Re: NAB Challenge: Carlton vs. Essendon Sunday 28th Feb
Reply #220 –
I won't say much about the game apart from acknowledging Nick Graham's form and the potential shown by Weitering, McKay, Curnow and Silvagni. I liked the way Byrne goes about his footy too.
I went to the post game function and it was great to see so many of our legends. Most of the players attended too and I was surprised to see how outgoing Kreuzer was as he mingled with the crowd and posed for photographs.
Matt Capuano was interviewed by the MC and had to deal with some very strange questions. He spoke about Phillips and Gorringe and was far from satisfied with their performance (Phillips reminds me of Hampson - good leap but can't catch). He also spoke about his role as development coach and the exciting young talent he has to work.
I had a chat with Dennis Armfield and he is just a little frustrated about not playing. He said that he is almost good to go but has get over a couple of niggles. He spoke about learning a new style of footy and how easy it was for the young players muck up their roles and execution. He was disappointed with the skill errors but was confident that they will be ironed out. He also seemed confident about the season ahead both from a personal and team perspective.
I spoke briefly to Levi Casboult and he was not very happy with his performance. He explained that his workload is being managed and he was always going to play just the first half. He wants to improve his work rate.
Ed Curnow came in well after the other players had left and we had a chat for a while. He was disappointed with his game and unhappy about the skill errors. He felt that it was largely due to inexperience and would be sorted as players became more used to AFL tempo.
We spoke about Charlie and Ed said that he is a fantastic mark and will really have an impact when he settles in. He said that Charlie needs to get his head right and is too easily sucked in. Ed is confident that Charlie will shine once he accepts that opponents will be trying to unsettle him and makes the ball his object rather than evening up.
I was hoping for a win but expecting Bolton to be more concerned with developing the list. The result was disappointing but I'm more confident that we're a team in a hurry