I think players can tolerate a small amount of me me me attitude if they see reward for effort. You can have a great team first player (e.g. Cas or Curnow E), but those turnovers and missed goals must take their toll after a while.
It depends on the composition of the team - some blokes are less resilient and more easily led astray than others. If by good chance you have a team of mostly resilient types, they could reap the benefits of a talented and slightly selfish player, because they work work around his deficiencies.
A lot of those elite talented players (Fev, Fyfe, Carey etc.) do have a certain arrogance and me first nature - what is super rare are the Judd and Doull types, terrific players that are also team first.
Only a strong team ethos can sort out the me first players.
They need to join it.
We are the opposite. due to average quality being so low, any half talent with a bad attitude plays for themselves.
Flip it around and you see us of the mid 2000's and there is no end to it until you shock the culture.
I'll confess I wasn't paying attention to anyone else's matches and thought it was the usual contrived scenario with the pioneers of women's footy making the grand final and one of them winning.
All I am saying is lets draw a line in the sand and move on. 54% of the List is BBs 24% is MMs 15% is Rattens 7% in DPs Majority of the list is BB's, will be swayed even more his way after this year. Thats enough for me to look fwd instead of back and not hijack every thread with same BS.
One bad apple can spoil the entire barrel.
If we don't have players in it for the team first, then they will spoil some of the others.
Just like we don't know that Richardson may have made Ratten look good, and I have little doubt in my mind that in 2012, the group was that fractured Ratten couldn't have stayed.
Had we appointed Richo back then we could be talking differently, but one thing we didn't do was our due diligence with any appointment going back to Wayne Brittain which sums up why it's taking us so long.
I thought of the "ageist" angle but decided not to bring it up. However, I don't really have an issue with encouraging young folk.
Perhaps there should be a "waning star" award to square the ledger
It's probably going to be the equivalent of the brownlow. Young folk tend to be a bit more inconsistent but brilliant at their best whilst older players tend to keep on keeping on.
Forgive me for thinking this is quite stupid, but arent they all rising stars??
Its the inaugural season and in the eyes of Joe Average supporter who is only being exposed to proffesional womens AFL footy recently, all of them are rising stars.
Alex Silvagni and Simon White will give our team similar.
Similar size, and similar ability.
If his name wasn't Silvagni, he may not have even gotten the opportunity.
He will provide valuable experience to a young VFL side, and if required to play in the seniors, he will perform his role to the best of his ability, but lets not pretend that he is going to be a super valuable commodity.
Im no expert, but I think that its all relative. Are we seeing more injuries because of the demand on the body??
Or, are we seeing it simply because we are exposed to it now?
The incidence of injury at amateur level would never have been public domain knowledge in the past, and whilst I concede that the demands on the bodies have increased, its relative. The entire competition are doing the same sort of things. Are we seeing this widespread? Is it just a bit of bad luck on behalf of the players who have suffered the injuries??
Lets not forget that we picked up a girl who was coming off a reconstruction which is the only reason she didnt end up in the draft.
The reason Carlton have been a struggling football club for the last 20 years, is because we look too much at what blokes don't do, rather than what they can and will do.
There is almost nothing wrong with Rowe's game. He has a role, he plays it week in and out to the best of his abilities.
He doesn't get a game because there isnt a better alternative. He beat out and out lasted Jamison who's body let him down, for the last few years. He has battled adversity to get to where he is now. Went from Sydney to Norwood and took the long hard road back to AFL footy.
Rowe will be superceded in time. Not because he is found wanting, but someone will beat him out of the side, and there is no shame in that, but he will make players earn that spot irrespective of relative quality. more talented players have come through Carlton and been found wanting, and its about time we celebrate attitude over ability because thats the only way we are going to get anywhere as a footy club.
Ben is the more aggressive brother but I did see Harry engage with Webster and immediately thought thats good for the future ...our list is fairly devoid of mongrel..however I like the look of Charlie Curnow though, seems cheeky and happy to stick up for himself...
The draftees from that year all seem to have "spunk" (for lack of another word).
Who could forget Weitering in his debut turning to Jack Riewoldt and doing the thumb and forefinger "only missed by a little bit" when he sprayed one of his shots out on the full??
Jack SOS, telling Andrew Walker that he was wearing his number as a what 6 year old?? Now he's wearing it.
Harry Mckay's fightback against the Aints this past weekend is another show.
Cunningham calmly slotting the goal from training where everyone was round him giving him a ribbing at PP during the pre season last year shows that he has the ability to wear the attitude.
I like it. Players who have character usually show it more frequently on field.
