(07-26-2021, 07:16 AM)tonyo link Wrote:I am so tired of hanging onto players 'just in case they come good'.....
I look at the younger brigade of players that other teams are producing (think especially Swans, Lions, even Bombers), and all I can think is we are so far off the pace, it is a farce. I don't think it's about the players we have selected - it's almost not possible to get that many wrong. We just don't know how to turn a talented kid into an AFL footballer (blokes like Walsh and Weitering develop themselves, so they don't count).
Because our younger players are nowhere ready to play, there is no pressure on the myriad of list-cloggers that get a game every week and cruise around the ground like it's a Sunday picnic.
The lack of effort in the 3rd Quarter was ridiculous and embarrassing - in the end, it was the 22 in Navy Blue that must own up to the fact that they barely looked interested.
I don't think I would want to be working in the Carlton Membership department over the off-season - it would be a very difficult sell.
Quite apart from the physical and skill development, which is on the coaches and conditioning folks....
I think there are few periods in our last twenty years where we've essentially 'lost our leaders'.
The most dramatic one was probably in the early-mid Pagan years.
As the older players of the nineties retired or were moved on...
A young Marc Murphy came into a side where the leaders were guys like an aging Kouta (great player, arguably not a great leader) Lance Whitnall, Nick Stevens...and Fev
The Judd years were moderately successful but Patrick Cripps only caught the tail of that.
This was his initial leadership group in his first season 2014...
Marc Murphy ©; Andrew Carrazzo, Kade Simpson (vc), Michael Jamison (dvc), Bryce Gibbs, Lachlan Henderson, Brock McLean, Andrew Walker.
Some good, average footballers, but in terms of leadership probably only one or two had the necessary qualities.
So to the rebuild... and we look and see that only one of our 2014 leadership group remains at the club...and he is struggling to get a game.
Now with players like Weitering and Walsh we may have the nucleus of a strong leadership group, but the results of those guys influencing younger players and have them joining them in leadership positions is probably still a season or two away.
Contrast that with some of the successful clubs, where young players undergo an initiation under the guidance of strong, experienced leaders and you see another reason why we struggle.
It's a sad state that a club that once prided itself on the quality of its 'player leaders' has this more recent history of mediocrity, which has been passed down through each new generation of leaders.