I have two alternate sides. The 24 and overs: Florent Weitering Haynes Saad L.Young Newman Acres Cripps Cottrell Williams Kemp Hayward McGovern McKay Ainsworth Pittonett Hewitt Walsh Cerra Fogarty Reidy Boyd Evans/F.Young The 24 and unders: Wilson O'Farrell Duffy Cowan Dean Carroll Chesser O.Hollands F.Young Evans Kemp Motlop Byrne Moir Ison O'Keeffe Lord Smith B.Camporeale L.Camporeale Monahan Charleson E.Hollands/Wilson
I think Lewis Young will be playing. He had a good year last season, but he had a bad season the year before. I always think we need a tall defender around 200cm. If Harry O'Farrell was available he would be an automatic selection for me and Young is the only player on our list that meets this requirement.
My philosophy is that they would not recruit someone unless they were planning to play them. So all our recruits will play except for Reidy unless Pittonett is injured. Also this thread is name the team for the opening round. I also look at who is not going to play, but are good enough, and I have broken that into two groups, younger guys coming through and more senior guys. Senior guys who will miss out are Fogarty, McGovern, Acres, Kemp, Haynes, Carroll, Boyd and Cottrell. If O'Farrell wasn't injured L.Young would miss out. If E.Hollands is on the list he would be on this list. If White is on the list, he would be on the next list. The young guys who will miss out are Wilson, L.Camporeale, B.Camporeale, Charleson, Evans and F.Young. What this tells me is the depth of the side is fine but until the season starts we won't know about the quality. At this stage I am not convinced about the quality.
In the draft and trading period, Silvagni, TDK, Durdin and Curnow left, Docherty retired and Fantasia, Binns, Lemmey and Cinotta were delisted as well as either E.Hollands or White. This means ten players went out of the playing list and they were replaced by Ainsworth, Florent, Hayward, Reidy and Chesser, with Dean, Ison and Byrne Drafted. On top of this Smith and Newman were unavailable due to injury and are available this season. The question is, "Are the ten players who are available this year better than than ten players who have left?" To my mind at the top end, losing TDK and Curnow will be a loss, but overall I think this year's list is in better shape than what it was last year. What we won't know until the season starts proper is who has improved, who has dropped off and what injuries we ill have. I think we did alright in this years draft and trade period considering the hand we were dealt, And at this point of time we have ,our draft capital available for next year is greater what we would normally be entitled to. This the first time I can remember this happening. In the past we have always traded away future draft picks so next year we will be in a position to make a real charge at the draft. The challenge for us is to get out of that dead zone of finishing seventh to twelfth.
Looking at those past finishes, Carlton has been in the dead zone. There are reasons and explanations but facts are facts. I am reasonably confident about how this year's trade and draft went, despite players we lost, but we should know pretty early whether we are going to be mediocre again this year.
I have been travelling around New Zealand over the past few weeks so I missed the PF against Brisbane. The thing about NZ is that they seem to have 100 TV Channels and none of them having anything worth watching. However I did get to catch a replay of the PF and it confirms what I thought was going to happen. Our girls had played in WA on a five day break, two finals and then played Brisbane up in Queensland. The team definitely ran out of energy. I think we would gave done better against Melbourne simply for the fact that we would not have had to travel. Since 1995, there has been four occasions where Carlton appeared to be on verge of Premiership success, 1999-2001, 2010-13, 2020-21 for the AFLW side and 2021-23, and each time we have stuffed it up by believing it was going to happen bu osmosis and not by improving the playing squad, which lead to chaos around the Coach and within the administration. Once again we are now on the verge of success with our AFLW team and it is really important that we bring in players that will strengthen the squad and that we do not lose players that lead to the squad being weakened. The lack of depth really hurt us in the end and probably cost us against Sydney and St Kilda. We need to be in the top two next year. Next season Darcy Vescio and Breann Harrington should both play their 100th games which will be great for the Club. From a team perspective however, you would want both of them to be really fighting for their spots in the side because the team has improved. Three years ago the Club devised a plan for our AFLW team and they have basically stuck to it. The lesson is that unless you stick to a plan there is no way you will know as to whether the plan will work or not. Sticking to a plan has not been the strength of Carlton over the past thirty years.
Carlton played pretty well before the lightning break. They obviously got a bit comfortable sitting on their bikes. The last ten minutes was better again. Bohanna is clearly very important to us. She provides a focus and structure that we missed over the past two weeks. Valardo and Gruen played well as well. Experience is important in finals. Carlton will have played six of the of the other top nine teams and normally seven wins from twelve games would get you into finals but WCE have had a far easier draw, which the AFL should fix by having all sides playing one another in a season, but the AFL isn't serious about women's football. They always tell you what is wrong and never focus on it's strengths or the opportunity. Now Carlton has to go to Perth on a five day break to ensure it's place in the finals. I believe Carlton is a better side and hopefully they will play to their ability and win.
With Curnow, TDK, Silvagni and McGovern gone, Lewis Young will probably be our most important player next season. If he can hold down CHB it will go a long way to ensuring we have a better season next year. Had a pretty good year last season.
I thought Freo were the better team overall on the night but we took our chances. I didn't think our forwards gelled this week as a unit. While the general kicking has improved over the years it is still the big weakness in the women's game which is why Darcy Vescio is such a weapon. She is the one player at the Club, men and women, who can actually kick the ball. The knock on boys when growing up was 'he played like a girl' but the women's game is contested and hard and one of continual tackling. There are times I wish our mens team would play like girls. Our midfield will work better when Abbey McKay returns. Good support for Freo at the game and I think the Carlton team is worth getting behind. At five and two we should make the finals but still need to win a couple more games.
