SPS

[capcom]

He needs to recover his tackling ability and work on his linking with slick passes by hand and foot.  I'm somewhat hopeful

[Blue Moon]

If our back line is to come from SPS, Weitering, Marchbank, Docherty, Jones, Saad, Plowman, Newman & Williamson, with back ups from William, Casboult, Silvagni & McGovern, then we are in pretty good shape.

[LP]

I don't think our D50 has been a problem for years.

As far as I'm concerned, teams mostly score heavily against us because of a lack of run and chase from our F50 and Mids!

Fans go ballistic at guys like Plowman, SPS and Weitering for being too slow, losing their direct opponent, etc., etc., but they can't be left to frequently guard 2 or 3 opponents(Usually an opposition Forward supported by his Mids or even HBFs) and then expected our guys to come out winners every time, and it happens too often! In the meantime our Mids or Forwards are hanging around the 50m arc waiting for the turnover, or sprinting to the bench for a breather instead of sprinting after an opponent!

How many times playing against the Ferals do you see a Feral Mid blocking our Defender's run to give the Feral Forward a free run, it's like the Feral coach has it on replay! If you have a wide field view you get to watch our Mids running to the interchange as this is happening in the opposition's forward pocket!

Carlton Forwards and Mids have to hunt opponents over the whole playing surface, not just when they are within kicking range of goal!

[Thryleon]

We concede most of our goals from the turnover.

That usually happens when a team is switching from defense to attack, and then a turnover occurs.

I think one of our previous stats was conceding from turnovers where we were ranked at the wrong end of that scale and one of the reasons 2020 was positive for us, was that trend was well and truly reversed. 

[Gointocarlton]

I thought SPS began to look a lot better this year imo, and restored some faith that he may well become a very good player for us. Prior to that I definitely had significant doubts about him.

I don't see it personally, still looks like he picks and chooses, dinky 15m sideways, frustrates the bejesus out of me. I'll lay London to a Brick that if he played for another mob, many here wouldn't rate him and would be very critical of him.

[flyboy77]

I don't see it personally, still looks like he picks and chooses, dinky 15m sideways, frustrates the bejesus out of me. I'll lay London to a Brick that if he played for another mob, many here wouldn't rate him and would be very critical of him.

What are you expecting to see from a young bloke (22, 80 games) and played out of position?

Would any other team play him o the HBF?

This guy is an easy B grader, possible A grader.

Others have far more issues.

[DJC]

I don't see it personally, still looks like he picks and chooses, dinky 15m sideways, frustrates the bejesus out of me. I'll lay London to a Brick that if he played for another mob, many here wouldn't rate him and would be very critical of him.

I don’t see that at all ?

I see a super-competitive, hard-nosed footballer who always tries to do the right thing for the team, but occasionally makes the wrong decision.  I also see a bloke who is played out of position but is working his butt off to make that position his own.

I think that Samo is a bit like Gibbsy in that he polarises supporters, perhaps because they both seem to take their time sizing up the situation before committing to the best option.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I think the general perception of SPS is that he picks and chooses his battles and can lack intenstity...think it was the Gold Coast game where Lachie Weller ran away from him and goaled and there wasnt much effort in chasing but then he played a very good game vs Essendon on Tippa and kept him quiet.
Agree he is being played out of position but that seems to be the case with many players these days and its all part of modern footy. His contract expires end of 2021, be interesting to see his and the clubs approach and how keen both parties are to commit to each other..

[Professer E]

I note EB in that SPS communication  that Amos outlined that Kemp was to be trained in a defensive role (intercept defender)  which raised an eyebrow.  As I keep posting in rebuttal to some musings on this site,  Kemp is not a midfielder and expectations that he was to fill such a role were unrealistic.  It makes our list build look a bit weird if we are specifically drafting a 191 CM utility style  player for that role.  Surely we can field a decent defensive unit from the plethora of defensive options without pushing the likes of Kemp and SPS back?

[LP]

Prior to his injury Kemp was playing in the midfield rotations, he was filling a Charlie type role for his team as a marking target and big bodied midfielder, and it was that duality of role that caught the recruiters attention. Although it was all clearly new to him, it wasn't like he was a career mid.

Fans often ignore things like growth spurts and Kemp grew about 8cm towards the end of his junior career, prior to that he was looking more like a Docherty marking defender type than Charlie mid.

Kemp has always been a reasonable ball user, I don't see him competing with Doc, SPS or Saad for the HBF role. So I wonder what will happen with Stocker, given our list changes he needs to get a wriggle on if he wants to feature! I think for Kemp and Stocker their best go is very closely aligned, sweeping the back of the stoppage and putting the ball inside F50 by foot, they are both powerful athletes.