Carlton 2017 - Review

[Jean-Claude]

I think it is mids all around.

Having much better footballers than Graham, Smedts, Boekhurts, Kerridge using the football would make the world of difference.

Yep basically that. Can't have these guys as our midfield depth/fringe. To be a solid AFL mid you have to be able to win your own ball and have good disposal as a minimum, unfortunately those guys all lack in at least one of those aspects if not both.

As a team I did not expect much, felt it was always another development year. Bolts will move to the next stage of development of the team and game plan and try to be more attacking after this year was spent on defensive structures. This time next year will be interesting.

[Gointocarlton]

And some goal kickers.

And to get rid of more scrubbers from our list.

This will happen naturally.

[blue4life]

To be honest I wasn't expecting much from this season and even though our win/loss ratio is poor we've been more competitive in more games than I thought that we would.
I doubt that we'll improve radically next season but for the first time in what seems like centuries we finally have a sizeable group of talented young players coming through together, not just a Murphy, Gibbs and Kreuzer and then zilch.
Petrevski-Seton, Curnow, Weitering, Cripps, Docherty, Plowman, Marchbank, Silvagni, Byrne, Fisher, Cunningham, Williamson and McKay are all under 25 and their scope for improvement is enormous, Liam Jones has been an unexpected but very important bonus and he's just past his mid 20's.
If we draft and trade well again this year and next the sky is the limit, I'm actually optimistic about the future for the first time in ages.

[maxm68]

Petrevski-Seton, Curnow, Weitering, Cripps, Docherty, Plowman, Marchbank, Silvagni, Byrne, Fisher, Cunningham, Williamson and McKay are all under 25 and their scope for improvement is enormous, Liam Jones has been an unexpected but very important bonus and he's just past his mid 20's.
If we draft and trade well again this year and next the sky is the limit, I'm actually optimistic about the future for the first time in ages.

x 2

If Weitering was 22 or 23 I'd be worried..... but he's 19 in his second year he'll be fine.

[cookie2]

To be honest I wasn't expecting much from this season and even though our win/loss ratio is poor we've been more competitive in more games than I thought that we would.
I doubt that we'll improve radically next season but for the first time in what seems like centuries we finally have a sizeable group of talented young players coming through together, not just a Murphy, Gibbs and Kreuzer and then zilch.
Petrevski-Seton, Curnow, Weitering, Cripps, Docherty, Plowman, Marchbank, Silvagni, Byrne, Fisher, Cunningham, Williamson and McKay are all under 25 and their scope for improvement is enormous, Liam Jones has been an unexpected but very important bonus and he's just past his mid 20's.
If we draft and trade well again this year and next the sky is the limit, I'm actually optimistic about the future for the first time in ages.

Agree. We are in the early stages of a painful transition. We'll take another step forward with this year's draft/trade IMO. I'm not too concerned about Weitering either tbh. He's still very young and could do with a break from the heat of senior AFL footy, which he'll be getting very soon.

[Vivian]

Feel very positive. We have got plenty of games into players and developing a style that will win us more than lose in the longer term.

Our back line is stabilising well, with a set of roles emerging that shows the team is able to stick to a structure.

We have an emerging spine of Jones or silvagni, weitering, curnow. McKay has plenty of potential and just a shame he is unlikely to get some more experience this year.

Weitering will be fine. We want tough, resiliant players to be our leaders. Provided he works through the challenge, this year is an excellent development for him. He is only 19.

So we need midfielders. Great, as midfielders are more available to draft and trade.  The middle is also a team effort more, making the return on coaching and development greater.

Given the youth, we have done OK this year. The many close games show we are maintaining shape and concentration.  The possession heavy defensive style is fine by me. That's what wins over a long season and in finals.  Expect scoring to increase next year as the back line works and the midfield gets a bit more depth.

[Wet Willie]

If you look at the past 5-10 seasons, at this time of year we were being smashed by 8-10 goals more often than not.

This season we are obviously young, tired and injuries have thinned our stocks, but we are not being smashed game after game.

As annoying as this week was, we only lost by a goal and, again, we were leading in the last quarter.

These kids, who had hardly even played their first match a year ago, are playing against players (grown men) who have been at it for ten years and have "superstar" next to their names - and we do OK...

[blue4life]

x 2

If Weitering was 22 or 23 I'd be worried..... but he's 19 in his second year he'll be fine.

I'm not remotely concerned about his long term future, in fact I think it will do him more good than harm to be beaten by some mature bodied forwards like Hooker early in his career.
He's been used to beating everyone he played on at junior level and the realisation that AFL is a different matter will stand him in good stead, he has all of the attributes of a top class footballer.

[ElwoodBlues1]

You have to measure improvement also vs other teams, while we have improved I'm not so sure its at the same rate as some other teams, truth is teams like the Swans, Cats and to a lesser extent the Hawks have not dropped off like they are meant to and have rebuilt on the sly with no bottoming out.  We got beat by a bunch of kids in Brisbane who also ran the Bulldogs close last night... are we just on par with Brisbane in reality?
Sure have we improved but are we improving at the right rate to progress up the ladder and when are these other teams who are meant to be dropping away going to do so and become the easybeats like we have been.
I'm not so sure this year has been that great to be honest and if not for our rising star nominees and the rebirth of Liam Jones I wouldnt be giving it a pass.

[blue4life]

I'm not talking about Premierships EB, all that I'm saying is that at long last I'm happy with the direction we're heading and the methods we're using to get there.
Whether it will lead to the ultimate success nobody knows but I'm as confident as I can be that within two or three years we'll be a consistently competitive outfit.