2018 - What do you expect from the club?

[DJC]

My sources from his home town tell me he's very happy to stay at GC now the coaching situation is resolved. It's funny how back during the season homesickness was an issue, change the coach and things are again rosey. But I know two Melbourne clubs who will go hard at him, and they both have home town locals on the board.

His recent presser was classic "I'm out of here at the end of the season!" But you never know until the deal is done.

[spf]

And little Zac. Sammo of course is ambidextrous, or whatever you call the foot version  :

I didn't know Dow was a left footer - he seems a right foot player from what I have seen. Lochie O'Brien is heavily left footed, not sure about the others - actually De Koning is a lefty as well.

[DJC]

You're missing the point.

We certainly could have got Smith and Rockliff if we had paid significant overs.... the GWS blokes that chose to stay, for the moment, well no one else snared them either, did they?

Stringer, Smith and Saad are hardly world beaters.

Bit like the blokes that Port picked up - lots of meh, maybe, no thanks imo.

Garlett, Lang and Kennedy are a better trio any day.

And although obviously too early to call re the recent draftees but name a Club that has done better thsn the Blues in the last 3 national drafts?

I tend to agree FB and I like that the club won't throw the bank at blokes who aren't worth it.  Rockliff sounded like a good mature replacement for Gibbs but he's no world beater and Kennedy is a better bet for many reasons.

Smith? Wouldn't have made much difference ... except to our bank balance!  Saad is an ordinary player and Stringer could be good, or a disaster.  Did we really have an interest in Stringer or was it his manager trying to drive up his price?

Silvagni is really focused on good character when deciding who he wants and I'm not sure that greed is one of character attributes he's looking for 

[flyboy77]

I still believe we'll either get Wines in 2019 or Kelly the following year.

That in itself, should be enough to entice a Tom Lynch but my question is if Harry and/or Kerr come on in 2018 (with Da King and Ben S as raw KPP types) is he going to be worth the massive $?

[PaulP]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-02/be...e-for-2018

[Gointocarlton]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-02/be...e-for-2018

Cant disagree with much of that except for Willo who is a walk up start in the best 22 IMO. With Doc out Willo goes in for mine.
Simmo and Daisy will be a watch and see but their days are numbered I would have thought.

B: Kade Simpson, Liam Jones, Caleb Marchbank
HB: Sam Docherty, Jacob Weitering, Lachie Plowman
C: Sam Petrevski-Seton, Patrick Cripps, Matthew Kennedy
HF: Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay, Matthew Wright
F: Jack Silvagni, Levi Casboult, Jarrod Pickett
Foll: Matthew Kreuzer, Ed Curnow, Marc Murphy
I/C: Paddy Dow, Zac Fisher, Darcy Lang, Dale Thomas

DEPTH

General defenders: Ciaran Byrne, Cillian McDaid, Aaron Mullett, Cameron O’Shea, Alex Silvagni, Tom Williamson
Key defenders: Jesse Glass-McCasker, Harrison Macreadie, Sam Rowe
Midfielders: David Cuningham, Nick Graham, Sam Kerridge, Lochie O’Brien, Angus Schumacher, Matt Shaw
General forwards: Jarrod Garlett, Jed Lamb, Kym Lebois, Cameron Polson
Key forwards: Tom De Koning, Patrick Kerr
Ruckmen: Matthew Lobbe, Andrew Phillips

[flyboy77]

Garlett will be in the 22 Round 1.

[blue4life]

Minus Gibbs and Docherty my expectations have taken a hit.
Trading Gibbs was a no brainer seeing as he would have walked at the end of 2018 anyway, and we got a better deal than whatever lame compensation the AFL would have given us for a 30 year old who is short of A grade.
Docherty is a bigger loss IMO, but at least it's better to lose him for a season now that at this time next year, we have some very promising young running backs but none of them in his class.
A lot hinges on Harry McKay and whether Pickett or Garlett can establish themselves as genuine AFL footballers, if everything goes our way and we have a reasonable run with injury we could give the 8 a shake, but for that to happen we need to score an extra three goals a game minimum and it's hard to see where they're going to come from.
I really can't see Jack Silvagni developing into a multiple goal a game player, he's honest and talented but he'll never be high impact.
Charlie Curnow might kick plenty if his kicking improves, but it's a big if and he'll probably kick almost as many points as goals.

[Baggers]

You're missing the point.

We certainly could have got Smith and Rockliff if we had paid significant overs.... the GWS blokes that chose to stay, for the moment, well no one else snared them either, did they?

Stringer, Smith and Saad are hardly world beaters.

Bit like the blokes that Port picked up - lots of meh, maybe, no thanks imo.

Garlett, Lang and Kennedy are a better trio any day.

And although obviously too early to call re the recent draftees but name a Club that has done better thsn the Blues in the last 3 national drafts?

I suspect you believe that I am missing YOUR point. So, how about this... your point seems to be that some of who we targetted in the trade week and a bit we had no chance of getting as they stayed put, some weren't that good anyway and Rockcliff went to PA for money - how do we know this for sure? And bearing all that in mind, we've done really well to get Kennedy, Lang etc. Yes, I get that point and have no trouble agreeing... besides, the option is a little grim. However, you seemed to have missed my point, which is, simply, we didn't succeed at getting a few of our primary targets. No more complicated than that. Put another way, had we secured Rockcliff, Saad and say Hopper, do you think we'd have Kennedy and Lang now? Probably not.

And in the fullness of time, who knows... maybe we'll get Sloane next year and Kelly the year after, and Kennedy and Lang turn out to be guns and Mullett and Shaw turn out to be more than useful? Fingers crossed.

As far as the draft goes, I totally agree that there does not seem to be any club that has done as well as us in the past 3 drafts...

[mateinone]

There is a lot of assumption around Rockliff and him choosing Port for money. Is there any proof that the money we offered was more, the same, or less?

We quickly assume a club who turns us down chose more money elsewhere, but it is hardly like we have been a destination club for top talent.

I don't know what money Rocky is on, but I do know that we went after him and he chose Port above us, indicating finals as being a key reason. Whether that is true or not, it holds a lot more weight than pure speculation he went for more money than we were offering.

Oh & I don't actually care that he didn't come, I just find it weird the assumptions that get made when a player doesn't come to us.

It is not like we have gone through a number of coaches with limited success, 10 years of hardly playing finals, 4 wooden spoons in about 15 years, another couple of bottom 4 finishes or been as much of an easy beat as the team he just left...
Oh wait... Come to think of it...