Well it was only a practice match.

 How do you microwave a digital membership without damaging your phone? 

8 50 metre penalties, 3? 6-6-6 rule violations, Brayshaw in the backline, 5/6 first-choice backliners out?

Yeah, not taking much from this one.

Geez. You'd be worried if the game actually meant anything. Carlton probably have an open top bus down Lygon St organised for tomorrow. 

Ridiculous 50 meter penalties. Surely umps will be told to relax for round 1.

I don't believe for one minute that this won't hurt for the players. OK, makeshift backline, but it was sloppy, undisciplined and unfocused. Not good on any level (except the constant feeling that we could be/should be playing so much better).

Gotta be concerned with the 2nd quarter. Outplayed by their mids and connection down forward was average at best.

What did stink was getting touched up in the middle. Praccy match or not, that was brutal.

2 minutes ago, BDA said:

Ridiculous 50 meter penalties. Surely umps will be told to relax for round 1.

I would imagine they'll be told to relax tomorrow.

50m penalty for shaking your head while looking at the ground. What an absolute joke.

No injuries?

Dropping marks, fumbling, I’ll discipline and not switched on and we lost by 5 points. 

A few things to work on prior to rd1. 

We need to play a hell of a lot better in rd1 otherwise it will be lights out in the first quarter. 

As long as we got no injuries no worries, sure we played bad but I can’t see that defining our season

For years I've dreamed about being one of those clubs (you know the ones) who could afford to take the preseason games lightly because they had bigger things in mind.

Soak it in! We lost and it means nothing! Wahoo!!!

How on earth did we get pinged twice for not being set up properly?

Carlton will play finals if they can stay fit. Cripps looks fit and the additions of Cerra and Hewett will certainly help. Add in Walsh and they're looking dangerous..

Watching Cerra tonight really makes me annoyed we just couldn't get him across. He's absolutely the type who would have been the perfect mix for our midfield with his poise and ball use.

Only watched the last qtr, we looked average so glad I didn’t see the rest of it. Only a practice match but bloody hell I hate losing to Carlton. 

Things I’ve learnt today 

1. Give the umpires an inch and they’ll invade Ukraine with power 

2. No May and Salem without Petty and Rivers as backup = no good backline 

3. Poor discipline is always costly. We were arrogant and messy especially with setting up in the middle. That’s inexcusable. 
 

4. Nobody got injured. Big win!

Serious question, how much of the Blues score was a direct result from ‘questionable’ 50m penalties? 
 

If the AFL wants us to respect umpires more, this is not a good start for HQ.

Blues are going to be on this year, look really fit, DeKoning will allow McKay to get away more often. Kennedy the same for Cripps, McGovern looks interested again. No more Jones crazy ball.

We didn’t have enough intent early, fumbles and dropped marks let alone not being across the new rules equaling 8 fifty meter penalties is not good enough.

Bringing Weid on in the last qrt after playing a half today is not really setting him up for success either. 

The crackdown on abuse is classic AFL. Go way too hard. Penalise players venting their frustration in the heat of the moment. 

oh and by the way, you should respect the umps more. The AFL puts the umps in an impossible position

Sloppy, and quite a few in the wrong head-space.  Things to work on, but that comes from being the 'hunted'.

Very fumbly, missed tackles, really poor kicking skills, very greasy night.

Carlton's smalls and mids looked OK but we never put any real tackling pressure on - maybe deliberate only being a preseason game. 

Tracc, Clarry and Viney all tried the extra bit too often and got tackled easily. Habits from the past.

Brown, Jackson and later Weid were horrendous in the air.

Everything looked slow, weak.

Only lost by 5 points, felt like 6 goals.

None of the Casey boys took their chance. 

The issue with the 50m penalty is that it can never be consistent as it will be ruled according to the individual umpire’s tolerance or mood on the day. I get the feeling there are going to be more than a few games ruined this year by this rule.

Remember that year we beat the Pies in the preseason and got excited and then we’re terrible all year - some please help with the year/details

The only real issue was our midfield getting smashed, but I saw a few instance where they didn't go hard at the ball 

We are better with Harmed in the middle than Viney. Picket has to relearn to move toward the ball rather than waiting.

 

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Things I’ve learnt today 

1. Give the umpires an inch and they’ll invade Ukraine with power 

2. No May and Salem without Petty and Rivers as backup = no good backline 

3. Poor discipline is always costly. We were arrogant and messy especially with setting up in the middle. That’s inexcusable. 
 

4. Nobody got injured. Big win!

5. Williams the most over paid player in the comp?

Perhaps it was the lapse we had to have. Better now than second half of season. There needs to be urgent attention tho to penalties. One of the things about last year was our iron discipline when it came to playing the game. These lapses were very unlike last year’s side. I have no doubt the hierarchy will sort it out. But it certainly needs urgent attention. Not our brand at all!