Carlton Supporters Club

I think you'll find that he's cleaned up considerably in that area and hit most targets recently, in fact he's improved that much that his disposal is now very close to average.

Kerridge is a more hardened AFL body and will stop the bleeding a bit but you have to ask is it worth playing him  or better getting games into kids like Dow and putting up with some big losses....or does that do more harm to Dow ?...I dont know and it probably depends on the kids themselves as some have the maturity and some dont when you throw them in the deep end.

Are you prepared to risk the kids by throwing them in the deep end, not knowing if they will handle the situation or not?

The answer to this question has nothing to do with potential or ability, it's a learning curve. The problem we have at the moment is that we have almost not role models on the field, nobody sharing the load with the kids.

The world stands on the shoulders of those who came before us, AFL is no different!

Throw the kids in the deep end and ask them to sort themselves out, without some senior structure or previous knowledge in support, and you can end up with a team of flat earthers!   imho, the deep end survivor plan is just another "Lord of the Flies" scenario, and that won't take us anywhere fast, it won't deliver any consistency, and it won't be repeatable.

We need a structure that churns out 20 to 30 AFL ready 2nd or 3rd year players in a sensible time frame. Surely standing on the shoulders of someone who has come before them makes sense regardless of the individuals capacity to deal with situations! Isn't that what you do with your kids?

Hodge, Lewis etc you can throw in the deep end and they handle it and become massive players for their club and quickly, Jonathan Brown was another, just a hard unit at 16 playing vs men down at Warrnambool, , Voss was another, the Scott boys, Joel Selwood, I wont count Gary Ablett jr as he was an exceptional talent.....Sticks was another who thrived as a young man being captain, Ricciuto another.....there is a common theme though, these players were mentally tough for what ever reason and were young men not young boys....we get too many boys...

Hodge, Lewis etc you can throw in the deep end and they handle it and become massive players for their club and quickly, Jonathan Brown was another, just a hard unit at 16 playing vs men down at Warrnambool, , Voss was another, the Scott boys, Joel Selwood, I wont count Gary Ablett jr as he was an exceptional talent.....Sticks was another who thrived as a young man being captain, Ricciuto another.....there is a common theme though, these players were mentally tough for what ever reason and were young men not young boys....we get too many boys...

Even our own Patrick Cripps had the benefit of having Chris Judd  even if it was a short time.

Just a bit of trivia....How many games did Judd play with Cripps?...the answer surprised me.

It was Judd's influence that got Cripps motivated to hire a coach to help with his speed one off season.

Hmmm.

I think you are ignoring the environments that these guys all started playing football in granted they are tough as nails, but sometimes the difference between looking tough and being tough is simply being taught how to handle yourself on field.

Even our own Patrick Cripps had the benefit of having Chris Judd  even if it was a short time.

Anyway going back to the question of Kerridge its a simple equation.

Is the team playing like it lacks belief in its ability to compete?  For me, certain players are (they are learners).  That means that they need someone who can help them walk a bit taller, and IMHO, Kerridge is one of those players.

Obviously a fairly average coach.

If we are relying on Kerridge to add leadership and hardness then we are in trouble.....when he has the footy it wont be long before the other team get it back, thats the bottom line and why he plays VFL....
We lack depth in the middle tier age bracket, those mid age senior players are not good enough and thats one of our major problems, no seven man defense anymore and a high banana factor means big floggings when the kids tire..
Look at the reality, people want the likes of Kerridge, Matt Shaw in the team...not to win the game but to prevent massive losses.....we might as well go back to stacking the backline and playing negative footy again...