Autopsy AFL 2024 Round 7 - Cats v Blues Sat April 27th 4:35pm AEST (MCG)

[PP34]

Carlton’s gameplan revolves around smashing the contested footy pumping it forward, locking it in… and that’s it.

Geelong played off this and smashed Carlton on the turnover and on outside play. We opened you up all day out the back. This was all in the coaches box

Your execution was off because of our pressure as well and cutting off your options.

We’ve only been playing that way the last couple of weeks because we are missing a bit of pace and rebound out of defence.

Yes it was how we played last season but earlier in the season we were definitely trying to play more from the back half.

Wasn’t a coaching loss at all. Voss is limited with options at the moment and we were still in a fairly decent position to win that game. You say execution was down to Geelong’s pressure but we blew some absolute sodas in front of goal in a 13 point loss.

Difference on the day was the Cats having more leg speed and better finishers.

Next time we play I would expect us to be challenging Geelong in a different way assuming we’ve got Saad and McGovern available down back.

 

[Wish Wellingtons]

So basically, to summarise the thread Carlton should have won and are the moral victors because of the following:

-although Carlton got more free kicks than Geelong, the umpires conspired against Carlton to deny them and they should have got even more than they did. David King confirmed this so it's true.

-players like checks notes Fogarty were injured. If he were fit he would have got 3 tackles inside 50 (but ignore that tackles inside 50 weren't getting HTB, these ones would have been magical Fogarty tackles).

-Geelong's outs in Dangerfield and Stewart don't count (the best and third best players in the team). After all neither provide the defensive pressure of Fogarty.

-Geelong cheated most of the game by kicking too many goals. Going by inside 50 statistics they had no right to score that many so the goals shouldn't count.

 

[Xtreme]

As funny as the saints claiming they lost to port last night because of the umpires lol

Hawthorn lost today because of umpires!

 

[PhatBoy]

There is no point decrying the merit in winning close games because clearly it is a worthwhile habit for teams to get into but in an alternative universe Carlton could easily be 2-5 by now given the closeness of some of the scorelines and yes the cats could have a different win loss ratio too.

Perhaps just pulling back on the reins might just be appropriate for the time being

 

[geelong_crazy26]

We’ve only been playing that way the last couple of weeks because we are missing a bit of pace and rebound out of defence.

Yes it was how we played last season but earlier in the season we were definitely trying to play more from the back half.

Wasn’t a coaching loss at all. Voss is limited with options at the moment and we were still in a fairly decent position to win that game. You say execution was down to Geelong’s pressure but we blew some absolute sodas in front of goal in a 13 point loss.

Difference on the day was the Cats having more leg speed and better finishers.

Next time we play I would expect us to be challenging Geelong in a different way assuming we’ve got Saad and McGovern available down back.

You are only missing saad who has pace and run to give out of defense. nobody Else you have missing is going to impact that. I don’t believe this at all from what I have seen of Carlton, the game is incredibly similar to Melbourne in that it is revolves around strong contested work then lock it up forward with a press.

Better sides will cut you open out the back with the high press in your forward half.

I expect collingwood to open you guys up a fair bit next week as well. I still expect you guys to win, but they will give you a bit of trouble with their slingshot game, as will Sydney

 

[PP34]

Not sure why some are banging on about the umpires. They're not the reason we kicked inaccurately, nor are the reason for that Durdin miss 20m out.

I'm taking it as a positive - matched up with them despite our first choice HB line out. But geez do we miss Martin and Motlop just for some finishing class.

Geelong well deserved winners, next game is only several weeks away. They were surgeons going forward while we were butchers. Which sums up our gamesytle really, brutal but messy. Can fix it up a bit with some returning players, but we still rely on brute force more than finesse.

Start of this season and how we finished last still has me thinking we are a couple of players short.

We’re a bit like Melbourne in that our forward line lacks. Theirs lacks a quality tall or two whereas ours lacks the dangerous smalls.

Teams know they can throw extra numbers at Curnow and McKay and force it to ground and not really get burnt.

If we can somehow find a dangerous small who hurts teams on the scoreboard it will make us much more potent.

 

[PP34]

You are only missing saad who has pace and run to give out of defense. nobody Else you have missing is going to impact that. I don’t believe this at all from what I have seen of Carlton, the game is incredibly similar to Melbourne in that it is revolves around strong contested work then lock it up forward with a press.

Better sides will cut you open out the back with the high press in your forward half.

I expect collingwood to open you guys up a fair bit next week as well. I still expect you guys to win, but they will give you a bit of trouble with their slingshot game, as will Sydney

McGovern actually helps a lot with our rebound too and is capable of hitting aggressive corridor kicks.

Lewis Young on the other hand is incredible hesitant with ball in hand.

 

[Bagger72]

My point is the communication was poor - just use the players name to avoid any confusion. Because if he thought it was McKay why didn't he tell Cripps to clear out. Because isn't there a rule that he can't be within 5m of the man on the mark or something? So he would be infringing himself.

It was a devastating call because it spurred the handbaggers - maybe as they thought they had everytthing going their way for the night. That call spurred another four goals on top. It was at such a delicate moment of the match the umps just had to have a brainfade.

 

[My Tilly]

It was a devastating call because it spurred the handbaggers - maybe as they thought they had everytthing going their way for the night. That call spurred another four goals on top. It was at such a delicate moment of the match the umps just had to have a brainfade.

Make it through to a prelim for the first time in 20+ years and you think the competition should now bow down before you

 

[WalshistheGOAT]

Make it through to a prelim for the first time in 20+ years and you think the competition should now bow down before you

Did Michael Voss s**t in ur cornflakes or something? Never seen one poster sook so much across multiple threads after a win

 

[PP34]

The jig is up but. Only 8 frees for the year so opponents are finding different ways to stop him. Curnow needs to evolve a bit it's getting a bit too predictable.

He’s leading the Coleman.

Curnow’s buggest problem right now is he keeps butchering shots he normally nails.

Think outside of that he’s been pretty good considering the attention he cops as our most dangerous scoring option.

 

[Thrawn]

Did Michael Voss s**t in ur cornflakes or something? Never seen one poster sook so much across multiple threads after a win

Wants to be Geelong's Fadge.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Mirkov didn't play much ruck. Spent most of the game at FF where he looked lost.

I wasn't the one who mentioned the AFL listed player who's 7ft tall and was 'destroyed'.
If that's the case, I'd say 11 hitouts and 3 clearances is a reasonable return from 'didn't play much ruck'.

Not sure if you followed the conversation to the post that was quoted, but it was implied that Carlton having a large injury list that resulted in us being forced to play 5-6 third choice players in the seniors, leaving nobody with actual AFL experience to play in the VFL and only a handful of AFL listed players, was insignificant because Cats also played a young and inexperienced side, despite having Rohan and at least 3 players with seniors experience of a combined 34 games (I didnt look at all Cats AFL listed players, only the names I was slightly familiar with, but that was far more experience than Blues).

Your comment about Mirkov's time in the ruck does nothing to change or dispute the point made.
Any team that has half a dozen of their top VFL players forced to play seniors, while another 4 or so aren't available through injury, 3 are unavailable due to being listed emergencies, and the remaining 7 who did play have never played AFL, that's a very obvious disadvantage that would lead to a massive VFL loss.

 

[Mr Meow]

Make it through to a prelim for the first time in 20+ years and you think the competition should now bow down before you

View attachment 1973981

I can smell what they're cooking: an umpire conspiracy and request for acknowledgment of their 15 injured A graders.

 

[PP34]

Us Carlton fans can’t win.

Celebrate a win and it’s oh the umpires got you over the line blah blah.

Express some praise over a performance yesterday where we played some good footy and we get bashed for claiming moral victories etc.

Dare to mention how we would just like to see a few of our best 22 guys missing back and it’s oh you guys keep using injuries as excuses, those guys suck blah blah.

Christ, it’s like talking with a bunch of 10 year olds.

So basically Carlton is no good, the umpires prop us up the ladder and we should have zero to be optimistic about.

Got it.

 

[Mr Meow]

Us Carlton fans can’t win.

Celebrate a win and it’s oh the umpires got you over the line blah blah.

Express some praise over a performance yesterday where we played some good footy and we get bashed for claiming moral victories etc.

Dare to mention how we would just like to see a few of our best 22 guys missing back and it’s oh you guys keep using injuries as excuses, those guys suck blah blah.

Christ, it’s like talking with a bunch of 10 year olds.

So basically Carlton is no good, the umpires prop us up the ladder and we should have zero to be optimistic about.

Got it.

Carlton are rightly one of the premiership favourites and will be one of the hardest teams to stop come September.

All we've found out is their supporters are massive whingers, but that has no reflection on the players or staff ability. They're a likeable team, no matter the efforts of their fans to change that.

 

[PP34]

Carlton are rightly one of the premiership favourites and will be one of the hardest teams to stop come September.

All we've found out is their supporters are massive whingers, but that has no reflection on the players or staff ability. They're a likeable team, no matter the efforts of their fans to change that.

Plenty of opposition whingers around whenever Carlton wins a game…..

 

[Thrawn]

Carlton are rightly one of the premiership favourites and will be one of the hardest teams to stop come September.

All we've found out is their supporters are massive whingers, but that has no reflection on the players or staff ability. They're a likeable team, no matter the efforts of their fans to change that.

Cripps has a very nice smile.

It helps.

 

[Mr Meow]

Plenty of opposition whingers around whenever Carlton wins a game…..

I can only speak for myself. You didn't see me demanding they change the result of Carlton/Fremantle, or declaring Richmond were certain winners if they didn't incur in-game injuries. As far as I can see, this has just come from those clubs supporters and then there's the usual tit for tat between the d**k measuring "big clubs".

Geelong will lose a game soon and we can show you what an amicable concession of defeat looks like.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Um, what?!?
He changed direction when he realised where the kick was going and tried to go around Henry(?) to get to the contest.
Henry(?) pits his arm out and hooks Zac.
It was too far off the ball to be a legal block and also potentially high. Zac might have put a little mayo on it, but 100% a free.

Disclaimer: not saying it lost us the game, just discussing the specific incident (might have to start putting this at the end of all my posts).

I've now been able to see replays of this from multiple angles and will concede that it appears that Zac initiated the contact and Henry didn't raise his arm an impede Zac as I originally thought.
A no call seems correct, but I'm intrigued about why the AFL thought Henry should be fined for it.
Unless there are new angles that are closer, with better quality, then I'm not sure what they've seen?
I don't like the conspiracy angle, but all I can think is that they're trying to avoid the staging talk, so they've gone for a striking charge that they know won't stick to detract from the staging calls.

 

[PP34]

I can only speak for myself. You didn't see me demanding they change the result of Carlton/Fremantle, or declaring Richmond were certain winners if they didn't incur in-game injuries. As far as I can see, this has just come from those clubs supporters and then there's the usual tit for tat between the d**k measuring "big clubs".

Geelong will lose a game soon and we can show you what an amicable concession of defeat looks like.

I mean Blues fans have pointed out some injuries we have and some bad umpiring yesterday, but I’m not really sure any of us have said we deserved to win?

We shot ourselves in the foot and found out against a clinical team like Geelong you cannot do that.

Geelong were the deserving winners and look like the mix of youth and experience is really beginning to click after a down 2023.

It was a frustrating watch as a Blues fan, particularly when Durdin missed that goal early in the fourth because we really looked like getting a run on. Instead he misses and Cameron goes down and kicks a demoralising goal which I think killed the game off.

 

[Mr Meow]

I mean Blues fans have pointed out some injuries we have and some bad umpiring yesterday, but I’m not really sure any of us have said we deserved to win?

We shot ourselves in the foot and found out against a clinical team like Geelong you cannot do that.

Geelong were the deserving winners and look like the mix of youth and experience is really beginning to click after a down 2023.

It was a frustrating watch as a Blues fan, particularly when Durdin missed that goal early in the fourth because we really looked like getting a run on. Instead he misses and Cameron goes down and kicks a demoralising goal which I think killed the game off.

Over and over and over and over. I've rewatched the game. There were a few clear HTB's missed on BOTH sides. Often an identical incident with a Carlton player right after the one they let go with a Geelong player! A couple ended in Carlton goals. The rest the umpires were happy to let the scrappy handball out of tackles - again to both sides. Zuthrie, Bruhn, SDK and others were scragged at times with no holding the man. A number of soft free kicks went Carlton's way at stoppages, especially to Cripps. But none of this was worth crying about. The crowd however got on a roll after a couple of early grievances and then shrieked for every 50/50. Cats fans were quiet by comparison when tackles landed on Carlton players or a player was dumped after getting rid of it. Overall it is being very generous to say umpiring was the major thing that swayed the result. Right after these 50/50 decisions a Carlton player would be open, with players free, and miss the target somehow - THERE was the critical difference.

Everything after the first line is fair enough and if this was the focus instead of listing missing personnel for the 500th time and dissecting your 10 least favourite umpiring decisions relentlessly, there wouldn't be any pushback at all.

It was a great game of footy but sadly that got lost in the semantics of whether one team were robbed, a hilariously misplaced narrative.

 

[Vivy]

I have never rated King as an analyst for the same reason. Him and Hoyne from Champion Data make my ears bleed. We won 5 straight and then lost to Adelaide and they wheeled out Hoyne to say we have no turnover/transition game when Pittonet is in the team. Imagine being a so called expert and thinking that a single player being there destroys a team of 22's turnover game. We went on to beat GWS one of the stronger transition teams in the comp and Pitt was again great yesterday against another strong transition team.

Hoyne is starting to throw in a few too many opinions. Just keep it to the numbers, and let people draw their own conclusions.

 

[Mr Meow]

And as far as the goal kicking ("we'd have smashed you if only we could've kicked straighter at goal") it was really a non-issue after quarter time. Carlton kicked 13 goals and 7 behinds for the rest of the game and had a number of clinical finishes. Geelong kicked 13 goals and 8 behinds in the same time period. The midfield dominance also wasn't as exaggerated after quarter time. We saw a competitive back and forth match with both sides creating as many opportunities but having different game styles.

 

[PP34]

Over and over and over and over. I've rewatched the game. There were a few clear HTB's missed on BOTH sides. Often an identical incident with a Carlton player right after the one they let go with a Geelong player! A couple ended in Carlton goals. The rest the umpires were happy to let the scrappy handball out of tackles - again to both sides. Zuthrie, Bruhn, SDK and others were scragged at times with no holding the man. A number of soft free kicks went Carlton's way at stoppages, especially to Cripps. But none of this was worth crying about. The crowd however got on a roll after a couple of early grievances and then shrieked for every 50/50. Cats fans were quiet by comparison when tackles landed on Carlton players or a player was dumped after getting rid of it. Overall it is being very generous to say umpiring was the major thing that swayed the result. Right after these 50/50 decisions a Carlton player would be open, with players free, and miss the target somehow - THERE was the critical difference.

Everything after the first line is fair enough and if this was the focus instead of listing missing personnel for the 500th time and dissecting your 10 least favourite umpiring decisions relentlessly, there wouldn't be any pushback at all.

It was a great game of footy but sadly that got lost in the semantics of whether one team were robbed, a hilariously misplaced narrative.

It was the exact same in reverse last week when we knocked off GWS.

Endless pages of s**t about how we’re not that good, Taylor was out, the umpires carried us home etc.