On 03/03/2022 at 11:14, hardtack said:

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.

Geelong or Hawthorn will lose one early on in the year to a dodgy 50 meter and we will never see that rule again after Scott has an epic meltdown and his brother fixes it. 

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:12, Demon Disciple said:

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.

70%

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:15, DubDee said:

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

Remember when we got smashed by the Dogs in pre season last year missing half our midfield and everyone had a meltdown? Good times. 

It would have been daylight robbery but [censored] were the umpires disgusting. Should be sent to the bush all of them. Commonsense umpiring is all I ask for and it wasn't seen tonight. DISGRACEFUL

Hard to get into the groove after 5 months of wallowing in GF glory. Nothing wrong being reminded they are mere mortals again. Party time over. Still the midfield need to be embarrassed for their effort. 

Edited March 3, 20223 yr by John Crow Batty

We had a similar hitout this time last year against the Dogs. Lots of injury outs, sloppy and a bit lazy at times. Wonder if Selwyn is tapering us towards round 1?

 

I'm annoyed that we've knowingly kept 3+ list cloggers on our list rather than gone and chased midfield, half back and half forward depth. Players that you can find in the state leagues and players that other teams have found in the SPP period. Not much we can do about that now though.

Game plan wise I maintain that we just aren't sharing and running with the ball to full capacity. Everything is too straight lines and bomb it. That worked last year, but you have to adapt and build.

Bowey, Lever and Tomlinson started to settle down in the 2nd half, that was good to see. With more quality back in against the Dogs the backline should be far better. 

Midfield probably couldn't play much worse. Oliver and Petracca do play such a physical style though so I can see why if they're a little bit off they kind of drop away. Just not convinced by our depth though. JJ was a great story last year but he's kind of meh. And Sparrow unfortunately doesn't look to really have made a big leap. And Harmes in Harmes, useful, but not exactly getting any better.

Forward line is the real worry though. Ben Brown fell back down to earth after a great effort last week. Jackson hasn't made a lot of progress in terms of clunking marks and it can't be easy having to switch positions so much. And Tom McDonald is so feast or famine from contest to contest. You just don't know if he'll clunk a mark or hit a target or if he'll let his man gallop away from him with ease.

Our depth still has question marks for me.

If Salem goes down we have no one that comes even close to at least filling in his position if need. 

Can the Oskar Baker experiment just be done. Shouldn't even be on a list let along trying to play off a half back.

May and Petty are significant losses. There's no other to put it. Tomlinson was okay tonight but when Petty and May are fit they simply play instead of Tommo and Smith.

Hunt was woeful, Bowey was barely sighted and few others went missing when needed.

I'm really disappointed in the second stringers... Baker, Smith, Hunt, Jordan... Don't ask me to highlight the ineffectual contests they were involved in! It won't be long before the third stringers go past them; Van Rooyen, Howes, Woewodin!

 

Did you see Max, give Trac a serve after his 50m penalty.?

Can’t help but think back to our last practice match last year against the dogs which was a dogs breakfast to the point of some of us writing us off, what it did do was sharpen us up for round 1 can only hope for same outcome, but geez those 50s I guess the AFL Goal is to have the fans hate them even more if so mission accomplished 

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:19, Lord Nev said:

We had a similar hitout this time last year against the Dogs. Lots of injury outs, sloppy and a bit lazy at times. Wonder if Selwyn is tapering us towards round 1?

 

I doubt it's tapering. I hope it's mostly mental, knowing we had a great hit out the first week, then a few players out opening a deficiency (last year it was no Viney, Gus or Oliver killing our midfield v Dogs).

The concern is last year we started the reason without playing great footy but with a lot of desire to grind out wins. 

This year there's pressure to play well AND to win. The players have to all focus on not putting the cart before the horse and knowing what we need to do to win games rather than to expect champagne footy.

We only played a half and conceded 4 goals to free kicks.

Carlton played out of their skins but credit to them.

We learned a couple of valuable lessons too.

Umpire dissent won’t be tolerated and we have to be switched on with full intensity from the opening bounce as we will be the hunted this year.

The discipline was obviously a problem. Eight 50m penalties. I remember how Razor Ray said in pre-season in a Robbo podcast we were easily the most disciplined team when it came to umpire abuse. I wonder what happened today. Maybe we're not the issue!

Things I didn't like: Petracca no goals three. Ball drop still too high. 

Jackson and Pickett's s form.

So called depth players not really stepping up. Baker, Jordon, Hunt, Smith, Turner, etc.

Tomlinson's pace.

Likes. Good to have Lever back.

Fritta kicking five despite a slow start.

 

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:22, DeeSpencer said:

I doubt it's tapering. I hope it's mostly mental, knowing we had a great hit out the first week, then a few players out opening a deficiency (last year it was no Viney, Gus or Oliver killing our midfield v Dogs).

The concern is last year we started the reason without playing great footy but with a lot of desire to grind out wins. 

This year there's pressure to play well AND to win. The players have to all focus on not putting the cart before the horse and knowing what we need to do to win games rather than to expect champagne footy.

Alright mate, it's just one preseason game. Put away the chalkboard, log out of footywire and have a cuppa.

 

Still don't understand why we pulled Weideman out at half time in the ressies to give him 10minutes in the last quarter. Not exactly setting him up to succeed with that game prep

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:15, DubDee said:

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

Yes was 2012 IIRC and would have been Neelds first game I think.

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:20, dazzledavey36 said:

Our depth still has question marks for me.

If Salem goes down we have no one that comes even close to at least filling in his position if need. 

Can the Oskar Baker experiment just be done. Shouldn't even be on a list let along trying to play off a half back.

May and Petty are significant losses. There's no other to put it. Tomlinson was okay tonight but when Petty and May are fit they simply play instead of Tommo and Smith.

Hunt was woeful, Bowey was barely sighted and few others went missing when needed.

To be fair nobody considered depth would ever come close to replacing Salem. Or Oliver. Or Trac. Or Gawn.

Rivers plays and it’s a different ball game. He takes the kick outs. He is accountable. Same with Hibbo. 
Petty plays and suddenly May out doesn’t hurt so much. 
The issue is all of our first and second choice players in the same area of the ground were out. Lever can only do so much and Bowey is playing game number 9. It took May and Lever a full year of playing together to make things cohesive. You can’t expect that synergy with Smith who lacks IQ and Hunt who is like a kid with ADHD who just ate a gallon of sugar. 
May or Salem or Petty play and we win even tho we were wasteful, lazy, sloppy and undisciplined. 
Hell if we don’t give away 2 centre circle frees because we can’t count to 6 we probably win too. 
That was pathetic to do twice in a quarter!

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:20, dazzledavey36 said:

Our depth still has question marks for me.

If Salem goes down we have no one that comes even close to at least filling in his position if need. 

Can the Oskar Baker experiment just be done. Shouldn't even be on a list let along trying to play off a half back.

May and Petty are significant losses. There's no other to put it. Tomlinson was okay tonight but when Petty and May are fit they simply play instead of Tommo and Smith.

Hunt was woeful, Bowey was barely sighted and few others went missing when needed.

Bowey could do it no problem if he weren't surrounded by the likes of Smith and Hunt who I wouldn't trust to watch my bike while I nip into the shops for a pie for fear they'd forget what they're doing and wander off home.

Edited March 3, 20223 yr by Chook

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:26, Chook said:

Bowey could do it no problem if he weren't surrounded by the likes of Smith and Hunt who I wouldn't trust to watch my bike while I nip into the shops for a pie.

That's a fair point.

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:26, Chook said:

Bowey could do it no problem if he weren't surrounded by the likes of Smith and Hunt who I wouldn't trust to watch my bike while I nip into the shops for a pie for fear they'd forget what they're doing and wander off home.

Was Hunt that bad? 

Before the game I was thinking how good it was that we had some decent players to replace our first choices.

Tomlinson looked just a bit off imo. Hopefully just getting some touch back.

I'd be really concerned if we were playing GF football in a practice match, skills are always below par this time of year. you need to build a year, plenty of improvement to be expected, and we know we have the talent. 

Gotta give Carlton some credit, they smashed us in the middle, and anyone who thinks they are no good is living in the past.

To be honest ,  I don’t think we put a huge amount of effort into this game, dare I say we looked bruise free for most the night and maybe we are just priming for round 1. We don’t make those sloppy skill errors when we are fair dinkum.

Twice in last quarter I watched Carlton players hold arms out and question free kicks against them. No 50m penalty. The Tmac free and goal 25m out was one. If Gil is to put new rules in he must ensure they are applied consistently. Zero tolerance means zero.

  On 03/03/2022 at 11:24, Nascent said:

Still don't understand why we pulled Weideman out at half time in the ressies to give him 10minutes in the last quarter. Not exactly setting him up to succeed with that game prep

Someone did note that on game day thread