Preview Round 5 Port vs Carlton @ MCG 6.55pm Sat 17/4/21

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MCG, Saturday 21st April, 6.55pm
Our first game at the MCG for 2021, and we take on the Blueses and their hordes of ravenous supporters. Carlton played last Saturday night on and against the SUNS, in slippery conditions, and recorded a scrappy 11 point win, only posting a score of 9.16 but keeping the ravaged SUNS to 8.11. We, of course, played Richmond on Friday night at home and heroically held on to a 2 point victory, 11.13 to 11.11. so we have the minor advantage of an extra day of recovery. Which we look like we need, with several players fielding sore spots out of our bruising encounter with the Premiers. Jonas, Clurey, Fantasia, Butters all suffered hampering injuries, and Butters and Duursma have already been ruled out for extended periods. On top of this, Ladhams failed to capitalise on his last-minute reprieve, and should be dropped. Todd Marshall will take his place, and the likes of Bergsman, Farrell, Mead, Rockliff, Lienert and Woodcock all had incentive to claim a spot in Saturday's SANFL game v Centrals, but none absolutely nailed their name to the board. For Carlton, Silvagni did a shoulder, and Plowman was subbed off with a knee, so they will also be making changes - I don't know enough about their team but their board suggests that Zac Williams may be back, with Kennedy, Williamson and Stocker also mentioned. FIIK.

Last season, we played Carlton at the Gabba, needing the famous Robbie Gray miracle to get over them, but are on a 4-game winning streak against the Blueses, last losing to them in 2016. However, a lingering concern over this Hinkley-led side is how well we back up from an emotional win. Last season, the week after a similar courageous win over Richmond, we played Geelong and failed to compete in a 10 goal loss. An indication of the burgeoning maturity of this team will be how they handle the comedowns from a big win.

We lose when our midfield fails. Boak, Wines and Drew took the majority of centre bounces last week; Butters will be a loss but we still have the likes of Gray, Hartlett, Houston and Amon to rotate through there. Carlton are not exactly overflowing with midfielders but they have the quality of Cripps, Walsh and Curnow to throw at us as a first rotation. Beyond that, they are a bit thin, with the likes of Dow, Fogarty and Cottrell several classes below our deep midfield. We can afford to dispense with Ladhams this week and leave Lycett to battle it out with Pittonet - Scotty has been in good form this season, and honestly, Charlie may as well have been the backup ruck last week anyway considering Ladham's struggles. Casboult has been doing Carlton's relief ruck work

Carlton have had good seasons from their big defenders Weitering and Liam Jones. Dixon will be marked by one of these, probably Jones as he plays more upfield, leaving Weitering for Marshall. Charlie booted 3.4 against Jones last year, and was too strong on several occasions. Where we should have the advantage is with our small forwards, Fantasia, Rozee, Gray and Motlop. Adam Saad is the only defender who I rate, and I expect Sam Docherty to be assigned to Georgiades so they will have to play the likes of Newnes and Setterfield on our mosquito fleet.

Carlton rely heavily on Harry McKay in attack, and he has been in terrific marking form. Obviously, Clurey will be his opponent, but I will be disappointed if the rest of the defenders, led by Aliir and Hartlett, don't collapse back and help out, because they target the vast majority of their forward entries to McKay. Casboult is the other tall forward (unless McGovern comes back), and Jonas can handle him. Our halfbacks Burton, DBJ, Jones, Hartlett and Houston can mix'n'match against their small forwards Betts, Gibbons, Petrevski-Seton and Murphy effectively enough to keep them to a losing score.

The game should be one that we can handle comfortably, but the Blueses are improving. The worries are letdown after the Richmond game, awe of the MCG, McKay getting off the leash and a repeat of the reaming that the umpires handed to us on that memorable day in 2016(?); however, this team is building our trust more commonly than destroying it these days, and I am confident enough to predict a 30 point win to Port.
 

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Apr 2, 2014
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I think we are going to drop this one. Lots of players sore, tired and flat this week. Our only hope is Carlton not showing up and let us run rampant in the middle and forward.

Cant believe with is only the 4th time in our AFL history that we have played Carlton at the 'G'. We currently lead that head to head 2-1.
 
Aug 15, 2015
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It feels like Justin Westhoff should play this game
 

Eighteen Seventy

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Apr 4, 2021
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I'm in Melbourne this weekend, how do you go about grabbing tickets? It looks like they are available online from Tuesday, do I need to do anything special other than book?
Nope, just book them online when they become available.
 

Eighteen Seventy

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I think we are going to drop this one. Lots of players sore, tired and flat this week. Our only hope is Carlton not showing up and let us run rampant in the middle and forward.
Carlton are coming off a slog on the Gold Coast in humid conditions with a one day less break, so there's a good chance they'll be a little flat too.

Cant believe with is only the 4th time in our AFL history that we have played Carlton at the 'G'. We currently lead that head to head 2-1.
Sounds about right. In the early days we played them at Princes Park, and since then it's been a mixture of both Docklands and the MCG. We've played them at Docklands 6 times.
 
If Kade Simpson isn't playing then who approves the umpire's calls?
 

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Willsy10

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Apr 3, 2014
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I think we are going to drop this one. Lots of players sore, tired and flat this week. Our only hope is Carlton not showing up and let us run rampant in the middle and forward.
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Carn. This is extremely negative.

Besides the reported injured players, how do you know that the players are sore, tired and flat this week? And you don’t think 8 days is enough time for them to recover?

No excuses. It’s Carlton.


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PAFC66

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Feb 5, 2007
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Carn. This is extremely negative.

Besides the reported injured players, how do you know that the players are sore, tired and flat this week? And you don’t think 8 days is enough time for them to recover?

No excuses. It’s Carlton.






On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
Agreed it's Carlton.

But we've struggled against Carlton even when they were winning spoons or bottom 4 and we were dominating. We seem to always lose clearances against this lot. We really need to push high and punish them on turnovers this week. They'll drop Pittonet back, we have to ensure we don't continually kick to him and their talls out of defence like we did against Richmond.
 
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Willsy10

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Apr 3, 2014
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Agreed it's Carlton.

But we've struggled against Carlton when they were winning spoons

We struggled against Carlton in 15-16 when we were also struggling, other than that I’m not sure what you are referring to.

Yeah we nearly dropped last years game against them but overall our record against them is pretty good especially the last few years.

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PAFC66

Down a dark alley
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We struggled against Carlton in 15-16 when we were also struggling, other than that I’m not sure what you are referring to.

Yeah we nearly dropped last years game against them but overall our record against them is pretty good especially the last few years.

On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
Last few games has been okay but in Melbourne we are never certainties against them. They're a hard team to beat if we give them a start.
 
Other results this weekend surely dispel any excuse for complacency. Anyone can beat anyone in this competition (except maybe North, who would struggle to beat an egg right now), so if we're even 5% off our game on Saturday night, we're vulnerable.
 

Northalives

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I don't care who the ins and outs are this week, whether they are forced or not. All I want to see is the same preparedness and intensity from the players that we saw against Richmond and if we do that, we will win!

It's no use talking about our depth of quality, it's all about the depth standing up and being as vicious and ruthless as those that they replace in the side. They must justify their selection to wear the guernsey.
 

Dalfino

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May 10, 2014
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The expectation is to win and win comfortably but we have a tendency to crumble under expectation. Coming off of a brutal slog against Richmond, half our squad are battered and bruised whilst Carlton got a nice close win to keep their confidence up. I can definitely see this being a game we drop. Doesn't mean it's okay, just based on past trends with this team I won't be shocked if it happens.
 

Coobk001

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Mar 26, 2007
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To be fair, we've rolled into Carlton games fit and playing well and still found a reason to serve up tripe. So the fact we're rolling up a bit worse for wear means little, we may end up playing better than usual for all we know.

This one is pretty crucial though. In a long season with injuries now becoming a factor we just need to keep racking them up. With St Kilda, Brisbane and the Dogs in the next 5, we need as many of the games we should win, in the bag.
 

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