Round 15, 2008

I once read a story about a man who killed seven flies with a single flick of a tea towel. The man made a sash that read, ‘seven with a single blow!’ He then went on a journey wearing the sash and of course everyone assumed he was much stronger than he really was.

I think that’s about where we are at as a club. I think we keep wearing that sash, that seven with a blow! And we keep getting ahead of ourselves. Imagine thinking we could beat the Sainters with about 10 minutes of quality football. Now I know we got close, got within seven points of a team that had had the better of the contest for 2 quarters after we ruined what should have been a brilliant start. With some luck and skill with delivery we may even have edged in front.

That really is the point: With luck. If you are going to leave everything until the last minute and then come storming home you need three things. A high skill level and a side where everyone plays their part and you need luck. As yet, we do not have the first two, and this time, as against the Bombers, luck deserted us.

The team are bit like that man at the moment. We wait until all the cards have fallen, the odds are stacked against us - like waiting for the seven flies to all land and remain still for the time it takes to kill them. We wait and then we go wham! Too often, though, a fly will move. St Kilda moved, we missed and they ran away with the points.

We must stop this foolish idea that we can run over the top. We must start playing four good quarters of football, build the lead, build the momentum, earn the advantage of turning into the last in front and then killing them.

But no, our boys are wearing that sash, strutting the field with ‘seven in a single blow’ emblazoned across their chests. We need to forget the come from behind wins, and start working on leading a game from start to finish.

Some Observations:

We must develop options forward. Now I know this is obvious but still, it is what we must do, so why not choose a CHF – hopefully Harts will be picked but here is the thing, I’d ask Fev to play CHF and play Harts at FF. Toss the salad around, see what happens. I think we should keep our eyes on the development part for the rest of this year, and use the remaining games to develop the parts we think will take us forward. We know Fev can kicks goals, so play him up the ground, see how he goes and also, force others, like Harts and Fish, to kick the goals.

Get Russell’s goal kicking right. I have been very happy with JR’s development this year and the next step is to improve his set shots at goal so I’d instruct him to practise and practise, and for the team to help him get the monkey off his back. Give him several shots a game until the tension eases and he can kick for goal free of the doubt.

Play Hampson in the ruck. Play him game after game. Play Kruise in the forward pocket or rest him, but play Hampson. If he does not improve to take over the mantle of number 1 ruckman for next year then we will struggle again. So get games under his belt.

I think the defence has improved out of sight but we are still vulnerable to the small forward. We must rectify that. I wanted Waite at CHB but now, now I think he may be better on the wing or HFF. Release him and play Austin at CHB – get games into the lad.

Still, all in all, we showed some glimpses this game. Our first quarter was excellent, as was that burst in the last. Gibbs is a ripper and you can see his confidence growing week by week. Him, Judd, Murph and Stevo make an awesome foursome.

So on to this week and if the lads found the St Kilda swamp tough they’ll feel like the boy with his finger in the dyke against the Swans. So here are my thoughts on how to beat The Bloods.

First we must play the Hammer. We must negate Jolly at the centre and around the ground. If he is able to whack it down The Swan midfielders like King did for the Sainters then we all may as well go home. The Swans love the clinches, the only way to bust this up is to negate Jolly in the ruck and give our guys at least half a chance.

We must have multiple options in attack. If we go to Fev the Swans back-line flood will drown us in our own forward entries. We must hit Fish or Edwards or, please play him, Harts, and only go to Fev when he is one out. Make that a team rule. Pass to Fev only when he is one out.

We must run the whole game, if we role the dice and simply play a quarter or two of negating or ‘minimising the damage’ football then the Swans will smash us. We must play the whole game as if it’s that ten minute burst in the last. The only way to break the wall is to run through it. That’s what we must do. Run and run and run some more.

We must grab our opportunities. If we miss easy set shots again then forget it. It’ll be our blood on the hands of The Bloods. We’ve had our ‘seven at a single blow’ sash couple of weeks, where we have strutted and had our faces in the paper and what have you: Now its time to plonk the noggin down and get back to hard work.

I expect to win this week. I think we have the ability. To win we must play at our best for more than 10 minutes. If we can do this we may just win one that puts the seven to rest.

Fev for 1 but Edwards for 4
Gibbs bog
Eddie for 3

Blues by 17.

Go Blues!

After a rip-snorting 2007 with 39 goals, Brad Fisher has found it that little bit harder to kick goals in 2008 despite Carlton being a better team. But with lower goals, and his average disposals up on last year, many have pondered whether Fisher has a different role to play under Coach Ratten. But is it any different? On the weekend he kicked two rippers, missed a couple of easier ones, and was a focal point going forward…and wins this week’s Play of the Week.

Brad, you win this week’s Play of the Week for those 2 goals; the first a nice steal and a left foot dribble, and the second for a great snap that DIDN’T hit the post….We have to make mention of the first one though, how come you missed the original shot?

Yeah, should have kicked that, but I just thought I’d roll the dice for the seven point play!!!

Did the second one hit the post or not? Some St Kilda fans are saying it did, but then again they think 1 premiership in 110 years is OK….

It looked like it could have, but you know the goal umpie was right there and he gave it the all clear.

Just back to your missed shot; last year you kicked 39 goals 15, and this year you’re 16 and 16. Is something up with your goal-kicking? What steps if any are you and the coaching staff taking to address that?

It’s weird how it works, I’m spending more time on it than I have before. But I am a believer in practice makes perfect. I work with Monty (Brett Montgomery) on it regularly, we trying a few things and I’m confident it’ll improve.

There seems to be an over-reliance on Fev to kick goals. Is your role to kick a couple every week, or to deliver the ball up forward to Fev?

No as a forward you need to kick goals, the way footy is these days at times you find yourself up the ground more and can sometimes be feeding it in, but as a forward I need to be kicking goals.

Tell us about playing at HF with Edwards. At times it looks like you complement each other, like the Richmond game, but at other times it looks like we have too much of the same thing. How is it working?

I think it’s working ok, Jake’s back in the team and he provides another option up there, I think he has the ability to be a player for the club, and yeah it will take some time but it’s something us forwards are working on together, and Wiggo is really stepping up and driving us to improve.

Do you think we need more ground level players in our forward line to stop these flooding teams, like the Saints last week but the Swans next week, from just getting it out there?

I don’t think you necessarily need more ground level players, it’s the defence pressure of the entire group in particular the forwards.

There has been a bit of publicity about how we are the best last-quarter team in the competition. What is happening in the first three though? Why do we consistently play catch-up football?

It would be nice if we had the answer to that! Look I think we started ok on the weekend, but didn’t convert our chances early. But that’s our challenge to really start play consistent footy now.

What do you think the team needs to take the next step?

It’s consistency, we need to play four quarters, we haven’t really done that, we’ve had some bad quarters and bad parts of some quarters, that’s what we need to get out of our game.

Do the coaches talk about momentum? Because we're very much a momentum side, and the minute an opposition side breaks our run, we struggle to get it up again. Is it a consequence of being a youthful side?

No all sides that have momentum are hard to stop; the way to stop it is to score. I think a lot of our momentum is because we are starting to believe and that’s great.

Suddenly positions 12-7 are tightening up, with only about 8 points and percentage between the highest and lowest sides in that section of the ladder. Do you think about that, or just focus on the next team?

Don’t think about it at all, we’ve got so much work to do before we can start thinking about all that stuff. We’re one of the youngest sides going around. Every game is a challenge for us and we’re kidding ourselves if we think differently.

How's the hand? I busted my hand last year and it still alerts me to oncoming rain - you only took a couple of weeks off before coming back into the side after your thumb injury... has it affected your ball handling?

You do feel it for a little while after, and in the back of your mind it probably lingers if you fumble a ball or something but it actually feels really good. It was a quick turnaround and I haven’t had many issues with it.

You have had a couple of major injuries in your time at the club. How is the knee? Are the plates out of your face after your fractured cheekbone last year?

I’ve had a real good run haven’t I! Touch wood everything is going well, the knee feels fine and the face looks as good as ever doesn’t it!! I still have the plates in there, you’d never know it though, it’s not like it sets the metal detectors off at the airport.

As a senior player, what involvement do you have from the development coaches, Lappin and Teague?

They are on the track during the week, and Lappo is in the bench on a matchday. But their role is really with the guys who are in years 1-3 of their career. They work with the boys on different aspects of the game, it’s a bit of a back to school scenario, the young guys really enjoy working with them and its been a huge benefit to us as a club.

Without giving too much away, what can be learnt from the Hawks & Pies wins over this week's opponent the Swans?

Yeah plenty, I’ve watched most of that game from the weekend, we have a team planning meeting later on today, I’ll ask Ratts then if it ok to let you guys in on all the secrets!

Finally, we always like to finish with a Community Service message for Carlton fans to be aware of some of the less relevant things of Carlton players. Who at the Club stands out from the crowd and why?

I’ve always been told, if I haven’t got anything nice to say, say nothing at all!

While Mike & Dan have formally decided to ditch the ‘Rib your team-mates’ question because of all of these non-answers, we enjoyed having a chat to Brad Fisher for his honesty. Fisher has a very important role in the team given our need for forward options, and we look forward to how he goes against the uber-flooders in Sydney.