Massive massive MEH. Was at the game and was posting during the game how poor we looked in the first half. To me, it looked like one team treated it like a practice match, the other thought there was 4 points on the line (which they’ll get in round 11)
Even when we were coming back, the players didn’t encourage any of the goals, so no big deal in my book.
We looked much better when McKernan in the ruck.
McKenna was scintillating off HBF
Saad did a couple of nice things
Joey got a half of footy into him
Stringer looked dangerous
Tippa was awesome
Negatives:
Still running forward and have no one in front of them (fixed that up in the second half)
Got smashed in contested footy (maybe a bit too bruise-free)
Shiel injured
Conceded 100 points to last year and most likely this years wooden spooners
Gutless in the middle, thankgod Hep, Merret and Myers will be running through the inside. Conceded and stuck to there man instead of going the player with the ball. Provided nothing to get it out of defence.
Skills were poor.
Clarke was really poor, what ruckman goes to a back pocket to get a kick? Seems like he tried to do too much and just got in the way.
Good to see Daniher out there, will get his touch back.
Walla, Laverde, Brown and Stringer weren’t too bad up forward.
McGrath got going after half time.
Ridley, Saad, McKenna and Francis were solid in defence.
We need our best 22 to play majority of the game against Geelong with our fringes to fill the gaps. Really need to get something going before round 1.
Missed it because of a dinner, just looking at highlights now. We definitely treated it as the practise match it was, pidge had some moments. How did jok go? LONGY? Also FARK CARLTON
After supposedly training solidly over summer, the coaches gave Zlarke/Langford/Parish/McGrath a rare opportunity to lead the team in the middle of the ground.
…and they got owned by Philips/Cripps/Dow/Walsh.
Anyone that thinks these guys were just taking it easy, just making sure they got through unscathed, I think is living in denial. I think they would be very disappointed with the way clearances unfolded (repeatedly).
Well done for your pregame call about being a run short. It did sound negative but about 10 minutes in you looked to be bang on. Anyone would think we’d had rain of biblical proportions the way we were fumbling it.
Anyway, here’s to hoping we show some improvement next week.
Found Zlarke to be hugely ineffective in ruck contests, was okay around the ground but overall Phillips killed him.
The clearances were a disaster, only saving grace is that Hepp, Merrett only played half games (or less than half)… But I thought it was evident we missed Myers presence in the middle of the ground (which surprised me).
Our small backs got killed with the exception of Ridley who was okay at times.
Stringer, Walla and McGrath (second half) were my standouts.
I fkg hope TBell has got at least 20 games in him this year because Zlarke looked shizen against Phillips.
As an overall review I’ll base this on the part of the game I watched.
Positives
Hepp though short of a run is ready to fire
McGrath can midfield and will be a revelation
Tippa seems to have improved even further
Saad & Conor - reliable
Stringer is firing.
Mitch Brown has carried on from the end of last year
Negatives
Merrett & Parish both uncharacteristicly fumbly, and struggled to execute- hopefully better for the run
Zac Clarke- not impressed at at - I’d play Draper ahead of him every day of the week for better ruck contests tap work and contested ball follow up
Jok - got the ball nicely but his kicking is a real worry- can he improve it
Cohesion
This set of backs was all at sea as far as teaming together- 3 or 4 blokes all spoiling - 1 bloke waiting down vs 3 FarkCarlton players. Loss of confidence spread to dropping marls that should have clunked
Mids and flankers- seemed a bit too concerned to run to spots that the new defensive structures said they should, rather than attacking the ball/ opponent as an instinctive thing. Left a lot of space for opponents to run outside and receive in too much space.
Hopefully this is worked on ASAP. Don’t want a repeat of last year’s Neeld system
Normally a loss in this stuff would not concern me one bit, however, not taking the pre-season games seriously enough last year actually translated into the season itself, where it was just assumed everything would happen for them.
Yes his first possession was appalling and didn’t have anything to do with Joey’s goal.
I could repeat examples, but when you take the game on like he does there’s going to be stuff ups.
Blitz isn’t good at balancing these aspects
