look at it this way... + Hey Hotrod & Sly

[Charlie]

Hotty +SLY , I am unable to post to your BB's . My post appears for a few seconds and is then deleted. Does 'insidetheweb' have a post natal Y2K problem ?

p.s I wrote this in the heat of our loss, now that I read it it may be overdone, but a couple of points are worth considering.

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At the end of the day , we didn't loose the 4 points. Sure, its played for a cup , and its on t.v., but I'm telling you its only a practice game. Bucks got a Brownlow vote fot just about every game he played in last year, yet he didn't last night. Was that because he got beaten ? ... No, He wasn't in the top 3 because we were not playing for 4 points.

Thats not to say we have a good team, please don't missunderstand. Last night we played a similar game plan as the intra club game the other week. No injuries would have been high on the list. Only half the players would have played in their normal positions, and a handfull would not get a game in the firsts this year.

Sometimes, 80% of your goals, will come via 20% standard team setup. That 20% vital team setup was not in place last night.
Forget what MM says in the paper, he knows where to place his best players, he already knows where 80% of goals will come from.

We havn't got an established list to be able to experiment and still look respectable. Carlton has.

Carlton as every year rested its midfield. Last year I think we beat them in a practice match , and yet we still came last.

I've watched preseason games for 20 years, and I'll reiterate.. don't take the loss to heart, sure we have players who aren't good enough, or don't seem to fullfill their potential, but every other team has them too.

During the actual game. coaches weaken their setup just to put extra pressure on a couple of guys.
See if they get angry at their team mates. See if they put their head down. See if they lift their game. See if they perform and show leadership, or do they sit back and accept defeat. See how the opposition moves the ball.
Thats what the coaches are really trying to achieve.

Although its fair to say, that at this stage of our Team List development, we don't have the depth to match it with the top 8.

But, our FIRSTS on the ground this year will be much more competitive than what we saw last night.

The gap between Carltons best and our best is not 15 goals.

Believe it, or Not.



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[Hotrod]

You are right Charlie in both your assessment of the game & the fact that in basically the equivalent fixture last year (5th Feb) C/wood beat (pulling away) Carlscum in the infamous game where Sav was dominating the ruck & Porter crunched his knee. The result we are still living with today.

With the 'extended' format to the Ansett Cup it actually gives the coaches even MORE opportunity to treat the game as a practice match. Since it was C/woods first game against real opposition since that sad day at Vic Park the reality, when the dust settles, is that it WAS a practice match.

It would have been nice if Ant had bagged a dozen goals himself. Nicer still to have won.
But it was hardly the end of the world.