Carlton needs to draft forwards

[BlueDevil]

How many gun forwards did the Premiers have?

The Swans made the GF with Hall, O'Keefe and O'Loughlin and Fevola and Kennedy might be our Hall and O'Loughlin in years to come. We need to draft a Collard and Jetta or Connors and O'Keefe at 17 and 19 or similar players because Wiggins will never be our Alan Didak or Ryan O'Keefe.

Do we have any quality medium forwards who can kick?

who'd of thought alan didak would become the alan didak he is now

 

[Jimthegreat]

The team stacks up well on potential, but when you consider Setanta only found his feet late in the season, Russell struggled to have an impact, Bower only played the last couple of games, Murphy, Waite & Fisher missed sizeable chunks of the season, Kennedy struggled to find the pace of the game, Blackwell only made his debut this season, Ackland has just joined the club, Gibbs is yet to join the club, Bryan took most of the season to get his attitude right & Stevens had a year that he would probably like to forget, what it looks like on paper compared to the reality of the season gives a bit of a clue as to why we only won 3 games.

I hope we can put a team like that on field next season because then we will win more than 3 games. A poor attempt to throw in an anti-Pagan message, though, Jim.

Can't be poor when it's the truth. And that stands out. 3 games is pathetic, you know, I know it. It was worse than the embarrasment of 2005, not to mention 7 games worse than 2004! You can put as much spin as you want on it, in the end it's the same. Our winning record is barely above 20% (and that includes the 10 games in one year....not to mention winning a Wizzer Wok) since 2003 and we pay $600,000 a year for the privledge (sp). No side is ever that bad. Not even the old Brisbane Bears. One day the head will come out of the sand and you'll realise it. The stats, in this case don't lie.

Anyway, away from that, hopefully that side will get a few more wins. Make no mistake, if Pagan can turn things around, I'll be the first to hypocrisize myself and kiss his ass, although I won't be holding my breath May have to though if he farts!!!).

 

[Jimthegreat]

We could still use a small Nathan Brown type in there. Eddie is good, but he's got another level to go to still.

We always can. That type would be handy and you'd take one of similar ilk if he was available, but we probably have more pressing priorities.

 

[mediumsizered]

Can't be poor when it's the truth. And that stands out. 3 games is pathetic, you know, I know it. It was worse than the embarrasment of 2005, not to mention 7 games worse than 2004! You can put as much spin as you want on it, in the end it's the same. Our winning record is barely above 20% (and that includes the 10 games in one year....not to mention winning a Wizzer Wok) since 2003 and we pay $600,000 a year for the privledge (sp). No side is ever that bad. Not even the old Brisbane Bears. One day the head will come out of the sand and you'll realise it. The stats, in this case don't lie.

Anyway, away from that, hopefully that side will get a few more wins. Make no mistake, if Pagan can turn things around, I'll be the first to hypocrisize myself and kiss his ass, although I won't be holding my breath May have to though if he farts!!!).

You know the difference between our 4 1/2 wins in 2005 & our 3 1/2 in 2006? We picked up a cheap win against 15th place Collingwood in the latter part of 2005. This year when we played the 2nd game against Collingwood they were marching towards September. The real difference between 2005 & 2006 lies in our performances against top 8 sides when their seasons were up for grabs. 2 wins against Melbourne, Freo pushed to 3 goals in both games, 10 point loss against the eventual premiers (compared to a 14 goal loss in 2005), Bulldogs challenged for 3 & a bit quarters, 7 point loss against the Swans. Sure there was still some thrashings, but the team showed they could match it with top 8 sides for significant portions of several games.

Why aren't we better? Is it anything to do with the fact that our best half a dozen or so players are Fevola, Whitnall, Scotland, Simpson, Murphy & Stevens? Let's not forget that Stevens was probably about the 4th best midfielder at Port. Scotland was not in Collingwood's top 10 when he joined Carlton. Fevola is close to becoming a superstar & Whitnall is an important cog at Carlton but would not be in the top half a dozen players if he was playing for the Eagles or Sydney. Of course Simpson & Murphy are youngsters who are just establishing themselves on the AFL stage.

If we had a quality list Setanta would still be serving an apprenticeship in the VFL, T-Bird wouldn't have played 91 AFL games, Bryan & De Luca would never have been on our list. There would have been no need to recruit Ackland, McGrath, Bannister, Harford, Bowyer, Mott etc. The sad fact is that of the players we recruited from 1997-2001 (that is those who mostly would now be in the 23-27 age group) only 4 out of 44 remain on our list: Fevola, Lappin, Houlihan & Waite. In other words only 9 % of the players recruited from 1997-2001 have proven to be good enough to become long term players at the club. Players in this age group are in the prime years of their careers. How can you have a truly competitive team with that sort of strike rate in recruiting players? To paraphrase 'the good book' the sins of the Elliott administration shall be revisited on the Collins/Smorgan administrations.

 

[Smell The Glove]

You know the difference between our 4 1/2 wins in 2005 & our 3 1/2 in 2006? We picked up a cheap win against 15th place Collingwood in the latter part of 2005. This year when we played the 2nd game against Collingwood they were marching towards September. The real difference between 2005 & 2006 lies in our performances against top 8 sides when their seasons were up for grabs. 2 wins against Melbourne, Freo pushed to 3 goals in both games, 10 point loss against the eventual premiers (compared to a 14 goal loss in 2005), Bulldogs challenged for 3 & a bit quarters, 7 point loss against the Swans. Sure there was still some thrashings, but the team showed they could match it with top 8 sides for significant portions of several games.

Why aren't we better? Is it anything to do with the fact that our best half a dozen or so players are Fevola, Whitnall, Scotland, Simpson, Murphy & Stevens? Let's not forget that Stevens was probably about the 4th best midfielder at Port. Scotland was not in Collingwood's top 10 when he joined Carlton. Fevola is close to becoming a superstar & Whitnall is an important cog at Carlton but would not be in the top half a dozen players if he was playing for the Eagles or Sydney. Of course Simpson & Murphy are youngsters who are just establishing themselves on the AFL stage.

If we had a quality list Setanta would still be serving an apprenticeship in the VFL, T-Bird wouldn't have played 91 AFL games, Bryan & De Luca would never have been on our list. There would have been no need to recruit Ackland, McGrath, Bannister, Harford, Bowyer, Mott etc. The sad fact is that of the players we recruited from 1997-2001 (that is those who mostly would now be in the 23-27 age group) only 4 out of 44 remain on our list: Fevola, Lappin, Houlihan & Waite. In other words only 9 % of the players recruited from 1997-2001 have proven to be good enough to become long term players at the club. Players in this age group are in the prime years of their careers. How can you have a truly competitive team with that sort of strike rate in recruiting players? To paraphrase 'the good book' the sins of the Elliott administration shall be revisited on the Collins/Smorgan administrations.

You forgot Wiggins from the 1997-2001 period but other than that, spot on. Couldn't have said it better (or be bothered typing it!) myself.

 

[mediumsizered]

You forgot Wiggins from the 1997-2001 period but other than that, spot on. Couldn't have said it better (or be bothered typing it!) myself.

I did, too. With respect to Wigg, who I am a bit of a fan of, he has survived on our list due to the poor quality of the list. I suspect he will struggle to survive beyond next season. I wish we could transform his hardness into Jordan Russell.

 

[Smell The Glove]

I did, too. With respect to Wigg, who I am a bit of a fan of, he has survived on our list due to the poor quality of the list. I suspect he will struggle to survive beyond next season. I wish we could transform his hardness into Jordan Russell.

Yeah a Jordan Wiggns would be nice. Hard and skilful.....ahh, we can dream

 

[Carlton23]

I like wiggo

I think hes still young and can still improve and maintain his spot on the list

Michael

 

[WalkerTexasRanger]

I like wiggo

I think hes still young and can still improve and maintain his spot on the list

Michael

yeah he was/is a typical example of a young player thrust into the AFL too early before developing his skills and then freaking out. He said as much this year.

 

[DIG]

Wiggins was about the only one last year who we'd basically written off as sure to go end of '06, to actually step up and play a good role for us this year - best on the HFF. Will need to take another step again to survive another year. Assume he's on a 1 year contract?