Some Interesting Comments From A Couple Of Players !!
From 'Carlton Supporters Club'
www.carltonsupportersclub.cjb.net
A Chat With McCormick & Prendergast
As the Blues were still in town after last nights debacle against the Swans, they held a junior clinic at Moore Park opposite to the SCG. I was only alerted to this from the chap I spoke with whilst waiting to get the train at Milsons Point. So the 'Son Of Sheik' and I went on down for a look and to see if we could speak with any of the players.
On arrival, we noticed that every player was in attendance and broken up into smaller groups to give these little tackers some different drills. The club had a BBQ on for them with soft drinks so they all took it in turns to do a mini-clinic and then scoff a snag or two.
We noticed debutante John McCormick standing by himself behind the goals so we wandered over for a chat. I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask where he gets his haircut, and did he model it on Brian Mannix from the UnCanny X-Men. His reply was a huge laugh and a giggling "Who ?". He assured me that he hasn't had a haircut for 6 months but was going to get one this week, I suggested he not follow the Darren Hulme style either. I asked him a bit about his background and he revealed that he played for Wangaratta Magpies in the Ovens & Murray League. I wondered if he had played against Karl Norman when he was at Wangaratta Rovers, but he had never come across Karl. I wondered if any other club had spoken to him prior to the draft and was surprised to learn that no-one had made a play for him, even though he secretly had hoped to be picked up by Melbourne as he had barracked for them previously. We also talked about last night and he revealed that naturally he was very nervous before the game but the senior players had given him some calming words to help him out. He said the players were still adjusting to the new gameplan and when I suggested that most clubs prefer the shorter possession game, he felt that they all have modified them to suit their player list. I talked about my guided tour of the Adelaide training complex and wondered how the Blues training facilities compared. He was polite in his answer saying that they were 'okay' but it made me wonder how far behind the other clubs we really are ?? I was impressed with McCormick's openness and he really did come across as a typical country lad with no airs & graces. On last night's performance, I think we have snared a player of some talent but after talking to him, he's a really genuine guy who will endear himself to a lot of supporters in general.
When they called all of the kids together for a bit of a chinwag and to give out posters, I was able to nab Ian Prendergast for a couple of minutes. I asked him where that side-step & goal came from and he was as stunned by it as everyone else was. He confessed that as he had been injured for the previous 5 weeks with an ankle problem, he was completely stuffed after half-time, "I just ran out of gas in the second half". I was surprised by that as he is always one of the better stamina players, but he admitted to being extremely knackered at the time too. I was quite taken back by his size as he is quite a big guy which prompted me to ask him where he felt his best position was. I also added that in 2001 he played on a wing and half-forward to which he replied "I really liked that gap player role as it allowed me to run a lot more, but we are pretty right for forwards at the moment so there is more opportunities in the back half". My final question was in regards to his possible match-up on Barry Hall. He said Hall was extremely quick for a guy of his size and very difficult to play-on, he wasn't convinced that he would have been a good choice for him. I suggested that Thornton wasn't the ideal choice either to which he agreed saying "that Hall's sheer body strength and pace makes him too hard to handle". Lastly, he said "we're all disappointed by the crap we served up last night", can't say he didn't state the obvious but it was pleasing to hear him acknowldge it.
Also watched a few of the other players working with the kids, Hulme was full of encouragement for an older group boys (around 12-14) who were doing more serious training drills. Fevola was very extremely personable with all of the kids and was a big favourite, even with a couple of young girls he was showing how to shoot a basketball. McKay, Hickmott, Manton & McKernan seemed to be the real leaders of everything with the other players just doing bit parts. At one stage Murphy asked some of the young-uns which group they had been in and they pointed to Fevola which drew the response "I doubt if you'd learn anything from Fevola".
As it was all winding up, I bumped into the chap who I had met at the train station last night. He had just been speaking with Kouta who informed him that Pagan took all of the players back to the team hotel immediately after the game and gave them each a one-on-one interrogation about the game. Apparently Denis went through them all like a dose of epsom salts, he really went off his head at them. This might have explained why their colective moods was somewhat sombre this morning, were their ears were still ringing ??
On the way to the car-park, I was able to hear the tail-end of an interview Brett Ratten was having with eminent footy scribe from The Australian, Jenny McCasey. Ratten was looking to draw some positives out of the game and singled out Wiggins' job on Maxfield saying he was terrific, interesting comments from the captain.
Some other observations were that Beaumont is not that tall & Thornton has put some meat on his skinny body but is definitely not tall enough for the CHB position. The 'Son Of Sheik' was taller than a lot of them which further illustrated the lack of really big guys on the list.
For a sunday morning, it was an interesting one for sure !!
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fthejesaulenkoclubfrm10.showMessage?topicID=489.topic
From 'Carlton Supporters Club'
www.carltonsupportersclub.cjb.net
A Chat With McCormick & Prendergast
As the Blues were still in town after last nights debacle against the Swans, they held a junior clinic at Moore Park opposite to the SCG. I was only alerted to this from the chap I spoke with whilst waiting to get the train at Milsons Point. So the 'Son Of Sheik' and I went on down for a look and to see if we could speak with any of the players.
On arrival, we noticed that every player was in attendance and broken up into smaller groups to give these little tackers some different drills. The club had a BBQ on for them with soft drinks so they all took it in turns to do a mini-clinic and then scoff a snag or two.
We noticed debutante John McCormick standing by himself behind the goals so we wandered over for a chat. I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask where he gets his haircut, and did he model it on Brian Mannix from the UnCanny X-Men. His reply was a huge laugh and a giggling "Who ?". He assured me that he hasn't had a haircut for 6 months but was going to get one this week, I suggested he not follow the Darren Hulme style either. I asked him a bit about his background and he revealed that he played for Wangaratta Magpies in the Ovens & Murray League. I wondered if he had played against Karl Norman when he was at Wangaratta Rovers, but he had never come across Karl. I wondered if any other club had spoken to him prior to the draft and was surprised to learn that no-one had made a play for him, even though he secretly had hoped to be picked up by Melbourne as he had barracked for them previously. We also talked about last night and he revealed that naturally he was very nervous before the game but the senior players had given him some calming words to help him out. He said the players were still adjusting to the new gameplan and when I suggested that most clubs prefer the shorter possession game, he felt that they all have modified them to suit their player list. I talked about my guided tour of the Adelaide training complex and wondered how the Blues training facilities compared. He was polite in his answer saying that they were 'okay' but it made me wonder how far behind the other clubs we really are ?? I was impressed with McCormick's openness and he really did come across as a typical country lad with no airs & graces. On last night's performance, I think we have snared a player of some talent but after talking to him, he's a really genuine guy who will endear himself to a lot of supporters in general.
When they called all of the kids together for a bit of a chinwag and to give out posters, I was able to nab Ian Prendergast for a couple of minutes. I asked him where that side-step & goal came from and he was as stunned by it as everyone else was. He confessed that as he had been injured for the previous 5 weeks with an ankle problem, he was completely stuffed after half-time, "I just ran out of gas in the second half". I was surprised by that as he is always one of the better stamina players, but he admitted to being extremely knackered at the time too. I was quite taken back by his size as he is quite a big guy which prompted me to ask him where he felt his best position was. I also added that in 2001 he played on a wing and half-forward to which he replied "I really liked that gap player role as it allowed me to run a lot more, but we are pretty right for forwards at the moment so there is more opportunities in the back half". My final question was in regards to his possible match-up on Barry Hall. He said Hall was extremely quick for a guy of his size and very difficult to play-on, he wasn't convinced that he would have been a good choice for him. I suggested that Thornton wasn't the ideal choice either to which he agreed saying "that Hall's sheer body strength and pace makes him too hard to handle". Lastly, he said "we're all disappointed by the crap we served up last night", can't say he didn't state the obvious but it was pleasing to hear him acknowldge it.
Also watched a few of the other players working with the kids, Hulme was full of encouragement for an older group boys (around 12-14) who were doing more serious training drills. Fevola was very extremely personable with all of the kids and was a big favourite, even with a couple of young girls he was showing how to shoot a basketball. McKay, Hickmott, Manton & McKernan seemed to be the real leaders of everything with the other players just doing bit parts. At one stage Murphy asked some of the young-uns which group they had been in and they pointed to Fevola which drew the response "I doubt if you'd learn anything from Fevola".
As it was all winding up, I bumped into the chap who I had met at the train station last night. He had just been speaking with Kouta who informed him that Pagan took all of the players back to the team hotel immediately after the game and gave them each a one-on-one interrogation about the game. Apparently Denis went through them all like a dose of epsom salts, he really went off his head at them. This might have explained why their colective moods was somewhat sombre this morning, were their ears were still ringing ??
On the way to the car-park, I was able to hear the tail-end of an interview Brett Ratten was having with eminent footy scribe from The Australian, Jenny McCasey. Ratten was looking to draw some positives out of the game and singled out Wiggins' job on Maxfield saying he was terrific, interesting comments from the captain.
Some other observations were that Beaumont is not that tall & Thornton has put some meat on his skinny body but is definitely not tall enough for the CHB position. The 'Son Of Sheik' was taller than a lot of them which further illustrated the lack of really big guys on the list.
For a sunday morning, it was an interesting one for sure !!
http://pub103.ezboard.com/fthejesaulenkoclubfrm10.showMessage?topicID=489.topic
