Rd 4: Post Game Pain: Carlton vs. Western Bulldogs

[MosquitoFleet]

Unfortunately the recruiting of Dale Thomas is going to go down as one of the worst decisions of the Malthouse administration. Not only did it cost a lot of money over an extended time period, but it had to have an effect on retaining (more accurately, the no - retaining) of Betts.
Thomas has been an excellent player, but his body is no longer allowing him to do the things that made him such a good player. He is fragile. He breaks very easily (in that regard he has taken the mantle from Broke McLean).
His pace, his aggression at the contest, his spring and solid hands and the depth of this kicking have all disappeared. He has shown some of the indomitable will (like the smother against the Weagles last year), but he just doesn't get to the contests any more.
He has to be thinking of retirement. He is a proud man: he cannot be liking what he is producing any more than we can like seeing it.
At this point he id not being able to deliver enough with any consistency. It must gall him at least as much as it galls us.
With his body no longer being reliable, he has to be considering his future.

must be corrected - 7 of the current 8 directors that appointed MM are still on the Board - they are responsible

[crashlander]

@ Crash

As they say in the classics, "We were crucified Tony!"

In season 4 of Game of Thrones, the Wise Masters of Meereen crucified 163 slaves to mark the way to the city. That is what happened to us last night.
Now we just need a couple of Dragons and some Unsullied to return the pleasure.

[crashlander]

must be corrected - 7 of the current 8 directors that appointed MM are still on the Board - they are responsible

I am not sure ANY of the board members were directly responsible for recruiting Thomas. I seem to recall that a certain former coach, some recruiting staff and maybe a GM having more input than any board member, including the President of the club. Most of these have been replaced already.
That the board must have rubber stamped it, they probably remember now with embarrassment, but it is not their responsibility to make those decisions. if they had interfered with that process, then they would deserve to be sacked.

[crashlander]

@ Crash

I think you're right about Daisy and it wouldn't surprise me to see him retire - with probably some kind of inducement offered by the club.

I would hope that he is thinking along these lines. I would not want to sack him: he needs to be the one to make that decision. Otherwise he simply go elsewhere and continue to fail, which won't help anyone.

[blue4life]

Agree, as someone else said, we are very luck to have him.

We certainly are, and we got him for Hampson, who must surely have set an AFL record on Friday night with 1 possession and 5 critical errors.
The best trade in the history of the CFC, but Jaksch, Whiley and Boekhorst for pick 7 I'm not so rapt about.
Edit: I think we should get behind Thomas which is something Carlton supporters haven't done so far.
Forget who got him to the club and how much it cost and just watch how he plays and how much he gives for the jumper, take the emotion out of it and see him as a Carlton footballer.
Even half fit he's good value.

[MosquitoFleet]

I am not sure ANY of the board members were directly responsible for recruiting Thomas. I seem to recall that a certain former coach, some recruiting staff and maybe a GM having more input than any board member, including the President of the club. Most of these have been replaced already.
That the board must have rubber stamped it, they probably remember now with embarrassment, but it is not their responsibility to make those decisions. if they had interfered with that process, then they would deserve to be sacked.

the board is responsible, even if they rubber stamped it in your words. if there is no board responsibility then you get the club performance what we have over the last 20 years.  changing the deck chairs of sacked coaches and non-performing players. we have a 6.4 million debt , as a result of these board decisions, including daisy- rubber stamp or not.

[JonDorotich]

I am more than inclined to agree. Buckley has played his best football in defence. He had to concentrate on his game more and his pace from defence was very useful.
For all that, he started very well and had some good patches. But that dropped mark was lethal.

He may be better in defence, but he's not clinical, is often out-muscled and his decision making (and disposal at times) is poor.

[crashlander]

He may be better in defence, but he's not clinical, is often out-muscled and his decision making (and disposal at times) is poor.

Yes. He has a fair bit of work to do.

[LP]

He may be better in defence, but he's not clinical, is often out-muscled and his decision making (and disposal at times) is poor.

I suppose we can cut him some slack in the decision making given his age and experience, but at 23 I'd have expected a greater improvement from a person who was so highly rated. I hope we are not paying him overs due to his surname, it's my fear regarding SOSOS as well.

To me Buckley is a warning in regards to how we go about recruiting FaS types. Plus he is already quite old for a player with only really three years and 30 games of experience.

[PassIt2Carrots]

Unfortunately the recruiting of Dale Thomas is going to go down as one of the worst decisions of the Malthouse administration. Not only did it cost a lot of money over an extended time period, but it had to have an effect on retaining (more accurately, the no - retaining) of Betts.
Thomas has been an excellent player, but his body is no longer allowing him to do the things that made him such a good player. He is fragile. He breaks very easily (in that regard he has taken the mantle from Broke McLean).
His pace, his aggression at the contest, his spring and solid hands and the depth of this kicking have all disappeared. He has shown some of the indomitable will (like the smother against the Weagles last year), but he just doesn't get to the contests any more.
He has to be thinking of retirement. He is a proud man: he cannot be liking what he is producing any more than we can like seeing it.
At this point he id not being able to deliver enough with any consistency. It must gall him at least as much as it galls us.
With his body no longer being reliable, he has to be considering his future.

He left Collingwood for the money, no way he'll retire before he gets it. He has no loyalty to us, why would he give a fork?

Edit: B4L you are taking the piss with those comments re Daisy yeah?

Wdit: You do a great job of bagging 90% of the list but expect us to swallow that crap? Where was he for three quarters last night?