Review Dees v Carlton: the Good, the Bad and the Fugly

[Russian Demon]

Good:
- Winning ugly is better than losing pretty.
- Oliver continues to rise. Won't be under rated for much longer in the football world.
- TMac and Jetta had great games and are crucial to our backline. We'd be lost without either tbh.
- Jeffy. Great start to the season. Needed someone to stand up in the F50, and he did it.
- Salem dominating like we know he can. Need that more often and it will be huge for us.

Bad:
- Goodwin. Was very slow to react to Bolton's tactics. We went more man on man in the last quarter and look what happened!
- Watts attempts at chest marking! Get the dukes out Jack! As soon as he started to do that in the last, he took a few marks!
- Viney. Just looks off the pace atm. Looked to be tagging Cripps at certain stages and he lowered his colours again this week I feel.
- Our inability to find a way through the flood. Part coaching, part player problem. Showed we just don't quite have the skill level to do it.

Ugly:
- Melksham. Been happy to watch and see with him. But he was awful. When Hibberd is fit, GTFO Milkshakes!
- Forward structure. was terrible today. So many more possessions, and yet had no structure going forward. Should have gone man on man earlier.
- Lewis and Hogan. Both are likely to get a week IMO. Just stupid unnecessary acts that now leave us vulnerable against a good team in Geelong.
- Carlton. The style they played showed where they are at. I feel they got on top of us for 2 quarters yet still played too defensive. With Murphy, Gibbs, Cripps, Simpson and Kruezer still playing well, they should have gone for our throats instead of playing this ugly defensive style. Had us on the ropes and couldn't give that knock out blow. Love watching Cripps go about it though but he needs more help in the middle.

I think the forward structure was still there, but they had 2 extra guys filling space, which made it hard. But by doing that, it made them impotent going forward, and at least 3 goals came from either freaky lucky bounces of the ball or low % shots. I think if we looked at this game back in 2011 when heavy defensive games were big we'd be less scathing.

 

[The Dr]

Clayton Oliver is a jet. He is so much better than I thought he was going to be when first drafted. A real pleasure to watch him go to work yesterday, so composed with ball in hand and very neat disposal. I feel like he is going to be one of those players that is almost impossible to beat one on one.

Salem was great. Such a nice kick on him, really made every possession count. Was good defensively also.

I knew Garlett was a steal for you guys when we were forced to let him go. Sure he makes some mistakes and has some bad games but he's just a flat out goal kicker.

Liked what I saw from Weideman. Quite strong for a young key forward and defensive pressure was there too. Looks a strong mark and a good kick. Really nice foundation for him.

I think Hogan has played better games but it's a testament to him that a 21 possession 10 mark game is one of his average performances. He's still always a real presence and threat.

Hunt's dash off HB was great to watch. Quick and powerful! An absolute weapon back there.

Anyway sorry for the intrusion, good win yesterday and good luck for the rest of the season.

Mate this is one of the most insightful, level-headed posts I've ever read from an opposition supporter (especially after a loss!) - top marks for you.

FWIW, there were plenty of positives for the Blues yesterday, not least Bolton's coaching performance. I thought his tactics gave you a great opportunity to win the game, which you almost did.

 

[ballsdeep]

Good
- Oliver,Jetta,Jones,Garlett,Salem
- we would of lost that game over last 10 years good sides win ugly against the tide, maturity,depth and talent coming together!
- winning with no real influence from viney,hogan,trac,brayshaw

Bad
- our inability to break down teams that park the bus, comes down to coaching and skill level
- centre clearances were horrible
- i think yesterday showed how valuable bernie is for us organisation and rebound from defence was slow, could count the amount of broken plays on one hand, hibberd will help with this also
- dom tyson 30 disposal game irrelevant slow and inefficient

Fugly
- melksham
- the entire game really but still gotta win em

 

[harry000]

I feel like Bernie would have been so handy against the flooding tactics yesterday.

1. He can bomb goals from outside 50 with ease.

2. He is good at hitting those hard and low passes into forward 50 congestion.

 

[Blueboys7]

Mate this is one of the most insightful, level-headed posts I've ever read from an opposition supporter (especially after a loss!) - top marks for you.

FWIW, there were plenty of positives for the Blues yesterday, not least Bolton's coaching performance. I thought his tactics gave you a great opportunity to win the game, which you almost did.

Thanks mate, I just call it as I see it. Nothing better than watching an up and coming team with potential super star players like Oliver, Hogan, Petracca ect.

Plenty to get excited about!

We've got something to work with, slowly bringing in more youngsters and trying to get the balance between experienced and inexperienced players. It's tough as you guys know.

We are a bit over a year into our full rebuild so still a long way to go.

 

[Viney]

Good: Jetta (so underrated), Clarry, Salem, winning 2 opening rounds for first time in 10 years - not one for the ages but a win

Bad: Goodwin getting out coached for a large part of the game

Fugly: Lewis and Hogan's jabs, not necessary

Agree with harry000, really missed Bern today

 

[DieHardDee]

How Watts, Tyson & Harmes can be getting in peoples Best lists astounds me.

Tyson butchered the ball, was far too slow to make a decision and then took the wrong one almost three quarters of the time.

Watts was a liability with the ball for the majority of the game and was his usual self off the ball, which is to say bloody useless. Jogging around in no-mans land pointing fingers at other players and pulling up to 3/4 pace EVERY time he could have put pressure on the ball carrier. The only times he was ANY good was very early and very late in the game, which in absolutely no coincidence was when there was little-to-no perceived pressure.
Edit: And then to be feted as a hero by the members bay behind the dugouts after a game in which he didn't do enough, yet again, really does my head in.

 

[HANDSOLO]

I was angry watching that for the first 3 quarters. As someone mentioned Carlton did to us what we used to do to teams. Sit back and wait for errors and bring the opposition down to the level and **** did it work

Good- 2 wins to start the season is brilliant, just a little more vindication in what the clubs doing
Oliver makes our other midfielders look sloppy and indecisive at stoppages. I already have complete faith that when someone passes a ball to him he won't drop it. Would have to have close to the cleanest hands in the AFL
Jack Watts last quarter, I thought he was really soft in his marking attempts in the first 3 but he stood up in the last and made a difference
Coming from behind, in previous years we would have crumbled but that's 2 weeks in a row we have done it
Garletts 2 goals were so valuable, hopefully he keeps it up

Ugly- seriously someone needs to tell our players to stop kicking off one step. The amount of kicks that were turned over after a mark because everyone tried to stab a pass off one step was atrocious. It's a bloody basic skill to get your momentum through the ball

Dom Tyson was horrible, slow with the footy and time and time again his kicking is shit. 30 disposals? Who gives a crap only about 5 were useful.
Jack Viney seems lost now that Oliver is the man at stoppages. He doesn't have a great outside game and he relied on Gawn feeding him the footy last year. Needs to add more strings to his bow to become elite
I honestly couldn't think of any forward 50 stoppages in the first 3 quarters. When we were turning it over so much plan B should have been to lock it in the 50 and use forward pressure against the young blues defence. Instead we just turned it over time and time again


A bunch of blokes didn't have any real impact, reckon Hannan, Melksham and ANB should all be dropped for Kent Vince and Hibberd if fit

Not only do I agree with this entirely - you didn't even sound like ya grumpy old campaigner in your post!

Hibberd cannot come quick enough

 

[Tulip]

How Watts, Tyson & Harmes can be getting in peoples Best lists astounds me.

Tyson butchered the ball, was far too slow to make a decision and then took the wrong one almost three quarters of the time.

Watts was a liability with the ball for the majority of the game and was his usual self off the ball, which is to say bloody useless. Jogging around in no-mans land pointing fingers at other players and pulling up to 3/4 pace EVERY time he could have put pressure on the ball carrier. The only times he was ANY good was very early and very late in the game, which in absolutely no coincidence was when there was little-to-no perceived pressure.
Edit: And then to be feted as a hero by the members bay behind the dugouts after a game in which he didn't do enough, yet again, really does my head in.

Watts was untidy by foot, but 19 touches, 8 marks and 2 goals is pretty standard for a third tall. Hardly a bad game. I can't agree that there was no pressure in the fourth; that was when the game was there to be won.

 

[Dancing Potato]

Watts was untidy by foot, but 19 touches, 8 marks and 2 goals is pretty standard for a third tall. Hardly a bad game. I can't agree that there was no pressure in the fourth; that was when the game was there to be won.

I agree Watts wasn't completely awful (his 4th quarter was particularly good) but I don't think there's much worth in quoting possessions and marks for yesterday's game. Dees over possessed the hell out of it.

 

[PerfectFooty]

Replay is available now

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Good: got to see Hunt and Oliver live for the first time yesterday

 

[dee_mac]

Just watched the Lewis and Hogan 'incidents'. Rowe needs to take a good look at himself. Carried on like he'd been Barry Halled. Was nothing in the Cripps one either on Lewis part - But the Viney bump could possible had knocked the wind out of him. Unfortunately after Vince copping a week I have no hope that that the cases will be thrown out by MRP.

In the JLT game vs Carlton, Murphey does to Viney exactly what Lewis did to Cripps. I'd be citing that example.

 

[Sellout Scully]

I noticed on the stats post-game that Brayshaw only had 65% game time. Any reason why this was so low? Did he get injured during the match? He's usually on for 80%+

 

[LeverPuller]

I noticed on the stats post-game that Brayshaw only had 65% game time. Any reason why this was so low? Did he get injured during the match? He's usually on for 80%+

He did have a headband at the end...guessing he copped a hit?

 

[PerfectFooty]

Alright waited a while now but my official thoughts on todays game
Good
- Jeffy by far was our most damaging forward, chased, harassed and created opportunities
- Clarry
- Nev at the other end was outstanding, he's been great the last few years but i reckon he gone another gear. Not just lock down now but is very elegant with his disposal and can seemingly buy himself more time
- Jones battled on
- Salem played his best game to date for the club

Bad
- Wattsy started okay, but he lost it during the game. his confidence vanished. Marks he would have clunked last year not taken, and positions you would expect him to be at not there. And yes i know he isn't a great second ruck, but Gawn was off for longer periods living him to fight against Kreuzer coming back on and the bigger bodied Levi. Wattsy will play next week if Hogan goes, but now is the opportunity for Spencer to step in. Wattsy can't second ruck with no confidence
- Melksham was awful and so was Lewis actually
- ANB was ordinary first half in round 1 and he was ordinary again today, still needs to develop.
- That said about ANB, Gus needs to do some work too

Ugly
Entirely loosing the plot, the saints did it last week when it got out of hand and got into shit fights and stopped focusing on the footy. And this is what happened to us yesterday, we got pissy in the third term and focused on fighting rather than playing the ball. There are times to stand up, but yesterday was just loosing the plot, the scuffle and Hogans little off the ball incident are all ugly and rightly so. Carlton had us rattled and the players wanted to flex their guns rather than play the game

 

[Pedantic]

He did have a headband at the end...guessing he copped a hit?

Yep went off with a head knock, I think it was in the third quarter. Silver lining would be that they'd be ultra conservative with him on concussions, so they must have been confident he was fine to send him back out.

 

[PerfectFooty]

The good thing about Carlton though is they have so many players worth heckling.
- Thomas is a spud and that sprayed snap was awesome. The hanger he took though was good, but the reaction to it was the best! Majority of the MCG laughing. i reckon the MCG hasn't laughed so hard since Madden bounced and kicked that goal
- Kreuzer is a pizza face
- Silvani is a boy getting by on family name, taking club payed holidays while everyone else trains. But Jo still loves him
- Armfield is a blind man playing footy
- Levi can't kick to save his life
- Murphy is the softest captain in the AFL
- Gibbs misses Adelaide

They're all so much fun to make fun of, i mean i had fun making fun of jessie white last year but with Carlton their are just so many targets.

 

[CTHORANGE]

I noticed on the stats post-game that Brayshaw only had 65% game time. Any reason why this was so low? Did he get injured during the match? He's usually on for 80%+

He got hit in the head when a Carlton player unrealistically flew for a mark and landed (maybe straddled is a better term) on Brayshaws head, but luckily it was so awkward that the Carlton player had partially hit the ground so Bray didn't cop the full whack. Because of all his head knocks he went straight off and was assessed. Goodwin has said he was fine though.

 

[djpaulydemon]

Some of my observations:
- Majority of the team is super competitive and great contested. When there is a 50-50 ground ball or aerial contest these days I always expect our players to win.
- Saying that a lot of our players still lack the footy smarts to get around certain game plans. We had difficulty getting good inside 50 entries and creating play from half back.
- A lot of our players have tons of talent but forget fundamental things in football. It's obvious we practice and are getting good at those long handball chains to get ourselves out of trouble, but there were several times where one of the players could have just shepherded the Carlton player which would have gave our players room to kick, but instead they just handballed it back and forth while standing still, putting themselves under pressure in a two on one.
- Another basic that we forgot was to lead in the forward 50. In the last quarter our forwards started leading and getting front and centre and we started piling on goals.
- Great learning experience whilst getting a win in preparation for Geelong. When Geelong are on they are really good at blocking the corridor and stifling ball movement, they always beat the Bulldogs this way.

 

[schmuttt]

Yep went off with a head knock, I think it was in the third quarter. Silver lining would be that they'd be ultra conservative with him on concussions, so they must have been confident he was fine to send him back out.

Was in the last quarter. Just before Petraccas goal he got cleaned up by Plowman and went off under the blood rule.

 

[ITCHY EYEBALLS]

Just watched the Lewis and Hogan 'incidents'. Rowe needs to take a good look at himself. Carried on like he'd been Barry Halled. Was nothing in the Cripps one either on Lewis part - But the Viney bump could possible had knocked the wind out of him. Unfortunately after Vince copping a week I have no hope that that the cases will be thrown out by MRP.

In the JLT game vs Carlton, Murphey does to Viney exactly what Lewis did to Cripps. I'd be citing that example.

Cripps has a fractured jaw.... happy now.
Cowards punch by Lewis

 

[PerfectFooty]

So, Cripps has a fractured jaw

 

[Cannon82]

He got hit in the head when a Carlton player unrealistically flew for a mark and landed (maybe straddled is a better term) on Brayshaws head, but luckily it was so awkward that the Carlton player had partially hit the ground so Bray didn't cop the full whack. Because of all his head knocks he went straight off and was assessed. Goodwin has said he was fine though.

Also split him open as well, so would have been a bit of time cleaning him up and stopping the bleeding. Was from somewhere around his right eye, from memory.

 

[Cannon82]

Cripps has a fractured jaw.... happy now.
Cowards punch by Lewis

Nah, he was standing right in front of him. More of a standard punch.