Port Adelaide Power vs Carlton Blues: AFL live scores, blog

Macca, what has happened to Travis?

Did you see he went for scans on his knee today from a knock he got during the game - it probably explains his drop in output.

Steve - there have been 2 changes to th blues back line since last year Weitering (195cm) out for Marchbank (193cm) and Tuohy (187cm) and Williamson (190cm) in - to me as Williamson develops and bridges the gap between a debutante and what Tuohy gave us a lot of the "issues" will resolve themselves. I would also say we will be a better side when we don't need Rowe - the team we are choosing now makes that time come quicker.

Murphy had a poor game for his standards on Friday night, which is a shame with it being a prime time game, but his form in the other games this season has been exceptional.

Really enjoying Plowman's season so far and he has shown the ability to play on smalls, but I don't think that's the best use of him week in week out. As for Simpson and Docherty they are offensive minded defenders, we need at least another ground level defender with your defend at all cost attitude Macca. You've been watching the same games as me Macca, exclude the port game, where do you think our defense can improve? Or is everything perfect down there at the moment, don't change it.

Docherty and Simpson defend the stalls, Plowman at 191cm goes either up or down

I agree with you too much, they will start thinking I'm you again, but I agree with rotating not just the players in the back line in and out of the VFL, but also some of the youngster's and veterans around the ground as well to get the tall/small and youth/ experience balance right. It's great that Carlton have had all these youngster's knocking on the door for selection, particularly talls, but we don't have to play them all in the same week. There are benefits of developing young players by rotating them in and out of the VFL side. If these players are going to be around for the long haul, we can be patient in them becoming cemented in the best 22

Sad, but hardly tragic, possibly sad and expected. As for finals by 2019, EVERYTHING would have to go right in this rebuild for that to happen and even then it would be unlikely judging by other bottom out rebuilds. Carlton to me look like a 4-5 win team over the next 2 years, before beginning their climb off the bottom in 2019. if ALOT goes right we may be talking finals by 2020, 2021. As for last night's shocker as a supporter I accept that I'm going to have to sit through a few of those and try to see the clouds bronze lining, but internally that level of uncompetitiveness shouldn't be accepted at the club.

Im looking at the type of player they best defend, rather than how many centimetres tall they are. Plenty of intercept marking, but our back line gets cut up when the ball hits the ground. Simply not enough defensive smalls (ground level players, if you will) to negate the opposition crumbers. Weitering goes back, Rowe goes forward or is ommitted. White ommitted, he's better than other's in the team, but it's really a choice between him or MaCreadie at the moment to get that ground level/ aerial balance closer to right I then still think we are one tall too many, but I remember reading that in time MaCreadie may be released to a wing or even have the athleticism to defend smaller players as a half back flank

Brendon, I haven't watched any Port games except last night so can only comment on that. i thought they looked pretty good but then again given the opposition they were expected to win. At times they played and looked like a top 6 team but there were a couple of lapses particularly in the second quarter. Their third quarter was fantastic and if not for inaccurate kicking for goal it could have been a 10 goal quarter. Overall if they can play consistently over four quarters they are definitely top eight material.

People are on here saying they don't see Port as a go and contender.......What the? Beat Sydney, put up a show against the two best sides in the comp and thrashed two clubs ranked lower on the ladder, what more do you want? They may not be top four (or they might be) but top eight should happen and from there who knows, just ask the Bulldogs what can happen. Will most likely beat Brisbane by 10 goals next week as well.

Matty, Carlton did about as well as most pundits expected last night given their very inexperienced side, the quality of the opposition and the away game. The back line is very young but looks good for the long term. I agree with you that Weitering should now go back. Carlton won't want too many thumping like that, they should only select young players when they are ready to step up and should be prepared to rest them or send them back to the VFL when necessary. It should not be just a matter of getting games into their young players, a blend of youth and experience is needed to make the team competitive and give the best environment to develop the young players.

Steve - of those 4 players only Macreadie is above 195cm (and he is just 196cm) with Plowman being he smallest at 191cm. All of them have good running capacity.

Steve009,if your going to get games into all the tall defenders you might need to start rotating them through the reserves,especially if Wietering goes back like I think he should. It's just having to much effect on how the balls being moved out of defence despite everything else like the lack of mobility. Now that opposition teams are seeing how Carltons defence is being structured its going to be nearly impossible for the Blues to get the ball forward at all. Even when they switched play it was so slow the opposition just run across and blocked the space on that side of the ground as well.

Mostly agree with your assessment of our back line, with both Plowman and white as 2 players who can go tall/ small is one too many, add to that that Docherty and Simpson are attacking defenders we don't have much in terms of genuine defense first smalls and are paying for it when the ball hits the ground. For the long term good the talls need to be Weitering, March bank, MaCreadie and Plowman. It's still too tall, but these players are worth getting games into. MaCreadie like Plowman will have to be able to defend talls and smalls for it to work, with Weitering at times sometimes swinging forward.

Mattyb -Marchbank last night had 13 disposals wi 10 being effective - 10 of his disposals being kicks so at worst he went at 70% by foot - not sure that is sub standard. As for 2019 finals - last night actually increased those chances C Curnow took a feat step forward, Silvagni was more than solid, SPS and Fisher showed plenty of potential - but they are all still very young. At least you have stopped calling for Casboult to be dropped.

David - in the first 4 weeks Murphy had 7, 4, 10 & 7 tackles - yes he had a poor game last night but kept hinge in perspective.

Steve he played trough the middle a bit in TAC cup as well and was always touted as a potential mid- his performance last night vindicates the blues move.

I can see Carlton offering their best player, Levi Casboult, $900K/season for the next 9 seasons. They wouldn't want to let that class go.

I'm just not sure why Carlton, as with Weitering, don't initially play him in the position he played in the TAC cup, let them develop some confidence in a role that is more natural to them before we start trying to turn them into something they are currently not.