Just been chatting with a Carlton mate. Seriously I am going to spew if I hear anymore of 'Carlton are doing well’ or 'the blues rebuild looks good'.
Simpson, Murphy, Gibbs and Kreuzer are 4 of their 6 best players, and all will be over 29 next season. The following players will all be over 25 next year:
Thomas, A.Silvani, Rowe, White, Palmer, E.Curnow, Sheehan, Jones, Phillips, Gorringe, Smedts, Lamb, Buckley, Kerridge, Sumner and Brokenhorse
Seriously there is 1 good player among that 25-29 group. And that is Liam bloody Jones.
Along with Casbault leaving, and Armfield and Simpson probably retiring – that is almost 20 list changes needed before I even start picking on spuds such as Kirsten Jacksh and Nick Graham.
Yes Cripps and Docherty are stars, SPS and Curnow have shown glimpses, and Plowman, Weitering and Marchbank a good back 3. Silvani and Fisher I will cop at a stretch
But after those players (and the 4 over 29) they begin naming guys like McKay, Pickett, Cunningham and Macreadie who have barely played 10 games between them. Remember how many players we had who are going to be great (before they actually played) but never kicked on (when they actually did)? Maybe half of these guys make it. Maybe
Then yes they have the new good draft picks. But by the time these new picks start impacting (and that is still a maybe), 4 of their best 6 players will be gone.
They just barely avoided the spoon for the fifth time in 12 years and can’t kick even close to 100 points.
Oh and just for fun. Hypothetically if we get Kelly for two firsts:
We would have traded 2 firsts, a second and a third to GWS
For Josh Kelly, Josh Bruce & Jack Steele
Carlton will have traded 3 firsts, 2 seconds, 3 thirds and a fifth to GWS
For Jaksch, Whiley, Lamb, Sumner, Plowman, Phillips, Marchbank, Pickett, Palmer, a second and pick 19 which they used on Blaine Brokenhorse
There are a lot of things I am worried about in our rebuild. Carlton is not one of them.