of unpressured trips through the centre of the ground open up too many opportunities to stop.

Defense starts in the forward line and extends through the midfield. Fix our deficiencies there are you will find that our defenders are very, very good.

I agree with all of this. When I say defense I dont mean the 6 or 7 official defenders, I mean the whole team.

 

[Love the Drake]

Pros

• Walsh, Weiters, Martin, Harry, Plow, TDK, Setterfield
• Being ‘in’ most games
• Doggies game
• Winning more close games than losing (particularly against *don)

Cons

• McGovern, Dow, Cripps, O’ Brien, Stocker
• Lack of leadership during games
• Being competitive for 3 quarters then pathetic for one
• Not aggressive
• Conservative game plan - we started off playin brave, exhilarating footy, then back to stop/start down-the-line footy
• Not being able to dominate for
• WCE umpiring robbing us of a great win
• 
  
  2021 - Going Forward
• Curnow, Kemp, Newman, Marchbank, JSOS, Fish ready for round 1
• Make or break year for Dow, O’Brien, Stocker, McGovern
• Need to recruit 1-2 gun onballers, a small forward and another ruckman
• Further development of TDK, Honey, Philp

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Pros - my own opinion but think it may be shared by other experts but, for lower sides like us, I tend to not rank late season wins as highly as early season wins. As seen by us last year and Adelaide this year you do see sides pull together a run of wins at the tail end of the season and I don't necessarily think it means a sides 'on the up'.

The reason I say this is whilst our win percentage may be the same I reckon we have had better wins this year and definitely not as bad losses.

 

[F_therest]

Club/Gameplan/Structure

Pros:

• Last year, after 22 rounds we'd won 38 quarters...14th in the comp. This year, after 17 rounds we'd won 39...equal 3rd in the comp...

Is that accurate?

That's a great positive and goes to my point in the OP about us controlling large portions of games and also kicking multiple goals in a row.

Ultimately those horrid quarters and 5+ goal runs we gave up cost us often, but clearly we're doing something right and it shows Teague's gameplan, when implemented correctly, works. It's comforting knowing we have a coach who has tactical nous and has set us on a path to be a winning team with a solid game plan...unlike some coaches out there like Goodwin/Woosha where it seems that no matter how good the list is, he's not capable of implementing a winning game plan.

 

[F_therest]

Pros

• Winning more close games than losing (particularly against *don)

Ah i knew there was a point I forgot in my OP.

This is another huge positive for me. Before this year we seemed to always lose more close games than we won...we just didn't have the right mentality/composure to grind it out.

But this year we took big strides in that area...i'm pretty sure our ledger in close games under 8 points or so was 5-2, so we're learning how to handle those close games which should hold us in good stead in years to come when we should be ready for finals and games really matter.

 

[SurreyBlue]

PROs
- Hell of a lot better defensively - averaged 63 points against vs 86 points in 2019
- Competitive in every game. Biggest losting margin was 31 points. Average losing margin was 16.5 points.
- Finished 4th in Clearances
- Finished 4th in tackles
- Even with a terrible showing from our players in certain games, the game-plan still held up against teams. It works.
- Walsh
- Weitering
- Doc great first year back
- Martin great first year
- TDK showing greatly early signs

CONs
- Inability to play 4 quarters
- Structure down forward/ F50 entries were crap all year. We ranked 4th in I50s this year. Didnt get our bang for buck.
- Ranked 3rd for Clangers per game. Need to fix our crappy disposal.
- We got out-coached too many times. Teague needs a director of coaching. Must get this off-season.
- Cripps. Not a bad year. Just not up there with his lofty standards.

Overall rating: 8/10

Most of us tipped a finished somewhere 8-12 this year. 7 wins in a shorter season = around 9 in a normal season. A few of those close finishes fall our way and we'd have pushed higher.

If we can improve on our consistency over 4 quarters and our F50 entries this off-season (Curnow will immediately help here), we should expect to push up the ladder.

Frustrating year which could have seen us playing finals but otherwise I'm happy with what we achieved. We did what most us of expected/ tipped we would do.

This post has summed my emotions up perfectly. No need to retype.

 

[Blue_Fusion]

Is that accurate?

That's a great positive and goes to my point in the OP about us controlling large portions of games and also kicking multiple goals in a row.

Ultimately those horrid quarters and 5+ goal runs we gave up cost us often, but clearly we're doing something right and it shows Teague's gameplan, when implemented correctly, works. It's comforting knowing we have a coach who has tactical nous and has set us on a path to be a winning team with a solid game plan...unlike some coaches out there like Goodwin/Woosha where it seems that no matter how good the list is, he's not capable of implementing a winning game plan.

Not sure how accurate it is... hope so. Took it from footywire:

AFL 2020 quarters won

seems about right though so ran with it.

 

[blueycarlton]

No particular order but just from top of my head.

Pros:
1. Weitering, Walsh & Setterfield, Gibbons taking a step, some bigger than others
2. Harry finishing the year well.
3. In just about every game this year - a lot more competitive.
4. Introduction of some youngsters - none set the world on fire but got a taste.
5. Pittonet & TDK were servicable - pittonet first half of the season and TDK showed some good signs. You can see him clunking a few of those marks he drops in a couple of years.
6. Newnes addition worked very well
7. Willo getting a full season under his belt. Some games looked great while a few he looked poor, was always going to happen. Love the fact he takes the game on, one of only a few we have who look to do it. Will be better again next year.
8. Martin showed he is a classy addition. Does need to get the ball a bit more and finish his work in front of goal better.

Cons:
1. The last 5 or so weeks - very poor way to end the year
2. Cripps, Cripps ******* Cripps - that was a terrible season for a bloke who has delivered every step up until this year.
3. McGovern being as useless as **** on a bull
3. Non development of players we needed to step up - O'Brien, Dow, Stocker. Obrien in particular......i mean wtf?
4. Players played in wrong positions and therefor didnt see the best of them: SPS, Cuningham, Fisher etc.
5. Injuries (but all clubs have them) robbed us of not getting close to fielding our bet 22: Charlie, Marchy, FIsher, Dow, JSOS, Stocker, Newman, Kreuz
6. Casboults 2nd half - THat was dropped to the 2nds form.
7. Callum Moore getting games

Should see the back of a few players which will make us a better list: Lang, Kennedy, Macreadie, Polson, Bsos, O'Dwyer, Goaddard and Moore. Im tipping they wont all go but most should.

Why get rid of Kennedy who was one of our best players on Saturday and spent the least amount of time on the ground? He is also good mark and can play as a forward, shows a bit of agro.
BSOS, with his pedigree surely he needs time to develop in a proper VFL competition and possibly be a replacement for Jones. Same for Stocker.

Murphy, Cas, and Betts should go now, with Simmo and Kreuz. The old guard will have gone along with their losing habits.
Cripps very poor second half of the season. If his shoulder is stuffed then trade him out while he still has some value.
If McGovern is still under contract put him in the middle, or get rid of him ASAP.
Read Dow, Cunners and O'Brien the riot act, perform to best of your abilities or you will be cut next year.
Not too fussed about the others, Lang, Polson, Goddard, Moore, Macreadie (?)