This will be good for us.

[Call Me Cake]

Adelaide barely cared?

Quite a few judges called it one of the performances of the year. Easily the best outfit we came across all season.

An Elimination Final is of more importance than a Round 22 game.

 

[BlueSnake]

Hoops played better than I expected while others played a lot worse than I had hoped.

Yes, I know, it's just a few "pull ups" I saw from him that stuck in my mind and it seemed like he got found out for speed a couple of times. Although on the other hand I seem to remember him applying some very important tackles. I guess as usual, it's the bad sometimes being more noticeable than the good.

But yes, in the end it was really that we had too many others who perhaps just didn't go as hard as we'd like. Hadley going down was a huge blow for us in that regard.

 

[blues4flag]

Doesn't change the fact it was as good a H&A performance you're likely to see.

Adelaide was playing for a home final. Yet they hardly cared.

 

[dossa75]

Good game tonight guys, bad luck, atleast you made finals. Quite a good effort for a team known to have about 5 good players that carry the whole side.
They've been found out to be downhill skiers though which isn't very good, hopefully during the preseason they'll try and learn to tackle and defend.
Most of your top notch players should be hitting their straps though at their current age, strange they're not..
Maybe with Cloke being able to hold a KPF position you could move Fevola to the backline as you really need a big bodied, able player back there.
Bad luck once again, better luck next year.

I know you had the tweezers out last night hoping that this would happen, i'm sure you neglected to realise you had your biggest finals defeat ever last night ! Enjoy your time in the gallery of the supreme court hoping that the dealer gets off, i think he could end up the best ruckman in the comp, he'll have plenty of practice palming a footy thru thin metal bars. troll........

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Good game tonight guys, bad luck, atleast you made finals. Quite a good effort for a team known to have about 5 good players that carry the whole side.
They've been found out to be downhill skiers though which isn't very good, hopefully during the preseason they'll try and learn to tackle and defend.
Most of your top notch players should be hitting their straps though at their current age, strange they're not..
Maybe with Cloke being able to hold a KPF position you could move Fevola to the backline as you really need a big bodied, able player back there.
Bad luck once again, better luck next year.

Exhibit A - after a 96 point defeat this is what the once great Essendon Football Club has become - pathetic really.

 

[Tish]

I read the first post, I agree with it. I know even at lower levels of sport, losing something so close, makes you so hungry!

With the blues, i will say 85% of the side will play in a flag. Losing so close, knowing we;d beat the goddies. Should make us want blood next year.

I'd put money on us now making the grand final, if not winning the flag. Book mark it!

 

[Tish]

Doggies!!!!!

 

[Call Me Cake]

Denial.

Isn't just a river in Egypt.

 

[Dramoth]

Denial.

Isn't just a river in Egypt.

It's what the bummers are going through right now...

Some of us are happy with the result because we know it's progressing towards #17 and experience helps

whereas your bunch of twats are just making up excuses...

 

[Zolli8]

As robert walls said this will teach us that you havta fight all the way till the end. We obviously weren't ready and this will be a good learning experience for the future. Sure, we were 30 points up and should have won. But que sera sera. It has happened. We can't change that. Let's look forward to what promises to be an exciting and fulfilling year in '10!

what do you mean it will teach us to fight all the way to the end.... we were the highest scoring 4th qtr team in the comp and on 3 occasions we kept teams goalless in the last qtr this season including geelong.... we dont need to learn that - we need to learn to handball to a players hands NOT at his ankles and players like young guys (armfield, bower, joseph) need to learn to make a decision not just give it to a Judd/Gibbs because they are next to you

 

[krayfesh]

We'll learn to cope under pressure.

Technically, I guess its up to the staff at Carlton to handle the players psychologically, but they'll be able to come up with positives and new goals for next season.

 

[reg_lower91]

what do you mean it will teach us to fight all the way to the end.... we were the highest scoring 4th qtr team in the comp and on 3 occasions we kept teams goalless in the last qtr this season including geelong.... we dont need to learn that - we need to learn to handball to a players hands NOT at his ankles and players like young guys (armfield, bower, joseph) need to learn to make a decision not just give it to a Judd/Gibbs because they are next to you

*edit: fight all the way to the end in a final.

And even so, sure we have been great finishers in games throughout the season, but i think that may have hurt us last night. We got up, looked seemingly to win, the boys got confident, over confident, took our foot off the pedal and started thinking about the bulldogs. This will teach us that we can't just expect to win. We have to EARN it. I think the boys expected this just to be another game, that the lions would lie down like other teams that we have kept goalless in the last quarter this season.

This is where the loss will help us. We will come back next season and take A LOT out of this game. We'll come back twice as hungry and be raring to seek revenge. We tasted finals blood in the game last night... A very dangerous thing for the other 15 teams.