How do we improve our hardness?

gbatman

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Posts
11,694
Likes
8,271
Location
Behind You...
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Justice League
#76
give our strength and conditioning staff the boot for starters. Our blokes are in poor condition and have terrible strength. Players came into this season lighter and weaker than last season. Get them built like footballers FFS and not bloody marathon runners.

Time to make a few more rules at the draft table. No more Bootsma, Lucas, McCarthy body types. Haven't seen a team win a premiership for a very long time with a team of scrawny rats, quite the opposite.

We have spent all this money on a big arse training facility and the players aren't built properly for AFL football. It's a joke.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

I bleed Blue

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Posts
6,639
Likes
11,714
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
#78
give our strength and conditioning staff the boot for starters. Our blokes are in poor condition and have terrible strength. Players came into this season lighter and weaker than last season. Get them built like footballers FFS and not bloody marathon runners.

Time to make a few more rules at the draft table. No more Bootsma, Lucas, McCarthy body types. Haven't seen a team win a premiership for a very long time with a team of scrawny rats, quite the opposite.

We have spent all this money on a big arse training facility and the players aren't built properly for AFL football. It's a joke.

Which players arnt built for AFL football? Bootsma, Lucas and McCarthy didnt play today, so dont use them to make your point.
 

crackers57

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Posts
12,759
Likes
120
Location
In your head
AFL Club
Collingwood
#79
Did Yarran look a touch underdone to you blokes?

Looked very tentative when approaching the contest........maybe another week or so in the VFL would have helped his attack on the ball?
 

Graffy4242

Club Legend
Joined
Apr 1, 2010
Posts
2,004
Likes
2,994
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
#80
give our strength and conditioning staff the boot for starters. Our blokes are in poor condition and have terrible strength. Players came into this season lighter and weaker than last season. Get them built like footballers FFS and not bloody marathon runners.

Time to make a few more rules at the draft table. No more Bootsma, Lucas, McCarthy body types. Haven't seen a team win a premiership for a very long time with a team of scrawny rats, quite the opposite.

We have spent all this money on a big arse training facility and the players aren't built properly for AFL football. It's a joke.
Couldn't actually agree withy this any more!

Essendon have nailed it this year with their pre-season.

I could actually handle our loss of strength if it was obvious we have more emdurance and speed but the majority of our team seem spent on their feet by Quater time !! WTF?????
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Posts
6,676
Likes
1,031
Location
In the box
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Northern Blues
Thread starter #82
All that fancy food Jason Johnson cooks in the club's cafe has clearly turned them into pampered brats. Don't they realise that Hayes, Selwood and Dangerfield only have raw meat and tepid water for lunch to hard them up. Ratten is so soft on these boys. Raw steaks from now on. And no one plays unless they grow a mullet or shaves their head so they look like Ivan Maric or Barry Hall.

Premature thread. We've just dropped off to lose by five goals. after we've become the hunted. It's mental with other clubs coming at us like we're the team to beat. It's not physical after we did Collingwood earlier this year with a tough performance. We're copping that now. It's not as simple as getting bigger bodies and blaming the recruiters. The likes of Duigan and Russell aren't small, just out of form due to different reasons. Ellard is smaller like Murphy, but has intensity and want.

The club just needs to re-discover that hunger they showed against Collingwood and WC in the finals. No one expected us to play well under the pump at Subi and beat the Pies by ten goals. Collingwood aren't shot because of that game. We need to learn play their own game again whilst having everyone coming at them hard like a top four side. Get back to basics where we played hard and attacking footy. The results will take care of themselves. As long as we kick straight and improve our inside fifties. ;)
Still think so TG :confused:
 

gbatman

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Posts
11,694
Likes
8,271
Location
Behind You...
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Justice League
#83
Which players arnt built for AFL football? Bootsma, Lucas and McCarthy didnt play today, so dont use them to make your point.
Lets start with the ones that are, it's a smaller list. Betts, Carrazzo, Davies, Duigan, Hampson, Jamison, Laidler, Robinson, Betts, Murphy, Russell, Scotland, Thornton, Touhy, Yarran and Waite is borderline. Compared to the team the cats have been winning flags with and Essendon/WCE/Crows/Saints lists I would rate the following as lacking strength and size. Some make up for it with extra effort and blind courage but that can not be relied on like Simpson.
 

Silvagnis

TheBrownDog
Suspended
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Posts
60,595
Likes
15,389
Location
Dr Geoffrey Edelsten's jacuzzi
AFL Club
Carlton
#84
Still think so TG :confused:
Don't know why they've gone from playing hard team footy to being smashed in the space of five weeks. Except for Carrazzo, Laidler and a few others, the same players are there. They don't turn soft overnight. If their confidence is shot, then they're playing soft and conservative footy as a result. Even one of our hard players in Kreuzer isn't playing to the same level. You can't tell me that everyone at St Kilda, Hawthorn, Essendon, WC, Geelong and St Kilda are hard bastards. It's application.
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Posts
6,676
Likes
1,031
Location
In the box
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Northern Blues
Thread starter #85
Don't know why they've gone from playing hard team footy to being smashed in the space of five weeks. Except for Carrazzo, Laidler and a few others, the same players are there. They don't turn soft overnight. If their confidence is shot, then they're playing soft and conservative footy as a result. Even one of our hard players in Kreuzer isn't playing to the same level.
I think we read too much into the Collingwood win. Collingwood weren't and aren't going that well. Even though the Geelong v Scum game was good TV, did you see the record clanger and turn over stats
 

gbatman

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Posts
11,694
Likes
8,271
Location
Behind You...
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Justice League
#86
Well I'm not fully on the "we are soft" bandwagon. Yes we have a few players who aren't real hard at it but we had moments when we had a real go against the Crows and they were still controlling things. I'm taking the analytical view on why we are losing. We have been beaten physically by bigger stronger sides and why we have been beaten is because we are not a real big strong side. Why that is, is up for you to decide.

The other teams in the competition have noticed this and have made efforts to force us to play contested footy. Yes losing Carrazzo was a massive loss but it is not the be all and end all of our problems. Teams have made sure to set up a zone and cover the space outside the contests much more and forward of contests which Richmond and Collingwood did poorly, hence we found space and ran all over them. Get the numbers out wider around contests and stoppages and that stops us coming out the back and finding a running player in space. Get numbers in front of the contests and stop us running forward with the ball. Hence we now have to play contested footy and we aren't up to it. Block the space, stop the run and you beat carlton because carlton can not play contested footy because they aren't physically big enough, strong enough and powerful enough. They are also blocking our run through the contests at stoppages with a lot of blocking and we aren't dealing with bigger stronger bodies planting themselves infront of us.

I have a very good feeling we may have also been beaten by the soon to be premiers today. Doesn't help.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Posts
6,676
Likes
1,031
Location
In the box
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Northern Blues
Thread starter #87
Did Yarran look a touch underdone to you blokes?

Looked very tentative when approaching the contest........maybe another week or so in the VFL would have helped his attack on the ball?
To mods who keep deleting posts in reply to this troll - how about you delete his trolling post too.
 

Jimthegreat

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Oct 5, 2004
Posts
13,343
Likes
5,067
Location
Geelong
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Carlton
#88
Don't know why they've gone from playing hard team footy to being smashed in the space of five weeks. Except for Carrazzo, Laidler and a few others, the same players are there. They don't turn soft overnight. If their confidence is shot, then they're playing soft and conservative footy as a result. Even one of our hard players in Kreuzer isn't playing to the same level. You can't tell me that everyone at St Kilda, Hawthorn, Essendon, WC, Geelong and St Kilda are hard bastards. It's application.
Getting worried, we're agreeing too often...lol!
 

goreds

Premiership Player
Joined
Oct 10, 2008
Posts
3,245
Likes
3,781
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
#89
There's an old saying...

Size matter's...!

Another: it's not the size that matters but what you do with it...!

Both of these relate to our current position, we are a little undersized at the contest and up forward, Hammer and Kruezer are not the answers in the goal square as we need the gorilla to create a contest and crack in...

As for the stoppages, I think Warnock needs to be brought in to give us 1st use of the ball... Play Kreuzer as a ruck rover if possible for some stoppages...
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Posts
6,676
Likes
1,031
Location
In the box
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Northern Blues
Thread starter #90
There's an old saying...

Size matter's...!

Another: it's not the size that matters but what you do with it...!

Both of these relate to our current position, we are a little undersized at the contest and up forward, Hammer and Kruezer are not the answers in the goal square as we need the gorilla to create a contest and crack in...

As for the stoppages, I think Warnock needs to be brought in to give us 1st use of the ball... Play Kreuzer as a ruck rover if possible for some stoppages...
Yes! Yes! At last someone else who sees it. He is best at roving and when moving around the ground as a ruck rover who are the opposition going to play on him so that he does not become a marking target.

Only problem is - where is Warnock?
 

gardiner stand

Premiership Player
Joined
Dec 3, 2010
Posts
3,096
Likes
6,287
Location
fitzroy
AFL Club
Carlton
#91
Yes! Yes! At last someone else who sees it. He is best at roving and when moving around the ground as a ruck rover who are the opposition going to play on him so that he does not become a marking target.

Only problem is - where is Warnock?
will never happen, his opponent will burn him 4 pace
 

AB_Blue

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Posts
8,532
Likes
8,387
Location
"South of the border"
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Chelsea FC
#95
We improve by going back to basics and trying to hunt the FOOTBALL. Get in lower and block for your mates. If you can't get the pill, smash the bloke with it and also smash the guy waiting for the overlap run, who gives it to one of the 8 blokes spreading hard unmarked on the outside, (cause were downhill skiers) who stream into the front half of the ground and make our defense look 3rd rate. It all starts in the middle. HUNT THE FOOTY! HASSLE! TACKLE! basically go back to under 10s
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2000
Posts
74,148
Likes
53,121
Location
Ask me tomorrow
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Cronulla, Dallas Cowboys, Forest
Moderator #96

thylacine60

Make me an Admin!
Joined
Jun 4, 2006
Posts
81,155
Likes
119,699
Location
Footscray
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Insert Token EPL Club
#98
Particularly good analysis. We appear to be off the boil, slow and not trying because we are not winning the ball as we used to. We are just not reading it, not knowing when to go in and when to wait. All of our instincts have deserted us.
Was so obvious today - fumbling, playing hot potato, second guessing, ball watching, spending it before getting it. These are the skills we can do without - come on, I'm talking to you, come on.
 
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Posts
48
Likes
10
Location
melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
#99
That's exactly how it looked today. handballing to your team mate who is under the pump and has no time or space to execute any decent disposal was the theme of the day. I reckon the crows got a whiff of it early and then just tightened the screws for the rest of the day. well coached, well drilled.
 

I bleed Blue

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Posts
6,639
Likes
11,714
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
Don't know why they've gone from playing hard team footy to being smashed in the space of five weeks. Except for Carrazzo, Laidler and a few others, the same players are there. They don't turn soft overnight. If their confidence is shot, then they're playing soft and conservative footy as a result. Even one of our hard players in Kreuzer isn't playing to the same level. You can't tell me that everyone at St Kilda, Hawthorn, Essendon, WC, Geelong and St Kilda are hard bastards. It's application.
This whole post is spot on. Esspecially the highlighted point.

Hardness was not an issue last year. Last year it was one of the aspects we prided ourselves on and was a big part of our improvement.


I dont know what has gone wrong in the past month but we need to sort it out urgently. It appears like teams have just figured out how to beat our game plan.
 
Top Bottom