Carlton Supporters Club

I enjoyed a catch up with Baggers, RiverRat and DJC at this game last year, Richmond thumped us, although Mackay even back then showed some good signs, along with a couple of unlisted boys, at least that's my memory of it!

I can't make it this year, I hope you enjoy the game Crash, It would be great to get a report on the boys afterwards!

ha, yeah on first glance that remark would seem inappropriate, even if it is close to the mark !

But, lets look into that one statement a little more.  In terms of participation & an untapped resource for Australian cricket, it is a statement that stacks up.  Indigenous kids are, almost without exception, heading to the 2 main football codes (AFL, Rugby League) & those two codes have benefited enormously from the pool of talent &  skills that they bring to both of those games.  Cricket is well & truly missing out.......as was the case for many years  in South Africa.  The local black population was always a huge un-tapped talent for cricket & I always thought that the Saffers had the potential to be the next fast bowling megapower (similar to the Windies) if even a little of that talent could be siphoned off from Soccer to Cricket in that Country.  We are are starting to see the results of that now ......even if their method (the quota system) is flawed & goes entirely against my grain.

It's probably even harder for cricket to capture the imagination of indigenous kids in this country, but its something they have to try to do if the game is to grow.  There have been & continue to be blokes with aboriginal heritage involved in cricket at the highest level (Gillespie, Darcy Short for starters), but no-where near enough.

Just my thoughts

cheers

Mal.

The team for Rd 1, 2017:

CARLTON
B Lachie Plowman, Jacob Weitering, Kade Simpson
HB Harrison Macreadie, Sam Rowe, Caleb Marchbank
C Sam Docherty, Bryce Gibbs, Jarrod Pickett
HF Dennis Armfield, Levi Casboult, Matthew Wright
F Ed Curnow, Jack Silvagni, Dale Thomas
FOL Matthew Kreuzer, Patrick Cripps, Marc Murphy

I/C Sam Petrevski-Seton, Billie Smedts, Charlie Curnow, Simon White


To me, the team for tonight is better.

No army, Smedts or White, no Pickett (who this time last year was pretty unfit) and the young blokes eg SPS, Charlie, Weiters are all that extra year more experienced, fitter etc.

Moreover Kennedy, Garlett, Mullett are all experienced at senior AFL level. Indeed Mullett has played a finals match.

Thomas too, looks in good nick and in form.

Our backline looks formidable, our midfield deeper and better balanced.

The Tigers will be short favourites - and rightly so.

Doesn't mean they'll win though.

There are clearly some issues... i’m not denying that. Some key people have been moved on.

Need to be careful about no-name websites writing “articles” that contain a lot of rumours... and saying that our existence is threatened, or the AFL should step in is a massive call.

Especially when you click on the author’s name, and he looks like a 15 year old who has been smoking bongs while listening to some early Metallica records on high rotation.

G'Day All,

Who here thinks that Harry Mckay should play?

I dont think he should. At this stage he doesn't appear to have the competitiveness we need in all our players if we stand a chance of beating the Tiges.

I remember that day! I think the other person was Age? It's amazing - would have sworn it was at the G?

Marc Murphy was a decent cricketer too - I think he played for the University firsts.   Played a bit against his brother who was also at University, who was playing way below his level.

DJC - 100 catches in a season is phenomenal - I reckon I would be about that mark having played seniors for about 30 years!

It's fun, keeps me sane and relieves stress of the week.

I think Keeping's health might have played a big part of it, he seemed quite liked by the players.

But when that Arnell selection stuff surfaced, something had to be going on behind the scenes.

Not sure who they get to coach, there are not that many experienced AFLW type coaches on the menu!

The good ol day, Hotcox. Gozza and Bluesgirl and the blond from Barossa who came all the way over to see her fav who was promptly dropped. 

Funnily (?) enough, I have found the older (45+) more likely to sledge and carry on like idiots, not realising they are now playing the lowest 2 day grade in the comp.

The only fight I have ever seen at cricket was between the opposition team, where one player threw a stump at his team mate and then chased him around with another.  There have been several that I have heard of (including one where the whole offending club was kicked out of the comp)

Funniest things that I have seen playing cricket include (excluding in-house stories)
 - a group of medieval fighters all dressed up doing their thing.  It stopped our game for about 15 minutes as we all watched
 - a guy riding a trail bike, not realising it was on fire until we were all shouting at him.  He got off pretty quick and proved he was a good sprinter - didn't come back for the bike.
 - fire brigade coming to put out a fire about 10 metres from the fine leg boundary, and only way to access was across the oval.  Fine leg fielder decided that they only needed to save the single rather than be on the boundary

God posts like these are utterly ridiculous.
if you have a different opinion you sre short sighted, but the oracles can see it better.

Eveyone knows that the skills will improve, that doesn't mean they will (and doesn't mean they won't) ever get to a level where the brand is strong enough for a professional full time league or that enough people will pay good money to watch it.

Australian's have a lot of choices on what sports to spend their money on and only a few of them attract really big crowds. To support a 10 player (at a guess) netball roster requires a lot less cash than a full time football league.
I think most people will be happy for the women if it takes off, but it is far from sure that this this brand will be a brand that people maintain interest in and importantly people and organisations want to put enough money into so as to allow the women to turn professional.

The debate is a reasonable one for people to have on both sides and certainly isn't a foregone conclusion it will be successful.

Just a follow up, we played all 30 players on our AFLW list this year.

List management or picking whoever is fit?