Carlton Supporters Club

I thought we missed Daisy a bit too tonight. Too true 

Wright played up the field in his absence which wasn't as effective and robbed our forwardline of a good goal sneak. Not very effective at all.

would be good in a top line side but useless for us. For someone on his coin and with his experience, I expect a lot more when the chips are down.

Prior to this game his tackle numbers were 7, 4, 10, 7 so I don't know what happened last night.

We are faced with the problem of having to blood young players into an environment where our existing senior group has not been successful for a number of years and there are good reasons for that, one oft touted on this forum is that they didn't run both ways. So now they have to maybe work a bit harder to assist in developing those youngsters. I don't like having to play so many youngsters but that imo is the result of years of poor list management. We have to try and move forward and playing the non strategic players is not the answer. GWS had to do it albeit with draft advantages but they did it. And btw, I have no real beef with Rowe or Simpson.

All these young #1 kids ? We had 2. Krooz was drafted after Pagan was sacked.

...and we had Walker at #2.

Point remains, we've had 'rebuilds' of sort before, we've had some young emerging talent that everyone gets excited about......AND one of the best forwards in the game.
This time around, our kids seem to be more abundant, but we have less top end senior talent who will be there in the long term.
Is it possible that these kids we are relying upon might not make the jump to the next level as soon as we'd hoped (if at all)?

Time for a rethink?

I noticed that Andy McKay was in the box last night (as he was last game) with headphones on and obviously communicating with the bench.  Are we a coach down at the moment or is Macca there to free up one of the coaches to do something more productive?

I was surprised to see him in there as well, right next to Bolts. Is it common for a director of football to do this ? Maybe he's checking out Bolton's match day coaching nous.

I'm not really concerned about what Murphy, Gibbs and Simmo do, I'm only looking at our players 23 and under.

Jack Silvagni - A workman like game yet again, does the tough stuff, gets to the right places and plays a true team game. A few unrewarded chases and some dropped marks that need to be tidied up on, but a step forward. Talented player but lacks acceleration.

Weitering - Needs to be given a block of games down back, he's just not getting the ball and for a man with his talent he can set up more plays from CHB. When he went back in the third we looked a bit surer around the ball. Has outstanding ability to read the play and judge the ball in the air but accurately describes himself as slow and is not likely to get any faster unless someone does something about his running action.

Charlie Curnow - Best game so far, I doubt we can have both CC and Jack in the one forward line, just like going out drinking, keep to one or the other or you'll have a bad time. Great marks and used the ball the best he has so far. Yesterday's game whets the appetite for what might come.

Macreadie - Never afraid, decent kick and in constant motion. Is being played on smaller guys so he doesn't get smashed by the bigger frames but we have picked up a steam here. Thanks GWS for not matching our bid. I wouldn't mind using him down forward for a game or two while bringing Weitering down back to see what he could do up front. very promising

Samo - Needs to learn to move the ball quicker. Has shown great evasion skills but players are aware he will try to step them now, so a quick give will allow him to use his evasion on occasion with more effect. very promising

Fisher - Love this kid. He is a terrier who gets knocked down and gets up straight away and goes again. Always looks for the right option and has the skills to back it up. very promising

Williamson - 2nd gamer my ass! Looks in control, has a beautiful kicking style and works hard and smart. With the other talls down there hasn't had to do much in the air so I don't know how good he is there, but is a ready made replacement for Simmo at years end. very promising

Poulson - Like his attitude, loved his run down tackle and one other thing stood out to me. He was on a wing near the boundary, got the ball and gave it off to Murph, then it was instinctual, he looked at Murphs trailing player and laid a shepherd. For so long our players have not protected the ball carrier like other teams do, in Cams first game he did it. Good debut, now back it up and get better. very promising

Plowman - Starting to become Mr Reliable down back, reading the play so much better than last season and his disposal is coming up to where his junior bio read. Reminds me a bit of Peter Dean in the way he'll sacrifice his body to spoil. very impressive

Marchbank - Great instincts and love his attitude, but I think his mind is ahead of his skills. Time to use the K.I.S.S. method when getting rid of the ball. Is going to be a stud down back in the coming years. very impressive

Pickett - Loved his take off on the wing, then he ran too far but he wanted to run which opened the play up and I think gave us a one on one to advantage in forward 50 which didn't happen very often. It bugs me sometimes to see him jog behind play, be he hasn't had a full pre season yet, being injured when he came to the club and a bit chubby. has talent but needs to be less choosy about when he inserts himself into the action - hopefully the problem is a lack of fitness rather than a lack of intent

It doesn't matter this year where we finish (it's not like we have much choice), what matters is getting games of experience into these players and hopefully they learn and get better quickly.

 

...and we had Walker at #2.

Point remains, we've had 'rebuilds' of sort before, we've had some young emerging talent that everyone gets excited about......AND one of the best forwards in the game.
This time around, our kids seem to be more abundant, but we have less top end senior talent who will be there in the long term.
Is it possible that these kids we are relying upon might not make the jump to the next level as soon as we'd hoped (if at all)?

Time for a rethink?

More likely that Bolton has asked him to. Getting senior staff to the coal face is straightforward modern management practice to change perspectives. It aligns decision makers in their thinking.

These are good signs of a club that is taking a modern approach to management. Trigg has kicked alot of doors down so far.

Trade Cripps, Weiters and get multiple 1st Rnd draft picks for use in trade or drafting, I'm talking we want 4 or 5 picks under 10 that give us Plowman, Marchbank, Williamson quality players or better. Much more list depth, dramatically more list depth is required.

It will be 3 or 4 years before Cripps and Weiters hit their peak, and they have to stay fit, focused, and contracted to get to that point which by the week looks increasingly unlikely. If we break them over the next few years their value plummets and our resource is lost. At the moment it looks unlikely we'll be able to hang onto the kids like Cripps or Weiters anyway! For a team on the verge of the top 4 these guys are worth multiple draft picks!

I doubt you will get much support for this apparent heresy but I would keep an open mind because both have limitations in speed. I know that players with great talents (like Cripps and Weitering) can be dominant players without having speed (e.g. Greg Williams) but that was more than a couple of decades ago and the game has since become progressively faster and more reliant on both-way running capacity.

Additionally, both players are showing signs of frequently playing injured. This is a massive plus in relation to their intentional fortitude and commitment but, on the flip side, questions needs to be asked about whether they are physical susceptibility to injuries. Are they being injured because they have underlying weaknesses that are likely to be ongoing (possibly contributing to a shorter career) or are they getting injuries due to the combative way they play or are being required to play?

Honest assessments and discussions about their physical soundness and their long-term commitments to the club would need to be taken into consideration when considering such contentious actions.

Honest assessments and discussions about their physical soundness and their long-term commitments to the club would need to be taken into consideration when considering such contentious actions.