Some tidbits

[2ndeffort]

I guess since Johnson is seen as a complete failure we better keep recruiting others from Melbourne until we get a good one. Great info all up, thanks EP

 

[beowulf]

Guys and Gals

Some interesting little tidbits gleaned from discussions in recent days

• Draw - we have a tough one. If we are at 50% come round eight we will be doing well

Not something we can do muc about. Pity some other clubs seem to be the darlings of the AFL. I hope we can surprise a few more teams in 2010.

• Fevola - coaching group were unanimous about offloading him and most of the senior players are very happy too. The amount of attention coaching staff paid to him was seen as over the top for a 28 year old given all the kids that need to be nurtured - a never ending drama on many fronts. Heath Scotland a notable exception - quite shitty apparently.

As long as it doesn't affect his game I'm not worried.

• McLean - glad to get him, but actually went after Rivers at first instance, which Dees would not have a bar of.

• Glad we got McLean and not Rivers. We may be short a brilliant FF, but we are NOT THAT desperate.

  [*]Stevo - AFL had agreed we can treat his payout under 2009 salary cap rather than 2010, so expect an announcement soon

  Great news. I'm just disappointed he had to retire.

• Walker - was on the table because coaching staff see him as undisciplined in a football sense - little 1 percenters like standing goalside of his man at stoppages. Very critical of his effort on Rich in last quarter

• I understand that Andrew doesn't want to leave us. But I thought he did a great job on Rich for 3 quarters. His last was not one of his best, but Rich is no slouch either.

• Russell - wrapped with his improvement
• Simpson - likely to be VC
• Kreuzer - real reluctance to turn him into a forward. I've heard it said that he could be an "adequate" forward but a champion ruckman who does everything you'd want in a modern ruckman.

• Simmo would make a great leader. He really does come up when given that sort of role.

  [*]Johnson - recruiting him regarded as a complete failure

  We have to have somebody to delist at the end of 2010. But to be serious, he hasn't come come up to expectations. He's going to have to show a hell of a lot to keep his spot. I don't think he has what it takes to do it.

  [*]Fisher - retained because he is contracted - no other reason
  [*]Browne - love him. expect to see more of him
  [*]Grigg - got a "bit pleased with himself" as a consequence of his form in NAB Cup, got hurt and just "had a shit year" - they are not too worried and reckon he will come good.

More soon. EP

Fisher has only really had 1 poor year, even though he has always had issues. He COULD turn it around, but it is up to him and the MC to get him fired up and fully fit. A half fit Fisher is one headed out the door.

Thanks for these lovely bits of info, EP. I loved reading them.

 

[Silvagnis]

Walker knows where the goals are.

We only see the indigenous side of Walker when he's within range of the goals.

He can snap a freak goal.

Walker snapped an incredible goal on his wrong foot from the pocket against the Hawks two years ago.

I can see AW playing a similar role to Rooke inside 50 with his size, leap, mobility and attack on the ball & the man.

With Robinson alongside.

Robinson can mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtaFAGxUfM0

 

[incog43]

If you saw a full list of players at each club who had some sort of operation in the post season you would be shocked.

I.e. All players are injured or about to get injured at any given point in time to some degree.

The question is more how well does he carry injuries, and are they the type that he can play with.

Given his height, he will take longer than usual to "fit into" his body, i.e. to fill out and carry his frame better.

I'm sure he learnt some lessons from last pre-season about going "too hard" with his running.

Would not be shocked at all actually, it happens. Would just like to see him playing in the firsts at some time, that's why we pay him the big dollars isn't it?

 

[johnsy14]

If this is true, I think it is very good. We will always play Essendon, Richmond and Collingwood twice. WC and Freo are bottom 4, Geelong top 4, and Brisbane mid-table. Of course the detail might be on where we play the other interstate sides since we already have 3 guarenteed interstate trips here. If we play both of the Adelaide teams and also Sydney interstate it means we have 6 interstate trips. We also might play Hawthorn in Launceston making it 7. Other than that, it seems a really good draw

As much as I'd love for that to be the case, it won't be. AD was mega pissed off about them playing the Saints there late last year.

 

[beowulf]

I don't think Mitch is a 'marking target' as such, but he can take a pretty good one when he's going. He took some good ones against Richmond as well, from memory. And he shows no fear. But I don't expect him to be a 'marking target' yet.
Robbo will be better when he has a bit more confidence in his marking: there are times he doesn't seem to have the extension in the arms you see with, say, Fisher. But that could be different in a year or 2.
I expect Robbo to spend more time in the midfield in 2010. That was his job in Tassie.

I'll be interested to see if Andrew Walker can be developed into a 'marking target'. He has the spring that could do anything, but he rarely marks the ball when going for a 'speccie'. Over his head, when he keeps his feet, he is pretty good.

 

[Monkey King]

• Kreuzer - real reluctance to turn him into a forward. I've heard it said that he could be an "adequate" forward but a champion ruckman who does everything you'd want in a modern ruckman.

Music to my ears. Would be wasting his talents as a full time forward. Between them, Hampson is much better suited if he could hold his marks and get the hang of smart forward work, whereas Kreuzer just offers so much around the ground.

• Browne - love him. expect to see more of him

Hope so. Thought he was unfairly dealt with after the Collingwood debacle. While he had a terrible game, this kid seriously needs some AFL game time.


Cheers for the tidbits ep

 

[Jimthegreat]

Thanks ep for the info

Good news that Stevo's payout will come under the 2009 cap.
No surprise in regards to Fisher & Johnson.

Can't see Fisher getting too many senior games next year, if any at all.

Any news on Wiggins. Will he be delisted?

Hope Fisher gets 2 games at least. Deserves to get 100.

In reality We got some value from him given he was a Pick 72 so so 100 games, quite a few decent was a bonus. Was damn good up to 2007 but dropped off since. He's just a 3rd tall, nothing else. No surprise his best years were when he was 3rd tall behind Fev and Whitnall.

Important year for him. Needs to get more strings to his bow even though he is a real outstanding mark.

 

[Jimthegreat]

Warnock info is troubling

Think he had the operation a little while ago though.

 

[Jimthegreat]

I agree with Carlton Fan, we have too many ordinary players on our list, and we need to make the call on these guys and look to the future.
For a start I cannot believe Bentley was not first off the rank to be delisted. He makes Bentick look like an A grader.
Fisher may be contracted for 2010 but surely we need to pay his contract out and delist him. He will not be part of our next push to glory so why have him on the list? Some might say we need players like Fish for depth, what depth? The guy cannot get a kick at VFL level and his performance in the GF was laughable to say the least. He will not be on huge dollars so it will not be a huge issue.
Wiggins a great team man, yes, but there comes a time when football ability must count for something. His expiry date is well overdue.

Bar the GF he had a pretty good season in the VFL. It's why he got promoted a few times and did play a few decent games. Was good in the PF. Instrumental in the 3rd qtr against the Swans when we were in trouble when he kicked 4 goals pretty quickly. As the season is more than just 22 players he's good for depth as we did use 37 players last season. He's not useless.

He has his last shot this year though. Needs to get back to near his outstanding 2007 form or he's gone.

 

[Mister Carlton]

Walker - was on the table because coaching staff see him as undisciplined in a football sense - little 1 percenters like standing goalside of his man at stoppages. Very critical of his effort on Rich in last quarter.

I can really see Walker being a very powerful player in our side. Disposal was shocking for the past few games towards the end of the year. Was trying to play classy football (curving the ball off the boot) and it wasn't working. Put on the trade table because the club doesn't believe that his shoulder will hold up?

 

[as0l0]

Put on the trade table because the club doesn't believe that his shoulder will hold up?

you'd need a tractor to pull it out again.

 

[ESKIE]

Walker knows where the goals are.

We only see the indigenous side of Walker when he's within range of the goals.

He can snap a freak goal.

Walker snapped an incredible goal on his wrong foot from the pocket against the Hawks two years ago.

I can see AW playing a similar role to Rooke inside 50 with his size, leap, mobility and attack on the ball & the man.

With Robinson alongside.

Robinson can mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtaFAGxUfM0

That;s great...
Robbo is going to be a .... Beauty !!!

 

[Blue and Silver]

Not surprised with the Cloke will go if they need to delist suggestion really, i thought that he might be out of favour and he really is only short term player at best now. I suggested in the 2010 full forward thread that he might start out as our FF but that seems unlikely now

 

[choo]

What horrible news. So when is he expected to be training properly?

Warnock had the operation on September 14 8 weeks from then takes him until November 9
Teague stated during the finals that Warnock was out of the Bullants so that he could have the shoulder op and be ready for pre season. Sounds on track to me.

 

[inyourcool]

The timing of Warnock's surgery was designed to get him going for the early part of pre-season training. By the sounds of it, all is on schedule

 

[mediumsizered]

[/LIST]

Hope so. Thought he was unfairly dealt with after the Collingwood debacle. While he had a terrible game, this kid seriously needs some AFL game time.

Agree with this. Browne definitely has the talent to make it at AFL level, but does need the chance to string together several games in a row, for confidence, if nothing else.

 

[Koutafidamedis]

Interesting info about Cloke if the 10 games he played this season did in fact earn him another year.

If we are delisting contracted players then I would think Fisher would go before Cloke. IMO Cloke offers more to us than Fisher.

 

[Ytoojae]

So from all of the news I have gleaned the following out of it.

Best 22 post Judd suspension

FF: Eddie Betts - Shaun Hampson - Jeff Garlett
HF: Andrew Walker - Lachlan Henderson - Mitch Robinson
C: Kade Simpson - Brock McLean - Bryce Gibbs
HB: Paul Bower - Jarrad Waite - Bret Thornton
FB: Jordan Russell - Michael Jamison - Aaron Joseph
RU: Matthew Kreuzer - Chris Judd - Marc Murphy
IC: Robert Warnock - Andrew Carrazzo - Ryan Houlihan - Dennis Armfield
EM: Setanta O'hAilpin - Steven Browne - Mark Austin

I like that forward line. Two tall and athletic freaks at the CHF and FF positions with two ultra tough midfield type guys on the flanks. Two small goal sneaks will work well with Hampson who showed to me in different games that he can play forward.

I really love the back six. Great set up down back. Would love to add depth to it through the draft as the only depth we have there currently is Browne and Joe Anderson who really backup Russell and Armfield (got him on the bench in place of AJ in the best 22, but fits into that 18 easily enough), I guess they're counting on Setanta being the utility big man next season.

No idea where that leaves Scotland. He's not good enough to get a spot in that back six and it looks like the club is going for the toughness on the half forward line which I'm loving. He could fit in there as a half forward. He could take Houlihan's spot in the side I guess.

Club may not see as much in Austin as a lot of us fans do, which I find interesting. Club seems to be headed in a different direction. I hope he comes up good in the pre-season and battles his way into the side.

Am interested to see who the other two delistings will be. I'm guessing Anderson and Cloke. However, out of the guys who played in the VFL Grand Final it appeared to me as though, at least to David Teague, that Joe was the pick of the bunch as he wanted him to play the big role in the final quarter.

 

[Koutafidamedis]

Swap Garlett for Yarran and thats a pretty good side right there.

 

[blueheart]

So from all of the news I have gleaned the following out of it.

Best 22 post Judd suspension

FF: Eddie Betts - Shaun Hampson - Jeff Garlett
HF: Andrew Walker - Lachlan Henderson - Mitch Robinson
C: Kade Simpson - Brock McLean - Bryce Gibbs
HB: Paul Bower - Jarrad Waite - Bret Thornton
FB: Jordan Russell - Michael Jamison - Aaron Joseph
RU: Matthew Kreuzer - Chris Judd - Marc Murphy
IC: Robert Warnock - Andrew Carrazzo - Ryan Houlihan - Dennis Armfield
EM: Setanta O'hAilpin - Steven Browne - Mark Austin

Swap Russell with Thornton as we really need more run off the half back line and Chris Yarran will definately be in our best 22 next year - possibly at the expenese of Garlett.
Things are starting to look good if Scotto can't make the side however I still think he will still have some sort of role next year but maybe a limited one.
Would also have Shaun Grigg ahead of Robbo at this stage.
Apart from that pretty close

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Swap Russell with Thornton as we really need more run off the half back line and Chris Yarran will definately be in our best 22 next year - possibly at the expenese of Garlett.
Things are starting to look good if Scotto can't make the side however I still think he will still have some sort of role next year but maybe a limited one.
Would also have Shaun Grigg ahead of Robbo at this stage.
Apart from that pretty close

Shows that maybe our depth isn't as bad as most BF supporters would have us believe if w can leave out players like Grigg, Scotland and Yarran ??

 

[TOPBLUE_25]

FF: Eddie Betts - Shaun Hampson - Jeff Garlett
HF: Andrew Walker - Lachlan Henderson - Mitch Robinson
C: Kade Simpson - Brock McLean - Bryce Gibbs
HB: Paul Bower - Jarrad Waite - Bret Thornton
FB: Jordan Russell - Michael Jamison - Aaron Joseph
RU: Matthew Kreuzer - Chris Judd - Marc Murphy
IC: Robert Warnock - Andrew Carrazzo - Ryan Houlihan - Dennis Armfield
EM: Setanta O'hAilpin - Steven Browne - Mark Austin

Grigg
Yarran
Anderson

These guys are really competing in the pre season to see who gets the games in 2010

 

[TOPBLUE_25]

And I would have Austin in the team for sure.

 

[thylacine60]

you'd need a tractor to pull it out again.

My fear is, this might be it.