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23
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Collingwood
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: dodge – on
I am a little surprised at some of the strong comments about Friday night (I did end up watching most of it):
 - it wasn't a great side selected and going to lose by plenty.
 - there have been doubts for ages about Cripps', Weiters' fitness and chat about Curnow's.  Leaving them out for who to come in?
 

I suggested last week that Ben come in for Cripps and Lemmey come in for Charlie.

What could we lose by giving them a game?
Lost by 70 instead of 50-odd?
Give them a start and see what happens. Playing an injured and out of form Cripps and Charlie helped us work out.....what exactly?

We are not in a position that we try and win at all costs right now. So lets try and get at least some benefit from it by learning about the kids.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 17 2025 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Collingwood
Last post by dodge -
I am a little surprised at some of the strong comments about Friday night (I did end up watching most of it):
 - it wasn't a great side selected and going to lose by plenty.
 - there have been doubts for ages about Cripps', Weiters' fitness and chat about Curnow's.  Leaving them out for who to come in?
 - Playing a heap of 'kids' at once doesn't do them favours if they have no guidance/not enough support on the ground - we continue to see this.
 - some players shake hands before a game.  Charlie did the equivalent.  What's the big deal?
 - one of our biggest weaknesses for a very long time has been player development. 
 - we are not a highly skilled side and often miss (easy) targets.  We play as if they are going to be hit, so find it hard to recover when the opposition pick us off.  Lot of energy wasted trying to make amends.  This is getting worse the deeper down the list we go, which has to affect morale and confidence.
 - we seem to try to get 'hail Mary' player selections.  Doesn't pay off very often.
 - An issue of having (seemingly) highly paid top 6-8, is that the $$ are tighter further down, which will make it hard to attract enough quality players.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 18 2025 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Brisbane
Last post by PaulP -
Quote from: Lods – on
Totally agree.
Part of the issue is that some of the players you mention (Weitering, Cripps) are forced to carry an extra load because of missing parts of the structure.
It also means they lack the support that would normally allow them to play their natural games.

McKay, Curnow and especially Walsh are injury carrying/ susceptible.
They're a different kettle of fish.
I'd add Jack to that list because he's become an important part of the defensive structure this year and a support for Weitering.
To me their effectiveness and returning to something approaching their best (and that includes their durability and consistency of performance) is very much a wait and see.

That all sounds pretty reasonable to me.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 18 2025 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Brisbane
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: PaulP – on
To put it another way, I still believe that Harry, Charlie, Walsh, Cripps, Weitering etc still have within them the potential to play much better than they're playing now. I don't believe they've fallen off a cliff.

Totally agree.
Part of the issue is that some of the players you mention (Weitering, Cripps) are forced to carry an extra load because of missing parts of the structure.
It also means they lack the support that would normally allow them to play their natural games.

McKay, Curnow and especially Walsh are injury carrying/ susceptible.
They're a different kettle of fish.
I'd add Jack to that list because he's become an important part of the defensive structure this year and a support for Weitering.
To me their effectiveness and returning to something approaching their best (and that includes their durability and consistency of performance) is very much a wait and see.
27
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: VFL Rd 15 2025 Carlton vs Collingwood
Last post by crashlander -
Quote from: ElwoodBlues1 – on
Quote from: crashlander – on
I don't mean to be offensive, but how in God's name did Denver Grainger-Barras get selected so high? I can't say that I've seen much of him before, but he reminded me more of Monahan last season, or Duffy this season. He doesn't look smooth, he's awkward and doesn't run to the right spots ...
Granted that he was useful last night, but ...

I think he has done his dash as a defender. Do we persevere with him as a forward? He ended up getting enough ball to be dangerous and he does leap well (although he doesn't always get close to it). His kicking ... his kicking reminded more of Percy Jones, to be honest.
Be a No from me on DGB, heard some unflattering stuff about his training attitude at Hawthorn and being full of himself.
God, he can turn gold in faeces! He did some great things, only to muck them up. I'd be be playing him forward, as we really don't have any marking forwards left at the moment, but he doesn't look to be the future.
29
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 18 2025 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Brisbane
Last post by PaulP -
Lods. I appreciate that. I would suggest that when a team is struggling, you won't find players in good form, whether that's AA form or something else. There is clearly a list wide malaise that is affecting all our players, whether they have been A grade or not. Injuries are as you say clearly another contributing factor. IMO, I would not think what we see at the moment is the ceiling for any of our players going forward, whether they are stars or not.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 18 2025 Pre Game Prognostications Carlton vs Brisbane
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: PaulP – on
Whether or not these players can reach their previous lofty heights is IMO a secondary consideration. The real issue IMO is whether they can get back to playing consistent good quality football. I'd suggest plenty of good footballers are never even AA in the first place. The fall can be marginal, and can be recoverable. Hopefully the journey is not one way.

I think the debate stemmed form the fact that because we had A grade quality on every line we should be doing better...and that was backed up by a list of our AA players

The response was, that while at one time they may have been AA, injury and age means that they are currently not producing that A grade form.

Some like Docherty are close to the end, Saad may have a year or two left.
Haynes is performing well, though is probably not too far from his final games, also maybe one or two years at the most (I'd like to see him transition into a coaching position with us)

Good football vs Career best football for the rest?
There are some high standards there-Brownlows, Colemans.
Just about everyone mentioned is capable of good/excellent football games.
Best ever???
Consistently???