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Topic: We need to fix our twos.... (Read 9022 times) previous topic - next topic
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We need to fix our twos....

Watching the Box Hill Hawks yesterday (and Footscray on Saturday),  I can't help thinking we are going nowhere until our newbies have a decent kindergarten to learn the craft.  Our development of young players has been nothing short of disastrous for many years, and we need to emulate what the successful teams are doing.

I think it's time to put a Carlton side in the VFL, play at Visy park every week, and get some mature bodies on the VFL list to give the kids a chance to learn alongside them.

Geelong, Collingwood, Essendon, Footscay and Box Hill (virtually the Hawks) are doing it now, and their AFL sides are showing the benefit.   Heaven knows the Northern Blues are hardly an attractive option for a VFL-level player.

Time we joined the party before we get left behind yet again.
This is now the longest premiership drought in the history of the Carlton Football Club - more evidence of climate change?

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #1
Many will agree with you here Tonyo, including me. Will it ever happen is the real question.
This digital world is too much for us insects to understand.

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #2
Watching the Box Hill Hawks yesterday (and Footscray on Saturday),  I can't help thinking we are going nowhere until our newbies have a decent kindergarten to learn the craft.  Our development of young players has been nothing short of disastrous for many years, and we need to emulate what the successful teams are doing.

I think it's time to put a Carlton side in the VFL, play at Visy park every week, and get some mature bodies on the VFL list to give the kids a chance to learn alongside them.

Geelong, Collingwood, Essendon, Footscay and Box Hill (virtually the Hawks) are doing it now, and their AFL sides are showing the benefit.   Heaven knows the Northern Blues are hardly an attractive option for a VFL-level player.

Time we joined the party before we get left behind yet again.

Makes almost screw all difference. You're using the Box Hill Hawks as an example and yet we are copying their model.

Our seconds are ordinary because the list isn't strong, deep or healthy.

We lost our best three players from the NB's.

Just need to make that association strong. The fact they are not stand alone is almost meaningless.
You can fool some of the people some of the time.......................................

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #3
I'm not a fan of the Northern Blues setup and also want a standalone team but to me the greatest problem is Luke Webster who I dont think is up to developing AFL players....

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #4
Losing Meese Marcon and Lambert didn't help the NB's competitiveness.
DrE is no more... you ok with that harmonica man?

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #5


Makes almost screw all difference. You're using the Box Hill Hawks as an example and yet we are copying their model.

Our seconds are ordinary because the list isn't strong, deep or healthy.

We lost our best three players from the NB's.

Just need to make that association strong. The fact they are not stand alone is almost meaningless.

Spot on cimm, Box Hill is proof that the type of agreement we have can be made to work. If we go a stand alone team I wouldn't mind, but I don't see it as necessary or holding us back at all. We just have to find the right way to make it work for us.

Recruit some bigger midfielders for a start, the NB's have 16 players on their list @ 180cm or under. Now when you are playing games against AFL listed players, surly it has to help if they are at least a similar size to their opponents !!
Mens sana in corpore sano - A healthy mind in a healthy body.

Navy, it's not just a color, it's an attitude !!!

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #6
If you are not paying decent money or offering a pathway to the AFL you wont attract decent VFL talent to the Northern Blues......Lambert had a really great season before he left and probably should have been rookied and we also had the chance to take Saad but bypassed him as well.....why if you are not being paid decent coin would you play for a team where you are going nowhere....

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #7
Not having a huge amount of knowledge about the VFL system...

1. Do we get any concessions or priority access drafting a player from an affiliate club?
2. I dont get the difference between a "Carlton" team in the VFL, and the way the NB affiliation works.


Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #8
Box Hill Hawks are living proof that you don't need a stand alone VFL team to be successful.

The key is resourcing the VFL team, employing the best coach and ensuring that the development coaches work with the entire squad, not just the AFL listed players.
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?”  Oddball

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #9
Box Hill?
2012 HAPPENED!!!!!!!

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #10


Makes almost screw all difference. You're using the Box Hill Hawks as an example and yet we are copying their model.

Our seconds are ordinary because the list isn't strong, deep or healthy.

We lost our best three players from the NB's.

Just need to make that association strong. The fact they are not stand alone is almost meaningless.

Spot on cimm, Box Hill is proof that the type of agreement we have can be made to work. If we go a stand alone team I wouldn't mind, but I don't see it as necessary or holding us back at all. We just have to find the right way to make it work for us.

Recruit some bigger midfielders for a start, the NB's have 16 players on their list @ 180cm or under. Now when you are playing games against AFL listed players, surly it has to help if they are at least a similar size to their opponents !!

Dawks/Box Hill had all kinds of headaches re games players had at seconds level to play seconds finals... there are other headaches. None of this is an issue when you have a stand-alone.
Only our ruthless best, from Board to bootstudders will get us no. 17

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #11
@Baggers

Are you talking about the recent Mcevoy story?

If so, the same rules still apply at stand alone clubs vs affiliates.

You havent played enough games, you cant play.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #12
@Baggers

Are you talking about the recent Mcevoy story?

If so, the same rules still apply at stand alone clubs vs affiliates.

You havent played enough games, you cant play.

Yep, this is a rule that is employed at all levels of football, both senior and junior, from the AFL/VFL right down to Division 4 in the EFL.

You can't just pick a bunch of senior level guns (any level guns) in the seconds just to ensure the seconds get a cheap Premiership.

It's actually a rule in most team sports if you look at it. Certainly is in cricket, and soccer, and I'm sure plenty of others.
Just glad I'm old enough to have enjoyed the 1995 Grand Final

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #13
I'm not a fan of the Northern Blues setup and also want a standalone team but to me the greatest problem is Luke Webster who I dont think is up to developing AFL players....

You won't get any argument from me!

Blokes go back to the 2s, then go backwards even further there, I think Webster has turned into a disaster as far as development goes! The only guys we have that go back to the 2s and do OK are McLean and Graham and they look self motivated.

I suspect our club was thinking when LFA and UFA come in we were going to do the old Carlton and just open the doors letting the AFLs best walk in, because they wanted to play at Carlton, but it won't and didn't happen. In the process we neglected player development or at least failed to take it seriously. Our clubs only solution to problems is money, effort isn't seriously considered!
The Force Awakens!

Re: We need to fix our twos....

Reply #14
Box Hill Hawks are just Hawthorn with two extra words in their name......

You only have to compare facilities at Box Hill vs Cramer St to realise there is no comparison between Box Hill Hawks and Northern Blues. 

When Carlton players go back to the NBs, it is like being sent to Siberia, and they play like it.....
This is now the longest premiership drought in the history of the Carlton Football Club - more evidence of climate change?