I'm looking around the field searching for someone to blame for the loss but the sad truth is that the team for the most part, tried their guts out.  A couple of players below par and many costly turnovers and hey presto, the game is gone, the cellar is ours, and the end of the drought can not be seen from here. 

Once  again the Blues started like a house on fire before skipper Brett Ratten went off with what turned out to be a 'nasty' injury to the funny bone.  Even though Ratts returned to the field shortly thereafter, the Blues lost all momentum from that point on and played catch up footy the whole night.

The catalyst for the night was the ease in which Luke Darcy who must have been best on ground (thanks a lot tribunal), not only got hands to the ball first in the ruck but pulled the ball down and won his own centre clearances much like Spider Burton did for the Roos the previous week.  Not my usual style to blame the coach but Brittain persevered with an underperforming Corey McKernan for far too long and once Darcy was on a roll, he couldn't be stopped.  I mean why was Trent Hotton in the side if he didn't get used in the centre when we were getting murdered there?  On the same note, Matthew Lappin was out of sorts in the forward line and Corey would have been better served settling up forward so we could have another target from the centre.  The 'bronx' cheers from the Carlton crowd on the rare occasion that Corey won a dual in the centre became almost embarrassing and one has to wonder just how fit the big man was considering he was supposed to miss this game.

Phew, these reviews are getting harder and harder to write.  The emotion is intense and the blood is still boiling.  The Bulldogs scored 8 of their 14 goals from free kicks or directly from Blues turnovers under no pressure.  A few of these mistakes came from Scott Freeborn so no surprise there, but some disturbing turnovers came from McKay, Murphy, Bradley .... players we expect to provide the example for the kids in the team.  Justin Murphy was a non-contributor all night and with our depleted midfield, his performance was in no small way responsible for our loss.  The Blues finished the game off beautifully with 6 straight behinds as luck not only abandoned us but turned around and mooned us in the process.

Carlton lost every single quarter but could probably lay claim to being the better team in 3 of those quarters.  'The Wooden Spooners Guide To Butchering A Certain Goal' could well be the newest book on the shelf come the end of Round 22.  Should be good for a bit of comic relief!  Of the players to come into the side for the Blues, there was no point in Eccles being there, even less point in Fletcher being there (got the message yet Britts), Hotton was serviceable while Christou and Franchina were standout performers.  If there was one small  positive to come out of the game, it was the return of fan favourite Ang and the return of the 'woof' chorus.  We will be hearing a bit more of it in the coming weeks.  Franchina too, did a fantastic job on Brad Johnson firstly and Scott West secondly and displayed a lot of desperation and some ball getting ability himself.  His most three dimensional game in an awful long time I would suggest.

Ian Prendergast was woeful and Daniel Bandy looked like a superstar in comparison.  Ryan Houlihan stepped forward and competed well in all facets of the game, something we have been waiting to see since he first burst onto the scene.  Lance Whitnall returned to the position he has excelled at for his whole career and was a huge presence.  If only he had some support .......

Last place ... we play the Bombers next week, still smarting after 3 losses in a row.  Heaven help us all.

Oh yeah, in case the review doesn't mention it, the Western Bulldogs were our opposition.  Let somebody else write something about them however because in my mind, for the past few weeks, we have been playing against fate and quite frankly fate is kicking our ass!