From Realfooty.com.au:
Having been through more pre-seasons than most of us have had hot breakfasts, Denis Pagan knows the ropes.
"Everybody asks the coaches, 'How do you reckon you're going?' The coaches are all positive. Then everyone becomes facetious and sarcastic saying, 'Well, they're all going well.' So what do you do?"
That there are 16 potential premiers in February and, come September, just two grand finalists, is a football truism, but Pagan sounds genuinely excited at the potential of his Carlton team this year. A few injury concerns aside - Adrian Deluca, Brad Fisher and Troy Longmuir - the Blues' players all have had solid pre-seasons.
"We've got a very young list, youngest list in the competition probably, there's no ceiling on our group of players," Pagan said at training yesterday. "So it's going to be exciting to see where we go this year."
Pagan also has been through enough pre-seasons to know what are the signs of a successful year. He detects one at Carlton - "a special unity and team spirit" - that he has seen in good sides before. "Having been through a lot of successful times, I reckon that's probably a very important ingredient," Pagan said.
"If you've got that unity, that's something for you to build on, especially for a young group that's going to play together."
One trait Pagan would like to see eradicated this season is the inconsistency that brought thrashings of 108, 105, 83 and 62 points against St Kilda, Melbourne, Port Adelaide and West Coast, respectively, at various stages of 2004.
The Blues finished 11th with a 10-12 record. Given that, a percentage of just over 80 per cent was hardly flattering.
"We've got to compete on a consistent basis," Pagan said. "If we do that, who knows what that correlates to?"
Top draft pick Andrew Walker was one reason for Carlton fans to get excited last year.
The talented youngster had a best-on-ground debut match in the home win over West Coast in round five and produced another star turn in the Blues' intra-club match last Tuesday at their Shepparton community camp.
Walker has put six to seven kilograms on to the boyish frame he took into his debut season and Pagan said his prospects were excellent.
"The sky's the limit with Andrew," Pagan said. "We don't know where that's going to take him. He played 15 games last year as the youngest player in competition and his first game was probably as good a debut game as you'd ever want to see.
"He wasn't always consistent to that standard, but it's no coincidence that the day he played like that, we had one of our best wins for the season."
The Blues will have another intra-club match this Friday afternoon before playing Essendon in the first round of the pre-season competition.
Pagan said the Blues would be going flat out. "We always want to do well," he said. "With the lack of success we've had, we owe it to our fans, ourselves, the club, marketing and the membership.
"I think they're very important issues."
Having been through more pre-seasons than most of us have had hot breakfasts, Denis Pagan knows the ropes.
"Everybody asks the coaches, 'How do you reckon you're going?' The coaches are all positive. Then everyone becomes facetious and sarcastic saying, 'Well, they're all going well.' So what do you do?"
That there are 16 potential premiers in February and, come September, just two grand finalists, is a football truism, but Pagan sounds genuinely excited at the potential of his Carlton team this year. A few injury concerns aside - Adrian Deluca, Brad Fisher and Troy Longmuir - the Blues' players all have had solid pre-seasons.
"We've got a very young list, youngest list in the competition probably, there's no ceiling on our group of players," Pagan said at training yesterday. "So it's going to be exciting to see where we go this year."
Pagan also has been through enough pre-seasons to know what are the signs of a successful year. He detects one at Carlton - "a special unity and team spirit" - that he has seen in good sides before. "Having been through a lot of successful times, I reckon that's probably a very important ingredient," Pagan said.
"If you've got that unity, that's something for you to build on, especially for a young group that's going to play together."
One trait Pagan would like to see eradicated this season is the inconsistency that brought thrashings of 108, 105, 83 and 62 points against St Kilda, Melbourne, Port Adelaide and West Coast, respectively, at various stages of 2004.
The Blues finished 11th with a 10-12 record. Given that, a percentage of just over 80 per cent was hardly flattering.
"We've got to compete on a consistent basis," Pagan said. "If we do that, who knows what that correlates to?"
Top draft pick Andrew Walker was one reason for Carlton fans to get excited last year.
The talented youngster had a best-on-ground debut match in the home win over West Coast in round five and produced another star turn in the Blues' intra-club match last Tuesday at their Shepparton community camp.
Walker has put six to seven kilograms on to the boyish frame he took into his debut season and Pagan said his prospects were excellent.
"The sky's the limit with Andrew," Pagan said. "We don't know where that's going to take him. He played 15 games last year as the youngest player in competition and his first game was probably as good a debut game as you'd ever want to see.
"He wasn't always consistent to that standard, but it's no coincidence that the day he played like that, we had one of our best wins for the season."
The Blues will have another intra-club match this Friday afternoon before playing Essendon in the first round of the pre-season competition.
Pagan said the Blues would be going flat out. "We always want to do well," he said. "With the lack of success we've had, we owe it to our fans, ourselves, the club, marketing and the membership.
"I think they're very important issues."
