Carlton Supporters Club

Interesting interview (Breanna Moody - Fox) circulating today.  That it was mentioned that players just left to play for other clubs, not career opportunities, was notable. The fact that the club was gutted by expansion is still swept under the carpet by the ivory tower dwellers.  One day it will all come out, WTF was going on?

AFLW is a shambles at AFL level and at Club level.

Interesting interview (Breanna Moody - Fox) circulating today.  That it was mentioned that players just left to play for other clubs, not career opportunities, was notable. The fact that the club was gutted by expansion is still swept under the carpet by the ivory tower dwellers.  One day it will all come out, WTF was going on?

She'd be pinpointing Prespakis and Gee with those comments, with an eye on the Hosking twins, Stevens, McEvoy i suspect. A few other names could be mentioned, but they're the main ones who left for no real reason.

There lies a lesson in there.

One player leaves for no reason.
When you have 6 leaving for "no reason" the reason is less about what they are going to and more about where they are going from IMHO. 

Ive only seen a mass exodus a few times from football clubs, and you can bet your bottom dollar it had little to do with coaches, players, relationships, and opportunities and more to do with the direction the club was taking the project and what players believed.

Sure some got some money and left, others went because they wanted to follow their mates, but you dont look elsewhere if you're happy where you are.

While six players leaving over a couple of years is hardly a "mass exodus", you can bet your bottom dollar that they were enticed away by more lucrative offers.  Take Lucy McEvoy for example, there's no way that she would up stakes and move to Sydney to play for "no reason".  If she had returned to Geelong, "no reason" or "lifestyle" might just cut the mustard.

Breann loves playing footy and loves the club, warts and all.  It seems to me that she hasn't taken too much notice of why some of her teammates have jumped ship.  The girls that have stayed - Darcy, Kez, Bre, Gab and Abbie - and the girls that are relative newcomers seem to be very tight and committed to the club.  I don't think that has changed all that much since last season.

Not the point.  We've had a yearly departure of our better players because they don't want to be there.

Why?

FYI, here is a list of players who used to play for Carlton but lined up in opposition colours this round (or were injured in S.Hoskings case)

FB Plane Wilson
HB J. Hosking Davey Gay
C S.Hosking Egan B.Walker
HF Stevens Shierlaw Gee
FF Jones Harris
R Gibbs Prespakis Lucas-Rodd
INT: Brazzale Jakobsson Dalton Privitelli Kennedy

That is a full team of players who wanted out, or were deemed 'not good enough' or too much hassle.
Put our current team up against that team, and i'm pretty sure we lose.

FYI, here is a list of players who used to play for Carlton but lined up in opposition colours this round (or were injured in S.Hoskings case)

FB Plane Wilson
HB J. Hosking Davey Gay
C S.Hosking Egan B.Walker
HF Stevens Shierlaw Gee
FF Jones Harris
R Gibbs Prespakis Lucas-Rodd
INT: Brazzale Jakobsson Dalton Privitelli Kennedy

That is a full team of players who wanted out, or were deemed 'not good enough' or too much hassle.
Put our current team up against that team, and i'm pretty sure we lose.

Several clubs have been decimated by expansion in the AFLW’s past, which hasn’t meant they’ve been sent to the bottom of the ladder or been uncompetitive. Most notably, during the 2019-20 expansion periods, Brisbane lost 16 players in total, more than half their list, and then went on to win the 2021 premiership.

I’d have McEvoy in that squad … and I reckon we’d be more than competitive, particularly with our manic tackling and some of our injured players back in the team.

I can’t believe that Lucas-Rodd is still getting games, Gibbs never got close to her potential, Shierlaw is past it, the Hoskings are done, Walker never recaptured the form of her first season.  The better players in that squad left us for more lucrative offers.

Interesting article from last year in which Mimi Hill shares her thoughts about players leaving and how it strengthened the playing group: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/it-is-hard-rising-star-mimi-hill-on-carlton-s-aflw-player-exodus-20220720-p5b304.html

The following observation by Marnie Vinall is pertinent:

We got off lightly ...