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1-3 year player observations

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All Australian
Sep 12, 2005
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Melbourne
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Carlton
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Carlton
SOS - really didn't get much of it game one. Despite reports of him bulking up he still seemed undersized. I'm willing to bet his long term sport is as a third tall defender.

Mackay - moves fantastically well. Getting to enough contests which is encouraging. Not clunking any and keeps losing his feet. He's a long way off AFL level.

Weitering - no sign of any improvement yet Year on Year. He is definitely slow off the mark which hurts him. I think being in a poor side exposes that more as the midfield aren't putting enough pressure on. Does a lot right. Just not quite saying 'def superstar' yet for mine. I'd like to see him go to a gun and just lock him out of the game rather than just zone off and leave me thinking "who was on Hogan then?" like he does at the moment. I think he's happy to 'switch off' a gun in rotation. Rather than be desperate to stick with them.

Cuningham - I was surprised at his low possession count yesterday. I felt he impacted the game a bit. He smacks of 'tagged' to me. He has limited footy smarts. A couple of years following some guns around would do him the world of good. I was really pleased with him yesterday.

Curnow - showing he can def be that mid/forward we hope he can be. His composure is a bit off at times. He seems to have quickened up a bit over the ground. He's improving. Really promising.

Marchbank - really like him as a third tall defender. Lacks the size to play on the big guy's unfortunately. Intercept marks and good skills. Composed under pressure. Really good pickup.

Pickett - gee he's quick. Skills seem good too. Fitness is obviously a long way off. I don't ever see him playing on ball but he could play wing/forward. Another good pickup.

Fisher - busy and smart. He's not as quick as being spoken about. He's zippy off the mark but straight line speed is average. He's bloody small. I'm hopeful he can develop into that busy Zac Merrett type.

Macreadie - wow he was impressive. Key position defenders usually take a while. So to see him winning one on ones. Good composure. Good skills. Very promising.

Polson - well the first thing I'd say is he's smaller than Palmer....he's quick, not sure about the skills. Need to see more of him but there seems to be something to work with.

Williamson - seems a nice size. Not sure about his composure and body strength. Both will obviously improve in time.

Lebois - seems to be all he's painted out to be : freaky small forward. I'd play him a lot if he can defend and chase.

Overall it feels like we have a lot of players who (a) have something to work with which is good but (b) lack genuine star quality in most of them. SPS to come obviously.

They will get a lot of game time this season because we have zero depth. I'm really glad we didn't trade Gibbs. We need that senior group to stay injury free or else it's going to be an awful awful year and I don't think it helps kids to get slaughtered every week.
 
Great post.

Everyone needs to be reminded that we are now a young club, a very young club.

Of the 2015 draft, all look like they have a future. Cuningham is quick and tough - will play a role for us. I would like Cuningham and Jack SOS to get more of the ball, but see this happening after 50 games and three pre-seasons under their belts. Charlie will be good. Weiters IS good. Harry looks the goods but will take time.

Of the 2016 draft, we hopefully have unearthed a few, but it is still very early days. Haven't seen SPS yet, but from all reports he will step straight in to the side. Fisher and Macreadie have already shown some good signs. Polson looks quite small, but is explosive so could add somethign to the team. Lebois is quick and skilful - hopefully he finds his feet early. Williamson and Kerr appear project players as per JGM last year.

That's eight players under 20 y.o who have shown good early signs..
 
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One moment of play I saw makes me confident in Polson. He had the ball on the defensive edge of the centre square, saw a target through the middle and tried to lace out a worm burner. It ended up a bit of a grubber, but hit the target. Might not mean much to some, but to me that says he is confident in his ability, won't hesitate to try hitting the best target and backs himself in to use the ball well. That's a genuine midfielder in the making.
 
Although many see the last 2 games as doom and gloom, and tge media for some reason feel the sudden need to tell carlton supporters that it will be a long year (derr), i have seen something from every one of our 2015-16 draftees. Some big things, some small, but all something (except sps obviously). Charlie seems to me like it will take a while to click, but when it does, he will explode and be something really special. Really liked his cameo on the ball yesterday, q2 i think, where for 3 mins he was involved in everything. Som good, some terrible, but he obviously works hard and is willing to try impose himself. Can see him being someone people will go to the footy to watch just him. Weitering has impressed me, and i think he will look a lot better with doc, simmo, plowman, marchbank and byrne around him.
 
ShanDog said:
One moment of play I saw makes me confident in Polson. He had the ball on the defensive edge of the centre square, saw a target through the middle and tried to lace out a worm burner. It ended up a bit of a grubber, but hit the target. Might not mean much to some, but to me that says he is confident in his ability, won't hesitate to try hitting the best target and backs himself in to use the ball well. That's a genuine midfielder in the making.
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Yup.

I think he could be pressing for selection after the first few weeks of the season if he shows the ability to apply himself for 4-quarters in the VFL.
 
My observation is that Harrison Macreadie has possibly the best name in the AFL. If he's showing signs of playing a bit, that's a bonus too...
 
Weitering, Marchbank and to a lesser extent Macreadie (just due to less exposure, but did look good on the weekend), giving us obviously a lot to be excited about in defence looking ahead. Also think this puts pressure on Plowman to hit that extra gear I think he has in him.
 

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ShanDog said:
One moment of play I saw makes me confident in Polson. He had the ball on the defensive edge of the centre square, saw a target through the middle and tried to lace out a worm burner. It ended up a bit of a grubber, but hit the target. Might not mean much to some, but to me that says he is confident in his ability, won't hesitate to try hitting the best target and backs himself in to use the ball well. That's a genuine midfielder in the making.
Click to expand...

So you're saying his has vision, but lacks the skills to execute.

Yep, that's a genuine Carlton midfielder in the making....
 
Our strategy has been to go tall early in the rebuild and build the midfield last. We won't know what star quality our talls have for a few years yet.

Our mids/smalls are more potential than star quality because that's exactly what you'd expect for where they were taken. Cuningham, Fisher etc. are our second tier midfield hope, SPS is the first step toward the star power.

Fully expect us to load up on top end ready made mids over the next years via draft and trade. It's a solid strategy and we're not going to see much this year to show that it's not working.
 
Cripps17 said:
Our strategy has been to go tall early in the rebuild and build the midfield last. We won't know what star quality our talls have for a few years yet.

Our mids/smalls are more potential than star quality because that's exactly what you'd expect for where they were taken. Cuningham, Fisher etc. are our second tier midfield hope, SPS is the first step toward the star power.

Fully expect us to load up on top end ready made mids over the next years via draft and trade. It's a solid strategy and we're not going to see much this year to show that it's not working.
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Exactly. Arguably the worst midfield in the comp (for now). Hard to judge forwards with terrible supply, and hard (albeit not as hard) to judge the defenders with no midfield pressure and free flowing football into our D50.

From what we can see, there is plenty to like about our kids. We need two more a grade mids and a decent ruck their age before we will head anywhere (and thats after a couple years of growing pains).
 
ferrisb said:
So you're saying his has vision, but lacks the skills to execute.

Yep, that's a genuine Carlton midfielder in the making....
Click to expand...
Jokes aside, I reckon he tried to dispose a lot by foot while someone had a hand on him, or while he was running into a contest/contact.

It's a credit to him that those disposals were effective.
 
I disagree about Weitering. The kid is going to be an absolute star.

If anything, he may be bulking up too much though to play on the mobile forwards. Now that he has decent size I think he needs to focus on speed and agility, gone are the days of the gorilla forwards (except possibly Hawkins)
 

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Marchbank, Macreadie, Pickett and Fish are the most promising from what i have seen out of the newest batch. LeBoise has shown something too.
Weitering, Curnow, SOS and Mckay look like 10 year players.
Cuningham I'm hopeful on but is too soft at the moment. Very ealry days I know.

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windows said:
Cuningham - I was surprised at his low possession count yesterday. I felt he impacted the game a bit. He smacks of 'tagged' to me. He has limited footy smarts. A couple of years following some guns around would do him the world of good. I was really pleased with him yesterday.
.
Click to expand...

Like the post, agree with most just unsure why you're surprised about Cuningham having a low possession count? Seems pretty inline with everything he's shown so far. I reckon he'll be a low(er) possession high impact kind of player in time.
 
Lace_Out said:
Cuningham I'm hopeful on but is too soft at the moment. Very ealry days I know.
Click to expand...

Cuningham has a fair way to go yet, but I'm not sure calling him soft is particularly accurate.

Had 16 tackles in his 3 senior games last year, and 5 on the weekend. From what I've seen he's pretty hard at the footy.
 
1-3 year player observations

Weitering - Always scrapes his plates before placing them in the dishwasher
SOSOS - Sleeps in a blue t-shirt that says 'I am a son of a gun'
McKay - Alphebetises his DVD collection
Charlie - Calls the police whenever he sees me peeking through his lounge room blinds

:)
 

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1-3 year player observations

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