07-27-2015, 09:59 AM
Sadly Smith was on the money.
Carlton have fallen behind the most in areas where the best clubs have excelled in the past decade. We often refer to the draft as the basis for sustained success and no doubt this is important. But the likes of hawthorn, geelong and sydney determined this well over a decade ago and as well as the draft invested significantly in training, development and the quality of their support organisations.
The three above clubs have certainly found some fine draft picks, but they have also had plenty of failures too. They have this century looked for other areas to make marginal gains, and maintained this with organisations that support continuous improvement.
A priority pick for carlton would be great. But without significant improvement in a host of other areas it would make little difference.
If Carlton is to realise success in the future we are going to have to make enormous strides and leap frog the competition. A good comparison from another sport is that of team Sky in professional road cycling. When most other professional teams were still mopping up in the aftermath of the drug soaked era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sky took an alternate path and invested heavily in coaching and data analysis to support training, not to mention a big bag of cash. They are now reaping the rewards, having had 3 winners of the Tour de France in the past few years.
Something radical has to occur, and it is way beyond getting an excellent head coach appointed and some good draft picks. For we could do a great job in these areas yet still find ourselves mid ladder in 6 years wondering where we went wrong.
Carlton have fallen behind the most in areas where the best clubs have excelled in the past decade. We often refer to the draft as the basis for sustained success and no doubt this is important. But the likes of hawthorn, geelong and sydney determined this well over a decade ago and as well as the draft invested significantly in training, development and the quality of their support organisations.
The three above clubs have certainly found some fine draft picks, but they have also had plenty of failures too. They have this century looked for other areas to make marginal gains, and maintained this with organisations that support continuous improvement.
A priority pick for carlton would be great. But without significant improvement in a host of other areas it would make little difference.
If Carlton is to realise success in the future we are going to have to make enormous strides and leap frog the competition. A good comparison from another sport is that of team Sky in professional road cycling. When most other professional teams were still mopping up in the aftermath of the drug soaked era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sky took an alternate path and invested heavily in coaching and data analysis to support training, not to mention a big bag of cash. They are now reaping the rewards, having had 3 winners of the Tour de France in the past few years.
Something radical has to occur, and it is way beyond getting an excellent head coach appointed and some good draft picks. For we could do a great job in these areas yet still find ourselves mid ladder in 6 years wondering where we went wrong.