We'll be laying naked on fresh tiger skins in front of an open fire drinking cabernet Carlton come the end of round one!
My concern for the conservation of Panthera tigris prevents me from fully endorsing your scenario LP. Perhaps you could insert "faux" or "synthetic" between "fresh" and "tiger"?
From the outside in, it looks like Murphy will probably be captain, but... with Doc out.. It might be worth considering someone like Curnow. The thing about Murphy is he appears to be a decent captain and he speaks well, but he might be just a touch too much of a nice guy. I don't know this for sure, but you want a captain that takes full authority in my view.
If Murphy was a superb captain, I would suggest it is crazy too change captains... but as he is an 'okay' one, I don't think we risk a lot by taking the captaincy and giving it to someone else.
As I said, I think they will go Murphy, but I really would not mind a look at an alternative, not 'just for changes sake', but to see if there is someone really ready to step in
The playing group and Bolton's coaching panel have determined that Murphy is our best option for captain two years in a row and I think that will be the case again.
I think that our leadership program has improved our leadership depth and the leadership of Cripps, Curnow, Simpson, Docherty and Murphy but I'm not sure that the Murphy has been overtaken by any of the others ... yet!
From the snippets we get from 'the Journey' and comments here and there, I believe that Bolton has taken a very different approach to leadership and the captaincy, but he is also a traditionalist. I can't see co-captains happening but I think Bolton won't hesitate to change skippers if someone puts their hand up. We may be surprised when that hand appears.
White was pathetic and should never wear the baggy green again.
I was astounded when he was picked. I thought that his time in Australian colours was long gone.
Picking Maxwell now would be admitting a mistake ... or perhaps Smith could say that Maxwell has taken his advice onboard and is now "training smarter".
I reckon Murphy will go around again as skipper. There was some discussion of transitioning or succession planning in one of the recent videos on the club website. I expect that a focus for Murphy this year will be preparing his successor. I wouldn't be surprised if the club follows the AFLW team's lead and appoints Murphy vice-captain in 2019, but a lot of water has to flow under the bridge before then.
I think that the two compulsory changes will be it, unless Simpson wants to step down. Docherty should keep his spot even though he won't be on the park.
I wonder if Kreuzer will step up; he seems to exert a bit of influence, in his quiet manner. If not, Wright may be a chance as he appears to be a natural leader on the field.
I think one of the younger players will be given an opportunity and Weitering seems likely. However, I wouldn't rule out Plowman.
It's a shame about Sam but her best seems to behind her. It's a bit like Alicia Molik in that she promised so much but couldn't deliver. Of course, Molik had a debilitating medical condition.
It's not all doom and gloom though; we seem to have some promising youngsters, Ash and Dasher are doing OK and Nick Kyrgios appears to have turned the corner ?
Reading the e-mail from the club I think there may be an element of setting Davey up as the young leader there for the long term. She's 22 while Arnell's 30 so she has the potential to be our captain for many years. The thing is, we really don't know about the longevity of the women compared to the men. I suspect many will play well into their thirties.
I suspect you're right about setting up Davey. There's a good article about our AFLW leadership in the Age today and one sentence that stood out was:
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Arnell said she was rapt to move into the mentoring role while Davey and Hosking are in their early 20s.
I don't want to derail this thread but I wonder if Marc Murphy will take on a similar role.
True, is everyone assuming that Arnell was deposed and didn't stand down!
We know that the skipper and vice-captains were appointed after an "exhaustive process" but we don't know whether that process involved Arnell standing down. I'm assuming that we started with a blank canvas and the "exhaustive process" led to the appointment of the three best leaders but I could be way off the mark.
Last season's skipper Lauren Arnell and Sarah Hosking will be joint vice-captains.
The article on the club website says that the appointments followed an exhaustive process and I think that we are now taking a much more analytical and performance-based approach to leadership.
I really like the idea of Lauren Arnell, our inaugural captain, being made vice-captain. I reckon she will be a great support to Brianna and it also recognises that her leadership attributes haven't evaporated.
Our new house required painting and new carpets and we got both done professionally.
The painting took two blokes 6 days (it's a big house) and I reckon that it would have taken me 3 times as long. I quite like painting but it just wasn't worth it because of the other demands on my time. If you decide to do the painting yourself, don't scrimp on paint, rollers and brushes; the best quality will produce the best result.
Carpet laying is best done by professionals but I don't have any experience with timber laminate or vinyl flooring. As Cookie suggests, do your research before deciding whether it's something you can take on yourself.
Fox Sports' Ben Waterworth and Riley Beveridge provide a more considered opinion:
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B: Lachie Plowman, Liam Jones, Ciaran Byrne
HB: Caleb Marchbank, Jacob Weitering, Kade Simpson
C: Ed Curnow, Patrick Cripps, Sam Petrevski-Seton
HF: Darcy Lang, Charlie Curnow, Dale Thomas
F: Matthew Wright, Levi Casboult, Harry McKay
FOLL: Matthew Kreuzer, Marc Murphy, Matthew Kennedy
I/C: Tom Williamson, Paddy Dow, Jack Silvagni, Zac Fisher
EMG: Jarrod Pickett, Sam Rowe, Jed Lamb
OTHERS: David Cuningham, Tom De Koning, Jarrod Garlett, Nick Graham, Patrick Kerr, Sam Kerridge, Matthew Lobbe, Harrison Macreadie, Aaron Mullett, Lochie O’Brien, Cam O’Shea, Andrew Phillips, Cam Polson, Angus Schumacher
ROOKIES: Jesse Glass-McCasker, Kym LeBois, Cillian McDaid, Matt Shaw, Alex Silvagni
LONG-TERM INJURIES: Sam Docherty
INITIALLY, it seemed tough for the Blues to find a replacement for Sam Docherty, who suffered an ACL injury in his first pre-season training session that will sideline him for the rest of 2018. However Carlton will have several ways in which it can fill Docherty’s void, following the acquisitions of Aaron Mullett (trade), Cameron O’Shea (pre-season draft), Angus Schumacher (national draft) and Jarrod Garlett (national draft). Then you’ve got second-year players Tom Williamson and Harrison Macreadie, while Ciaran Byrne is also capable of linking up with Lachie Plowman and Caleb Marchbank. Also, Carlton will be hoping recruits Matthew Kennedy and Darcy Lang can play Round 1, while Paddy Dow will also push for an early debut.
The Blues have several candidates to replace the influential and respected Docherty, who was best and fairest in 2016 and finished second in 2017 with Ciaran Byrne, Tom Williamson and Jed Lamb as well as O'Shea among the candidates to fill Docherty's void.
I should add that Ryan states that O'Shea is a rookie
Richmond recruited well with Nankervis, Prestia and Caddy.....increased their depth, they also reconstructed their game plan and went the small forward/pressure lineup....it was canny recruiting and a brave game plan which they executed week after week. Grimes and Astbury stayed on the park after being injury prone croc's and Rance was freed up to dominate as a intercept marking player.... Houli became a top quality rebounder with his excellent disposal......Lambert was freed up with Prestia and Caddy arriving to be a real nuisance player for opposing teams....they introduced ready made mid size forwards in Townsend and Graham who were both strong bodied types who kicked straight, they were the Tory Dickson types who didnt need many possies to hurt you as they kicked so straight. Momentum built and Martin was just too much for any individual player to handle for 100 mins and they always had the Martin to Full Forward move up their sleeve to win the close ones or finish teams off...
It was impressive from Hardwick and crew given the clubs recent decade of failure and lacking a team of genuine superstars, he got everything he could out of that list and surprised with his game plan which everyone including me thought would fail in finals...
Good analysis EB.
It's been fun talking about Ninthmond but it would be a mistake to think that they fluked a premiership. It was a well thought out and well executed campaign.
I doubt whether they can repeat the effort but they will be in the mix and I think NM's 2315 is a good call.
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