08-25-2016, 09:40 AM
Cyster is the 27th player to debut this season for the NBs: that is remarkable, even with the changeover of personnel.
However way you look at things, the plans for the NBs this year haven't quite worked out. We lost the few mature players we had and experienced some of the worst injuries you could imagine. That robbed us of McGuinness and Bransgrove permanently. Fraser Russell effectively missed the year with injury, although his brother was a solid inclusion. There were a few other speculative picks, like Vic Metro player Jayden Collins, who missed out on being drafted and were Silvagni experiments. The only one to stay on the park was Hisham Kerbatieh. He was pretty good for much of the year, but he has lost form in the last few weeks. We signed one guy, to find him out for the year as an Essendon druggie. We coudn't even keep big Cheese Aurricchio on the field, after impressing in a very ordinary side in 2015.
With all of that, the NBs have been a really young and inexperienced line-up that badly needs some older heads for 2017.
Then there is the Carlton side of things, where injuries, form and talent started working against us from very early in the season, Gallucci was the first to fall, followed by Sheehan and Byrne. That leaves us with a possible 11 Blues only available for the weekend. At least 1 of those will probably miss as Emergency for the 1sts, something we have done all year.
This is probably Cam Wood's swansong. Smith has probably played his last game. And that is only the start.
Considering the issues we've had with personnel this year, the NBs and the Development Side have done pretty well. Not what we had hoped, perhaps, but much better than we feared. There does seem to be a bit of spirit down at Cramer St and maybe even something of a future.
Whether this is the best thing for Carlton remains questionable, but it does appear that the present administration is firmly behind the idea of the Northern Blues and is trying very hard to make it work.
Certainly more resources are required at this level, but we have made a solid and significant improvement this season.
However way you look at things, the plans for the NBs this year haven't quite worked out. We lost the few mature players we had and experienced some of the worst injuries you could imagine. That robbed us of McGuinness and Bransgrove permanently. Fraser Russell effectively missed the year with injury, although his brother was a solid inclusion. There were a few other speculative picks, like Vic Metro player Jayden Collins, who missed out on being drafted and were Silvagni experiments. The only one to stay on the park was Hisham Kerbatieh. He was pretty good for much of the year, but he has lost form in the last few weeks. We signed one guy, to find him out for the year as an Essendon druggie. We coudn't even keep big Cheese Aurricchio on the field, after impressing in a very ordinary side in 2015.
With all of that, the NBs have been a really young and inexperienced line-up that badly needs some older heads for 2017.
Then there is the Carlton side of things, where injuries, form and talent started working against us from very early in the season, Gallucci was the first to fall, followed by Sheehan and Byrne. That leaves us with a possible 11 Blues only available for the weekend. At least 1 of those will probably miss as Emergency for the 1sts, something we have done all year.
This is probably Cam Wood's swansong. Smith has probably played his last game. And that is only the start.
Considering the issues we've had with personnel this year, the NBs and the Development Side have done pretty well. Not what we had hoped, perhaps, but much better than we feared. There does seem to be a bit of spirit down at Cramer St and maybe even something of a future.
Whether this is the best thing for Carlton remains questionable, but it does appear that the present administration is firmly behind the idea of the Northern Blues and is trying very hard to make it work.
Certainly more resources are required at this level, but we have made a solid and significant improvement this season.
Live Long and Prosper!