I learned more about Carlton yesterday than I did Melbourne.

Carlton probably won't ever win a flag. They are rough, lazy and sloppy.

That said, they smashed Melbourne yesterday. The difference in clearances was simply shocking. I fail to understand how Moloney, Jones, Grimes, Trengove, Jamar, etc. can be so easily smashed week in, week out. It's mind boggling.

Delivery going forward was AWFUL.

That said, our transition at times we really good. We spread out and moved the ball clear at times, but broke down as soon as we got to CHF and the likes of Dunn were chopping the ball forward instead of kicking it in quick and direct.

I struggle to find positives because the team is so obviously poor in some areas. I'm struggling to understand how it went so bad, so quickly. Mysterious stuff.

Paticularly when you look at Richmond thumping Whorethorn...(i know it is only one game, but we are light years away from anything like that)

Why????? There are reasons for this.

If you think Watts attacked the ball hard enough today, you have rocks in your head. I would rather he have 10 possies giving his all than 34 kick backwards (like last week). As I said in the other thread, if you are happy with his development you are deluded - you have actually convinced yourself that he is tracking nicely. He isn't.

Garland was OK, but if you put your hand up to play on a small - don't play like a tall. As you can see from my favourite players list, I am a fan of all our defenders. I don't think it was a good game by him.

Watts played loose in defense last week! If he only got 10 touches playing that role, I'm not sure the coach would be overly pleased???

That said, they smashed Melbourne yesterday. The difference in clearances was simply shocking. I fail to understand how Moloney, Jones, Grimes, Trengove, Jamar, etc. can be so easily smashed week in, week out. It's mind boggling.

Just on this - clearances have been sub-par this season but against St K, WB, and Syd we have won the clearances.

However, our clearnces tend to be sloppy, rushed kicks forward whereas most teams get clear take aways against us.

Oddly enough, the massive discrepancy in clearances on Sunday didn't hurt us because Carltons clearances were just as bad as ours - not many clear takeaways, alot of rushed kicks. McLean, Curnow, Warnock, and Robinson combined for 24 and Judd and Gibbs combined for 5...

He couldn't catch McLean, twice and McLean was only jogging.

This is a major concern!!! I'm lost for words. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This is not good!

Positives -

Some of our kickouts from fullback were able to find targets out wide, and fully utilise the leg speed of Bail, Nicholson and Blease. We desperately lacked this pace in the first part of the season

Defence still holding up relatively well. Even though Betts kicked a handful, Garland beat him numerous times in the 1 on 1's. A lot of his opponents goals were not his fault. Frawley found a bit of form with rebounding, and Rivers was again good.How Hampson got in the best baffles me. McDonald improving with confidence each week.

The improvement of Watts, Blease and McDonald. Calls for Watts to be dropped are narrow minded and sensationalist. Plenty of players made mistakes in the heat of battle yesterday.

McKenzie on Judd. Did a great job on him, only letting his guard slip, as all the rest did, in the last quarter.

Negatives-

The continual anonymity of Moloney and Trengove. These are the guys that won our B&F last year and our captain.

Robinson. Always plays well against us, and always sucks our players in with his antagonising.

Jamars continual decline in influence, 2 kicks for the day, this guy was all Australian 2 years ago. His kicking for goal seems to lack the penetration and accuracy he once had also

The last quarter. for obvious reasons.

The continued slavish obedience to kicking it backwards across defensive 50 to try and free up the man to run the ball down the wing, when players are flapping their arms on their own in the middle of the ground. A bit of discretion and common sense to deviate from the gameplan is required at times. Jones, Watts, Frawley the chief offenders here.

Howe. Only had three touches after quarter time. Simply not good enough. Wasnt helped by dumb play by Tapscott who leapt backwards to spoil what wouldve been a great mark.

Aaron Davey. Barely noticed him today, was he even out there? I blame him entirely for this loss.

The lack of crowd. Doesnt matter if it was an away game, 28K for two Melbourne teams is awful.

If you think all of the positives from today's game are meaningless then you'd best tune out for the upcoming winter.

Didnt see the positives coz I was returning over the top during the day

Plenty of snow at Hotham fo those interested.

I blame myself for the loss coz as soon as i got home to watch we went downhill ( sorry for skiing pun)

Good to read the posts as most are positive.

I still reckon we get the worst of the umpiring

it must be pretty hard to get up and give again when youve got blokes sitting on and kneeing you in the head(wasnt the head supposed to be protected) or to tackle again and again the guy with the ball to effect a ball up when a free is given against you when you kick a ball out of a similar tackle,

the lack of run was obvious but the cruel bounce of the ball FGS????

We must have some luck soon and I think that comes with the players persisting coz I reckon there is enough talent and skill there!

I thought our rebound out of the backline was much better today without Bartram and I think he should be played in the midfield going forward.

On the negative, I thought we were pretty selfish in the forward line today, particularly Dunn and Clark.

Tapscott is not quick enough and doesn’t have enough tricks to play forward at AFL level. HBF is the only position he will make it IMO.

I would prefer to see Watts played on the wing and Blease in the backline.

We still could do with more pace. Hopefully Bartram, Sylvia and Davey come back in next week for Green (inj), Sellar and Bennell.

Probably disagree with most of that. Tapscott didnt get rewarded for what he did in the forward 50 and I was right in front of the goals so I could see. he moved into space twice and on one occasion had himself placed right where the ball was heading but the whistle went, otherwise he would have had a few goals. And unlike most of our side he intimidates opponents.

the selfishness goal kicking-wise was three running goals that missed when we had two forwards at least in open spaec in the forward 50.

Bartram's effort is high but his disposal is still frustrating. Why bring back Sylvia and Davey when this week we were much more competitive without them? Syvlia has done NOTHING this year - let him earn his position for a recall. Davey is finished. Sad but true.

Blease in the backline - wtf?

Quit the Dunn bashing - he actually applies forward 50 pressure and he can kick. And he has more physical presence than many.

if you want to look for scapegoats ask yourself whether Sellar has shown anything that suggests he is at AFL standard

The ball was in our attacking half more than the blues. We just didnt capitalise.