Autopsy Rd 3 - Lacklustre Blues go down by 24

[Macca43]

Don't worry mate by the end of next year your son will love the Blues. Once it starts it could happen very quickly.

Exactly - at the moment we are playing a lot of Dow, Fisher & SPS through the middle, another pre-season and suddenly they aren't getting pushed off the ball, they have bigger tanks and are able to run harder longer and execute skills better because of it, throw in Pickett & Williamson back from injury and hopefully McKay to provide a marking target for Charlie to kick to when he is marking out on the wings and it is a different ball game it just takes time.

 

[Gethelred]

Ok I’m calm, I think. If we are into the 3rd year if a 3 year rebuild why do we need 2 more years... that would make it a 5 year rebuild no? In that plan was there an implied understanding that we would get worse as the rebuild progressed. Are we not allowed to win until 2020? I didn’t get that memo.

We have turned over 42 players in 3 years. There are only 11 on the list from 2015.

Two years from now it will be only 2 certainties Docherty and Cripps, add maybe Jones, Kruez, Murph on last legs with Ed C?

That’s not a rebuild it’s a farking obliteration. I figure the fabled “green shoots” should be delivering fruit by 2019.

I expect nothing this year except watching kids develop and praying my son comes to the footy, not to placate his delusional dad, but because he believes in Carlton, I even took him to the Ghosts of PP tour just to give him a sense of the history, the institution that has existed for more than 150 years. Sadly, we are a laughing stock.

I get that we need to do this right but I simply cannot accept the dog sh1t we served up particularly against GC.

In short I expected a little more by now.

If you have a minute, go through my post history to see my preseason predictions; I thought we'd be sitting around 10 or so wins for the year, with 8 as a minimum.

I believed that, on the basis that we should be able to moneyball the contributions of Gibbs using the improved contributions of Fish, Sammo and Kennedy; I'd argue that, to a certain extent, that's true enough. We're missing his goals, though, and his tackling, and some of that goes towards our current malaise. In Doc's case, I'd hoped Plowman could've stepped into the general role; I'd hoped Murphy would remain in the form he was in last year; I'd hoped we wouldn't lose players in good knick to injury.

The silliest thing here is that we still have so much time. How long's a season? I remember a season not to long ago - the dogs under McCartney, I think - where they were rat shit for the first half of the season, before running through sides when they got on a roll in the second half of the year; I remember when Richmond made finals by beating Sydney in Sydney in the last round of the year, in a streak few would forget. I can remember how, when we were being told that we'd be winless for the year, worst list in the AFL, Bolton got us three wins on the trot, one away.

Right now, we've only had Teague for so long, and we're already seeing it providing dividends; see the first goal in the match, Daisy's; see Cripps kick to Dow's lead; if you haven't yet, do yourself a favor and watch the Carlton only highlights The Wookie has left a few pages back. What you're looking for specifically is oblique leads, from a central starting point, in diagonal directions; usually running forward, then backward, then turning on an angle to take the mark. You're seeing this already, and he's been with the club for what, a few months?

For us to win games, we need to stop leaking goals. It's that simple. I back the coaching into finding a solution for our issues, as they were the ones who designed our defense over the last two years. From there, all we'll need is a sniff of a chance to win, and our kids will surge like lightning.

A lot of water to go under the bridge before we start to get our axes out yet.

 

[Accidental genius]

You expect that from players that have played less than 5 game its players like
E Curnow,Thomas,mullett that should be way better

Hardly our future. How many games do the newbies like polson need to show us how well they execute simple things like handball and kicking? Don't they learn this in junior footy?

 

[Chism]

The lack of execution concerning basic skills has been appalling from us for 2 weeks now.

I have lost count the amount of easy dropped marks / missed handballs by a mile under little pressure / kicks missing targets to often / tackles missed when blokes go in half hearted and try arm tackling without their body making contact and the list goes on.

Now surely considering all on our list have been playing footy their whole lives presumably and have come through very high junior ranks it is dumb founding how poor we are at the most basic skills of our game, i understand everyone makes mistakes but watching the last 2 games on replay with the heat of the battle as a supporter taken out of it i am at a loss to excuse why our skills are so poor and barely VFL standard.

Going 0-4 with a loss to North in Tassie ( which is always a hard place to win ) is a devastating start and i cannot see us stopping Ben Brown at all let alone trying to figure out where our first win comes from.

Thank god for Cripps and Charlie Curnow is all i can say right now.

 

[Gethelred]

The lack of execution concerning basic skills has been appalling from us for 2 weeks now.

I have lost count the amount of easy dropped marks / missed handballs by a mile under little pressure / kicks missing targets to often / tackles missed when blokes go in half hearted and try arm tackling without their body making contact and the list goes on.

Now surely considering all on our list have been playing footy their whole lives presumably and have come through very high junior ranks it is dumb founding how poor we are at the most basic skills of our game, i understand everyone makes mistakes but watching the last 2 games on replay with the heat of the battle as a supporter taken out of it i am at a loss to excuse why our skills are so poor and barely VFL standard.

Going 0-4 with a loss to North in Tassie ( which is always a hard place to win ) is a devastating start and i cannot see us stopping Ben Brown at all let alone trying to figure out where our first win comes from.

Thank god for Cripps and Charlie Curnow is all i can say right now.

Not used to going quick yet in some cases; in others, their best is well past their use-by date.

Bear in mind, that the majority of our starting midfield have played together for, at best, 2 years. Outside Cripps and Murphy, who else has had a) the time at AFL level to settle into their skills, and b) not had to carrying more than their own share to fast-track their development? That's how Sydney do it; put a talented kid in reserves, develop them til they're ready, then throw them into the ones surrounded by sufficient talent that they can just do what they're best at, rather than having to try to win games immediately.

It's also a case of too few doing the meat and potatoes stuff, but that's the side effect when you draft for matchwinners first. We've got a few of those running around; we actually need some of what St Kilda have in abundance, two or three humble triers and accumulators. Ed alone ain't going to cut it, and nor is Murphy; can't drill stoppages into him, would damage his game further.

It does hurt to watch the turnovers, but some of them at least is due to kids being forced to make decisions before they're comfortable - Polson, for example, is a textbook case of someone who needs to play AFL to speed up his thought processes; Weitering is also being forced to make adjustments as he no longer has time or space to constantly make the right decisions after careful thought anymore. After these kids begin to settle into the year - as all sides do - watch how the quality of disposal improves.

As for the oldies' disposal, well, we can hope for a miracle, can't we?

 

[Chism]

Not used to going quick yet in some cases; in others, their best is well past their use-by date.

Bear in mind, that the majority of our starting midfield have played together for, at best, 2 years. Outside Cripps and Murphy, who else has had a) the time at AFL level to settle into their skills, and b) not had to carrying more than their own share to fast-track their development? That's how Sydney do it; put a talented kid in reserves, develop them til they're ready, then throw them into the ones surrounded by sufficient talent that they can just do what they're best at, rather than having to try to win games immediately.

It's also a case of too few doing the meat and potatoes stuff, but that's the side effect when you draft for matchwinners first. We've got a few of those running around; we actually need some of what St Kilda have in abundance, two or three humble triers and accumulators. Ed alone ain't going to cut it, and nor is Murphy; can't drill stoppages into him, would damage his game further.

It does hurt to watch the turnovers, but some of them at least is due to kids being forced to make decisions before they're comfortable - Polson, for example, is a textbook case of someone who needs to play AFL to speed up his thought processes; Weitering is also being forced to make adjustments as he no longer has time or space to constantly make the right decisions after careful thought anymore. After these kids begin to settle into the year - as all sides do - watch how the quality of disposal improves.

As for the oldies' disposal, well, we can hope for a miracle, can't we?

Agree but watch the first 3 Qtrs of the Tigers game and how can we go so backwards after only 9 Qtrs of footy since?

I am at a loss trying to dissect where we are currently at and/or how to fix it.

 

[WFGodot]

Nice post. I’ll do some light reading on previous posts.

 

[Soapy V]

Hardly our future. How many games do the newbies like polson need to show us how well they execute simple things like handball and kicking? Don't they learn this in junior footy?

Not under AFL pressure

 

[Just Kreuzing]

Not under AFL pressure

Correct and is the hardest thing to replicate at training these days, can only fast track skill execution and decision making by playing at the top level for an extended period.

 

[BlueRenaissance]

Agree but watch the first 3 Qtrs of the Tigers game and how can we go so backwards after only 9 Qtrs of footy since?

I am at a loss trying to dissect where we are currently at and/or how to fix it.

The difference is tigers played an open free running gameplan because they thought they had enough quality advantage to blow us away on the scoreboard. It allowed us to play to all of our strengths and show what quality we have unfettered like JLT.

GC/Pies were only ever a 50/50 result so implemented strong tactical plans to stop us in our tracks - which worked. GC flooded back in our fwd 50 leaving us outnumbered ridiculously when kicking inside 50. From there, they rebounded in numbers overlapping.

Pies implemented their own version of the same thing. They tagged Cripps too, set up from their defensive 50 and overran us in transition.

If teams do their homework and need a win, we are in trouble. We are too tall, too slow with a shallow midfield. Our previous season showed us setting up nicely from our def 50. We have lost of way in this regard and pumping the ball upfield under pressure.

 

[Just Kreuzing]

Agree but watch the first 3 Qtrs of the Tigers game and how can we go so backwards after only 9 Qtrs of footy since?

I am at a loss trying to dissect where we are currently at and/or how to fix it.

Reckon we caught the Tigers off guard a bit after the unfurling of the flag and perhaps they disrespected us a touch as well.
Also lets be honest about that game, we got 5 goals handed to us with ridiculous 50 metre penalty infringements which helped us kick our highest score in a long while.

 

[Chism]

Reckon we caught the Tigers off guard a bit after the unfurling of the flag and perhaps they disrespected us a touch as well.
Also lets be honest about that game, we got 5 goals handed to us with ridiculous 50 metre penalty infringements which helped us kick our highest score in a long while.

The 50s aside it was more our skills which have gone to shit since and we were really sharp in that game than got ahead of ourselves and beat by the Suns with 3rd rate skills on display.

 

[Das2Blue]

Just imagine how bad we would be if our only hard running player Kade Simpson was to retire...thank god we have him playing for us for at least another 10 years..

 

[Just Kreuzing]

Just imagine how bad we would be if our only hard running player Kade Simpson was to retire...thank god we have him playing for us for at least another 10 years..

Will lead the league in spoils in 10 years time if the AFL allow walking sticks...

 

[Blueballs38]

I understand the frustration.

Can you tell me though, where were you expecting the team improvement to come from?

Doc inj, Gibbs out plus Kreuzer inj and underdone.

We have 2nd and 3rd year players who we are expecting to carry the team along with a very select other few.

This year was always going to be worse than last year given we lost Gibbs and Doc. The additional injuries have only compounded it.

I was buoyed by the JLT form and our efforts against RFC ... there just seemed to be a new edge to us ... more green shoots.

Since then we have gone backwards for some reason.

The team as a whole seems to have lost a lot of confidence that they had in spades at the very beginning of the year.

It’s like all of a sudden our air has been taken out and we are completely deflated.

Perhaps with a bit of hindsight I was a little too optimistic but I still stand by what I said ... why are teams constantly leapfrogging us?

I don’t mind putting in the hard work and the patience but it’s got to be for somethin* in the end ... competitiveness!

I am getting impatience for a semblance of success ... it’s just been too bloody long and I just don’t think another false dawn will cut it.

Don’t get me wrong I am prepared to wait a couple more years ... but this time ... no false dawn is allowed!

 

[mediumsizered]

Not sure where the 6-8 wins are coming from TBH. I cant see where a win is coming from with the way the team is playing.

I'm not normally a doom and gloom sort, but the lack of pressure over the ground in the last 2 rounds is disturbing.

Some posters were saying the same thing this time last year.

As we know, the wins did start coming & we ended up being competitive in most games.

 

[RudyBlue]

Some posters were saying the same thing this time last year.

As we know, the wins did start coming & we ended up being competitive in most games.

Certainly interesting to go back and have a read through last year's rd 4 and 5 autopsy threads, as well as the rd 6 preview thread.

 

[therubbernub]

I don’t mind putting in the hard work

LOL

 

[Blueballs38]

LOL

What it hasn’t been hard work following CFC the last 20years.

 

[Coops93]

Roughly about the impact on a Carlton player:

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/04/09/this-could-be-pendlebury's-legacy-moment/

The 30-year-old on-baller (Pendlebury) was deployed in a run-with role on the influential Blues midfielder, restricting him to only 26 touches, seven marks and five clearances, with Pendlebury telling SEN’s Crunch Time on Saturday that it was the first time in his long and illustrious career he had been utilised as a tagger.

I'm sorry, restricting him to only 26 touches!? 7 marks and 5 clearances is still a good effort as well. Since when was your direct opponent getting 26 disposals, 5 clearances and a goal a good game for a tagger?

Admittedly it wasn't Cripps' best game ever but that stat line is still very good, and for 90% of the league it would be considered a great game.

 

[Stamos]

Since when was your direct opponent getting 26 disposals, 5 clearances and a goal a good game for a tagger?

When you're tagging Cripps, that's a good game. Was influential on the result.

 

[Gethelred]

Roughly about the impact on a Carlton player:

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/04/09/this-could-be-pendlebury's-legacy-moment/



I'm sorry, restricting him to only 26 touches!? 7 marks and 5 clearances is still a good effort as well. Since when was your direct opponent getting 26 disposals, 5 clearances and a goal a good game for a tagger?

Admittedly it wasn't Cripps' best game ever but that stat line is still very good, and for 90% of the league it would be considered a great game.

Bear in mind, though, that there's different ways to tag a bloke out of the game.

The Steven Baker; get them angry to get distracted. The Andrew Carrazzo, get their ball first. And there's the Cam Ling, negate their influence.

In the final category, they get the ball, sure, but their ability to get off a good quality possession is decreased; they're tackled as soon as they get it, with the idea being to keep them facing and disposing back into the stoppage rather than away from it, to someone on the outside.

Rewatch some of the game again. That's how they shut him down in terms of his influence on the result; robbed us of his ability to extract the thing out into space, frustrates him as he can't do what he normally does.

 

[therubbernub]

What it hasn’t been hard work following CFC the last 20years.

first world problem

 

[Aphrodite]

What it hasn’t been hard work following CFC the last 20years.

Just thank your lucky stars you don't follow that Rabble from Linton St.


#1966

 

[Robertio]

What it hasn’t been hard work following CFC the last 20years.

Not for me it hasn't, i spent the first twenty five years of my life living in Carlton. Love the place, love the club.