Preview 2024 Rd 17 Carlton vs GWS Saturday 6th July 7:30PM @ Engie Stadium

[Aphrodite]

Team is in …

AFL team news: Blues welcome back two

Tom De Koning and Matthew Cottrell have been named for Round 17.

www.carltonfc.com.au

 

[Colonial]

I come in peace, Blues wont break a sweat.

 

[LemmingMaster]

Fantasia seemed to be playing that Cottrell role of half forward that plays up the ground and defends. With both being selected it does have a feeling that one will be the sub. We seem to be selecting players with clearly defined roles, Hewett is probably best 22, but his role is taken by a few players and hence we don't select him. (Currently)

Motlop is going to struggle to get into the team because Owies, Williams, Fogarty, Hollands... are doing his role and we cannot afford another small forward.

I still feel like the positions that are up for grabs are the Kennedy, O Hollands and Owies styled spots.

If we maintain a gap on 3rd and below, late season it would be nice to have the luxury to freshen up a Cripps/Walsh/Charlie/Harry/Weitering....

 

[LemmingMaster]

I come in peace, Blues wont break a sweat.

Beware of the wounded dog, based on form and some of your injuries, your statement makes sense. Still there is an element of caution with regards to playing a GWS side.

 

[CCurnow3votes]

Suspect Owies will be sub

Really - Hawaii?

 

[lily of laguna]

Weird I know but EH reminds me of a smaller Earl Spalding

That is pretty weird!!!!!

Earl was a great contributor in 95 but being fairly diplomatic he was a bit of a blunt instrument. Didn’t have the finesse that Lij has.

Wouldn’t have won the flag that year without him though!!


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[lily of laguna]

This is the bonus of our teams current status - no longer are we the team where weaker/lower ranked teams go in thinking if they throw the kitchen sink at us they may snag a win - they come into our games in self preservation mode “how can we stop the bleeding.”

This is so true, I hadn’t thought of it in this light. Teams must be a little intimidated by our current form especially the teams lower in the league.


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[gbatman]

I think these 2 go hand in hand.

We've surrounded our bigger, inside contested types with elite run all day types. They balance eachother out and mean that if Cripps or Kennedy or whomever aren't able to break out of the contest it's ok as we have several guys who run all day and then some. Conversely it means they don't necessarily need to try and do that and can stay inside the contest and attack the ball harder.

We have a healthy balance of it at the moment. The structure outside the contested/clearance game is so strong it makes the clearance game even better - no 2nd guessing about defensive patterns, you know you have the structure to handle it, so just win the ball.

We have just got the balance with run right. Our peripheral positions. Wings and the four small hard running forwards all cover a lot of territory and run hard both ways. Sam Walsh has built his fitness up over the season and is doing a power of running both ways in the middle. We will expect Cerra to build up and do the same. We have added Hollands to the onball rotations and he has been a very very good two way runner when he has gone in there. Even DeKoning who runs well has been a massive upgrade on Pittonet. His closing speed is really good as is his ground cover.

We have been careful not to put Hewett, Kennedy and Cripps in the middle. The few times we have done that we have been exploited. But mostly we have made sure they have been split up.

I am actually expecting that we will see a bit more of Hollands in the centre square. He's been excellent in there.

This is probably one of the better two way running sides we have ever fielded.

The beauty of this is we get 4 quarter footy and we are a better team in the second half than we are in the first. Mostly because it's really hard to play against a team that runs really hard both ways because you have to match that. Because we have good midfield rotations as well as good half forward and half back rotations we can keep the speed at which we run up and back up.

That also means our defensive structures will be really good so we will be able to make the opposition stop which gives us a rest. You start seeing GWS stop and hold play up and chip it around, you know we are defending well. But we will also be able to make the opposition run really hard defensively. When Adam Saad is running the ball off half back, that will be the fastest GWS as a team will be made to run and if we keep them running hard we will ware them down. Most sides may be able to match us for a half but after that most will blow up as Richmond did.

Good depth, plenty of good two way runners in the team and fast rebounding footy is the fundamentals of most good sides and it's become a fundamental of our side.

If we build a good lead early we will smash them. The early lead will be about our skills, contested work, clearance and rebound. The finish to the game will be about how hard we have been running and making them run all day. We definitely have a good complimentary balance going.

I'd really love to see Cerra get going in a big way as well as our rotation mids like Hollands. Beating the better teams will be all about our depth.

Cotters playing as the high half forward pretty much becomes a 3rd 'wingman'.

What he does do is to largely sacrifice his own game every week to provide support all over the ground where it's needed....and his running capacity allows him to do this. It also means that he doesn't rack up big stats when he plays that valued support role which our coaches would absolutely love.

He's developed so much over the past few years, and the footy analysts are starting to recognise it. Kingy was glowing with his praises of him last pre-season.

Why David King was impressed with “brutal” Carlton session and the players set to be the icing on the cake

“They’re looking for the icing on the cake, Carlton.”

www.sen.com.au

It'd be interesting one week if we let him off the leash and played him as more of an attacking wingman. Reckon he'd rack up minimum 20-25 possessions weekly like shelling peas.

I think it is a big part of our defence. Guys like Cottrell, Hollands, Fantasia can get up and back quickly. They get ahead of the ball and block up space. The run forward at a great rate of knots so we can defend really hard but also maintain forward structure and rebound fast.

When we are like this we are a hard team to play against.

I am interested to see how he goes, because since he has been out we have improved a lot in this area. Fantasia has stepped up, as has Hollands. Fogarty and Owies also do a fair jub running up and back. He should fit into this system pretty well.

It does mean we will see our wings deep in defence a fair bit as we did last week. This has worked well. Acres and Hollands have been good dropping back there. This happens, your half forwards definitely play a lot like a wingman.

I'm not sure Cottrell is clever enough to rack it up. He's never really been a high possession player and IMO gets out of position a fair bit, but players can improve. Really interested in how we use him.

 

[GoBlues!]

Weird I know but EH reminds me of a smaller Earl Spalding

Hmm… if I squint my eyes enough.

 

[Cringle]

Pretty obvious we use the three starting mids - Cripps, Walsh and Cerra.

And rotate a number of others through the game - Kennedy, Elijah and Fogarty.

Hewett is inferior to the above three playing forward.

And IMO - is inferior to Kennedy as a fulltime mid.

 

[lily of laguna]

Hmm… if I squint my eyes enough.

View attachment 2039122

View attachment 2039125

Oh I completely read that wrong, on appearance there is a little resemblance!!


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[GoBlues!]

Gave 2 off to Orazio. Did drop a couple of chest marks he should have taken despite the slippery conditions, one at the top of the goal square.

Did his job.

He was unselfish and set Fantasia up for his first goal when he could have a shot himself.

I thought at the time Owies was doing the team thing here, by helping Fantasia get off the mark and build some confidence…at end of the game OF ends up with 4 goals.

 

[ESKIE]

I watched first crack last night, and Kingy was praising Elijah, with footage saying he rarely makes and error, very smart footballer etc, I swear he reads big footy

 

[Bundy Bear Bogan]

If the cap is $300 then it looks like it’s only going to be dinner then

Bloody hell, the prices at maccas have really sky-rocketed

 

[Bundy Bear Bogan]

I think Cottrell will be the change winger, he will rotate with the other two. This will allow E Hollands to rotate mostly with the onballers.

Love that idea. EH spending more time in the middle would really be a cherry on top

 

[Blue_Fusion]

If they play TDK as a forward due to one missing and he pinch hits in the ruck surely that doesn't count.

I would still have the moral high ground.

Have to state these things with him...

I had a wager with him back in 2019 that we wouldn't win another game or wouldn't finish last (can't remember the semantics now)... would've been right too if Bolton didn't get sacked...

Still tried to hold me to it like as if that didn't change anything...

 

[AT97]

Pretty obvious we use the three starting mids - Cripps, Walsh and Cerra.

And rotate a number of others through the game - Kennedy, Elijah and Fogarty.

Hewett is inferior to the above three playing forward.

And IMO - is inferior to Kennedy as a fulltime mid.

Kennedy (and Cripps) also play the additional role of giving the ruck man a chop out at boundary/around the ground ruck contests.

 

[Coops93]

I watched first crack last night, and Kingy was praising Elijah, with footage saying he rarely makes and error, very smart footballer etc, I swear he reads big footy

Kind of reminds me of Pendlebury to a point.

Calm, composed, looks like he has so much time even when under pressure, deceptively elusive with subtlety as opposed to eye catching movement.

Not as strong as Pendles, and a bit more of a forward half player as opposed to out and out mid, but that's the comp I first come up with in terms of style ball in hand.

 

[gbatman]

Love that idea. EH spending more time in the middle would really be a cherry on top

He's been awesome in there. His ball winning and particularly his use has been great but he runs really well defensively and reads the game so well.

We were crying out for a forward mid last year and we got a very good one.

 

[Bongo Drum]

I watched first crack last night, and Kingy was praising Elijah, with footage saying he rarely makes and error, very smart footballer etc, I swear he reads big footy

Actually, I think Kingy was the first media person I saw sing Elijah's praises:

Why David King was impressed with “brutal” Carlton session and the players set to be the icing on the cake

“They’re looking for the icing on the cake, Carlton.”

www.sen.com.au

"Elijah Hollands, I’m telling you, he’ll have a really big impact on their ball-use and their poise with the footy, I know he’s going to miss the first two rounds, but he’ll make a big difference to Carlton."

He said that after watching our pre-season training, it's in the article linked by Bamboo Harvester in the last page.

 

[gbatman]

Whitfield, Green and Ash. Nullify them and I think we will run away with this one.

 

[gbatman]

Hewett Pittonet and Marchbank were all in our best 22 last season, our finals team. They can't get a game this year. Sitting on the emergencies list. Could be others in the same boat.

 

[agro]

This is so true, I hadn’t thought of it in this light. Teams must be a little intimidated by our current form especially the teams lower in the league.


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We’ve been the “flaky” team for a long time.

Shit and mediocre teams like Hawthorn, North Melbourne, St Kilda and Adelaide have really set themselves to play us in the past few years, it was like their Grand Final.

This is why our loss earlier this year to Adelaide really shits me, we should have been past losses like that

So these teams now go into our games with a different mindset of “self preservation” rather than “throw the kitchen sink”.

It was like a trip to Princes Park in the late 70’s and early to mid 80’s - let’s just get out of here with an honourable 6 goal loss.

 

[CJMB]

Whitfield, Green and Ash. Nullify them and I think we will run away with this one.

Cincotta, Cripps (head to head), Cottrell. Plus Greene looked after by Boyd/Cowan/Newman

 

[JJBagger]

Cincotta, Cripps (head to head), Cottrell. Plus Greene looked after by Boyd/Cowan/Newman

Ash in doubt apparently too

 

[Aphrodite]

If anyone is heading off to the open training session ...