Blues v Hawks Venting thread - keep it all in here

[Stig O'Hara]

Sorry to fart on your sunshine, but just a small comment on the forward setup. It's got me confused. Having played & watched the game for too many years. I don't get it. It's worked a treat at times, but I still believe in hard lead ups to the footy and move it from there. At the risk of pissing people off it's like Geelong setting their forward structure up around Stokes, Byrnes and Varcoe. Then again you did us like a paper doll??

Sunshine, don't need your advice, and thanks a heap.

 

[The Coach]

Sunshine, don't need your advice, and thanks a heap.

You're not very sociable tonight numbers

Sorry to fart on your sunshine, but just a small comment on the forward setup. It's got me confused. Having played & watched the game for too many years. I don't get it. It's worked a treat at times, but I still believe in hard lead ups to the footy and move it from there. At the risk of pissing people off it's like Geelong setting their forward structure up around Stokes, Byrnes and Varcoe. Then again you did us like a paper doll??

I take your point but unless you have not seen a paper or a game lately you would appreciate that these small forwards are Santa's helpers

Anyway what if we said that last year Geelong was set up around Johnson, Chapman and Stokes with Mooney and Hawkins just the tall timber

Is that much different from us in a couple of years relying on Yarran, Betts and Garlett with say Hendo and Waite as the tall timber

 

[Stig O'Hara]

You're not very sociable tonight numbers



I take your point but unless you have not seen a paper or a game lately you would appreciate that these small forwards are Santa's helpers

Anyway what if we said that last year Geelong was set up around Johnson, Chapman and Stokes with Mooney and Hawkins just the tall timber

Is that much different from us in a couple of years relying on Yarran, Betts and Garlett with say Hendo and Waite as the tall timber

Champ, i don't need to be told about today from outsiders,
when an outsider throws his 20 cents in,
he's fair game.

They don't ever come here bagging my boys.

Hare Hare.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

We played most of the game two down. If you watched the game, you would know that.

Bower, Waite, Walker are all defensive options, all play tall and rebound quickly.

Not sure you need to be in here questioning anybody.

Spot on. Several times this year we've suffered an injury or two in the first half and once that happens, you get run over at the end.

Your blokes weren't quite as switched on as they needed to be at the start and once they were, your limited bench meant that your intensity was not sustainable.

I actually thought Ratten was ok too, even though he is getting some bad press on this board. At least he tried some things. When we lost all those games in a row, Clarko did very little but try a few inexperienced guys in the guts. Guess what, it didn't work.

On a positive, I expect your mob to come out firing next week. You're a good young side and you have to expect lapses. Good luck for the rest of the year and hopefully we both make finals.

 

[bigboyblue]

Spot on. Several times this year we've suffered an injury or two in the first half and once that happens, you get run over at the end.

Your blokes weren't quite as switched on as they needed to be at the start and once they were, your limited bench meant that your intensity was not sustainable.

I actually thought Ratten was ok too, even though he is getting some bad press on this board. At least he tried some things. When we lost all those games in a row, Clarko did very little but try a few inexperienced guys in the guts. Guess what, it didn't work.

On a positive, I expect your mob to come out firing next week. You're a good young side and you have to expect lapses. Good luck for the rest of the year and hopefully we both make finals.

Yeah, **** off you ****ing ****.... Oh, sorry - that was actually pretty sensible. Er, thanks... Agree that we weren't switched on, but I think the main problem was the same thing that burnt us against the Bombers and that was our inability to actually pick up the ball first time. When one side's got it on a string and one's playing with a cake of soap it's always gonna be tough.

It's a bad bad bad bad week and I hated sitting there with my Hawks mates (a little stabby, anyone?) but for the first time in a long time I think this bad loss was a genuine aberration so I'm not in freak-out mode just yet.

 

[one eyed bluey]

To everyone,
Really...........I mean was this loss a shock???
Why are we so upset?
I think we all predicted it was a danger game and personally I went one step further and predicted a loss. I couldn't see how we were going to stop franklin/roughhead before the game and guess what, we didn't stop them. We have a terrible recent record against them, they were playing to keep their finals hopes alive and they just got back a few important players, PLUS key premiership players started to find some form/fitness.e.g.sewell,mitchell and brown.

Add to the equation that we had a stack of injuries before and during the game, plus we went in as favourites, which we hate.

Pre-game it had a loss written all over it and our loss is no surprise for me.
They wanted it more and had more to play for then us, still its no excuse at all.

.

On a positive, I expect your mob to come out firing next week. You're a good young side and you have to expect lapses. Good luck for the rest of the year and hopefully we both make finals.

Agree. Look out West Coast. If we don't come out breathing fire next week after that performance we don't deserve to be playing finals. I dont care how many injuries we have, being hard at the pill doesn't require skill, its an attitude thing and committment to your team mates and your club.

I expect a win next week but we seem to be dropping like flies atm, hopefully we get a few back.

 

[Blues_FC]

I don't understand why we couldn't stretch our third quarter effort over four quarters? If Setanta had used his brain, gone back and slotted that kick just before the siren, then we would have been around 3 goals down IIRC. We would also have come into the last quarter on a high. Instead, despite putting together a gutsy quarter, it looked like we went off at the break with our heads down.

I know it's footy, and it's an emotional sport, but Setanta needs to use his brains. Twice in the same game, he cost us a goal, and more importantly, momentum. I'm not blaming our loss on him, but it's little things like this which can sway a match. The guy just need to take a chill pill, settle down and play the percentages.

Vent number two goes to Chris Judd. To even put him in the same sentence as Gary Ablett at the moment is a joke. When Ablett gets free and has a shot on goal, he will punish the opposition 90% of the time. I know how hard Juddy works, but if his disposal and kicking accuracy is going to be as woeful as it has been tonight (and to a lesser extent, all season), then I just don't believe that he's living up to his hype. He made four goal scoring opportunities, and missed all of them. Added to that was his awful kick across the back 50 which went straight to the opposition and resulted in a goal against us.

Overall, we were very lucky to even be in it with a chance at the start of the final quarter. Hawthorn missed some real sitters, and it would have been nice to have punished them with some accurate kicking of our own. Nevertheless, it looks like Hawthorn are sporting a more complete team than they have in the last 18 months and I suspect they're going to have an impressive second half of the season.

That being said, I'm still disappointed that Richmond almost beat them, and we got done by 50 points.

 

[one eyed bluey]

Vent number two goes to Chris Judd. To even put him in the same sentence as Gary Ablett at the moment is a joke. When Ablett gets free and has a shot on goal, he will punish the opposition 90% of the time. I know how hard Juddy works, but if his disposal and kicking accuracy is going to be as woeful as it has been tonight (and to a lesser extent, all season), then I just don't believe that he's living up to his hype. He made four goal scoring opportunities, and missed all of them. Added to that was his awful kick across the back 50 which went straight to the opposition and resulted in a goal against us.

 

[Kades_Dad]

Henderson and Robinson were the two shining lights from a pretty poor performance. Both looked very good.

 

[Fervy]

How do you know about C_P and Geelong?

Just because people choose not to post doesn't mean people don't lurk for years. Been actively following this site since the beginning of the dark days.

I just thought it was interesting that he has all the same favourite teams as Ytoojae?????

Not Ytoojae. However, would hazzard a guess that I know the Ytoojae that you're speaking of. Posts on a WWE board if its the same guy. Spouted his b/s ("Story of the Year") on there as well.

It's not unusual that someone would have similar tastes in sports. There's a number of people on the other sports forums who have the same tastes in US teams yet have different allegiances when it comes to the AFL - check it out.

 

[C4[2]Yo`DooR]

OK - I have deliberately left my post match analysis until today to try and calm myself. While I acknowledge that we were 2 men down for most of the match (having White come off really hurt our structure) and then 3 men down for the last quarter would have hampered our running power (our biggest asset) the following needs to be said:

• Setanta O'hAilpin - Stop reading newspapers. Your performance yesterday was as stupid as it was embarrassing. Twice you cost us certain goals (1 in the first quarter when you played on and gave a shyte handball to Henderson in the goal square, but more importantly in the dying moments of the 3rd quarter where we were starting to gain control of the game again. Note: When you take a mark in the square you get to kick the ball from DIRECTLY in front of the goals you clown. You're fcuk up cost us going into the final term with a managable margin of 18 points.
  
• Eddie Betts - Seriously WTF? For someone who claims to be 'magical' and is able to pull off the impossible - you need to make sure you can nail shots from 15-20 metres out, straight in front. You had a shocking day - and your past few weeks (bar a couple of cheap goals when the game is over) haven't been great. I know you are not a leading a forward and given your height and Hawthorns zone defence it would be hard to hit you up on the lead, but pull your finger out: 15 to 20 metre regulation shots for a guy who is paid good money to kick them should be put in the book.
  
• Brett Thornton - Please just leave our side. It's sad because I actually once rated you as a very capable player and was ecstatic when we "convinced you" to stay at Carlton. But honestly, you cannot beat an opponent man on man, you cannot move the ball on quickly in accordance with our game plan, your attempts at 'baulking' don't work anymore (see: Joel Bowden - they figure you out after a while). Furthermore, that spray you gave to Joey Anderson in the 2nd quarter was a digrace (called him a *******). I cannot wit till Marcus Davies, Austin, Bower, Walker, White etc are all up and running again so long as it means the end of you at our club. GTFO.
  
• Lachie Henderson - Your saving grace was one fantastic grab, 3 goals and a couple of nice leads, unlike most on here, I don't think you did anywhere near enough presenting as a key forward should. That miss from 2 metres out in the first quarter hurt - but I understand that handpass from Carlos was average, and your kick on the quarter time siren was laughable (how can you not even register a behind from 30 metres out). Even when they sent you to the defence you were pantsed. Yes you received shyte delivery from the midfield, yes the zone defence makes it hard to lead into space - but there were times when even I had figured out what I would do in your position (ie. where I would lead to next, and when I would do it) before you had even done it.
  
• The Entire side (bar Mitch Robinson) - Harden the fcuk up!! From siren to siren the Hawthorn players were bumping us, niggling us, elbowing us and using physical tactics off the ball to put us off our game - and we didnt even give a whimper back. Mitch was the only player I saw give anything back by way of bumping and niggling. FFS at one stage I saw Xavier Ellis bumping and elbowing Henderson only to have him turn around and jog 5 metres the other way.

• The Match Ups - At some stages during the game it looked as if our own players had no idea who they were supposed to be matched up on. The amount of times I saw Carlton players arguing with eachother about who to play one (like Armfield and Yarran having a whinge about who was supposed to run with Burgoyne during the 2nd quarter). Get it right from the start lads.

I don't want to speak too soon but I think in the coming weeks we should have West Coast, Melbourne and North covered. But seriously, yesterdays effort looked as if we thought we had the game won before we turned up.

/rant.

 

[Kramer1]

Lot's of factors at play...injuries/suspensions to 4-5 of the best 22, two men down on the interchange for 3/4 of the match, the culmination of a few weeks of short breaks, the challenge of trying to keep a young group 'up' for so many weeks in a row....oh and should give some credit to Hawthorn being almost at full strength and obviously turning up to play.

With the exception of Mitch our guys just weren't in it mentally...lacked intensity across the park. Judd tried hard but polish was lacking, the stats might look OK but Murph and Gibbs looked to be coasting, Betts, Yarran and Garlett were collectively very poor, Setanta had his requisite number of weekly brainfarts, just no good things to offset them this week. Delivery into the forward line was generally woeful, and it goes without saying that execution by our forwards was similar. We had opportunitites to carry momentum into the third and fourth quarters with shots on the siren and both times only succeeded in taking wind from our sails. You dont take opportunities you bet beaten...pretty simple really.

Would not have changed the outcome but don't discount the effect of losing White and Johnson early. Forgetting the impact on rotations etc this also robbed a lot of run from our backline, and meant Thornton and Russel had to restrict there games. Hawks seized on this forcing us into a lot of scrambly, ugle retreats.

Anyway, can deal with a loss, but very diappointed with the mental approach by the majority of players. Hopefully a bounce back next week.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Some ordinary comments removed from this thread, both towards players and then aggressive personal comments. From people who should know better as well.

We want some posters around to lead by example and impart their knowledge. If they can't get along though, and can't follow board rules, I fear something has got to give.

Check your egos at the door and follow a few simple rules folks ... it isn't all about you.

 

[Sin City]

Just because people choose not to post doesn't mean people don't lurk for years. Been actively following this site since the beginning of the dark days.



Not Ytoojae. However, would hazzard a guess that I know the Ytoojae that you're speaking of. Posts on a WWE board if its the same guy. Spouted his b/s ("Story of the Year") on there as well.

It's not unusual that someone would have similar tastes in sports. There's a number of people on the other sports forums who have the same tastes in US teams yet have different allegiances when it comes to the AFL - check it out.

Yeah right mate. Both support the Angels, Blazers, Patriots, Storm, Victory, Bushrangers. Both make references to US sports when talking about contracts, trades etc. Both follow wrestling and both list yourselves as Entrepreneurs. Both spell it wrong. You start posting after he gets laughed out of here. If you are not him I suggest you go and meet him because you have a lot in common

 

[NAUGHT5]

As much as i love SLH, playing small forward is an absolute grave yard due to nothing but luck sometimes.
One week it just doesnt bounce your way and you cant get a kick.
That's where the plan can backfire.

That's about all the venting i need.

Yep, we had a few average players, but 1 bad game doesnt mean anything in the big picture.
No excuses but you cant win 2 weeks in a row without a bench.

Some posters need to take a good hard look at themselves, sticking the boots in to so many players after 1 bad game.

The same posters who get ahead themselves after a good win.

If only there was a way to tell if these people actually go for Carlton.

 

[Massive Attack]

Hawthorn played pretty damn terrific.

It doesn't get much worse than that.

 

[Weiterbot23]

I was fearing a let down all week. We are not good enough as a team to win unless our intensity is spot on.

The Hawks bullied us yesterday and we let them...(so did the umpires)

However, we were down 3 players which really hurt us as we ran out of puff when we were coming back.

Also no Waite, Bower, Walker, Houlihan, Mclean starts to add up.

Jacobs mitts are getting better every game!!

 

[jj1978]

Had to stay away from the board as I was just absolutely ropeable last night and annoyed. Firstly I did predict we would lose as like Essendon and StKilda this team matches up very well against us. Plus as has been mentioned earlier, there season was on the line and we were like Collingwood thinking we're hot shit in May.

Some further points:

• Also mentioned, but Gibbs does look like he's protecting himself from getting injured... hmmmmm does he think that GC17 offer will become null and void if he breaks a fingernail?
• Why didn't we include Hadley? Robinson was good but we can't expect Judd, Scotland and a young Robinson to be our only tough nuts.
• Russell, did signing a new contract relax you a bit?? You were serviceable but well down on execution of previous weeks.
• To our three amigos.. was expecting a lot from you this week considering the round is kinda devoted to your heritage.
• Jacobs is improving more and more each week... his marking is Kreuzeresque.
• Thornton... ai carumba... wtf has happened to you!
• We are psychologically scarred by certain teams... in these games we cower down and pray that we don't get tackled or bumped... Hawthorn is one of those teams... to our players.. it's called a HEART!

Disappointed big time... not at the loss but how the loss occured.

 

[Sin City]

[*]Why didn't we include Hadley?

Wasn't Hadley withdrawn as an emergency and replaced by Anderson because of illness?

 

[Kramer1]

Yeah right mate. Both support the Angels, Blazers, Patriots, Storm, Victory, Bushrangers. Both make references to US sports when talking about contracts, trades etc. Both follow wrestling and both list yourselves as Entrepreneurs. Both spell it wrong. You start posting after he gets laughed out of here. If you are not him I suggest you go and meet him because you have a lot in common

Nice work Sin.

I though he smelt a bit funny when he was posting intimate details of GC's offer to Russel on another thread, but didn't think it worth raising on the Carlton board.

For a homeless guy he sure runs in some pretty well informed circles.

 

[Stamos]

Re: SLH (and our forwardline in general)
I think it is underestimated how important Houlihan is to the helpers, and our overall forward structure. He takes out an attacking defender, sets up goals, kicks a one or two himself, but also takes marks inside 50. He was really missed yesterday, hope he is back soon.

 

[KnaveyBlue]

Unfortunately Eddie has a higher opinion of himself than he should.

Tom Murphy is the worst player playing AFL.

Spot on, on both counts.

If Eddie wants to walk around telling everyone how he's the boss of our small forwards, then he needs to kick goals from 15m out straight in front.

 

[blue healer]

First time user so be a little gentle eh! Disappointing loss but predictable cos Hawthorn approaching full strength and match condition they were also more desperate cos their season was in the balance. Also everyone but the bootstudder was bagging them in the press (maybe a bit of that wouldn't hurt us).
My thoughts for what they're worth:

Hard to play for 3 quarters with 2 on the bench (roll on interchange restrictions).

Anderson not up to this standard at this time should be dropped and left in Bullants for a season to learn some skills (any skills at all)

Why does the mc not give Wiggins a go at least you know he'll put his head where no one else in this team will

Pretty disapointed at many on this thread who want Gibbs head and I also would like to see who the hell you'd replace him with. I'd like to see him in the forward line for a while.

Why does everyone think that Thornton has gone from the penthouse to the ****house. Has been punching against his weight all his career, why the hell can no one else step up and help.

Could say a lot more but let it go at that first time round

 

[Aphrodite]

Why oh why oh why did Setanta play on after marking the ball in the goalsquare
in the dying seconds of the 3rd qtr.

There .............

I have vented !!!!!!!

 

[Silvagnis]

Hawks find the time to make changes

Carlton doesn't have enormous depth and, in hindsight, it was in trouble when it lost Ryan Houlihan, Jarrad Waite and Kane Lukas last weekend, given that Paul Bower and Andrew Walker were already out

Hawks find the time to make changes

We were without four talls in Bower, Waite, Walker and Austin, plus Mclean, Lucas, Houlihan, Hampson, Hadley, Warnock and Grigg.

Yet we don't have enormous depth.

Another bigger mid such as Hadley, Mclean and even Grigg was needed yesterday.

There were about ten players who could have played yesterday.

Plus the likes of Davies. Kerr and O'keeffe who are coming through.

Journalists are muppets.

Simpson has been a good player this year, yet he still needs to kick the sodas he misses on the run.