Watch out Bombers

[Hirdhasbigears]

First things first.
Rice -
A 36 year old player is important to Carlton because he is the captain and an inspiration to others. Duh! And now that he is injured I'm sure Stephen Silvagni will make a fine captain.
Kouta is now in his prime. That is why he is playing such good football. Sooky wimp James Hird had one good season and wasn't even the outright Brownlow winner. You can't say he is Essendon's best player, as he is not.
He is also favored by umpires.
Call me Mini-Barb if you like. She is a passionate Carlton supporter and actually a very nice person if you had even taken the time to talk to her. However, Mini-Barb is not appropriate because I am 5 feet 9 inches tall. She is very short. I am 21 years old. She is about 121. Also my name is Julia. Hers is Barb. To state the obvious.
All the *** activists -
I can assure you that Anthony Koutoufides is not *** . Believe me.
Now, to my favorite part of the post. A message to DAN24!
How can you possibly say that Carlton played to their best? Put Matthew Allan, Anthony Koutoufides, Craig Bradley, Justin Murphy and Adrian Hickmott back in that side and then Carlton will play to their best.
Your side certainly didn't ruin any weekend of mine. I had a lovely time actually. Great game of footy, in great seats, great date with great guy and great party with great friends. I was incredibly proud to be a Carlton supporter on Friday. With injuries to champion players the performed with spirit, passion and desire, showed they can both match and beat Essendon and that the Bombers are suspect under pressure from the opposition eg. Easy shots at goal missed by the usually reliable Blake Caracella and Justin Blumfield when Essendon were behind.
Of course Carlton supporters are going to be upset at the injury of a superstar like Anthony Koutoufides. Any true supporter of the game loves to see champions of this calibre in action. It is upsetting to see them go down. Even though I am a Carlton supporter and hate Essendon I was sorry to see James Hird injured last year. The injury could even cost the best player of the year the Brownlow Medal. So of course Blues supporters were upset. Any normal person could acknowledge that. You'd be upset if Lloydy went down wouldn't you!
By the way, not only did you put yourself in for it over the choking thing, (thanks for pointing that out Grendel) you also put yourself in when you noted Alessio did nothing (similar to the prelim. final)
In case you hadn't noticed he doesn't do anything worth anything 21 out of 22 games a season.
Continuing on, I was also enthused by North Melbournes disgraceful performance against Sydney. They definetely have a premiership hangover. They are not a threat to me.
Actually, neither are Essendon. Our backman kept your fowards down as we have done before, and will do again, even with the absence of Ang Christou, a quality backman. Mark Porter beat John Barnes, imagine what it will be like when Matty Allan gets in there. You are short in the backline so we will be able to rest Allan in the foward line and there will be nobody to combat it because Dustin Fletcher will have to take Lance, and Wellman will have to take Aaron Hamill. Oooh! I shiver with delight just thinking about it! Our midfield can also beat yours.
As far as I'm concerned, Essendon can have their perfect season. They can have their feeling of invincibility. I am now more confident that if Carlton play Essendon on September 2nd, the enormous pressure on the Essendon players will be too much. Sure, Kouta may be missing, but we don't rely on one player to win. We are better than that.

Watch out Bombers. You have seen nothing yet!

P.S. Azza Hamill is perfectly entitled to one shocker. He has had a brilliant season. He may suprise you all yet.

 

[walshy1993]

chris heffernan, dean wallis, dustin fletcher - allan, kouta & bradley
you cant count murphy he hasnt played all year

i rest my case

 

[walshy1993]

short in the backline, solomon, fletcher, wallis, wellman, add in hardwick, johnson and you will see our backline is great and carltons to put it blantly is shit
ill go through it
manton-essendon reject should go back to the vfl, wellman is far superior as his all-australian form has shown
silvangi-slow, old and overrated, made a career from scragging, nothing compared to the best fullback at current dustin fletcher
oreilly- ordinary at best
if you think essendon has a height problem try to combat lloyd lucas hird alessio, im sure they wont be so quiet next time.
and then even if they are we have proven that there are many other avenues to goal and i dont think carlton have the same options
are u john elliotts child cause all you can see is carlton

 

[KOUTAISABIGPOOF]

WAAAAAAAAAAH I WANT MUMMY TO KISS MY KNEESY WEESY BETTER (OR BETTER STILL....ANG CAN DO IT)

 

[Hirdhasbigears]

Well Walshy, as a matter of fact...!!!

 

[Dan26]

Hirdhasbigears,

Well, we will just have to wait and see, won't we.

I stand by what I said tnat Carltn played at their best. They played at their best, taking into account the injuries they suffered. Their intensity and skill level was as good as it can get, remembering the pressure that Essendon applied (Essendon do have statistically the best defence in the comp) And we only got two goals out of Lucas, Lloyd, and Hird combined, and we still won by 26 points.

We'll just wait and see what happens in August. I'm quietly confident. We always play well agaisnt Carlton. They havn't outplayed us legitimately in a match since late 1997. If you want to get cocky, fine. We'll let the results speak for themselves, which we have been doing all year.

Nice to see the Carlton arrogance is out in abundance.

Was your "date" a Carlton fan ?

 

[The Dutchman!]

Love the arrogance:

- Essendon are no threat
- Essendon have a small backline (???????!!!)
- North performed "disgracefully", have a premiership hangover and are no threat!

Back in the land of reality:
- Carlton have lost two on the trot and now have injuries to key players and are generally in danger of having peaked too early.
- North have their first off week for a while and are still a threat
- Carlton manage to catch Essendon with Lucas, Lloyd and Hird all relatively quiet in front of goal (give or take some scragging highway robbery) and without their 2nd best player this year and best backman(Fletcher) and Carlton still get beat by 25+.
- Richmond, Geelong, Melbourne & Sydney all had great wins on the weekend. Melbourne are even an outside chance of slipping into third spot and may yet contribute to some finals carnage...

Love the Carlton arrogance factor. LOVE IT!

 

[Jaffa]

It's all over, the Dons are home. The other night it always felt like Essendon had another gear. If they really fired then maybe a couple of gears.

There are only 2 things that can save this season from being the worst ever. Worst ever for non-Essendon supporters that is.

One is Essendon going undefeated. If they go 25-0 then it will be a memorable season for all concerned. An unbelievable performance. If they lose a game before they win the premeirship then it will be disappointing.

The other is Essendon not winning the GF. Now that would be a sensation. A tragedy. Football as cruel as it can possibly get.

 

[dons_r_tops]

Hirdhasbigears, Mini-barb, julia, whatever you want to be called
How can you use Injury as an excuse 2 weeks in a row, quite simply you can't, If essendon played that badly how did they win, also if you had bothered to watch the game instead of your date, you would have noticed along with blind freddy that the only time the bombers played to their game plan was in the first 10minutes of the last quarter when they booted 5 goals, this is to go straight down the middle of the ground instead of around the wings as they did for most of the night. Also Sheedy still has 5 or 6 cards up his sleeve you don't have the imagination to figure out at ****ters park. on the ang and kouta thing, I agree they are not *** but probably trysexual, as they'll try anything!

 

[KOUTAISABIGPOOF]

*** ? Gee this a big closet i'm in.

 

[Johnno]

What a bunch of self congratulatory w***ers,Let's hope it all ends in tears like the prelim and the GF last year for you lot of weak gutted bandwagon jumpers.

 

[Barney]

I agree with Hirdisabigknob on the fact that Carlton will be better when they get Kouta,Bradley,Murphy,Allan and Hickmott back..trouble is that could be next year.
Kouta is the one player who could win it for carlton..the one player Essendon cannot match up on..the one man who crucified them in last years prelim..only trouble him and Bradley will be sitting in the stand still injured.Fate and injuries play a large part in any year and carlton are finding that out right now.
All those who rate Wellman as something special...listen and learn...he is none to keen on the tough stuff and was once again
caught putting in the short steps when playing on Whitnall..its the same when he plays on Carey..he is overated and lucky that he is playing with the likes of Fletcher,Hardwick,Johnsons etc...same goes for old glass jaw Misiti benched cos the game
got a bit hot and ratten was killing him..and we know the in and under stuff aint Joes cup of tea.Forget the swans game..North are still there and in line to play the bombers for the flag..sorry blues fans but injuries have stuffed you. The Roos will test the bombers
physically and we all know the marshmallow bombers dont like it too tough..oh and please bring back Dean " I stuffed up in a GF" Wallis..we all know history repeats itself..

Go Roos

 

[walshy1993]

agree with you dan and also dutchman
i dont think essendon where showing their hand at all, carlton played to their best ability and essendon played well below theirs yet still won by 4 goals

as for wellman, all-australian selection shows that the bloke can play and he did a great job on whitnall whos goals came from great kicks from midfielders, anyone can kick goals if they have the ball delivered to them like that

 

[Fibula 3]

Why is it that Norff supporters have mouths the opposite of their support base???

 

[Red Devil]

Hirdhasbigears

Last weeks excuse: we were resting for the Bombers game
This weeks excuse: the big **** & the soft **** hack got injured.

Time to admit it, Bluescum are just not up to it. Played at your best & still got swept aside. Stop making pathetic excuses.
A straght sets finals departure awaits you - have fun.

 

[Hirdhasbigears]

It's okay Essendon supporters. Think like that. Think that Carlton cannot play any better than they did on Friday night. It's what we want anyway. You thought like that last year and look what happened!!! You beat us twice during the H&A last year and look what happened!!! You got cocky, over confident and presumptous last year and look what happened!!! Laughable. And now Jimmy Boy is injured. What a champion he is! All I can say to Essendon supporters is that history repeats itself in the cruelest of ways. Long live the underdogs.

P.S. Dan, your really need to stop leaving so many holes in your defence. I'm much better at this than you. Face it. Don't knock my date either. Just because you can't get any. You'd be sorry if you knew even half of it.
P.P.S. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and we should all respect that. Doesn't mean I can't be at my bitchy and arrogant Carlton best towards Essendon fools.
P.P.S. Whatever you reckon!

Julia

 

[Dan26]

Cocky Bombers ?

What a load of rubbish. If a team is 20-0, you wil not find anyone more humble than Essendon has been this year.

Now before anyone laughs. can you imagine the arrogance if Carlton were 20-0 (or Richmond for that matter). Or Collingwood ? Or St.Kilda ? Can you imagine the supporters ?

Essendon have not mentioned premierships at all. The actual supporters themselves ofen talk about what happened in 1999, so therefore, no one is prepared to open the champagne early. In fact most of the "putting down" of Essendon come from the opposition, firsty claiming we are arrogant, then claiming we have weaknesses that Carlton will exploit etc etc. Anything to bash the ladder leaders.

The tall poppy syndrome at it's best.

And to you Hirdhasbigears, here is a little stat about the 1999 preliminary final.

1999: Round 17 (Essendon by 76 points).

Scoring shots - Essendon 31, Carlton 25

.
1999 Preliminary final (Carlton by one point)

Scoring shots - Essendon 33, Carlton 24

I find that stat incredible. Mind-boggling as a matter of fact. it shows 2 things. Firstly it shows how much Essendon dominated the match. And secondly it just shows how wrong all those arrogant Carlton scum are about Essendon being cocky in the prelim last year. If we were cocky, how come we scored 2 more times than we did wen we beat you by 76 points. And if we were cocky, how did we keep you to one less scoring shot than you had the day you were humiliated by 76 points. And how did we have 9 more scoring shots overall ?

Innacuracy was the only thing that cost Essendon. My Carlton friend at work admits it was a fluke. I agree with him, after looking at those stats. Fancy having 9 less scoring shots and still falling over the line undeservadly by a point. Fair dinkum.

That's why I am not too worried about last year. I know there is not much more we could have done, and I know that Carlton would be devastated about losing the biggest game of the year. We only lost the second biggest.

And anyway, Hirdhasbigears, what relevance does last year have on this year ? NONE !

There will be no flukes from the Blueboys this year

 

[The Dutchman!]

I still reckon the big threat now is the dees.

Unlike some around here I can respect heart, effort and talent and Carlton have shown all of that this year. In any other year they would be on top. Unfortunately I think they may be cursed with some poor luck and timing of key injuries. All due respect to Carlton, they a still some sort of chance but those injuries are going to be very hard to overcome when you rely so heavily on a few players.

North. Again, sure they are always a chance with the strength of their overall list and standout individuals - but there have to be question marks again primarily due to ongoing injury concerns - particularly in their backline. Oh and then there's the Cartman factor...

I respect what Bomber Thompson and the Cats have achieved this year - many tipped them to be in the bottom 4 and they have stuffed it right up the experts. But I think they are a player or two short of a real threat this year and, given some decent off season pick-ups may well seriously threaten next year.

But the dees, jeez such an interesting one. Reasonable backline, sensational midfield, great forward line, and.. not too many injury concerns.

The Dees are only one win behind North with a much better %. Melb has Geelong at the G (a hard game for them historically) and the injury-depleted Eagles in WA. Hardish games. North have Coll and Stkilda - easyish games.. you'd think.

Melbourne will be busting a gut to win this week to sure up the double chance, even if that means its against Essendon - I for one think they will finally break their cat hoodoo. Collingwood were very good late last week and almost got home against the dogs - it would be a brave soul to tip the upset but... the pressure is on North who will fancy themselves against the Blues but will want to avoid the Bombers at all costs.

End of the day logic suggests that so long as Melb get over Geelong this weekend the top 4 will stay as it is.... but if it doesn't look out North and look out everyone (including us) for Melbourne.

Dutch

PS. If you don't rate a team that has won 20-0 you are an idiot.
PPS. If you don't rate Wellman - the 2nd best backman in the best defence this season - and the best backman in the 2nd best defence last year - and the year before ALL AUSTRALIAN - then you don't know much about football.
PPPS. If you don't rate Misiti - top 3 in B&F in 3 out of the last 4 years at Windy Hill and a great player then... well... this is boring... point is, find something sensible to bag us over rather than wailing about like fools... here are some tips:

- Alessio (no argument here - form has been pretty awful this year - Pess, Grendel - do you guys seriously want to take the risk after one win (Fish) and one loss (Young)?

- Caracella goalkicking against you guys - can't understand this - played reasonably well though...

- That's about it really...

 

[KOUTAISABIGPOOF]

Come on Barb you say you hate to see champions out and then gloat about jimmy boy being injured. The only thing you and me have in common is we both have great times with a nice guy.

 

[Dan26]

Yep, the Dees are the big woory.

I keep having awful visions of Jeff Farmer and David Neitz leading Melbournes forward line to a winning score against us in the first week of the finals, consigning us to a second week semi-final.

There are only two teams, who, when at full strength have better midfields than the Bombers. One is Carlton, the other is Melbourne. Fortunately, we have a very good midfield ourselves, as well as a better forward line and better defence than those two teams.

Melboure is a real smokey to play in the Grand Final. They seem to always play their best foty at finals time the Dees, unlike Carlton.

Carlton have suffered humiliating, LARGE finals losses in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1999. They always seem tog get thrashed in the finals when they lose. If the Dees meet Carlton in the finals, I'll back Melbourne. Ignore Carltons 98 point victory over the Dees a few weeks ago. That will be irrelevant come finals time.

But hopefully, any optimistic opponent will fall short against the Essendon juggernaught. Surely, nothing can stop us.

Surely ?..........

 

[sainter]

Perhaps Melbourne play well against Essendon but from what I saw Essendon, Carlton and the kangaroos have nothing to worry about against Melbourne.

It may have been that I saw them play on a poor day but I think they are suspect down back and far too inconsistent in their forward line. Farmer is as likely to kick a bag full of goals as he is to remain kickless and warm the bench. We all know Melbourne's strength is their midfield but I honestly could not see them progress any further than a big loss in the preliminary final.

I thought Geelong would have fell away by now too but they have impressed me. Apart from the top three, the only team I think will challenge strongly is the Lions. I realise some people don't rate them all but they have two relatively easy games and it is quite possible that they will finish 6th and get a home final. After they get a bit of momentum, who knows?

I will more than likely have to eat these words later on. Much like tipping the saints for a top eight position.

 

[Barney]

Hey Dutchman you seem far too intelligent than the rest of the bunch you wouldnt be Max Crow from another footy chat site by any chance..
Dont agree on the fact that All Australian selection means that much and the same goes for B&F, where being popular and a good clubman can count for a few votes as well as on field performance.
Wellman is a good rebounder but when it comes to the man on man stuff he is way behind Jakovich,Neitz,Gaspar and the underated Darren Mead, likewise Misiti wins plenty of the ball and uses it well but is no Brett Ratten,Paul Kelly or Anthony Stevens when it comes to winning it the hard way and essendon are lucky they have Jason Johnson to cover for Misiti's lack of skill in that area
Melbourne need Farmer kicking a bag full every week and it aint going to happen on a regular basis..not against the good teams.

 

[Shinboners]

Barney

I can't agree with you on the Best and Fairest not meaning much. At North Melbourne, the players are rated by the coaching staff, and they are hardly likely to vote according to whether a player is a good clubman or not. Every club has their own way of voting, but I don't think you will find a best and fairest winner at any club that was not deserving of the award.

The other thing is that footy fans tend to follow the glamour players around. You always notice the Careys, Hirds, Buckleys, and so on. But there are plenty of players out there....like the Rattens, Blakeys, and Misitis, that do plenty of work that goes unnoticed. As the Dutchman noted, Joe Misiti has consistently polled high in the Essendon best and fairest, but I don't think anyone else would notice him doing his job. The other week, a mate and I saw a North game (vs. Melbourne) and we both noted that Bell didn't seem to do much. When we got in the car, we heard that he was North's highest possession winner. At North vs Essendon, Misiti was working so hard and *quickly* that I didn't realise that it was him causing us all the damage in the middle. But while the fans may not notice, the coaching staff do.

 

[sandie]

Shinboners I notice Misiti, that is why I queried no one putting him in the All Australian side, not even emergency. I don't know what he has to do to get noticed by other than Bomber people.

------------------
Mantis

 

[Shinboners]

Sandie

I guess some players just don't attract the attention of opposition fans. In regards to North, opposition fans know about the midfield work of players likes of Stevens, Bell, and Harvey, but they often don't realise how much damage players like Simpson and Clayton can do. Sometimes it's not only the fans who overlook opposition players either.

A couple of years ago, David Parkin was planning some strategies to use against Essendon. He told his players that Mark Mercuri could be exploited because he didn't like doing the hard stuff like running, chasing, and following his opponent. At the time, most people felt that Mercuri wasn't using his talents to the full. A few Carlton players raised their eyebrows and (I think it was) Brett Ratten pointed out that Mercuri was one of the hardest working Essendon players. Mercuri earned a tagger for the game. This isn't knocking Parkin in any way, it's just an example of how sometimes players can be underrated.