(07-24-2018, 07:46 AM)WASurfer link Wrote:New to this but just needed a forum to vent the frustration that most Blues fans are feeling at the moment. Yes, injuries have hurt, but the lack of depth and quality is there for all to see when some of the blokes getting games are just not AFL level. I was keen to see what Shaw offered but his two games have been dreadful....poor skills and decision making. Nick Graham will get 40+ possessions in the VFL and come back into the seniors and show why he's one of those in-between players. Turns it over far too often.

I know O'Brien is very young and in his first season but would love to know what the recruiters saw in him that warranted giving up a top 10 draft pick. Have watched a lot of games on TV this year and saw the Lions game live and he turns it over more than Andrew Carazzo! And I don't want to hear the term "elite runner"....no point in being an elite runner if you turn it over every time you get it. Elite running at Carlton is only good because you're chasing tail all day.

The concern is that of the young blokes drafted in the last 3 years, only Curnow looks like he's up to it at this stage. So many young blokes at other clubs have flourished in their first and second years but not at Carlton...and that's been a trait for a long time for some reason. Ross Lyon gets a lot of -ve criticism over this way for his coaching but he's playing a lot of young blokes and plenty of them look up to it already.....Brayshaw, Cerra, Banfield etc.

The club took the official position it didn't want a priority pick!!! WTF....we might not want it but we sure as hell need it. If it's there, take it...it could be pick 2, 3 or 4 depending on which way the AFL go and depending on a compensation pick Gold Coast will get for Lynch. But if we can get it then seriously look at trading pick 1 to Adelaide for a combination of later first round picks or be bold and demand a quality player. Please don't blow more picks on picking up fringe players from other clubs who don't do anything for our list...we've got enough of those already.

The club could easily clean out another 10 list cloggers at the end of this season.

(07-24-2018, 10:48 PM)IvanAwfulbigone link Wrote:@WAsurfer

I agree with everything you’ve said.  I have to bite my tongue whenever posters on here or anyone in the media says “the talent is there ...”.

Is it? I’ve heard it so much i’m starting to think there’s something wrong with my eyes or I know nothing about football despite having attended roughly 1,000 Carlton games over 50 years.

(07-24-2018, 11:48 PM)Thryleon link Wrote:I can only go by my opinion, and once again I believe the talent is genuinely there, we are only seeing it for bits and pieces of the game.

At the end of this season, I am going to show a table of our players average time on ground percentage (some of which will be thrown out by mid game injury) but I think we are going to find that we have a large number of players spending a lot of time on the ground at advanced ages, and the younger players spending significantly less time on ground.

(07-24-2018, 11:57 PM)DJC link Wrote:I think that there is talent there ... but it is spread too thin and hasn’t been given time to mature.

I suspect that we will have quite a few players who have spent more time on the ground than is usual.  Several games with a reduced bench will have contributed to that but I reckon that we are asking a lot of our players and they are feeling it.

(07-25-2018, 12:03 AM)Thryleon link Wrote:Earlier this season I saw 34 year old Kade Simpson registering 95% plus time on ground percentages, and he hasnt exactly been marking space in back pocket all season.

Ditto Ed Curnow who is pretty much an everywhere man.

The kids were in the 60's (kennedy, DOw, SPS).  If you have 4 players playing less than 3/4 of football, you are effectively using one bench spot on them each quarter meaning everyone else is significantly impacted.

(07-25-2018, 12:23 AM)deags link Wrote:Something that for me at least gets forgotten in the "play the kids" mentality. The impact of that rotation down on other players is quite significant, and we are being forced to play more and more of the kids.