100% still the best ruck. He played some ripper games after we banished Grundy last season.
Training 2024 Preseason Thread
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I actually saw this the other way, thought they were pretty good, and Lever played a solid game, as usual he played better with Tomlinson taking the 2nd tall forward. The Carlton talls got a couple of cheap goals that we couldnt do much about anyway, all our defenders seemed to set up well all night though. Now looking forward to Tomlinson not being selected for round 1 and Lever being accountable and ineffective.
PerfectFooty
Perfect Cell
Jayden Hunt spent his first two seasons injured, he looked real good early on
My quick observation of last night were that we looked a lot better drilled than the mess against Richmond, although Carlton didn’t put up anything near what they are capable of.
Few good individual performances as already mentioned (Sparrow, ANB, Gawn, Pickett and Windsor of note) but my most positive note was the use of corridor and quick ball movement, and that we have doubled down on our strengths rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water (contest and defense).
I also saw a clear (but minor) adjustment in our forward entries - lower, faster and more central entries which will hopefully be what we need to improve on the forward pocket dump kicks of the past years!
Few good individual performances as already mentioned (Sparrow, ANB, Gawn, Pickett and Windsor of note) but my most positive note was the use of corridor and quick ball movement, and that we have doubled down on our strengths rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water (contest and defense).
I also saw a clear (but minor) adjustment in our forward entries - lower, faster and more central entries which will hopefully be what we need to improve on the forward pocket dump kicks of the past years!
Lever and May were good but Tomlinson is s liability unfortunately. I know what you mean that having the extra tall defender helps Lever, but not sure that option is Tommo.
Wonder how for Jed Adams is?
Last night was a great hit out. Sure it’s only pre season. But if we played like Carlton this board would melting even more than they are already.
The usual suspects
performed but the likes of Bowey , Salem in the middle, Windsor and Billings really add something different. The skills and dare we have lacked since 2021.
Gives me a glimmer of hope after the off season we’ve had.
Edit - And the pressure and intensity was at a high level. Think it stunned Carlton a bit. Just got to carry that into next week.
The usual suspects
performed but the likes of Bowey , Salem in the middle, Windsor and Billings really add something different. The skills and dare we have lacked since 2021.
Gives me a glimmer of hope after the off season we’ve had.
Edit - And the pressure and intensity was at a high level. Think it stunned Carlton a bit. Just got to carry that into next week.
The saving grace is that we won’t come up against Curnow and McKay every week. Not many teams have 2 key forwards that good. But totally get the point. We just don’t have any other options for the lockdown on the big forwards. And we need to have a player in they role to free Lever up.
Yeah, our back 6 was pretty damn solid tbh. I sometimes wonder if people actually watched the same game. Carlton had 4 shots on goal to halftime. Our back 6 were very good. Tomlinson is slow and gets exposed sometimes, but there's no doubt we look a better side with him in because it frees up Lever and also we can get the matchup for May that we're after. Can TMac do the same job? Possibly. I think we need one of the other in the side.
Same with our ball movement. Some people sooking about nothing changing, yet you could clearly see some changes. 20 marks inside 50 is everything we could hope for. Lowering of eyes, a spread of goal kickers, and guys like Billings, Bowey, Laurie, Koz, Windsor and Salem getting the ball around the centre of front of centre. Sure it's a praccy game, but if you couldn't see the attempt at bettering our ball use moving forward, then you clearly weren't paying attention.
Toump Ass
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I was mostly angry watching the game against Carlton.
Just wanted to see mad forward 50 entries, lowering our eyes every time. I'd rather get pinged htb looking for an option than just bombing it uselessly. Didn't watch too closely but saw too much "classic dees"- nice transition from the backline into the centre, mids doing a little bit of hollywood stuff, then it gets to just outside 50 and we just shit the bed and turn the ball over.
Very frustrating stuff for me. Didn't watch too closely though.
Just wanted to see mad forward 50 entries, lowering our eyes every time. I'd rather get pinged htb looking for an option than just bombing it uselessly. Didn't watch too closely but saw too much "classic dees"- nice transition from the backline into the centre, mids doing a little bit of hollywood stuff, then it gets to just outside 50 and we just shit the bed and turn the ball over.
Very frustrating stuff for me. Didn't watch too closely though.
A11dAtP0w3R
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There was some classic dees F50 entries for sure. Even when we did lower our eyes we grubbed it along the ground a lot. Having said that I was more pissed off at the forwards than the guys kicking it in last night honestly (or Stafford for coaching them the way they play), numerous times we had players running forward with the ball there was nobody leading so we end up kicking it to a contest with 3 of our forwards standing there in the same 5 metres of space, wtf are we teaching them? We make the easy incredibly difficult still.
Did like that we tried to use the corridor a bit more however, we turned it over or missed a target a few times but its better than what we were doing last year. Far less dump kicks than what you got out of us previously the past two years. My guess is that we will concede quite a few more easy goals this year on the back of turning it over in the corridor, hopefully Goody doesn't shit himself if we have a bad turnover game and go back to the same old.
Every AFL game is like that though. I think some people expect a perfect entry every single time. Carlton are actually a pretty good defensive unit. We got the ball in the hands of the right people. Was a notable shift. Not sure if we even had 20 marks inside 50 at all last year. I thought the ball movement showed real promise.
PerfectFooty
Perfect Cell
The leads where indeed pretty dry. I wouldn't be backing Schache to win any wrestles, nor would i want to have someone who can run and launch like Van Rooyen grounded in a pack 80% of the time
It felt like we leaked a few goals because our press was high, we mostly had it covered but it's a small sacrifice if we play more aggressively. One of the goals came from a big spoil from Carlton defender it bounced back quite far which resulted in an easy rebound goal for Carlton. Can't do much about those situations teams are bound to get lucky once in a while.
Agree. You can’t hit a target every time by lowering the eyes. If you did you’d. Ever lose. The way teams set up there’s always going to be bombing inside 50. We have finally tried to get players in the middle and forward half who can use the ball well. And we seem to have moved on from holding the wings super wide ins play it safe style. Using the corridor will make us much more dangerous and unpredictable.
Yeah the woe is me crowd are up and about but it was a pretty enjoyable game style we tried playing. Whether that remains who knows, but 20 marks in the F50 and better ball movement with Billings, Salem, Bowey, Koz etc getting more involved is a positive sign. Season could still fall apart quick, but as long as we're trying to move that ball quicker and lower into the forward half then that's all we can ask.
Topkent
Confirmed ITK Drafting King
It's almost like Weltering didn't play so you can't take our entries seriously but I understand why you'd miss that.
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Tomlinson is simply not afl standard. time-trial king that's it.
Yeah but what alternative do we have for that position? We have to free up Lever. It's either Tomlinson, TMac or Petty. Petty is injured but also more needed in the F50 and Tmac is just as bad as Tommo
Yep, no way we take 20 marks inside 50 against capable KPDs, Carlton didn't have any playing.
Still limited dynamic leading from our forwards means the dump into the pocket will be back before long.
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A11dAtP0w3R
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I really want a commentator to get tripped up on Hore Howes at some stage this year, need to play them both. 
Bluelegs
Digging into the why
Agree with all this and been complaining about our flat feet in the forwardline for ages. If everyone is standing still what else can the mids do but bomb it in? Stafford really needed to be sacked last year.
The ball movement looked a lot better, unfortunately our best passages of play got stuffed up by our forwards completely shanking the final kicks. Also everyone needs to remember that its pre-season and we weren't under nearly as much pressure as we normally would be so it's gonna be harder when the real stuff starts, but there was an obvious intent to take the corridor rather than trying to keep the ball wide as we did last year.
No one is denying Carlton had some key defenders out. But they still gave up 26 shots on goal plus a couple of shanks that didn’t make it at all.
We also had a few forwards unavailable.
You can see we’ve made some changes. This was out second hitout for the year and I reckon we looked a lot better than I was expecting.
We also had a few forwards unavailable.
You can see we’ve made some changes. This was out second hitout for the year and I reckon we looked a lot better than I was expecting.
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Desperately need Petty back because his biggest strength is creating contests. Agree with both sides here, we need guys to actually lead more but we at least attempted to be smart going forward.
So much depends on Goody holding his nerve. Last year he shit himself when we lost to Essendon, say if the crows beat us comfortably and he reverts then this is all for nothing.
So much depends on Goody holding his nerve. Last year he shit himself when we lost to Essendon, say if the crows beat us comfortably and he reverts then this is all for nothing.
Topkent
Confirmed ITK Drafting King
You can't though. Pre season means nothing. There's less pressure, no stakes and Carlton were missing their best key defender. Would be like May not playing.
We also did this last pre season and against the bulldogs and Sydney and then lost one game and switched completely back to type.
You're just wanting to see it
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