I'm back and I'm confident about today.

Max will beat Kruez in the ruck and give our mids first use. It will also be important that Max doesn't allow him to mark around the ground.

Our backs look solid and Jesse and Garlett back give us forward targets. Kent must know how important this game is for his future and I'm expecting him to lift.

We also need some midfield muscle from Bernie and maybe Lewis. I expect Clarrie will get a heavy tag but, despite his tender years, he seems able to soak the rough stuff up.

We'll have all the answers and win easily.

It's in the bag.

[censored] Carlton!!!

23 minutes ago, CBDees said:

I don't subscribe to the excuses of our injuries. Frankly, with Hogan and Garlett back (and Watts returning next week), and Joel returning to the backline, our injuries only apply to the midfield (where we have Gawn back)!

We are not as injury-riddled as some apologists make out and the loss of our co-captains and Tyson will be managed innovatively as we did with Gawn. All players know what is on the line with fourth position beckoning (provided The Eagles beat Port) and I am sure that Lewis and Vince will step into the breach to forge our destiny!

Dees to beat the Blues.

We should win, however we usually struggle against their starting midfield. What would last year have been our starting mids in Viney, Jones, Tyson will be sitting in the stands and Gawn is only coming back to  a semblance of form. You can find creative ways forward and back with injury but the game these days is won by the quality and depth of your midfield rotation and should not be underestimated.

Hoping to see Vince to Gibbs. Lewis marshall the back half. Oliver and Trac step up beyond their years. Hannan to add zip to the midfield mix and Hogan to remind us how good he was before family and personal battles weighed him down. Bring the team with the number 1 pressure acts in the league and we win. Bring anything less and we;'re leaving it to chance.

If Lewis and Vince can wind back the clock a bit, our midfield still looks strong. I hope Lewis spends time playing an inside role as Oliver needs some support in the absence of the skippers.

I told myself during the week that our injuries might bring us undone, but I've moved past that somewhat. All the players we added are AFL quality including our best two forwards. 

Carlton have done their best impersonation of a decent AFL team recently, but they're 16th on 5 wins. We have to get this done if we want to be taken seriously. 

6 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

It's all between the ears. 

and between the sticks

So much for their stellar midfield. Blues are last for clearances. Dees are 4th. Win the ball we win the game.

I'm confident about today.

If we bring the pressure that has us as the no. 1 or 2 pressure team in the AFL then I think we have too much pace and quality across the field.

Oliver had 35 disposals in round 2 and was very important.  He needs another big game today.

We're 4th on the quarters won ladder and they're 16.  We win nearly 61% of every quarter we play and Carlton 43%.

We've kicked 203 goals for the year and should be 4th highest at the end of the round (passing Essendon on 210) and Carlton have kicked 149, which is the lowest in the competition and won't change after today even if they win.

Put simply, our pressure, ball movement and wider spread of goal-kicking options should see a victory today if we regain our 'brand', which is outnumber at the contest, spread, and move the ball quickly.

Jones, Viney, and Tyson are losses, but they really only effect a small part of the game.  And it's not as if we won't have others in their respective roles.  The 'others' probably won't be as good, but they don't need to be for us to win.  They just need to play a role that gives us opportunities to get the ball moving our way on enough occasions. 

All the doom and gloom I have seen here the past week and we could be 4th at the end of the day...

Injuries effect how we go about the next month but we can win games because we are a good team, with an attacking mindset, and a ferocious desire to put pressure on the bloke with the footy.

If we bring our best, the Blues will have to out perform to beat us.

No viney Jones Tyson Salem is a big hole in the mid but they just have to find a way. 

If Vince and Lewis don't play mid, we are cooked. They need to step up. 

Vince on Gibbs is big. Gibbs has been outstanding. 

Trac needs to play more midfield minutes. Nb or harmes need step up n be more then a cameo midfielder.

If we can break even midfield, outside speed will get the blues. 

Relax, we've got this....

55 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

A strange sense of deja vu

Dees by 22 in a tussle.

Carlton will want the game played their way and might have the fit cattle to do it

We'll gradually wrestle the play back to 'our' game in the end.

Not thinking pretty . .. but a 3-4 goal win. That'll do

I hope you're right BB, not confident at all myself.

Would be over tbe moon with a 3 to 4 goal win but would be happy to take 3 to 4 point win

Need to win today , season defining game

Huge day please lads please!! 

23 minutes ago, ProDee said:

I'm confident about today.

If we bring the pressure that has us as the no. 1 or 2 pressure team in the AFL then I think we have too much pace and quality across the field.

Oliver had 35 disposals in round 2 and was very important.  He needs another big game today.

We're 4th on the quarters won ladder and they're 16.  We win nearly 61% of every quarter we play and Carlton 43%.

We've kicked 203 goals for the year and should be 4th highest at the end of the round (passing Essendon on 210) and Carlton have kicked 149, which is the lowest in the competition and won't change after today even if they win.

Put simply, our pressure, ball movement and wider spread of goal-kicking options should see a victory today if we regain our 'brand', which is outnumber at the contest, spread, and move the ball quickly.

Jones, Viney, and Tyson are losses, but they really only effect a small part of the game.  And it's not as if we won't have others in their respective roles.  The 'others' probably won't be as good, but they don't need to be for us to win.  They just need to play a role that gives us opportunities to get the ball moving our way on enough occasions. 

I think this is key. They don't kick big scores which should mean even if they control parts of the game we should always be within reach.

It's official! 

That horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach has set in.

Even though all of us would take a close win, I'm not sure we could all handle another nail biter. 

Praying for a first half like the Doggies game.

1 hour ago, sue said:

No co-captains, Tyson, Watts ,Salem sounds pretty riddled to me.  But then I'm not the Black Knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail.

I've amended to recognise Salem but still feel that the prophets of doom are being overly negative. Provided that Goody can get us into the finals, there is no reason that we won't have a decent list at our disposal!

1 hour ago, brendan said:

Was reading Carlton bigfooty page not only are they extremely confident they will win easy, they think the AFL Is corrupt for us having 8 day break to there 6 days, fail to mention our 3 six day breaks in a row 

The AFL are corrupt, in that the blues fans are correct and we know they have never favoured the Blues in any way. ( oh except when they permitted a sponsor to pay a star player a massive amount of cash outside the salary cap (Visy/ Judd )  but denied Melbourne the chance to do the same to retain a good player at our club ( Scully ) 

oh yeah, the AFL are totally unfair to Carlton.  What else would we expect these drones to say ????

2 hours ago, KC from Casey said:

Today could very well be our season defining game.

Today IS our season defining game

Jeez on paper our team looks pretty thin for class, I'm not very confident about today.

6 minutes ago, CBDees said:

I've amended to recognise Salem but still feel that the prophets of doom are being overly negative. Provided that Goody can get us into the finals, there is no reason that we won't have a decent list at our disposal!

I haven't seen too many prophesies of doom.  But i have seen too many over-confident prophesies.  We are up against it once again.  Doubly great when we win. And when we get everyone back we can beat anyone on the day.  Just need to get through this patch.

Injuries create opportunities, I'm excited to see guys who wouldn't normally get the opportunity play more minutes. 

Tipping harmes and Anb to step up 

Lewis and vince to play very well 

mcdonald to kick 5

I'm tipping the Blues by 9 points. Don't think our midfield will be able to get the job done with all our injuries and playing against a flooding monstrosity.

Bloody hope I'm wrong though! We need this win to keep the march to finals on track.

52 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

So much for their stellar midfield. Blues are last for clearances. Dees are 4th. Win the ball we win the game.

All the hysteria in this thread is comical. Carlton actually gets so little out of their midfield. The only thing their mids have going for them is that they're defensively accountable, and get back to plug holes. This is how they stay in touch because they simply can't kick goals. This is what they did in Round 2 and what they did in Round 22 last year. Last for clearances, one of the worst contested ball winning sides in the comp, can't win at stoppages. Even with our injuries we still have so many hard ball winners around the ground. If we lose today it would be a huge upset because if we're finals bound, it should be a shoe in. They can't even mark inside 50. 

The one and only thing that keeps this close is tackling pressure and effectiveness rebounding 50. They tackle well but don't win much of the contested ball. We still have a number of very good contested ball winners in the side despite the loss of Jones and Viney. They are also a better contested mark side but then again most teams are better than us in that area.

11 minutes ago, praha said:

All the hysteria in this thread is comical. Carlton actually gets so little out of their midfield. The only thing their mids have going for them is that they're defensively accountable, and get back to plug holes. This is how they stay in touch because they simply can't kick goals. This is what they did in Round 2 and what they did in Round 22 last year. Last for clearances, one of the worst contested ball winning sides in the comp, can't win at stoppages. Even with our injuries we still have so many hard ball winners around the ground. If we lose today it would be a huge upset because if we're finals bound, it should be a shoe in. They can't even mark inside 50. 

The one and only thing that keeps this close is tackling pressure and effectiveness rebounding 50. They tackle well but don't win much of the contested ball. We still have a number of very good contested ball winners in the side despite the loss of Jones and Viney. They are also a better contested mark side but then again most teams are better than us in that area.

Carlton traditionally play a very defensive game.

I went to the Docklands and watched their upset win against GWS. Their defence sits back and just picked off the run and carry of the Giants. This then allowed them to quickly counter attack through unmarked men and then take a mark in the forward line.

Our normal game plan does not work well against this style so I trust that Goodwin has some tricks up his sleeve. One obvious ploy is to leave a quick mobile tall near the forward line to counter balance the defensive line. I'm sure there are others.

2 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Carlton traditionally play a very defensive game.

I went to the Docklands and watched their upset win against GWS. Their defence sits back and just picked off the run and carry of the Giants. This then allowed them to quickly counter attack through unmarked men and then take a mark in the forward line.

Our normal game plan does not work well against this style so I trust that Goodwin has some tricks up his sleeve. One obvious ploy is to leave a quick mobile tall near the forward line to counter balance the defensive line. I'm sure there are others.

Well yeah, this is the only concern. My point being that our midfield losses mean nothing against a team that has a relatively weak midfield. On the MCG Carlton's style seems to shine better as well, and their contested marking is a worry but I feel we're taller and more accountable down back now than we were in round 2 and round 22 last year. If we lose today I can bet you it'll be in the air, not in the middle or around stoppages. Once they rebound they put defenders under so much pressure, and they take a good strong contested mark, one of the better contested marking sides in the comp they are.

7 hours ago, Domgus Petrogan said:

Pretty crazy. 

Win and Port lose we go 4th. 

Lose and Weagles win and we're out of the 8!

 

 

This. I didnt even realize wed slipped to 8th overnight. This season your gone in a flash.