GAME THREAD - Us v Them

[T2B_]

No denying Robbos guts and effort, tries so hard and his skills are looking on the up

 

[BrandonG]

28 points is not to bad , still not acceptable though.....
at least 18 of those points where given to the filth through shocking frees

considering that , we had at least 7 or 8 passengers we did well

 

[SpaceCow]

Dissapponted but not absolutely gutted. Played okay. That 4-5 goal run they had at the end of the 2nd killed us.

 

[gbatman]

When hampson is gone and Kreuzer is back I will be a happy man.

Just not good enough in all positions today. Midfield lacked quality. Judd and Robinson battled hard. Curnow and Simpson had their moments. Gibbs lacks hardness, work ethic and won't put body on. Murphy much the same.

We didn't put enough body on at stoppages and force ourselves into good positions.

Lacked a center half forward who could draw the play. Waite was good in patches but doesn't hit opposition hard enough to create oppertunities for opposition. Selfish.

Watson got beaten but still played well for where he is at.

Russell finished alright.

Yarran was good.

Gibbs and murphy is where it was lost today, these guys had to be better, they were smashed by their opposition and hence we were beaten in the midfield.

Hampson is a waste of space, he's a terrible footballer.

Our defence looks slow. Laidler and Duigan are not over quick. Jamison and Yarran are. Russell has lost pace and fitness. We really miss Bower and Armfield in our defence.

Too many forwards allowed their opponants to run off too easily, this was poor.

Our lack of shepherds, body on at stoppages, bumps and deliberatly taking tackles to draw play is a real worry.

 

[40yearBLUE]

About 2 goals off I think. If we had of lost by 3 I would have said that was a fair indication of the difference between us. I think the umps took a couple of goals from us and gave them a couple, so as I said, I think we are only 3 goals behind them not 5. And closing.

As we get better as the year goes on, the next time we meet we might be on slightly more even terms. Overall not ripped apart by that loss. A few of our new boys suffered from fumbles and playing in front of 88000 for the first time will do that to you. Duigan, Laidler, Collins, will learn from that. Watson did pretty well, think he will hold his spot. Yarran was very creative, Garlett is a gem and played well. Jamo was ok for his first game. I think we have to eliminate the kicking backwards from our game, its ugly, it rarely works, it just gives them time to structure up.

Robbo was fantastic tonight, Curnow did well, Gibbs and Murph were ok, not to their usual high standard but ok, same with Judd, he didnt rip the game open like he can, Simmo was pretty good, Carrots had a poor game. Thornton did ok, Waite was down a little but still presented. Bit disappointed in Eddies game, also Walkers. And also Hammer, he is not going to hold his spot if he doesnt nail the chances he manages to earn.

We are getting there. There is no disgrace in losing. A lot think this was a real test for us. It was, but not as big a test as the next 2 weeks. We were not expected to win that game and didnt, fair enough, but we ought to be expected to win the next 2 and must. That will be the true measure of our progress.

 

[TerryWallet]

15 or 16 excellent professional AFL quality games tonight by our guys.

5 or 6 just can't cut it.

Thornton, Carazzo, Hampson, Walker, Duigan just aren't AFL standard.

We aren't unique in this situation.

St Kilda lost 2 flags because of consistently playing a handful of blokes who couldn't cut it.

AFL footy is no picnic.

 

[Claypigeon]

garlett already went past betts last year, now pretty much confirming it this year. wouldn't be surprised to see betts in the 2's in the not too distant future.

Not the best game from Betts but he did have the number one defender on him in Harry. ..

Disappointed but not upset with that game. .. We matched it early and they just eked out goals in that 2nd quarter which was the difference in the end. .. We ran out of legs late but a lot of effort to stay in it. .. That is the bench mark, we go away, reset and set up to get it back on track versus the Bombers. ..

Positives. ..

Robbo, just pure effort, willed himself to half the contests, shame he rarely got reward. ..
Scotto, showing experience
Garlett, presenting and pantsing Shaw in attack (how he got the medal is beyond me)
Murph, Gibbs will be better for a hit out like that
Judd, superior fitness, was playing a lone hand in that last
Tackling and Contested possession early was good
Kreuz, Hendo and Bower to return to best 22

Could pull out a lot of negatives but we were basically beaten by the better side. .. Its round 3, get on with it and aim to get them next time. ..

 

[juzz88]

Yarran stood up tonight and proved he can play off half back against quality sides and not just the suns.

Few other positives, but all in all a pretty piss weak effort.

Hampson is not a KPF, cannot kick goals to save his life.

Would love to throw him in the backline just so he can disrupt players like Cloke and Dawes in marking contests but I think his kicking back there would make him a liability overall. I can't see a place for him in this side when everyone is fit.

We need to make a play for some decent KPDs come trade week at the end of the year. That, or we need to draft another Watson and it needs to be this year so they have time to develop. Our window will never open if our back 6 leak easy goals.

 

[Sir CJ]

There were some good signs but overall I'm disappointed that we went down by that much, we went to sleep at the end of that second qtr and that cost us, some of the umpiring was pathetic, was a gallant performance but still disappointed, I really did think we could reel them right in during that 3rd qtr before some a cpl of terrible holding the ball decisions in the fwd line

We will only get better from this perfomance, Kruezer and Hendo both fit will make us ridiculously more potent, loved our tackling pressure tonight, not often they get out-tackled

 

[dumb]

not the thrashing most people expected but both sides could have played better and who knows what it would have been if both were at %100. i really thought a few of our midfielders would give a better account of themselves than this. our defence could do much better, for sure.
part 1 of armfield diddling himself out of a (backline) spot after gunning for midfield glory.

 

[Gameova_]

i would love to see the fevola of 08 in this carlton side right now

 

[Blueboys11]

Can't belieVe the negativity on here. The blues left nothing out on the field and if we just had a bit of luck in that 3rd quarter, it would of been game on. Let's not forget the pies r the nest team in it at the moment!! Lots more positives than negatives!

 

[FRUMPY]

28 points is a pretty acurate margin i thought. We played well at times but in general didnt have the 22 contributors like the pies did.

All this planning on the guns and blair kicks 5, no-one saw that coming.

Duigan looked poor tonight, fumbly. Alot of player fumbly, Russell/Yarran/Gibbs at crucial times either fumbled/panicked.

Yarran was still one of our better players. Judd great, gibbs good job on pednles but need him be harder at times. Murph struggled with the tag but was ok at times. Robbo very good, much improved. Betts has gone missing. Waite struggled but took some good grabs.

Disappointing but lets us know where we are. Still better than what i though would happen. Bring in Bower/Hendo next week, along with lucas. Collins as a sub did not work, lol.

 

[gbatman]

Coaching could have been better. Our poor use of Andrew Walker bothers me. He should have gone into the center at some stage.

We have far too many outside players making their way into the center. The center is a physical, aggressive contested position. There for Carrazzo, Murphy, Gibbs and other outside players do not belong.

 

[blues4flag]

**** me, there's some neagtive morons on here who need to get a bit of perspective.

Newsflash: we were playing the best team in the competition yet managed to hold our own. Fact is we won the first by a point and broke even in the third. Game was dead in the last so can't read too much into it, but again we broke even.

The game was lost in the 2nd when Collingwood piled on the goals but that's the hallmark of a great side - they have the ability to go to another level and break open a game.

To our credit, we never fell away but kept at it after that. Thought our tackling was brilliant on the whole.

I'm confident enough to predict a top 4 finish off the back of the first 3 rounds.

We're missing Bower, Kreuzer and Henderson from the best 22.

We had 4 players out there who have played less than 5 games of AFL footy. We had another 3 who've played less than 30. Three of those - Curnow, Yarran and Robinson, were for mine some of our best performed.

Get our talls back and give us some time to gel and we're in for a good season players. Those genuinely expecting us to beat the Pies are blinded by delusion.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

All correct.

Nobody asked you.

 

[Styxx]

Robinson stood out for me. How many other players in our team are willing to fly in to spoil, smother, tackle, get the ball/ mark it? His skills are improving nicely too so he's a long term keeper.

Also did anyone else notice when Davis tried to mouth off to Judd it was Robinson who stood in front of him ready to attack on command? That's a player who is there for the team.

Thornton was thrown back into defence and a couple of times I noticed he would look up to move the ball along....but there was no one ahead of him to kick it too. Hardly in our bottom 6 - 10 players.

Betts, Collins, Hampson, Carrazzo and Waite should be sleeping uneasy this week. Unacceptable performances especially Betts and Waite. Collins admittedly had little game time.


Think we should have kept Armfield. Would have been handy in taking the game on and breaking the lines instead of the constant kicking backwards that we did that was the most idiotic game plan I have ever seen.

 

[Alpha1]

Yarran is a gun, at least he try's to make the creative play, take on the man, I don't mind some of his errors, very classy, silky. Garlett has overtaken Betts by a mile now, some of his work was awesome, Robbo love him what he does not have in skill he makes up for in heart and courage.

Leaving out Army was a disgrace, as we were shown up tonight, we need someone like Army to take on the zone and break the lines, another great move by the MC. The less said about JR and Carrazo the better, good to see their disposals still haven't improved, but oh well.

 

[Stig O'Hara]

The squeakies make a point about Waite.

He's a gunna.

Feel awful saying that.

 

[Corrosion]

My main gripe for the night was the over handpassing all the time.

 

[Dramoth]

I'd throw in Simmo and Robinson.

I duno how do you let a little runt like Blair kick 5. I hate when we little stuff like that happens. Like we let the runts at Freo and North do it last year....

That little runt Blair got 3 of his 5 goals directly from soft as runny dogshit free kicks from the maggots.

 

[alex the great]

Jeffrey was bog for me. He is turning into something specialmas Bruce would say

 

[JuddyBuddy]

It's the same old shit letting us down really. We have too many hanger on's who dissapear in challenging matches like tonight. They will re-appear and look brilliant next time we slaughter a side below us. That old bottom 6 are pretty crap thing is still ringing true really. Need to weed those sort of players out, which will probably take another year or two.

Collingwood are a more solid side overall, with a lot more depth. But, they are nothing too special and are massively overrated by the media and a lot of common footy folk. They were 1 minute away from being runners up last year. They are a long way off the Geelong team (at it's peak) of the last few years.

Looking fwd to Kruz, Hendo and maybe even Hoola coming back in to the side.

 

[Dramoth]

The difference between the sides in goals was the 5 goals that resulted in either direct or indirect free kicks. I heard or saw 3 direct goals from soft free kicks that the umpires were sucked into giving.

On the whole, without the over umpiring of the match, we were a fair match up to them. I would be asking for the umpires to please explain a couple of their more dubious decisions. Like that body on body free kick to Blair 20m out right in front. Blair got done by a stronger player and they just gave him the free kick.

For a team with a large number of inexperienced players in the side, we did well.

 

[Stig O'Hara]

If the bloke wearing Robbert Klomp,
go buy yourself a Telly.