sorry lods I just want to say that injuries and dealing with them are part good management, part rehab, part preparation, part attitude, part patience and mostly a little luck.
1I've never met an injured bloke cut down and not capable of playing at the elite level ever again no matter the column of their injuries, they usually run out of time before they run out of lives. Weiters has barely had a real problem. Harry has had more issue with concussion than his body. Charlie is unique. He's showing the ability he used to have but his form is poor and second efforts absent. More conditioning IMHO. once conditioning goes optimum performance is harder to achieve but it can come back.
Pros come back from injuries in every code. It might be we need some of these guys spending more time rehabbing and playing rather than doing any real training but only a solid pre season affords that capability. Something they all seem to have suffered with.
Zac williams has the worst injury history of the bunch. Nick haynes isnt much better. Both have played their best footy in years this season. I think Zac's durability is still a question and given we are playing for naught now, I think weve taken the opportunity to take him off before something serious happens.
I don't think I've suggested that Harry and Charlie cant still play very good football. What I'm not sure about is their ability to come back and play as good or better football than they have before. To me that's a wait and see. They may. We'll have to agree to disagree. I think that "running out of time" that you speak of is the cumulative effect of injuries and wear and tear on the body. It can happen late 20s It can happen Mid 30s Just as an example look at Nat Fyfe's last five or six years.
interesting comparison check. Fyfe's plight is arguably as much a lack of desire as it was injury. His extra curricular activities were a priority for him because thats where the money was.
How's callan ward as a better example? 2019 and 2020 he looked very much finished with ACL's at age 30. He's been able to get back and play a few years of very good footy until once again succumbing to his acl rupture this season but he looked gone 5 years ago.
Matthew kreuzer was another who's body let him down. He missed a lot more footy over the journey than any of our current crop have. Thing is he's at the club can have some convos with the guys and they will be able to make an informed decision about things.
Chris Scott has drilled Geelong - no matter who is in or out they are drilled as a squad. Chris Fagan has drilled Brisbane Craig McRae has drilled Collingwood Sam Mitchell has drilled Hawthorn Adam Kingsley has drilled GWS Hardwick has drilled GCS,
What do these coaches have in common?
They were not re employed after getting sacked.
Lyon, Brad Scott, Clarkson is banana territory
Longmuir is just an awful coach like Buckley.
There's a theme there. Ignoring the afl love children with an embarrassment of riches in the playing group and potentially some afl salary cap leeway, and the other coaches are at clubs who have a history of having their house in order.
When I look around the afl, I see a variety of teams doing various things, but what I see is the following teams seem to have an identity and brand that was built 20 years ago and a DNA that is manifesting today.
Those clubs are:
Geelong Sydney Collingwood Hawthorn Western bulldogs have joined this group sometime in the early 2000's and I remember them being an absolute basket case football club in the 90's with the odd star.
IF Richmond turn it around quickly during this rebuild and get back into finals they will also have shed their history of shambles to get back in there.
Brisbane may be part of this conversation since the Fitzroy merger. They lost their way for a bit but seem to be back.
We used to be part of this conversation but we've lost our way as a club.
The above show an air of being uber competitive and a unique brand that just keeps finding a way to dominate the competition.
Its the clubs that are making coaches successful not the other way around. The coaches lead the place whilst in charge, but ultimately they are only as successful as the club let's them be.
We as a footy club have been doing our best to make sure the afl team experiences nothing but failure. Its almost like the club goes out of its way to shoot itself in the foot. Its driven by the best intentions but its also very much a club that appears to have a bunch of people tinkering in the operation of it, with minimal strategy.
We've had one attempt at a rebuild. We appointed a coach and gave him a list strategy and then endorsed giving him a mandate to set our on field house in order. Unfortunately we weren't winning and the bottom line started being impacted as sponsors jumped off and then we had to short circuit it.
Its not the number of changes its the role and how its played. We are already not well drilled. We have a few blokes trying to learn running patterns and then add too many doing that and you demoralise the rest.
We've only played about 3 to 4 players with minimal afl experience most weeks.
I expect that to continue not because of the names but because its something Carlton hasn't had before. We tend to scorch earth rebuild, so everyone is learning together.
I cant fathom this never see it ever again. The guys we are talking about are 27 turning 28.
Most players peak at these ages, and having an injury now isnt an indicator of the future.
Its so defeatist.
It's not defeatist Thry It's facing reality. One or two may get back to a semblance of their best. Others are passed it, and are approaching the end of their careers And some have suffered significant injuries, not just once , but have had a number of seasons derailed by injury. Injuries can have a cumulative effect. When you're young you can recover quickly. As you age it takes it's toll. Injuries to a back can lead to compensatory injuries in the hamstrings, calves and feet, due to an imbalance. Some injuries are degenerative and time (and age) is the enemy.
Now in a group you may get one or two who can make a full recovery and play there best football in their late 20's early 30s. But if that group is large, the more likely result is that you've seen the best of some of these players.
Of our All-Australian players currently listed I would reckon the majority will never see AA again. And that was the point. That they'll all never reach that level again. We'll have others who will come on...but not all of that group. But time will tell
sorry lods I just want to say that injuries and dealing with them are part good management, part rehab, part preparation, part attitude, part patience and mostly a little luck.
1I've never met an injured bloke cut down and not capable of playing at the elite level ever again no matter the column of their injuries, they usually run out of time before they run out of lives. Weiters has barely had a real problem. Harry has had more issue with concussion than his body. Charlie is unique. He's showing the ability he used to have but his form is poor and second efforts absent. More conditioning IMHO. once conditioning goes optimum performance is harder to achieve but it can come back.
Pros come back from injuries in every code. It might be we need some of these guys spending more time rehabbing and playing rather than doing any real training but only a solid pre season affords that capability. Something they all seem to have suffered with.
Zac williams has the worst injury history of the bunch. Nick haynes isnt much better. Both have played their best footy in years this season. I think Zac's durability is still a question and given we are playing for naught now, I think weve taken the opportunity to take him off before something serious happens.
Last week moir, hof, and m.carrol came in. Playing lemmey with that might mean the players play the position a bit differently to how the rest of the side expect and causes frustration everywhere.
This week, it might be Saad is back, so maybe lemmey could come in. Also I'm not a fan of the yo yo senior selection that seems to be happening. One in, back out next week.
We need to try more players but if they're coming in for their debut, a few games at the level would be good. Evans and moir didnt set the G alight but they gave plenty of effort on Friday night. Moir even looked good at times, and I noted he's taking a turn on the ball. Shows enough to persist with there. Dare I say it he has saved himself particularly if we are giving up on elijah hollands (which we shouldn't do IMHO).
Evans is a all effort player. I really want him to succeed but he just doesnt have the kit bag imho. Must be likeable bloke though as the guys were getting around him when he was doing his best to tackle and getting nowhere.
I don't mean to be offensive, but how in God's name did Denver Grainger-Barras get selected so high? I can't say that I've seen much of him before, but he reminded me more of Monahan last season, or Duffy this season. He doesn't look smooth, he's awkward and doesn't run to the right spots ... Granted that he was useful last night, but ...
I think he has done his dash as a defender. Do we persevere with him as a forward? He ended up getting enough ball to be dangerous and he does leap well (although he doesn't always get close to it). His kicking ... his kicking reminded more of Percy Jones, to be honest.
Be a No from me on DGB, heard some unflattering stuff about his training attitude at Hawthorn and being full of himself.
liam stocker was supposedly full of himself too, particularly after the moves sos pulled to get him. Thing is, the Hawks dont get rid of many players with questionable attitudes so its a buyer beware situation.
It's interesting watching and reading comments from passionate Bluebaggers that, apart from a few vitriolic folks, most seem to have this resignation and bitter disappointment with how season 2025 has turned out, thus far. Plus the likelihood that the coming 7 weeks will only deliver more disappointment, with the exception of getting to at least expose some kids to senior footy.
Hope burns eternal with many supporters now turning their attention to 2026. Pretty sad.
thats all we have now. 2026.
Our season was over when we lost to North. We only had room for one more loss before that game anyway.
Voss has been excellent post match last few weeks.
Takes every question head on, and plays a straight bat explaining everything but not giving anything away.
The embraced our families part to me was interesting. The vitriol i see spewed online is pretty ordinary. The amount of Carlton supporters turning on the club and players. We need to back the boys in. I made a joke last night we might need to start cheering points. We definitely need to start applauding tackles.
We are missing Sam walsh badly. He's played in all of our wins bar one, the game in Perth against West Coast and our losses without him have been terrible (Richmond round 1 and the last few weeks). When he plays we get much closer to our opponents.
On the back of recent footy we cannot consider trading him IMHO. Not without others stepping up and standing up.
You want to see why ruckman are dependent on their mids, you can look no further than our own rucks. No cripps, hewett and walsh dominating and our rucks are battlers again. A good midfield will make an average ruckman look good. A good ruck will not help an average midfield.
Collingwood are very good. Darcy Moore had an impactful contest late that hopefully maims him. Early on we were trying to play around him, but each long kick was gobbled up by the Pies defense and we were out of those contests.
Im not sure what people were expecting. 3 senior players are out and 6 players on total. Some of the guys going out need to have calls made on them. Some coming in are going to have calls made on them. Hof, moir, carroll, cowan coming in. You'd think last chance saloon for Evans, but im going to make a call, reckon motlop will end up the sub and he was thr other one likely to get dropped on his efforts last week.
We've seen a roll out of a change in tactics, and it's fine, but it's new and we haven't seen it capably implemented yet at AFL level, we are doing it in bursts and as we go we are learning about opposition countertactics.
For a long time we bemoaned the apparent absence of a Plan B, now we have it some fans want it thrown out because we aren't getting an instant result, but it's new and fans need to be patient.
I'm not nearly as upset about the tactics and coaching as I am about the poor implementation, because where it falls down are in the execution of basic skills.
We only need one or two quick players, or one or two quality bilateral players, and time and space opens up for everybody and you'll see the basic errors diminish. This is what the likes of Daicos, Pendelbury and Sidebottom bring to the Filth.
In the past, our slower endurance and strength based list missed a massive trick, they all should have been incessantly training their offside and the lack of leg speed would be a non-issue, like it's a non-issue for Sidebottom and Pendlebury. If our list had developed 80% of Diesel's handball skills and the same percentage of Scotland's kicking they be laughing, but it's too late as 28 year olds!
The idea that someone like Saad can make it through a whole AFL career and still be effectively a unilateral ball user is a condemnation on our club and the AFL system in general. It's a fundamental high level skill that is almost completely absent in our list.
Im not seeing any plan B, just the same old rolling stoppage play, chip it around sideways, backwards then the bombed kick forward or glory pass that gets picked off. Its still that Soviet era stuff that lacks dare, run and any method of longer connection that leaves our forwards manned up and contesting vs multiple players and then when they do get the ball its a 50/50 on the accuracy for goal but thats another story.
plan A is run and gun. Largely it was using our drive off half back and midfield. Players like walsh, cotters, newman oh wait....
