Akum

Kielty will have to play FP or first ruck. Maybe Harmes will go back.

10 shots to 9, losing by 14 pts

How's Lefau going?

I'd say there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. They definitely went for us extra hard after half time, probably trying to play on the "bruise-free" crap. Whatever it was that Cripps did that got under Lewis's skin got under Viney's skin too. Weitering was doing a lot of work off the ball to keep T-Mac away from the ball, allowing Casboult to mark virtually unopposed because T-Mac was blocked and couldn't come in & spoil. Watts got elbowed in the back of the head going for a mark - play on. But nothing was picked up by the umpires. There seemed to be a lot of holding off the ball on their blind side. And we definitely lost our "shape" for a while in that third term, allowing them to hit the front. They were pushing us around physically, and often illegally, and getting away with it. Lewis said that things were going on before that incident but he didn't elaborate and perhaps fortunately wasn't asked to. So I reckon Lewis just took matters into his own hands and felt that we're not taking it any more and we're fighting back. After that, and the subsequent melee, we regained our "shape" & structure, and started to play "fearless footy" again. Seems the club is very unhappy with what went on in that 3rd quarter, but they can't say anything I'd say both sides we've played so far have tried to go the "off the ball" stuff after half time, and as always seems to happen, the provocation gets missed and it's the retaliation that gets caught. I'd also say that most sides are going to play us this way when we get on top of them and we need to work out how to respond in a way that doesn't require our senior players to get rubbed out.

Bolded part well put. Hogan's work inside 50 was putrid, but everywhere else he was very good indeed. 22 possies & 10 marks, but only one of those marks was inside 50 (must have been the one he missed from about 30m), and he must have dropped 3 or 4 relative sitters that he got both hands to.

He had to play out of position in defence to cover for Vince, and I wonder if he just feels more at home in the middle or forward of centre. When he realised he was going to be tagged by someone as capable as Curnow, he realised the best thing was to change his game to keep Curnow away from the ball as much as possible, and around stoppages he just tried to block for the likes of Clarry & Tyson. That would be something completely new to our mids, who rarely if ever seem to block for each other, like every other team's mids do.

Very much like this post overall, but Hogan's game was really two-sided. He got 21 possessions & 10 marks, but only 1 mark inside 50, and got 0 goals 3 behinds, 2 of which were relatively easy. He also dropped 3 or 4 sitters near goal. So on one hand, he had a good game up the ground. On the other, I don't think I've ever seen him play worse as a forward. On a normal Hogan day, with the chances he got he could have had 5 or 6. He was clearly very frustrated with himself. But to his credit he kept working hard up the ground.

Sorry this is just wrong. It's not like he ran from metres away to get involved in the melee. The melee started around Watts and he was trying to get away from it but couldn't.

Thought T-Mac was very good. The reason that Weitering had so little influence was that he concentrated almost entirely on keeping T-Mac out of marking contests.

Thought Harmes was OK, especially in the last. Your comments about Watts (a bit harsh, but not much) also apply to Hogan. His midfield play was really good, his forward play was ... not. And I admit he made quite a few mistakes, but Tyson really has to go into the top group for the truckload of good things he did. So often in the right place at the right time.

Not at all. I didn't think we ever looked lazy, we looked more panicked & frenetic & pressured. And we couldn't figure out or anticipate what they were trying to do, which was an extra defender or two and then use width to attack as we drop off them. Confused, yes, but never lazy, I thought we gave it everything the whole game. We needed that bit of class in that last quarter.

Absolutely hilarious all those potting Tyson. Clarry got a lot of it but wasn't nearly as crisp & clean as he was last week. There are times when just a simple bandpass will do. He'll learn heaps from this. Salem clear BOG.

We have to learn how to beat teams that play defensively against us and have a spare or two back. When we are the "hunted" not the "hunter". If we don't, we won't go anywhere.

Outcoached. They know they've got us with two spares in defence. We always give it up on that last kick into the 50.

We can't handle the spare man in defence

Oh well, so much for the percentage boost.

They're again playing a spare man back, and making us look like idiots. That's all they need to do. That's what's embarrassing.

Viney far worse this game. Viney DE 50%, Tyson DE 70%

Gawn looks a bit sore after that free

Salem BOG

Hogan playing well but dropping marks

Carlton to their credit aren't letting us run it through the middle. We need to move it forwards rather than sideways.

They need to be more direct

Thing that bothers me is that they seem to match up pretty well on us. This game will be won & lost in the clearances, and while we should win them easily, it's not guaranteed.

Clearly needs to learn how to get away with a blatant push in the back to be as "good" as Kennedy.