Fevola backs Judd as Blues new skipper

[Andyt31]

http://news.theage.com.au/fevola-backs-judd-as-blues-new-skipper/20080123-1nm5.html

Fevola backs Judd as Blues new skipper

Enigmatic forward Brendan Fevola has backed boom recruit Chris Judd to be the new Carlton captain.
The pair were among a six-strong Blues leadership group announced on Wednesday along with Andrew Carrazzo, Heath Scotland, Kade Simpson and Nick Stevens.
The coaching panel headed by Brett Ratten will now consider the candidates, with a decision on who will replace the retired Lance Whitnall as skipper to be made during the AFL pre-season competition beginning next month.
Judd and Stevens are the leading contenders to win the top job, although Ratten did not rule out the possibility of naming co-captains.
Full-forward Fevola stands to benefit more than most from the arrival of Judd, the lynchpin of the all-conquering West Coast midfield of recent years.
"I think Juddy will be captain, he's got all the qualities," Fevola said.
"He's proved himself - he's a premiership captain, a Norm Smith medallist and a Brownlow medallist.
"He brings a lot to our group, you just see the way he trains.
"And then there's Nick Stevens who's been here a few years now and he's got all the qualities as well.
"And even Kade Simpson, last year he captained the last six games and did an awesome job.
"It's a tough decision for the board but I think it will be out of Stevo and Juddy and the other four will be under them."
Fevola and Scotland have both attracted their share of negative publicity for off-field issues in past years, but Ratten said everyone would start with a clean slate in his first full year as Blues coach.
"(Fevola) has done everything right that's been expected of him," he said.
"He hasn't missed a session.
"When he's asked to train flat out, he trains flat out.
"When he's asked to train at 80 per cent, he's done that.
"From my point of view he hasn't put a foot wrong."
Carlton have missed the finals for the last six seasons, five of which ended in a bottom-two finish.
But the arrival of Judd and a slew of top draft picks led by Matthew Kreuzer has led to a new feeling of optimism at Princes Park.
"My expectations and those of the leadership group as well, is to make the finals," said Fevola.
"When you play footy, you want to play finals footy.
"In my first three years we played in a grand final, a prelim final and a semi-final and I haven't had a taste of finals since.
"I was young then and I probably can't even really remember playing in those games.
"For the last five years we've been down the bottom.
"It hasn't been very good, I haven't won very many games in my career and hopefully that can all turn around in the latter half and we can have a real shake-up of the eight and scare a few teams."
The Blues fly out to South Africa on Friday for a training camp.

I'm hoping Fev Gets the Job he's in line along with judd
with 6 to choose from so hope he gets it he deserves it hate when players come in and get the job even before they even played 1 game
Carlton should adopt other clubs idea of rotating the captancy each year or even have a joint captain
give judd vice captancy

 

[THE AISSASSIN]

I'm hoping Fev Gets the Job he's in line along with judd
with 6 to choose from so hope he gets it he deserves it hate when players come in and get the job even before they even played 1 game
Carlton should adopt other clubs idea of rotating the captancy each year or even have a joint captain
give judd vice captancy

I'll give 30-1 on Fev getting the captaincy....good odds in a 6 man race

 

[Amers]

Well they did choose Lance over Stevo only last year. Judd is the obvious choice - a 'natural' leader - even if a somewhat reticent one.

I once heard a quote 'reluctant leaders make the best leaders' !

 

[Blue Dawn]

I'll give 30-1 on Fev getting the captaincy....good odds in a 6 man race

That's still way too optimistic. Brendan will never be appointed captain of Carlton.

 

[Bluebear]

In case that last comment is too obtuse, I think that the article - authorised by the club after all - is deliberately running away with Fev's vague, and non-committal comments to put the notion of Judd as captain to supporters in a deniable way.

Think of it as push-polling.

I heard the press conference on SEN.........Fev's first and obviouslf lippant answert was "Kreuzer"......which drew polite laughter fromt he press.........he then went on to answer off the cuff, displaying why we love him, but also why the club doesn't get him to speak on their behalf too often.

The answer should have been "Number 25".

Does he not think he can do it?

Fev and Judd seem to have hit it off really well. I hope this means, in terms of attitude, Fev will become a little more like Judd and not the other way round.

 

[HBF]

Great to her those words from Fevola. So often portrayed as a bit of a clown, but what he said there was spot on. Hadn't considered co-captains before, but with guys like Judd and Stevens, it may be too hard to split them.

 

[BlueDevil]

Great to her those words from Fevola. So often portrayed as a bit of a clown, but what he said there was spot on. Hadn't considered co-captains before, but with guys like Judd and Stevens, it may be too hard to split them.

not against it any way shape or form, is it really that big a deal having co-captains? its not as if they aren't both great on field leaders, and they seem to be both highly regarded by the rest of the boys. maybe the way to go.

 

[Will.B.Worth.Da.Waite]

Training is training. What matters most is how he does on the field, and how the kids are influenced from that...

Pretty much, in response to your whole post, the way i see it is, if Judd is the natural leader on the training park, and the kids look up to him, and follow his lead, more so than they do to Stevens (which is what it seems to me), Judd should be captain (if he wants it). As far as i can tell, Judd is having more impact on our kids than anybody else, and if he's emerged as the team's leader and the bloke all the boys look up to, the natural thing is to appoint him captain. If everybody looks up to him and follows his example and want his as captain, it shouldn't matter that he's never played a game for us, because the fact is, he would have emerged as the leader for the playing group, and it's the playing group's reaction to players which should determine who they look up to and thus who should be appointed captain

 

[Monkey King]

Pretty much, in response to your whole post, the way i see it is, if Judd is the natural leader on the training park, and the kids look up to him, and follow his lead, more so than they do to Stevens (which is what it seems to me), Judd should be captain (if he wants it). As far as i can tell, Judd is having more impact on our kids than anybody else, and if he's emerged as the team's leader and the bloke all the boys look up to, the natural thing is to appoint him captain. If everybody looks up to him and follows his example and want his as captain, it shouldn't matter that he's never played a game for us, because the fact is, he would have emerged as the leader for the playing group, and it's the playing group's reaction to players which should determine who they look up to and thus who should be appointed captain

Spot on

 

[BlueBelle]

In the Herald Sun today:

He said the club hadn't ruled out appointing co-captains, but favours a single leader.

Judd is believed to be ahead of Stevens in the captaincy race, and according to Fevola, deserves to lead the club for 2008

"As we go through all the practice matches and all the games we have, each individual player will get to lead the team, even if it's only for half a game, and then someone else will step in, so we get to see their qualities in action." (quote from Ratts)

Ratten yesterday launched a staunch defence of Fevola, whose on-field behaviour regressed last year after his Coleman Medal-winning season in 2006.

"The thing about Brendan, he has done everything right. He hasn't missed a session. From my point of view, when you see the things he does on-field and some of the things off-field he doesn't get recognition for, sometimes we maybe focus on an incident for too long."

"It's a different year, so it's a clean slate. A line is in the sand, as most coaches say," Fevola said.

"I am pretty aware of that, so hopefully that (behaviour) shuts down a little bit. I got it out of my game in 2006 and last year it crept in a little bit, but hopefully when we start winning a lot of games it won't happen, so I can go out there and play footy."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23099387-11088,00.html

 

[Johnny Utah #9]

Yes they did, because at the time Lance was the better choice. Try to see this without the benefit of hindsight.

Good point and one often glossed over. Lance was B & F in 2006 and 3rd in 2005. Hardly two bad years even though these were largely sweeping half back roles rather than his brilliant forwardline play that he displayed in the late 1990's/early 2000's.