Rd 2: Carlton vs. Sydney: Post Game Passion

[Vivian]

Are you saying Judd was a poor leader and that has contributed to Murphy and Gibbs lack of effort?
Really? I would have thought they looked happy to let Judd do most of the grunt work. Let's be honest, neither are Sam Mitchell types and never will be, the problem is nor are they that good on the outside.
Picking and choosing when they attack the footy is their first option, not the hawthorn or Sydney like attack on the footy.
If they had elite skills under pressure, or had blistering speed or kicked 3 or 4 goals every now and then, well great. But..... we just don't get value for money.
I really don't care what number they were drafted, it's what other players in the comp do on much smaller contracts that bothers me.
Stop making excuses for them, if they don't provide value move them on.

Only Murphy and Gibbs can contribute to the effort they make, like any player.  My point is that Judd was a brilliant footballer, one of the best I have seen, but he often played footy a bit like a cricketer  - perhaps more as an individual in a team game.  This is no slight on Judd at all - it is who he is, and given his extraordinary ability, one could put him in any side and he would be a class apart.  But he was just one player, no matter how talented and no matter how good, this cannot make up for a huge deficit in the quality of the team and organisation as a whole.

Carlton have suffered from, to paraphrase the coach, a lack of leadership density.  Murphy and Gibbs joined an organization as 18-19 year olds that was utterly lacking leadership and a culture of performance and continuous improvement.  Judd couldn't change much of this, and he did alot of heavy lifting, especially during Ratten's time as coach.

My view is not attempting to make excuses for players, rather understand how the dynamics of a team may have affected players over the years, especially in the context of impacting young inexperienced men just out of school. 

Nevertheless, both Murphy and Gibbs are good footballers, sometimes great.  They are what they are and I hope the club can get the best out of them.  Moreover, the team as a whole, if it lifts just a little as a whole will make more of a difference than either Gibbs and Murphy playing the kind of 35 possession 3 goal 8 tackle games that we wish they were capable of.