Where are we at?

[baconb]

Hey guys,
I know this is only pre-season, but being in the US I only get to read peoples comments so thought I would ask a question.

I have worried about our backline for a line-time, I just wanted to see how the supporters feel it is? Any new additions this year that can stand out? I personally like some of the smaller guys, armfield + browne....

thoughts please

 

[BlueYoss]

Round 3 of the NAB Cup

 

[Faz 2000]

Backline will be OK... we may struggle against genuinely big forwards though, if Hale and Roughead are any indication, until either Carlos gets his ass into gear or Bower/Jamison get considerably stronger. The rest looks OK, with a possible Stevens/Scotland sweeper/quarterback duo something to watch out for.

The midfield is the strength, as expected. Defensive pressure still the weakness, but will be better than last year and should continue to improve. Look for a LOT of players to rotate through there, and Bryce Gibbs to disconbobulate several teams.

The ruck division is, at AFL level, terrible. But at least they (Kreuzer, Hampson, Warnock, Jacobs, Cloke) are all young and have improvement in them. Hopefully 1-2 stand up this year, and Cloke/Kreuzer find a way to contribute regularly up forward.

The forward line is all Fev all the time. It's Fev everyday and twice on Sunday (there's a matinee). Fev looks a million bucks, and will give the ton a real crack. I think this will look a lot better if we get Houlihan and Walker providing some silk/spark respectively, but we really need a second (and third...) target, and that looks most likely to be Cloke or Kreuzer or a combination thereof.

We'll make the 8, and win zero or one final, Chris Judd will finish top 3 in the Brownlow, Fev will finish top 2 in the Coleman.

Anything else?

 

[baconb]

Backline will be OK... we may struggle against genuinely big forwards though, if Hale and Roughead are any indication, until either Carlos gets his ass into gear or Bower/Jamison get considerably stronger. The rest looks OK, with a possible Stevens/Scotland sweeper/quarterback duo something to watch out for.

The midfield is the strength, as expected. Defensive pressure still the weakness, but will be better than last year and should continue to improve. Look for a LOT of players to rotate through there, and Bryce Gibbs to disconbobulate several teams.

The ruck division is, at AFL level, terrible. But at least they (Kreuzer, Hampson, Warnock, Jacobs, Cloke) are all young and have improvement in them. Hopefully 1-2 stand up this year, and Cloke/Kreuzer find a way to contribute regularly up forward.

The forward line is all Fev all the time. It's Fev everyday and twice on Sunday (there's a matinee). Fev looks a million bucks, and will give the ton a real crack. I think this will look a lot better if we get Houlihan and Walker providing some silk/spark respectively, but we really need a second (and third...) target, and that looks most likely to be Cloke or Kreuzer or a combination thereof.

We'll make the 8, and win zero or one final, Chris Judd will finish top 3 in the Brownlow, Fev will finish top 2 in the Coleman.

Anything else?

Great post!
thanks mate, appreciate it

 

[gbatman]

Joseph has been very impressive, Armfield has improved and looks good aswell.

Waite has played well but will benefit from an extra tall defender standing up such as O'hAilpin, as will Thronton. Stevens down back has done the Heath Scotland role very well but it will be good to get Scotland back to release Stevens.

With our zone we have left the backline a little open and that has worried us a bit. Jamison looks fit but is out of form with judging the ball in the air but will get that back soon I would imagine.

 

[Subliminal_Revolution]

I was watching the reply of the Carlton/Hawthorn game from the weekend, and noticed commentator Brian Taylor say this:

"I think Carlton will finish anywhere from 8th to 10th this season"

Thats the view of the club this year from a media point of view..
But dont forget he's Collingwood eccentric and clearly doesnt know sh*t.

 

[40yearBLUE]

Backline will be OK... we may struggle against genuinely big forwards though, if Hale and Roughead are any indication, until either Carlos gets his ass into gear or Bower/Jamison get considerably stronger. The rest looks OK, with a possible Stevens/Scotland sweeper/quarterback duo something to watch out for.

The midfield is the strength, as expected. Defensive pressure still the weakness, but will be better than last year and should continue to improve. Look for a LOT of players to rotate through there, and Bryce Gibbs to disconbobulate several teams.

The ruck division is, at AFL level, terrible. But at least they (Kreuzer, Hampson, Warnock, Jacobs, Cloke) are all young and have improvement in them. Hopefully 1-2 stand up this year, and Cloke/Kreuzer find a way to contribute regularly up forward.

The forward line is all Fev all the time. It's Fev everyday and twice on Sunday (there's a matinee). Fev looks a million bucks, and will give the ton a real crack. I think this will look a lot better if we get Houlihan and Walker providing some silk/spark respectively, but we really need a second (and third...) target, and that looks most likely to be Cloke or Kreuzer or a combination thereof.

We'll make the 8, and win zero or one final, Chris Judd will finish top 3 in the Brownlow, Fev will finish top 2 in the Coleman.

Anything else?

Not a bad summation, but I am not as concerned about the backline as you are. I think any back line even those with gun backs like Scarlett in them struggle if the delivery into their forward line is fast and unimpeded. Usually the side that has midfield supremacy wins because the delivery into the forward 50 is fast and unrelenting. It just isnt possible for backs to legally cover all options and under the pressure they hold and get pinged. I think our backs are good enough to hold their own if we have enough midfield pressure to effect the supply.

I think the area we need to improve in is Mental toughness. We proved last year in the games we won especially the come from behind wins that we are capable of competing with the middle 8 clubs. In other words we are competetive enough with all of them to win. Then there are the bottom 4, not only do we need to be consistently competive (that means win the games we are expected to win not drop them because we are not on our game or have underestimated them) such as the RD 1 loss and the 2 Essendon losses last year. Not that Richmond are bottom 4 but they are not up to our standard and we proved that the second time around, and I beleive Essendon are bottom 4 and we have to dispatch them accordingly. Furthermore we need to hand these bottom 4 clubs percentage boosting beltings. We have not done that for many years and we must. Percentage could well be the difference this year. That leaves the top 4 sides, we have shown we can beat the Dogs, but we caught them when they were in a slide so we must be prepared for them to be more competetive next time. We will need to control the losses to such sides as Hawks and Geelong to a few goals at most, and where we can sneak a win. I think we have the talent, I think we almost had it last year but lacked the consistency. So that is what we need to bring. The A game from the first bounce and not start at Qtr time to play catch up cos we wont catch all of them. And week in week out A grade performances. That should bring us the finals appearances we all crave this year.

 

[juzza316]

Not a bad summation, but I am not as concerned about the backline as you are. I think any back line even those with gun backs like Scarlett in them struggle if the delivery into their forward line is fast and unimpeded. Usually the side that has midfield supremacy wins because the delivery into the forward 50 is fast and unrelenting. It just isnt possible for backs to legally cover all options and under the pressure they hold and get pinged. I think our backs are good enough to hold their own if we have enough midfield pressure to effect the supply.

I think the area we need to improve in is Mental toughness. We proved last year in the games we won especially the come from behind wins that we are capable of competing with the middle 8 clubs. In other words we are competetive enough with all of them to win. Then there are the bottom 4, not only do we need to be consistently competive (that means win the games we are expected to win not drop them because we are not on our game or have underestimated them) such as the RD 1 loss and the 2 Essendon losses last year. Not that Richmond are bottom 4 but they are not up to our standard and we proved that the second time around, and I beleive Essendon are bottom 4 and we have to dispatch them accordingly. Furthermore we need to hand these bottom 4 clubs percentage boosting beltings. We have not done that for many years and we must. Percentage could well be the difference this year. That leaves the top 4 sides, we have shown we can beat the Dogs, but we caught them when they were in a slide so we must be prepared for them to be more competetive next time. We will need to control the losses to such sides as Hawks and Geelong to a few goals at most, and where we can sneak a win. I think we have the talent, I think we almost had it last year but lacked the consistency. So that is what we need to bring. The A game from the first bounce and not start at Qtr time to play catch up cos we wont catch all of them. And week in week out A grade performances. That should bring us the finals appearances we all crave this year.

I hope we have improved our mental toughnes, but judging by the first quarter of the Hawks game, we still have a way to go before we are bringing our A game each week from start to finish. Lets hope that quarter was not an indication of the mental lapses we are going to show this year and that by Round 1 we are switched on and ready to go. Most teams wont let u come back from 5 goals every week.

 

[gbatman]

I was watching the reply of the Carlton/Hawthorn game from the weekend, and noticed commentator Brian Taylor say this:

"I think Carlton will finish anywhere from 8th to 10th this season"

Thats the view of the club this year from a media point of view..
But dont forget he's Collingwood eccentric and clearly doesnt know sh*t.

BT is a good caller but his knowledge of the game isn't great while its far better than Spuds.
I heard this and I don't agree, i think top 6, possibly top 4.

No one rates our list, not even many Carlton people, the players havent played enough to make a name for them selves yet but they will. The football following public associate Carlton with losing and wooden spoons but that association will soon wear out.

 

[as0l0]

Where are we at?

waiting for a torrent!

 

[40yearBLUE]

I hope we have improved our mental toughnes, but judging by the first quarter of the Hawks game, we still have a way to go before we are bringing our A game each week from start to finish. Lets hope that quarter was not an indication of the mental lapses we are going to show this year and that by Round 1 we are switched on and ready to go. Most teams wont let u come back from 5 goals every week.

I agree they jumped us for intensity early. But you know, they (the hawks) are the yardstick for defensive pressure, especially at the kick in or when we have posession at a stopage deep in our backline. It seemed we could not get the ball over the centre before it want back in again and I think they had double our 50 entries in the first qtr. They are very well drilled at this new rolling zone, so it does not matter that they had their B team playing they all learn the same drill. So I wouldnt take too much away from that first quarter. It looked a lot worse than it was.

 

[blue gunslinger]

We are preparing for round 1 and a chance to put things right after the debacle of rnd 1 2008. We MUST beat Richmondrehab!