Media Thread 2026: Insightful, Inciteful and Incomptent

[Ishmael_]

Our backline has also gone from the strongest line to one of the weakest in 2 off seasons. No Barrass or Gov to command the guys that aren’t quite up to it yet. No Starc is really hurting us there. He’s meant to be the general.

A bit more midfield pressure would be nice, but again, injuries are killing us. Graham and Dev are our defensive mids that would influence the shape around the ground. No one else is doing their role while they’re out, so we’re trying to slow the game down, but that just results in predictable movement when we have ball in hand and young guys getting sucked inwards instead of keeping width.

We have a decent-ish best 23, no depth and seniors that need to be moved on for guys in the 25-29 bracket that can come in via trade or MSD.

I wanted to throw myself off the stairs on Sunday I felt so flat, but being critical of a few things I kinda understand the response we’ve had.

No rut though.

I see it exactly the same on all points.

Relative to their respective abilities, Graham and now Dev, have an outsized effect on this team's ability to play competitive football.

This was obvious even last year when Graham was out. A lack of defensive midfielders with mature bodies and endurance hurts even elite midfields e.g. Gold Coast. All the more a team like ours with its meagre offensive weapons.

We all love to say things like 'everyone can provide pressure, it's the minimum required'. But year after year that is proven not to be true. It requires the physical ability and mental strength to do it consistently - especially so when the team is down and it's not obviously rewarded. Rarer still are two-way players.

Reid, Kelly and Yeo are not capable of it in 2026. And certainly not if we expect them to win the ball too. So we can't move the ball with aggression and speed at every turn because we will turn it over, not win in it back, and it will come back with zero pressure.

In turn, that means the ball goes forward slower and with more pressure on it - into a forward line that is also weaker than last year. It ends up being Waterman or bust, taking shots from the boundary 50m out.

I was ready to burn it all down after that game but after some time it's clear to me that
the team on the weekend had a weaker midfield, forward line, and backline than the team that won a single game last year!

It has been years of shite but my frustration doesn't change the reality that this is what we are, and that ****ing sucks.

 

[eaglespremiers]

The blood but for once actually his the nail on the head from a bout the 30 min mark. Not one thing you could argue with… unless you’re an eagles pyjama wearer

I would call his point about Reid not making another team (38 minutes 55 seconds) quite moronic personally. I think he'd make every team in the league, comfortably.

And his point that Reid "had a reasonable first half" (39 minutes) last week is highly disingenuous. If Reid had doubled his output from half time he would've had 32 disposals, 12 clearances and 4 goals. That's top 3 in the competition sort of levels IMO.

And then he went on about Reid over-handballing.
I mean, honestly, does he even understand football at all?

 

[ziad]

I would call his point about Reid not making another team (38 minutes 55 seconds) quite moronic personally. I think he'd make every team in the league, comfortably.

And his point that Reid "had a reasonable first half" (39 minutes) last week is highly disingenuous. If Reid had doubled his output from half time he would've had 32 disposals, 12 clearances and 4 goals. That's top 3 in the competition sort of levels IMO.

Who the hell listens to, watches or reads this garbage.

 

[Goroyals22]

I would call his point about Reid not making another team (38 minutes 55 seconds) quite moronic personally. I think he'd make every team in the league, comfortably.

And his point that Reid "had a reasonable first half" (39 minutes) last week is highly disingenuous. If Reid had doubled his output from half time he would've had 32 disposals, 12 clearances and 4 goals. That's top 3 in the competition sort of levels IMO.

And then he went on about Reid over-handballing.
I mean, honestly, does he even understand football at all?

Reid is actually over hand balling. He has had more hand balls than kicks this year and his handballs are that creative, he does some over the head numbers and also some bad 2 metre jobs… have a look at his handball at the last bounce last week

 

[Scotland]

Aren't Carlton committed to basically using their first pick this year to get Cody Walker anyway?

So this hypothetical trade has us accepting a washed up Cripps plus whatever Carlton get for Weitering in return for an under contract HR?

Plus they are not even sure who their coach will be next year so how do you sell that to players at other clubs?

I saw on another program they were debating whether they could get one of the WA clubs to give up two first rounders for Cripps when most Carlton fans don't even think he is best 23 anymore.

They went through the machinations around Carlton getting Walker finishing last vs finishing somewhere else in the bottom 5 or 6.

Somehow Carlton are going to finish last, bid on Dougie Cochrane, then take Walker at pick 2 with pick 2, then use Sydney's first round pick and their bonus second round pick from having pick 1 pushed back, having already traded for Harley Reid with Jacob Weitering. And this is from Nick Riewoldt who isn't even a Carlton media stooge.

The new draft rules are complicated, but if I'm Carlton and I have pick 2 I'm doing whatever I can to pick someone else and then match a bid on Cody Walker - presumably at 3. If I'm WC (not actual WC who are inept) and for some reason Harley Reid is up for trade this year then it starts with a top 5 pick. There is no circumstance in which WC benefit from trading HR to Carlton while allowing them enough draft currency to bid on a top 2 player. If you can get pick 10 from North for Weitering great, package that with the first round picks you already have to start a conversation. But it makes no sense for Carlton to do that either because then they would lose Walker.

Cripps has been a warrior but has no real trade value at this point. He's where Mitchell and Lewis were at the end of their time at Hawthorn. He's only going to leave Carlton if he wants to return to WA or they want to get rid of him.

If you are an opposition club the time to target WC is 2028 because HR and Shanahan finish their current deals at the same time Duursma, CDT and Lindsay finish their rookie deals. I would be surprised if all 5 of those guys are still OOC by the end of the 2028 season but if you are strategising now then that's what you should be aiming for. Even more so with WC supposedly chasing Warner and Georgiades at the end of 2027.

 

[bzparkes]

Any of you one of the 21 brave souls who've watched this yet?

 

[Byron_Clanger]

https://archive.md/o4vK8#selection-1439.0-1439.13

Splinters acting like there's 'tough times ahead' list spots wise when I can literally give you Cripps (retired) Johnstone and Barnett are definites, Newton (an actual tough one, but injury has stuffed him), Schoenberg maybe if he shows nothing for the rest of the year and they wanna bring Broad in, I assume they'll retain Flynn and B. Williams to give CDT more development buffer, Noah Long could be touch and go as well, wasn't a McQualter pick and like Newton can't get his body right with all different kinds of injuries.

They'll probably keep Cole around for another year for experience, Champion and Rodriguez I assume they'll keep, Milan is a definite stayer, Hall, Maric, Bazzo and Jack Williams probably a good chance one or two of them get retained, I guess. And would say goodbye to Brockman.

I'm either way with Hewett, stay or go, meh.

 

[bzparkes]

Aren't Carlton committed to basically using their first pick this year to get Cody Walker anyway?

So this hypothetical trade has us accepting a washed up Cripps plus whatever Carlton get for Weitering in return for an under contract HR?

Plus they are not even sure who their coach will be next year so how do you sell that to players at other clubs?

I saw on another program they were debating whether they could get one of the WA clubs to give up two first rounders for Cripps when most Carlton fans don't even think he is best 23 anymore.

Yes.

Somehow he thinks Carlton can fob off Cripps(worth a 2nd rounder at best) and Weitering and still land Harley Reid AND Cody Walker.

There is no world where they can trade for Harley and land Walker.

None.

 

[DorothyG]

Any of you one of the 21 brave souls who've watched this yet?

Make that 22 now

Big summa calling for Nizzy to come back on the board.
"Elizabeth Gains, don't know her, Ben Wyatt, never met him"

No shit summa, you've been out of the club for decades, and I don't think you'd be on the invite list to Gains and Wyatt's next dinner party.

Hahaha good listen if you want a chuckle

 

[bzparkes]

Make that 22 now

Big summa calling for Nizzy to come back on the board.
"Elizabeth Gains, don't know her, Ben Wyatt, never met him"

No shit summa, you've been out of the club for decades, and I don't think you'd be on the invite list to Gains and Wyatt's next dinner party.

Hahaha good listen if you want a chuckle

You are a far, FAR braver soul than I'll ever be.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

He even has a mini crack at his mates Worsfold and Pyke and says he can't see what they are doing to arrest the losing culture that Simpson left behind at the club. At least somebody is publicly saying it rather than the focus being on decisions at the selection table or moves at the trade table being the answer.

 

[DorothyG]

We don't have anywhere near enough AFL quality players in the 22-29 age bracket, the single most important age range.

But sure Summa sitting down with Gains for a coffee so he can tell them how woke the club has gotten is going to be the magic pill fix.

 

[Goroyals22]

He even has a mini crack at his mates Worsfold and Pyke and says he can't see what they are doing to arrest the losing culture that Simpson left behind at the club. At least somebody is publicly saying it rather than the focus being on decisions at the selection table or moves at the trade table being the answer.

He has been having a go at them for the last 15 months…
I still think it’s funny he thought im
Peter Sumich, you ring me….

 

[ziad]

https://archive.md/o4vK8#selection-1439.0-1439.13

Splinters acting like there's 'tough times ahead' list spots wise when I can literally give you Cripps (retired) Johnstone and Barnett are definites, Newton (an actual tough one, but injury has stuffed him), Schoenberg maybe if he shows nothing for the rest of the year and they wanna bring Broad in, I assume they'll retain Flynn and B. Williams to give CDT more development buffer, Noah Long could be touch and go as well, wasn't a McQualter pick and like Newton can't get his body right with all different kinds of injuries.

They'll probably keep Cole around for another year for experience, Champion and Rodriguez I assume they'll keep, Milan is a definite stayer, Hall, Maric, Bazzo and Jack Williams probably a good chance one or two of them get retained, I guess. And would say goodbye to Brockman.

I'm either way with Hewett, stay or go, meh.

Yep, captain obvious stuff. We will move on far more that 'needed'.

 

[flyinghi64]

Who's closer to success and further through a re-build West Coast or Carlton??
Why would a young player looking for success head to Carlton, the one team taking a lot of attention away from us.

Mind you we better start improving on field dead quick

 

[KERRPOW]

https://archive.md/o4vK8#selection-1439.0-1439.13

Splinters acting like there's 'tough times ahead' list spots wise when I can literally give you Cripps (retired) Johnstone and Barnett are definites, Newton (an actual tough one, but injury has stuffed him), Schoenberg maybe if he shows nothing for the rest of the year and they wanna bring Broad in, I assume they'll retain Flynn and B. Williams to give CDT more development buffer, Noah Long could be touch and go as well, wasn't a McQualter pick and like Newton can't get his body right with all different kinds of injuries.

They'll probably keep Cole around for another year for experience, Champion and Rodriguez I assume they'll keep, Milan is a definite stayer, Hall, Maric, Bazzo and Jack Williams probably a good chance one or two of them get retained, I guess. And would say goodbye to Brockman.

I'm either way with Hewett, stay or go, meh.

LOL we got a literal smorgasbord of cuts.

 

[The Gtrain]

Fresh round of “Let’s unpack how we can get Harley to Vic” trade hypotheticals have dropped

hypothetical, we get Neale and Cripps for basically nothing and use early end draft pick this year. Pretty sure Harley wouldn't mind being in that midfield rotation.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

remember the good ol days youtube videos are out to distract us and, what was i saying again?

Bit if a shame we played the next day. It would have been nice for the current playing group to be there.

 

[Goroyals22]

Eagles talk starts about 13:20. Hinkley”s comments are pretty spot on and you would hope that’s what’s happening

 

[Vargo hoat]

https://archive.md/o4vK8#selection-1439.0-1439.13

Splinters acting like there's 'tough times ahead' list spots wise when I can literally give you Cripps (retired) Johnstone and Barnett are definites, Newton (an actual tough one, but injury has stuffed him), Schoenberg maybe if he shows nothing for the rest of the year and they wanna bring Broad in, I assume they'll retain Flynn and B. Williams to give CDT more development buffer, Noah Long could be touch and go as well, wasn't a McQualter pick and like Newton can't get his body right with all different kinds of injuries.

They'll probably keep Cole around for another year for experience, Champion and Rodriguez I assume they'll keep, Milan is a definite stayer, Hall, Maric, Bazzo and Jack Williams probably a good chance one or two of them get retained, I guess. And would say goodbye to Brockman.

I'm either way with Hewett, stay or go, meh.

I think we are in a pretty good position in terms of who is out of contract this year.

Only 6 of the 18 uncontracted players are lining up this weekend, and these 6 aren’t that important in the rebuild (Maric, Johnstone, Cole, BWilliams, Champion, Murdoch)

Of the 12 players not in the 1s this week, 3 are on the injury list and again, aren’t that important in the rebuild (Brockman, Newton, Long)

The remaining 9 are currently deemed not in the best 23.

This allows us to be flexible in terms of who we retain, and will likely recontract a mix between young players we want to move forward with (Hewitt) veterans we want to keep (Arguably Cole) and positions of need (Ruck)

 

[Rowan18]

Bit if a shame we played the next day. It would have been nice for the current playing group to be there.

I was in field club for our game and they had a function in there after the game finished (all the ex players starting coming in as we were leaving). Some of them were in the rooms too.

 

[chaddy22]

I think we are in a pretty good position in terms of who is out of contract this year.

Only 6 of the 18 uncontracted players are lining up this weekend, and these 6 aren’t that important in the rebuild (Maric, Johnstone, Cole, BWilliams, Champion, Murdoch)

Of the 12 players not in the 1s this week, 3 are on the injury list and again, aren’t that important in the rebuild (Brockman, Newton, Long)

The remaining 9 are currently deemed not in the best 23.

This allows us to be flexible in terms of who we retain, and will likely recontract a mix between young players we want to move forward with (Hewitt) veterans we want to keep (Arguably Cole) and positions of need (Ruck)

Johnstone is a easy delist. He's not even on our list.

 

[eaglevision]

I think we are in a pretty good position in terms of who is out of contract this year.

Only 6 of the 18 uncontracted players are lining up this weekend, and these 6 aren’t that important in the rebuild (Maric, Johnstone, Cole, BWilliams, Champion, Murdoch)

Of the 12 players not in the 1s this week, 3 are on the injury list and again, aren’t that important in the rebuild (Brockman, Newton, Long)

The remaining 9 are currently deemed not in the best 23.

This allows us to be flexible in terms of who we retain, and will likely recontract a mix between young players we want to move forward with (Hewitt) veterans we want to keep (Arguably Cole) and positions of need (Ruck)

Duggan, Young, Dewar and Hutchinson are the only players that are massively over contracted. Some minor inconveniences next year like Owies but other than that you’re right it’s in a pretty good spot.

 

[Tugga27]

Watching the First Crack and they showed a clip where about 7 or 8 Eagles just went at the ball carrier about 60 meters out, which means we had 3 backs to cover 5 forwards and they kicked a goal.

Was damning footage.

I think Kingy had a veiled threat about Duggan.
Well, I think it was Duggan.

He said "Essondon dropped Ben McKay

32

Ben Mckay

Age

28

Ht

202cm

Wt

104kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.5

2star

K

3.7

1star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

1.7

4star

MG

77.2

1star

D

7.5

2star

K

4.5

2star

HB

3.0

2star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.5

2star

MG

88.5

2star

D

7.0

2star

K

3.4

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.0

4star

MG

67.8

1star

. If they can't do the job, get them out".

 

[amazingjoshy]

Watching the First Crack and they showed a clip where about 7 or 8 Eagles just went at the ball carrier about 60 meters out, which means we had 3 backs to cover 5 forwards and they kicked a goal.

Was damning footage.

I think Kingy had a veiled threat about Duggan.
Well, I think it was Duggan.

He said "Essondon dropped Ben McKay. If they can't do the job, get them out".

I saw this at the time and posted in the gameday thread about it. Actually counted 10 WC players completely free just at the back of the stoppage at Melbourne's 50m line and the ball went over to the other pocket with 2 completely free Melbourne players standing there

Not sure that's a workrate issue, its a lack of knowing where to be issue. Which is 100% on the coaches and leaders