I was devestated during and after this game. I had a loud annoying Carlton supporter next to me that I had to physically restrain myself from throwing over the balcony on more than one occasion who actually cheered when Cousins injuried his hamstring! He pointed and sounded like he was going to wet himself with excitment when he witnessed the injury. This was after spending the first half of the game yelling out how crap our players are, the club was etc I can't tell you how hard it was not to hurt this guy and I'm not usually a violent person.
Anyway, onto the game. Morton, Tambling, Raines, Cousins and Browne were the highlights for me.
Morton kicked 4 and was dangerous all night infront of goal.
Tambling was poised, clean and elusive. He was the only player on the ground wearing the yellow and black that I felt would always do something positive if he had the ball in his mitts.
Cousins reads the game so well and switches play beautifully. He set up a number of our goals this way and was excellent by foot. Why we didn't go through him more is beyond me. Foley seemed to ignore him even when he was the best option!?
Raines is a player I don't usually rate highly but he proved run and guts last night. Like Cousins, his injury will be a blow for the side.
Browne was good in the middle and followed up his tap work at ground level. He was good by foot and in congestion by hand. I was impressed with his first game.
Conversely, players I was embarrassed that they were wearing our gernsey last night were -Simmonds - was woeful. Couldn't mark or kick and was slow around the ground.
Brown - At one stage last night, in the last quarter, I heard a Tigers supporter honestly ask his mate if Brown was playing. That really sums up his impact on the game. He was no where.
Lids - made one bad decision after another. Couldn't get the ball.
McMahon was terrible. Never lays a tackle and was fooled in his role as a rebounding backman. This guy only seems to perform if he is feed the ball.
Edwards was sh.ite! He is no backman and needs to be removed from the team immediately for Polo. He is still too slight and unexperienced.
Schulz has no confidence in himself. Unless this changes then he can not be our FF.
Our Backline! was shocking. We had no small backmen to stop their small forwards....like last year, and the year before etc.
And I save my biggest disappointment to someone I usually support -
Terry Wallace.Our defence across the ground was disgraceful last night. Carlton moved through the zone with ease and they had free players all over the ground to kick to. This meant our backline was continually left one out and without aid. On the MCG the sheer volume of space made the zone useless and with our players we obviously can not pull it off. The scoreboard showed clearly the tactic did not work.
In addition, in the second half, I saw little changes made which also concerned me. Things were obviously not working out yet TW persistented with the same matchups and tactics.
I'm not writing off TW yet but unless he can change our defensive strategies quickly to something that better suits our list, then regardless of what I or anyone here thinks, we will have a new coach sooner rather than later.
Very disappointing night and I just hope the side and coaches learn from their mistakes and improve next week.
Stripes
