Carlton Supporters Club

It's a catch 20/20.   Maybe 2 or 3 sides have a match up for all of Marchbank/Jones/Weitering.   Ideally we would get by with 2 and Plowman who can play oversized at a pinch.   So what's the catch?

For the future it's

Marchbank, Weitering then Jones.

On form it's

Jones, Marchbank then Weitering.

Marchbank and Weitering are blue chip talents who have only played 22 games and 44 games.    They need to play AFL level to together.    Not VFL.   So what do you do?

Drop Jones?   Harsh.
Drop Weitering?   Yeah maybe now.   But I never hated the decision to play him, even though it clearly didn't work.    Doens't mean the idea wasn't great.

Thirdly if you are going with 2, then maybe (just maybe) you might look at trading one at seasons end.    Playing VFL is not great for their trade value.

I don't think it's as simple as dropping him and waiting until he has a match up.

Kruezer played in the same game at Etihad last season and lowered his colours to Witts as did Cripps to Lyons, they rocked up with the same game plan and Lynch torched us again......you have to start looking at the coaches box too when you analyse deja vu defeats...

Yes, Kreuzer had his ar$e handed to him by Witts last year, Cripps struggled with 17 touches but Levi stayed home and kicked 3. Lynch kicked 7. Wonder why nothing changed. Maybe they got thrown by the return game where Cripps was alot better, Lynch was goaless on Jones, Levi had a good one around the ground despite missing every shot at goal, and Kreuzer played well on Witts but still, you have to be aware of history and what those players can do to you and last year at Etihad is still fresh.

Kreuzer was injured in the 1st Qtr against GC last season, played out the game and then missed the following week. So we knew what was going to happen playing a less than capable ruck option against Witts, so we repeated history!

May carried an injury allowing Casboult freedom to influence the game, after Lynch had stitched up Rowe with 6 goals we put Weitering on him which ended Lynch's dominance all too late!

So two days ago we played Weitering forward and let Casboult learn what a real ruck option does! Is it only our players who have to learn from history, what about the MC?

Yes, I watched the 21 year old in his second ever game play as the undersized lead up forward role against a back line with about 700 games and at least two full seasons of experience.

I also heard the commentators discuss how much Gowers had improved since arriving at the Dogs.

Levi was drafted 9 years ago, he was a year older than Gowers when he debuted!

If Gowers makes it into his 9th or 10th season we can make an accurate relative judgement, but at the moment game for game he's a year ahead of Casboult on age and has 5 scoring attempts compared to Casboult's 2 after just 2 games!

Billy "The Kid" Gowers is about 6" shorter and 15kg lighter than Casboult but is playing the same basic team role!

Why would you even mention Casboult, are you trying to rub in how bad he really is?

13 possessions, 1.4 on the scoreboard with one of them being from twenty metres out directly in front, and forget Levi he isn't competing with him for a spot it's jack Silvagni. 

Gowers might make the grade but he's another one making up numbers.

Your point about us flicking players is what this was for.  He and his side were rubbish.

@fly,  our biggest issue is a lack of game time and experience together.   Gold Coast don't have that issue where it counts.

I didn't bring it up first.

I was just implying that at a similar period in the not-so-distant past, when our team was performing similarly, our coach was a dead man walking.

Lods has been the one to suggest that Bolton won't last if this continues because...Carlton.

I suspect there will also be greater scrutiny on Silvagni's selections as well.

Will it be the selections, or the retentions?

We go through the motions, the same old same olds, week in and week out. Any suggestion of change gets shouted down, if our supporters fear change what is the club to do! More of the same, we've been doing it for a decade!

I'd love to see some change...I'm not really seeing it this weekend

The problem is you can't shut these discussions and opinions down.
Because an approach is different it doesn't mean it's better....and that should form a point of discussion.
We can't blindly accept that the path the club has chosen is the right one...that the draft selections made are the right ones.
A year ago we had most folk on board with the direction...now we have a few questions.
Another year of mediocrity and there will be more questions.

These opinions aren't mutually exclusive.

I don't think Bolton will be gone in the short term....but what I am suggesting is that the time has now come when he will be judged by "his" performance.

As Kruds points out....The reality is that any of our coaches since the turn of the century would be very much under the pump after two seasons and two games if this was the state of play.
Because we publicly made such a big deal about a rebuild, and a new approach it has had the effect of delaying that scrutiny on Bolton ...I've always thought that was a clever tactic.

But if results continue to be poor as the season progresses the microscope will become more focused on aspects of team selection, match-ups and match day tactics....and as head coach the buck stops with Bolton.

I suspect there will also be greater scrutiny on Silvagni's selections as well.

So the pressure on the coach and list manager...
It's not necessarily want I want to happen...It's what I believe will happen.
I like Bolton. It's a fresh approach. ...but I also like a successful team and you only get a limited time to create that.

I hope Bolton has a greater plan we're not actually fully understanding in  terms of the team selections and tactics we're seeing at the moment...but the rate of improvement seems slow and if other teams are improving at a greater rate they'll be going past us.
You can argue that the slow and steady rate of improvement is the better path for long term success but in terms of things like sponsorship, membership and importantly being seen as a destination club that will attract new talent I'm afraid I'm a bit skeptical.

However it's not all doom and gloom...the season is two weeks old!
The genie is out of the bottle but a couple of wins will shut up the doubters and stick him right back in there.