Carlton Supporters Club

I believe that Jones' revelation in defence began Weiter's demise, as they were basically the same player. The longer Jones stays there, then what do we do with Weiters? We cant have two loose intercept marking players. At this stage Jones has him covered, which raises the inevitable elephant in the room question, do we trade him? He has probably the best currency on the list, there will be collateral damage along the path to sustainable success, he would be a first round pick no worries...

You do remember Weitering's first season don't you, or his finish to last season, what is McKay's equivalent?

There is no basis for condemning a 20 year old who led the AFL Intercept marking as an 18 year old.  Have a look at Lever version 2018, chocolates to boiled lollies, nobody is pulling the pin on him as quickly as Carlton fans seem to want to cook Weitering! It's ludicrous, if Weitering were at Geelong or Dawkthorn he probably wouldn't have played a senior game yet!

In the meantime we see fans heartily defending Simmo as he turns over another kick after a brave intercept and a sprint forward! That is excruciating!

Dows kicking is unreliable and was at TAC level.......he has averaged 6 kicks a game, he must get tired real quick, if he gets 12 kicks a game I'd expect him to be asleep at half time...

re: Weitering...Rance didnt run around trying to avoid contact or have the coach trying to hide him on the field and find a soft opponent for him either.

Schoolboys yep, we draft a lot of schoolboys ours tend to look like year 9's playing the other teams year 12's thats part of the problem......

Deckchairs, Injuries, sure we have injuries but so do other clubs, Bulldogs have as many of us and had a lot of kids playing too and in important positions..

42 players later its an Ark that SOS and Bolton built thats now turned into a Titanic.... 1 win in 15 for a 3rd year of a rebuild, are you happy with that?

Notice you didnt want to comment on Boltons coaching attributes, game plans or lack of  or SOS's list management?......care to share your thoughts on whats happening in the coaches box and match selection etc...

Rance doesn't have an opponent most games and when he does he's shown up quite often. Grimes and Astbury take the KP forwards and Rance just zones off the majority of the times. Weitering is void of all confidence which is Bolton's doing. He needs time in the twos after his injury to regain his form.

I didn't watch Dow at TAC level, but what I've seen from him at AFL level is a pretty decent kick, some have been superb. So I don't care what he used to be like, all I'm concerned about is what I see now.

So let's have a look at our drafting;

Weitering - hardly looking like a grade 9, Harry McKay bottom age has grow 5+ cms since being drafted and while he was slight at the time of the draft he's not that now. Charlie Curnow, not at all looking like a grade 9, Cunningham, and average looking 18 yo when drafted who has an AFL physique now. Jack again hardly a light weight.

Samo - Typical indigenous frame when drafted and has filled a bit, Fisher - Little, light but has been a revelation this year 27 quality possies against Bulldogs, MacReadie, again tall lanky and will fill out, Poulson little and probably most suits your description. Williamson tall flanker with real size, has grown a couple of cms from reports so could be a pinch hit KP in some circumstances. Kerr KP forward never looked like a grade 9

Dow - Strong hips and big thighs, face may look young but body from waist down not at all. O'Brien - small frame and yes looks young, de Koning again not a developed torso but strong hip and things. Schumacher - 190cms and average frame and last drafted was Garlett who is a typical indigenous framed 21 year old.

I'll give you Poulson, Fisher and O'Brien as younger body types, but what do you expect? These are young 17/18 boys, they are going to have skinny arms and thin chests. So 3 young frames out of 16, hardly a disaster.

Coming into last week Carlton had the most games lost for the season due to injuries, and as I said we don't have the depth to cover them. You cannot possibly compare our list to theirs, they won a flag two seasons ago so and they haven't lost every player since then. We have been out of the finished out of the eight now for the past 7 years including this year hardly apple with apples.

List management we have 15 players on the list under the age of 25 who were taken in the top 25, or roughly one third, how has SOS failed at his task. Please tell me which one won't make 100 games and be willing to put your house on it. I'm sure there will be some but no one knows yet because they are still developing.

Coaching, Bolton does some things well others not so, be he has succeeded at every other level he's coached at, and is starting from a long way back. So like the players I'm willing to support my club and the decisions they have made as we don't know if they will work yet.

Match selection - So who would you have chosen from the players available last week that would have made a difference, maybe Graham or Lamb who have been tried and found wanting many times. Or should have we rushed Lang in? Maybe our saviour lies in Kerr, de Koning or Schumacher or let's pick a rookie for their first game to really tip the scales in our favour. Match committee had no where to turn due to the players missing.

Do I like losing, no I hate it! Am I filthy about it, yes at the time but when I wake up the next day and rationally think about it, I can see why we struggle. This is the first time Carlton has invested properly in the draft, has traded for extra picks and for young players who were drafted high and for reasons like Ablett coming back, wanting to come home or a lack of opportunity we have got them cheap. We haven't mortgaged the club for one player, see Judd or gone after the messiah coach see Pagan / Malthouse. We are building a platform with a young in-experienced coach and we need to get games into our players to give them experience which they are getting.

During Boltons tenure we have beaten, Hawthorn, Sydney, GWS, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong so he must be doing this right occasionally, or would it be that young sides are inconsistent and take time to come together?    

Coaching, Bolton does some things well others not so, be he has succeeded at every other level he's coached at, and is starting from a long way back. So like the players I'm willing to support my club and the decisions they have made as we don't know if they will work yet.

Match selection - So who would you have chosen from the players available last week that would have made a difference, maybe Graham or Lamb who have been tried and found wanting many times. Or should have we rushed Lang in? Maybe our saviour lies in Kerr, de Koning or Schumacher or let's pick a rookie for their first game to really tip the scales in our favour. Match committee had no where to turn due to the players missing.

I would have chosen a smaller team to play vs the Bulldogs who are lightning quick and go easy on talls for one thing.....Cunningham was a prime example of a player
who was suited to play a defensive role, he has pace and can play a variety of positions, it was a no brainer IMO.
Like when he picked Polson to play when we lost a tall, Polson having zero form and contributed nothing two weeks in row,
Your super coach picked 2 x busted players who were not fit and in Kennedys case couldnt even walk quickly much less run...thats not even dumb that desperation and stupidity...
Would have played Macreadie and Shaw...the latter has 100 games experience and could have played on Bontempelli who we just allowed to run around all day on his own,
whats his next trick let Matt Crouch get 40 plus possies next week by letting him run around free too...or maybe he might match OShea up on Eddie and let him kick half a dozen and tell us it was all about synergy and thats not what we stand for. I guess playing Cripps for 100 mins on the ball might cover those bases.....

What I wont stand for is a coaching team who cant get the basics right much less anything too complicated.......

Coaching, Bolton does some things well others not so, be he has succeeded at every other level he's coached at, and is starting from a long way back. So like the players I'm willing to support my club and the decisions they have made as we don't know if they will work yet.

Match selection - So who would you have chosen from the players available last week that would have made a difference, maybe Graham or Lamb who have been tried and found wanting many times. Or should have we rushed Lang in? Maybe our saviour lies in Kerr, de Koning or Schumacher or let's pick a rookie for their first game to really tip the scales in our favour. Match committee had no where to turn due to the players missing.

I would have chosen a smaller team to play vs the Bulldogs who are lightning quick and go easy on talls for one thing.....Cunningham was a prime example of a player
who was suited to play a defensive role, he has pace and can play a variety of positions, it was a no brainer IMO.
Like when he picked Polson to play when we lost a tall, Polson having zero form and contributed nothing two weeks in row,
Your super coach picked 2 x busted players who were not fit and in Kennedys case couldnt even walk quickly much less run...thats not even dumb that desperation and stupidity...
Would have played Macreadie and Shaw...the latter has 100 games experience and could have played on Bontempelli who we just allowed to run around all day on his own,
whats his next trick let Matt Crouch get 40 plus possies next week by letting him run around free too...or maybe he might match OShea up on Eddie and let him kick half a dozen and tell us it was all about synergy and thats not what we stand for. I guess playing Cripps for 100 mins on the ball might cover those bases.....

What I wont stand for is a coaching team who cant get the basics right much less anything too complicated.......

Which of these smaller players who are lightning quick would have you included? Cunningham was omitted for not being defensive when playing HB, Garlett omitted for not playing well. You say you would have played MacReadie and who would you get rid of for him? Rowe, Jones, Plowman or Marchbank?

Shaw could not get a game last season at Gold Coast and was delisted, but he's the answer on Bontempelli?

It's fine to sit back after a crap game and say I would have done this or that, and looking at your suggestions I doubt if they would have helped.

I guess we could settle this once and for all by hosting a "Talking Tactics" session between Bolton and forum members. I give each member 5 minutes before they get shot down in flames.

The Gold Coast shot us down in flames.

I'm a little confused about the argument that we should wait until some of these kids make it to 50+ games before we make a firm judgement about them.


... why then have we made judgements and let go so many players that haven't managed that number.