Most have probably said what I am about to say but I need to vent!!
I'm gutted! Absolutely gutted! Its totally spoiled my weekend!
Watching Raines play was like watching someone riding a bicycle down hill whilst pedaling in first gear. Lots of leg speed and movement with nothing productive coming from it. I thought his decision making was appalling. Put players under so much pressure and for mine. He was one of the worst along with McMahon. As others have said, so many fundamental errors. We looked lazy and disinterested.
We were out of position on most occasions and any semi productive play was through excruciating over use of the footy. Our game plan was incredibly ineffective and I know its hard to tell from the TV but from what I saw it looked like we were zoning when we should have been man on man. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't we have some success with man on man in the latter stages of last season?
Someone needs to take that zoning crap and stick it where the sun don't shine because all it did was give Carlton time & space. For mine, zoning only works when you are in control of the game. It is so easy to run through a zone when there is nobody there to guard it.
As a side issue, I do think we were caught up in the pre-match hype and the bubble seriously burst on the night. The scary thing is that Carlton didn't really play that well. Even their first gamers were making us look foolish. It just goes to show that if you play bad enough, you can be beaten by anyone.
The only positive I will get out of this is that after last nights performance Carlton think they are the real deal and end up with delusions of grandeur because all they beat last night were witches hats.
On last nights form we will get absolutely caned by the cats. Do the electronic scoreboards display 4 digits for final scores? If not we will probably test it out next week.
Anyone heading down to Kardinia next week deserves the Victoria Cross or at least a padded cell.
