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Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #90


Who was those fans that were complaining it was top heavy?

As best as i can recall, there was only 1 person who suggested as much and it was based purely on heights rather than ability to play the positions, and that was DJC.

Don't recall anyone else saying that.

I think your recall may be faulty, Kruddler.  I'd prefer a top heavy team over a vertically-challenged team, provided that the big lads can play footy.

Was it not you who was saying we didn't need anymore talls because the number on our list was the same as the number on other lists??

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #91


I think your recall may be faulty, Kruddler.  I'd prefer a top heavy team over a vertically-challenged team, provided that the big lads can play footy.

Was it not you who was saying we didn't need anymore talls because the number on our list was the same as the number on other lists??


Yes, but that was before we lost four talls and got only one back. However, my position has always been that there's no point adding talls if they can't play.

I'm a firm believer in the "a good big man will always beat a good little man" adage but with "good" being the operative word.
"Negative waves are not helpful. Try saying something righteous and hopeful instead." Oddball

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #92


Was it not you who was saying we didn't need anymore talls because the number on our list was the same as the number on other lists??


Yes, but that was before we lost four talls and got only one back. However, my position has always been that there's no point adding talls if they can't play.

I'm a firm believer in the "a good big man will always beat a good little man" adage but with "good" being the operative word.

Thats the point, the past....not now.

I think you've misread something somewhere.

LP was stating fans were sayong we were top heavy in the past....when we had lemmey etc.

You were the only one i ever heard suggesting anything of the sort.

In short.....LP is talking BS again.

Just like the afl screwed up by playing the game on a friday night.....just a mere 96k there for a sellout crowd.

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #93


Yes, but that was before we lost four talls and got only one back. However, my position has always been that there's no point adding talls if they can't play.

I'm a firm believer in the "a good big man will always beat a good little man" adage but with "good" being the operative word.

Thats the point, the past....not now.

I think you've misread something somewhere.

LP was stating fans were sayong we were top heavy in the past....when we had lemmey etc.

You were the only one i ever heard suggesting anything of the sort.

In short.....LP is talking BS again.

Just like the afl screwed up by playing the game on a friday night.....just a mere 96k there for a sellout crowd.

Again, I don’t believe that I ever suggested that we were top heavy.  I did point out that our ratio of talls to smalls in 2025 was similar to most other clubs.

For the record, I’m a two ruckmen kind of guy … provided that the two ruckmen can both have an impact when they’re not rucking.
"Negative waves are not helpful. Try saying something righteous and hopeful instead." Oddball

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #94
@kruddler You do realise people are free to go back and see what was written, I suspect you're betting they won't be bothered. But they will all remember the debates around KPPs and Rucks, it must be burned into their retina! :D
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"


Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #96
It's a great insight, a simple message delivered clearly, you can't leave that meeting not understanding clearly what Fraser thinks, and why you should not be celebrating the season too much while still taking some positives from the short achievement.
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #97


Thats the point, the past....not now.

I think you've misread something somewhere.

LP was stating fans were sayong we were top heavy in the past....when we had lemmey etc.

You were the only one i ever heard suggesting anything of the sort.

In short.....LP is talking BS again.

Just like the afl screwed up by playing the game on a friday night.....just a mere 96k there for a sellout crowd.

Again, I don’t believe that I ever suggested that we were top heavy.  I did point out that our ratio of talls to smalls in 2025 was similar to most other clubs.

For the record, I’m a two ruckmen kind of guy … provided that the two ruckmen can both have an impact when they’re not rucking.

This debate has waged in many threads but ill summarise as follows from my memory:

We havent recruited enough talls often enough was one perspective along with too many smalls.
The opposing perspective was that we have recruited plenty of each type but all of them have shortfalls at AFL level, which results in we need more of everything.

Sometimes the argument was then paraphrased into assuming that this meant we had enough, but the reality (according to me) is, that we were gambling on our good players staying fit, because they were all guns, and then trying to fill the gaps between them.   This rehash and paraphrasing is why it was a never ending debate, because as we see in this topic, the opposing viewpoint was dismissed because it was transformed into a different argument about who was more right, rather than what was more right.

Which was the most pressing need?  Turns out, that both was correct on this years evidence.  Im not sure we have missed the talls, but getting in Ainsworth, Florent, Hayward, Evans, Jagga and co was tantamount to turning things around because we got halfway through a list build, sacked the list manager, sacked the coach because we needed to win, and ended up with a mish mash of aging players that couldnt help us take the next step any longer and failed to fill the gaps.

I think thats about as close as it gets to summarising.  The irony is not lost on me, that last season, we delisted Harry Lemmy to go with the departing JSOS, TDK and Curnow situation, and still managed to cover those absences with a delisted free agent in Wade Derkson, a draftee in Harry Dean, and what was already here, and this was the doomsday scenario of losing Weitering for an elongated period of time.  Still, we do need more quality talls as on history we got a bit lucky with Mckay and Pittonet being robust, and we could use some more grunt through the running players.  With Walker coming in, and hopefully HOF returning, that means we need a more project ruck forward through the draft again and as we saw on the weekend another medium swing type because Mcgovern, Haynes and Newman arent getting any younger.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #98
The way I see it is this...
"What we should have done" is redundant, obsolete and a pointless debate.
Those responsible for that list building oversight have now departed.
They're gone.

It's like looking in the rear view mirror to see a car crash.
Look back and you're likely to miss the truck braking in front of you.

It's what matters in the future that is important.
We can all identify the gaps we think we need to fill.
If we can do it, so can Wright and Davies and their minions.

It then becomes a matter of what is available.
And we're in competition with 17 (soon 18) other clubs.
It's easy to say let's go to the Gold Coast and get King.
But King has to want to make that move, with consideration of other offers on his mind.
Negotiations only ever work 'one way' on a keyboard.
In real life there are a lot of other factors that play into a players decision as to where they play.

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #99


Again, I don’t believe that I ever suggested that we were top heavy.  I did point out that our ratio of talls to smalls in 2025 was similar to most other clubs.

For the record, I’m a two ruckmen kind of guy … provided that the two ruckmen can both have an impact when they’re not rucking.

This debate has waged in many threads but ill summarise as follows from my memory:

We havent recruited enough talls often enough was one perspective along with too many smalls.
The opposing perspective was that we have recruited plenty of each type but all of them have shortfalls at AFL level, which results in we need more of everything.

Sometimes the argument was then paraphrased into assuming that this meant we had enough, but the reality (according to me) is, that we were gambling on our good players staying fit, because they were all guns, and then trying to fill the gaps between them.   This rehash and paraphrasing is why it was a never ending debate, because as we see in this topic, the opposing viewpoint was dismissed because it was transformed into a different argument about who was more right, rather than what was more right.

Which was the most pressing need?  Turns out, that both was correct on this years evidence.  Im not sure we have missed the talls, but getting in Ainsworth, Florent, Hayward, Evans, Jagga and co was tantamount to turning things around because we got halfway through a list build, sacked the list manager, sacked the coach because we needed to win, and ended up with a mish mash of aging players that couldnt help us take the next step any longer and failed to fill the gaps.

I think thats about as close as it gets to summarising.  The irony is not lost on me, that last season, we delisted Harry Lemmy to go with the departing JSOS, TDK and Curnow situation, and still managed to cover those absences with a delisted free agent in Wade Derkson, a draftee in Harry Dean, and what was already here, and this was the doomsday scenario of losing Weitering for an elongated period of time.  Still, we do need more quality talls as on history we got a bit lucky with Mckay and Pittonet being robust, and we could use some more grunt through the running players.  With Walker coming in, and hopefully HOF returning, that means we need a more project ruck forward through the draft again and as we saw on the weekend another medium swing type because Mcgovern, Haynes and Newman arent getting any younger.
Looks like we are recruiting Amartey but do need to develop a younger key forward through the VFL for a couple of years too. Can't be relying on Gov and Kemp to be 2nd KP forwards. They did a good job overall with mid 30s goals for the year, but it's not their role, especially when McKay goes into the ruck. Kemp's a good 3rd tall, until he kicks at goal. Just noticed he kicked 39.27 this year. Some of those 27 behinds though were stinkers but that is a damn good return. If he kicked well at goal he'd have been not far short of 50 goals. Another KP forward, even the like of Amartey, will help alot. Down back, Harry O'Farrell will be back is, adds some youth to a a defence that is, in a few cases, getting on in age.

Chris Davies on SEN, Saturday said we wanted another key forward, another mid, and a running half back. Amartey, Walker and Nick Blakey will be a nice way to cover that. Blakey dependent on a few things of course. Says he was hard done by and is angry, so if that's right i'm good with it, but we have to wait until we see what comes out first.

Every side has their holes but be nice to cover as many as possibly. After finishing "top of the ladder" after round 10 we are in next year right up to our neck. We need to recruit well to take advantage, and the player attitude to continue on as it finished this year. May not get a better chance.

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #100
When the bough breaks ...........

Started off like we wanted to really win it, finished like we were still being coached by Voss.

We played Hawthorn a while back in the rain and got spanked, tonight we didn't handle the slippery conditions again. It's clearly an issue that needs to be addressed.

What is also of serious concern to me is that some of our players who have been adequate for many weeks, crumbled under the pressure and did some extremely stupid things.

Young & Cottrell were braindead tonite, some of the things they did completely defy logic. Kemp going for the left foot checkside from the right forward pocket only to kick the ball in the middle and float it across goal to the opposite pocket where Cottrell took a chest mark. From the set shot, Cottrell kicked across the body and hit the post - two appalling choices let down by poor skills. I also wasn't impressed with Cottrell laughing when he hit the post, seriously champ, this is a cut-throat final which requres a little more focus than what you showed.

We got a few bum decisions from the umpires but that is not why we lost, we failed to maintain the pressure & chase like we have seen for many weeks.

Fraser got a coaching lesson tonite, we were all over them early and made them look second-rate, Scott made some subtle changes and they stormed back into the match.

Yes, it's been a really weird year for us with plenty to like but this elimination final showed just how far off the pace our list is and how we cannot cut corners in our pursuit for the ultimate success.

    


Scott definitely made some tweaks, they really got us on the counter and outside by backing themselves to sit a couple off the contest.
Fraser didnt adjust the long kicks to Harry. Not sure how many marks he took but every mark he didnt mark it, when the bal hit the ground Geel punished us by taking it away. They needed to put it bed because Geel were waiting for it every single time.
Our fwd line looked dysfunctional by large tonight, Stewart seem to gobble up everything, we played into their hands (literally).


Spot on

When it turned;

They had numbers just outside the contest, they cut off our handball out of the contest and had numbers to attack themselves.   fraser didnt react to this

We all kept saying, at the ground - "do something with stewart" - should have manned cottrell up on him and tried to negate him.  i know it was wet, but it was horrible to see the bombs down the line to H, again.  felt like someone else was back in the coaches box

dean going off didnt help
no haynes to go to danger didnt help
the rain didnt help
the 6 day break didnt help

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #101
@kruddler You do realise people are free to go back and see what was written, I suspect you're betting they won't be bothered. But they will all remember the debates around KPPs and Rucks, it must be burned into their retina! :D

Be my guest.

When others show you things from the past, you refuse to read them.

Now you want others to go back and find something to back up what you've said?

You provide the claim. You provide the evidence.

The ONE person i thought you could be referencing has distanced himself from those assertions, so good luck with that.

I'm sure there has been someone, somewhere that has said something alnog those lines at one point in time......but to imply that it was a widespread belief, is flat out BS.

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #102
I'm sure there has been someone, somewhere that has said something alnog those lines at one point in time......but to imply that it was a widespread belief, is flat out BS.
My point was being made about fans who flip not a statement about the head count or populist vote, that's something you've assumed.

Whether it's 1% or 50%, it's not the count that matters it's the flip.

Much of the wider fan base only sort issue with talls recruiting after Charlie left, so many had argued we couldn't run both Harry and Charlie, a lot of the same very same loud critics complained we needed Mids and were too slow and heavy before that. It's pretty straight forward summary and can't be questioned because it's there in the posts and the quotes. If any want to back over previous claims and deny the flip then the record is there for cross checking.

Some probably still have nightmares about it! ;D
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

 

Re: AFL EF#1 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Geelong

Reply #103
Considering that after round 5 i had our season done and dusted. What Fraser and the team managed to do for the rest of the year was amazing.
On Tonight, i thought Geelong where very well drilled on what to expect from and and it showed. Yes some umpiring decision were quote a musing.

Lets see how we now do over the trade period and see who we can bring in to makes us better.

Go Blues