Autopsy North lose to Carlton.

[scottywiper]

John Law said before game a few weeks ago that he always viewed the next contest, every one, as the most important of his career.
How many of our blokes paid any attention to that?

 

[Flawed Genius]

John Law said before game a few weeks ago that he always viewed the next contest, every one, as the most important of his career.
How many of our blokes paid any attention to that?

George. But he is probably John Law's bastard son, and plays like his next meal is dependent on the outcome of every contest. So that doesn't count

 

[CharlieMortdecai]

Yeh it’s pretty much what I did 1986-1990. It shat me to tears so I just went and lived life. Then I went to Rd 2 1990 and Horse went crazy and that started me off again.

Problem today is that AFL is so in your face it’s hard to escape in this era

I was expecting a close game today tbh. Maybe snatch a close win.

But this is bitter beyond comprehension

I grew up in Canberra. The first North game I attended was against Carlton at Waverley in the final round of 1987. It was the August school holidays when the year was divided into 3 terms. As I remember it, we needed to win to have a chance of finishing third, avoiding an elimination final. It was with my mum (Hawthorn) and her Carlton supporting sister, my godmother. It was close all day, I don't remember how often the lead changed, but North were leading in the dying stages by less than a goal. Until Stephen ****ing Kernahan took a mark about 50m out. The siren went before he took his kick and you know how the story goes.

I was ****ing devastated. I don't what year it was, but I remember tearing up when we lost a bloody pre-season match to Collingwood, so I could be a bit melodramatic about the footy. My aunt of course is a lovely woman and did little more than smirk, obviously far kinder than I would have been if Kernahan missed. Despite the devastation, I pleaded with my mum for our family of five to skip the first week of school and stay in Melbourne so we could go to the elimination final the following weekend. My mum is perhaps not as kind as her sister and couldn't help asking if I still wished I'd gone to the game when Melbourne thrashed us the next week.

I don't know how many games I've been to since then, I've never lived in Melbourne but once I had a job, I thought nothing of making the trip from Canberra to the footy. As luck would have it I got the 90s - I went to the 96 GF and the 94 prelim, and a bunch of other terrific games, more often wins than losses. After 96 I went travelling, almost literally immediately; I went back to Canberra packed a bag and travelled through southeast Asia into India, Europe etc. I have never seen the 98 GF, as I was walking the Kokoda track at the time, but supremely confident having watched the prelim in Port Moresby. (As a sidenote, it was a bunch of cops from Adelaide walking the opposite way who told me the result, but until I got to the end and could call my mum I convinced myself they were just pulling my leg.) I watched the 99 GF in Darwin with another Roos supporter I met there who became a very good mate.

I ended up in Perth, and again I could go to the footy at least once or twice a year to watch North. All my kids were born there, and my second child and only daughter is the only one who barracks for us. It was another example of my stupid passion for North, in another last round of the season game, that sealed the deal. I wasn't at the game this time, I wasn't even watching it on TV. I'd gone to get groceries and taken her two-year-old self with me. Listening to the ABC radio broadcast of the final quarter on our way home, I lost myself with happiness and joy that we had managed to beat Richmond for the grand prize of finishing 9th on the ladder. From that day on she has bled blue and white.

We didn't always get to every game in Perth, life gets in the way, but as luck would have it every time we did, we won. Ten years ago we moved to Albury, and we started going to games in Melbourne. Again, the games we made it to we won, including the 2015 elimination final win against Richmond, with the added joy of rubbing it in to all the bloody Tiggers supporters from Albury at Wallan on the way home. She called herself the lucky charm. We went to Boomer's record-breaking game against St. Kilda. Another win.

But the last win. Her first loss was the very next week against the Dogs. She now hates them more than any other team. And the losses kept coming - I have a photo of her in tears, as I would have been, when we lost to the Swans, with her smirking mother in all her Swans gear. Their Sudanese guy was better than ours that day.

That might have been one of the last games we went to together, her mother and I were already separated by then. Yesterday, I was with my current partner and her two Carlton supporting kids, and their elder sister who isn't into footy. North Melbourne gave my daughter the alternate pleasure of watching the Swans with her mother again a couple of weeks ago. We were texting during the game, and half way through the first quarter she simply wrote "I'm so sad".

I have been to some incredibly disappointing thrashings, like the 2013 elimination final in Perth, or another final round game to lose the double chance, this time against Port at the MCG in 2008. (The only game I have left early - my mate from Darwin and I agreed we would go to the pub if Port kicked the first of the final quarter.) But in all those games I have seen since 1987, today's was the most bitterly disappointing.

I am not a child any more, and I generally move on from the bad losses pretty quickly. I'm very happy with my life outside football, but as luck would have it this has come on the end of a pretty shitty week, so maybe that has something to do with it. Like my aunt, my step-kids are lovely people, and far less obnoxious than I would have been at their age. (Their father is a dickhead of course, because he supports Carlton, and a few other reasons, but overall he's a nice guy.)

In fact I was still the obnoxious one yesterday, pointing out that Carlton are actually quite shit. I was confusing the boy, because they were absolutely thrashing us, but that was a big part of the disappointment. It was just sheer utter ineptitude that gifted Carlton so many goals. They mustn't have believed their luck - spoils and errant handpasses in the goalsquare, turnovers taken as chest marks directly in front of goal. Loose men just lining up, that barely had to break out of a jog to create space.

Those other thrashings I mentioned never felt as bleak as this. Port surprised us that day, and of course we were off our tucker, but they played well. We still played finals, even if we bombed out like 1987. And the Eagles at home, they just dominated us that day. They were good in a way that Carlton were not yesterday. If Carlton were any good it would have approached Geelong's 200 point demolition of Melbourne under Bailey.

I don't know where I am going with all this. I guess yesterday feels far worse to me than football in that pre-Pagan era. That first game I went to against Carlton, the Krakouer brothers were on fire, and despite the aforementioned devastation, I knew I had experienced a terrific game of football. But Melbourne pumped us the following week, and I remember feeling like we were an ordinary, make up the numbers team, and that we would never win a flag. But in all the time since then I have never seen us go through as bad a time as these last five years. Like my daughter, I am just so sad.

 

[Gasometer]

I grew up in Canberra. The first North game I attended was against Carlton at Waverley in the final round of 1987. It was the August school holidays when the year was divided into 3 terms. As I remember it, we needed to win to have a chance of finishing third, avoiding an elimination final. It was with my mum (Hawthorn) and her Carlton supporting sister, my godmother. It was close all day, I don't remember how often the lead changed, but North were leading in the dying stages by less than a goal. Until Stephen ****ing Kernahan took a mark about 50m out. The siren went before he took his kick and you know how the story goes.

I was ****ing devastated. I don't what year it was, but I remember tearing up when we lost a bloody pre-season match to Collingwood, so I could be a bit melodramatic about the footy. My aunt of course is a lovely woman and did little more than smirk, obviously far kinder than I would have been if Kernahan missed. Despite the devastation, I pleaded with my mum for our family of five to skip the first week of school and stay in Melbourne so we could go to the elimination final the following weekend. My mum is perhaps not as kind as her sister and couldn't help asking if I still wished I'd gone to the game when Melbourne thrashed us the next week.

I don't know how many games I've been to since then, I've never lived in Melbourne but once I had a job, I thought nothing of making the trip from Canberra to the footy. As luck would have it I got the 90s - I went to the 96 GF and the 94 prelim, and a bunch of other terrific games, more often wins than losses. After 96 I went travelling, almost literally immediately; I went back to Canberra packed a bag and travelled through southeast Asia into India, Europe etc. I have never seen the 98 GF, as I was walking the Kokoda track at the time, but supremely confident having watched the prelim in Port Moresby. (As a sidenote, it was a bunch of cops from Adelaide walking the opposite way who told me the result, but until I got to the end and could call my mum I convinced myself they were just pulling my leg.) I watched the 99 GF in Darwin with another Roos supporter I met there who became a very good mate.

I ended up in Perth, and again I could go to the footy at least once or twice a year to watch North. All my kids were born there, and my second child and only daughter is the only one who barracks for us. It was another example of my stupid passion for North, in another last round of the season game, that sealed the deal. I wasn't at the game this time, I wasn't even watching it on TV. I'd gone to get groceries and taken her two-year-old self with me. Listening to the ABC radio broadcast of the final quarter on our way home, I lost myself with happiness and joy that we had managed to beat Richmond for the grand prize of finishing 9th on the ladder. From that day on she has bled blue and white.

We didn't always get to every game in Perth, life gets in the way, but as luck would have it every time we did, we won. Ten years ago we moved to Albury, and we started going to games in Melbourne. Again, the games we made it to we won, including the 2015 elimination final win against Richmond, with the added joy of rubbing it in to all the bloody Tiggers supporters from Albury at Wallan on the way home. She called herself the lucky charm. We went to Boomer's record-breaking game against St. Kilda. Another win.

But the last win. Her first loss was the very next week against the Dogs. She now hates them more than any other team. And the losses kept coming - I have a photo of her in tears, as I would have been, when we lost to the Swans, with her smirking mother in all her Swans gear. Their Sudanese guy was better than ours that day.

That might have been one of the last games we went to together, her mother and I were already separated by then. Yesterday, I was with my current partner and her two Carlton supporting kids, and their elder sister who isn't into footy. North Melbourne gave my daughter the alternate pleasure of watching the Swans with her mother again a couple of weeks ago. We were texting during the game, and half way through the first quarter she simply wrote "I'm so sad".

I have been to some incredibly disappointing thrashings, like the 2013 elimination final in Perth, or another final round game to lose the double chance, this time against Port at the MCG in 2008. (The only game I have left early - my mate from Darwin and I agreed we would go to the pub if Port kicked the first of the final quarter.) But in all those games I have seen since 1987, today's was the most bitterly disappointing.

I am not a child any more, and I generally move on from the bad losses pretty quickly. I'm very happy with my life outside football, but as luck would have it this has come on the end of a pretty shitty week, so maybe that has something to do with it. Like my aunt, my step-kids are lovely people, and far less obnoxious than I would have been at their age. (Their father is a dickhead of course, because he supports Carlton, and a few other reasons, but overall he's a nice guy.)

In fact I was still the obnoxious one yesterday, pointing out that Carlton are actually quite shit. I was confusing the boy, because they were absolutely thrashing us, but that was a big part of the disappointment. It was just sheer utter ineptitude that gifted Carlton so many goals. They mustn't have believed their luck - spoils and errant handpasses in the goalsquare, turnovers taken as chest marks directly in front of goal. Loose men just lining up, that barely had to break out of a jog to create space.

Those other thrashings I mentioned never felt as bleak as this. Port surprised us that day, and of course we were off our tucker, but they played well. We still played finals, even if we bombed out like 1987. And the Eagles at home, they just dominated us that day. They were good in a way that Carlton were not yesterday. If Carlton were any good it would have approached Geelong's 200 point demolition of Melbourne under Bailey.

I don't know where I am going with all this. I guess yesterday feels far worse to me than football in that pre-Pagan era. That first game I went to against Carlton, the Krakouer brothers were on fire, and despite the aforementioned devastation, I knew I had experienced a terrific game of football. But Melbourne pumped us the following week, and I remember feeling like we were an ordinary, make up the numbers team, and that we would never win a flag. But in all the time since then I have never seen us go through as bad a time as these last five years. Like my daughter, I am just so sad.

As an off shoot, I didn’t stop at Wallan after the 2005 Tigers game but got drive through instead

It led to what became known as ‘Twistergate’

The Twister unravelled into my lap at the Wandong turn off all over my good pants

That’s the end of the story

Great day that one.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Flat is an understatement

 

[R00StaR]

John Law said before game a few weeks ago that he always viewed the next contest, every one, as the most important of his career.
How many of our blokes paid any attention to that?

Different sport and way different level, but i remember my first A Turf cricket GF. The training intensity lifted after every final, Butterflys n nerves on the day. After that i treated every training season and every match the same as it was a GF so next time the GF was just another game.

 

[Jasemon]

Again yesterday’s game has just about broken me. Despite everything I’ve sat through over the last 6 years and almost 50 years of attending games week in week out. This morning woke up and felt flatter than I had the night before. The club is directionless. Players look as broken as our supporters feel and as clear as the night follows day there is zero trust amongst our players. Yesterday should have been a match that each player played like his life depended on it, a match where they were going to war alongside their brothers and that at all costs they played their ‘roles’ unwaveringly. On the biggest stage of the year for our club they let us down and I fear they don’t understand how badly they’ve hurt us, the club and our relevance within the AFL community.

 

[Themanbun]

Our midfield summed up.

Third quarter, few minutes left, centre bounce. LDU struggled for separation all day. Puts his hand up to sweep, then completely abandons the position as soon as the ball goes up. Hewett sees it and burns straight through the middle and front of the stoppage (the exact play a proper sweeper stops) for a goal.

I'm done. I chose not to get a membership this year and I will continue making that choice until we put in effort as a footy side.

Green is what should have been done - if we win the tap, Harry is there. If Cripps gets it before Harry, he has to go backward where Parker can harass and they have to exit through the back of the stoppage. If their set play works but our sweeper stays where he should be, they run into a wall or have to dump kick. Harry did his part here.

Red is absolutely what your sweeper should not be doing. And is what he did here.

Blue is what happened. With no sweeper there to stop him, he burns straight through with the pill and hits an inside 50.

The shit thing is the opposition did this as a set play - meaning they KNEW our sweeper would try to get a cheap clearance instead of playing their role. We know this because it is an incredibly high risk low reward move for you to send your own sweeper straight through the middle of the setup, and because Cripps laid a block on Parker once he clued on.

This self-centred play from our mids needs to be stopped or we will go nowhere.

When this stuff happens it affects future stoppages - Harry then 50/50s his run as the hit-to player, just in case LDU abandons his role in that stoppage again. Parker then has to stick like glue to their sweeper next time, because he can't rely on coverage at the front of the stoppage.

This is basic. Really basic stuff. And it kills you as a footy side.

 

[The Anvil]

Left with family at three quarter time. Won't be going again this year. The club is cooked, the umpiring is cooked and the AFL is cooked.

Yep, it just ain't fun. I've paid my membership money, they can keep it and I'll find less painful things to do also.

 

[Blightys Barrel]

Larkey is on track to kick 15-20 more goals than he did last season.

How is that going backwards?

See season 2023 output and 2024 output. He has regressed. His miss yesterday with that cute little snap into the goal post set the tone for the day. It’s the little 1-2 things from each player that build and build into pressure that takes its toll. The missed handball, the poor kick, the missed tackle etc etc.
So when a senior leader does an act like that, it’s becomes acceptable. Was a confidence sapper and contributed to an all round shite day.

 

[ferball]

See season 2023 output and 2024 output. He has regressed. His miss yesterday with that cute little snap into the goal post set the tone for the day. It’s the little 1-2 things from each player that build and build into pressure that takes its toll. The missed handball, the poor kick, the missed tackle etc etc.
So when a senior leader does an act like that, it’s becomes acceptable. Was a confidence sapper and contributed to an all round shite day.

In 2023 he kicked 20 goals in the last 3 games. At this point in the 2023 season he'd kicked three goals less. So even with his errors he's ahead of where he was. Its not like he wasn't making mistakes like this back then.

 

[Ashley B]

Mate just received this after the game lol. Not sure the responses will be all that positive

 

[Hazey1977]

I can't even process what happened yesterday.

Do we go back to the drawing board, start the rebuild again focussing on natural defenders?

We could have kept Pink in and given Kal Dawson a run while Logue got his fitness up to standard in the VFL.

 

[Limerick]

We could have kept Pink in and given Kal Dawson a run while Logue got his fitness up to standard in the VFL.

I like this
It follows the John Kennedy "Do something" philosophy. Doing the same thing over and over and getting worse is pure stupidity.

 

[roo blitz]

Again yesterday’s game has just about broken me. Despite everything I’ve sat through over the last 6 years and almost 50 years of attending games week in week out. This morning woke up and felt flatter than I had the night before. The club is directionless. Players look as broken as our supporters feel and as clear as the night follows day there is zero trust amongst our players. Yesterday should have been a match that each player played like his life depended on it, a match where they were going to war alongside their brothers and that at all costs they played their ‘roles’ unwaveringly. On the biggest stage of the year for our club they let us down and I fear they don’t understand how badly they’ve hurt us, the club and our relevance within the AFL community.

Very well said

 

[Gasometer]

Again yesterday’s game has just about broken me. Despite everything I’ve sat through over the last 6 years and almost 50 years of attending games week in week out. This morning woke up and felt flatter than I had the night before. The club is directionless. Players look as broken as our supporters feel and as clear as the night follows day there is zero trust amongst our players. Yesterday should have been a match that each player played like his life depended on it, a match where they were going to war alongside their brothers and that at all costs they played their ‘roles’ unwaveringly. On the biggest stage of the year for our club they let us down and I fear they don’t understand how badly they’ve hurt us, the club and our relevance within the AFL community.

Yes this is traumatic

Sick of it

 

[Blightys Barrel]

Very well said

Ditto - felt sick in the guts.

 

[The Dougster]

The Clarko flame died tonight.

Sad but true

 

[DuckYeah]

The Clarko flame died tonight.

We are so poorly organised, regardless of obvious player deficiencies.

Snuffed…


Hello darkness, my old friend

 

[chickenonachain]

What we are watching is the demise of a football club.

 

[scottywiper]

After the preseason loss to Melbourne, someone at club told me if we didn't learn to defend we'd finish last again. And here we are eight weeks later....so people inside club knew....all of which makes our draft moves lata year even more baffling.

 

[Marstermind]

After the preseason loss to Melbourne, someone at club told me if we didn't learn to defend we'd finish last again. And here we are eight weeks later....so people inside club knew....all of which makes our draft moves lata year even more baffling.

This really hurts. We traded and drafted like a club who knew they were on the up this year. Yet here we are, 6 rounds in and the most achievable goal we have is to avoid the spoon.

There are some serious idiots at the wheel of our club.

 

[Hazey1977]

After the preseason loss to Melbourne, someone at club told me if we didn't learn to defend we'd finish last again. And here we are eight weeks later....so people inside club knew....all of which makes our draft moves lata year even more baffling.

Is it the players needing to learn to defend, they physically can't do what's being asked or the defensive plan is no good?

Can anyone tell me in detail what the plan is meant to be? I can't make it to games in person and you can't pick today much up off the usual tv angles.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Great photos maddiemelb of the best part of the day.

 

[Rod Stroker]