Roast The Selection of John McCarthy.

[the mighty T]

Dead rubber, he had been dominating the twos.

I think Medhurst's return senior game clearly showed rust, and we just needed another player ( now with very recent senior experience) to call on for depth if required.

I think he did spend a lot of time tagging, which rarely makes you look great, but some of his touches were class.

I cant buy that swoop...

How do you get over a bit of rust, you let the man have a game or two

Talking about players who can have an impact in finals and were not even looking at a bloke who has been AA quality...

Nah cant buy it...still not having a go at jmac but it was certainly the wrong choice

 

[Frankie23]

Ease up on the kid. He was playing a negating role today so he wasn't going to rack up the stats today.

He deserved his shot, and got it. Some of his kicking around the ground was awesome. Yeah he isn't in our best 22, but the selection was the right one based on his VFL form.

Over-reaction to the loss

 

[Hva sher a]

Ease up on the kid. He was playing a negating role today so he wasn't going to rack up the stats today.

He deserved his shot, and got it. Some of his kicking around the ground was awesome. Yeah he isn't in our best 22, but the selection was the right one based on his VFL form.

Over-reaction to the loss

yeh let's get a bit of perspective. The bigger worry is our crap kicking for goal.

 

[HeavyPop]

It's a bit weak to say he didn't deserve selection only after you saw his game today.

 

[mattys123]

It's a bit weak to say he didn't deserve selection only after you saw his game today.

Not really, especially considering I was stunned he was selected in the first place.

I'm not really having a go at J-Mac himself, I'm more having a go at the selection of him, when we had 4 better options IMO (Anthony, Meds, Lockyer and Leon).

I still don't understand the selection, and the simple fact is he is not going to be, and was never going to be part of our finals team at any stage, so how does he get a game.

I'm a McCarthy fan, but what he needs is continuous games at VFL level to build his poise and confidence, not more games at AFL level where to put it nicely, he has struggled in just about every game he has played.

Medhurst had to play today, I'm perplexed at why he didn't play.

 

[Swooop]

I cant buy that swoop...

How do you get over a bit of rust, you let the man have a game or two

Talking about players who can have an impact in finals and were not even looking at a bloke who has been AA quality...

Nah cant buy it...still not having a go at jmac but it was certainly the wrong choice

Yep, the other option was to let Medhurst have another game. No question. TBH, he deserved game over Leon IMHO, esp having watched them both closely last week in the twos.

However, if midfielder needed replacing due to injury, or a tagger was required, then JMac could now be called upon do do that.

Now, we have a JMac with recent senior experience, esp given that he played on one of the games best in Mitchell.

 

[Pie eyed]

Im not too fussed that we lost. But Im fussed about rubbish selections - whoever it may be.

It seems to me to be a wasted opportunity NOT to play anyone who is obviously pressing....before....we desperately need them in finals.

It's not like it was a game we had to win.

 

[Krueger]

It seems to me to be a wasted opportunity NOT to play anyone who is obviously pressing....before....we desperately need them in finals.

It's not like it was a game we had to win.

So youd rather bring in an inexperienced player who has previously failed at AFL level but is tearing it up in the VFL into a finals series rather than a player who is proven at AFL level but needs an extra game or two to get back upto speed of the AFL?

Btw I have nothing against J-Mac. I just believe its a wasted opportunity so close to the finals.

 

[Thommo 42]

He doesn't play the same role as Medhurst so its a poor argument. If Medhurst was selected, he wouldn't have been playing a negating midfield/halfback role.

Macarthy was ok, his kicking is exceptional but if he's going to tag he needs to play tighter and stop ball watching.

Not sure what everyone is sooking about

 

[Time Lord]

At first i wasn't pleased with the inclusion of McCarthy, due to his previous efforts at AFL level (I remember the game against Fremantle a few years ago where he put nearly everything out on the full if I remember correctly) however he did some good things. He certainly isn't in our best 22, and if Mick wanted to blood players for the finals if needed I would have thought Medhurst would have been a better option.

 

[Copeland]

And because Medders didn't get a gig does this mean he's finished, especially after getting 35 or so possessions last week.

 

[The New Breid]

What an overreaction. It was a dead rubber and McCarthy was rewarded for being the best performed VFL player. He won't play next week, but Medhurst/Lockyer/Anthony sure as hell won't either.

 

[HFF]

It was the perfect game to play someone like J-Mac.

We all know he won't feature in September but in order to expose him to AFL football we need to get games into him. He will be better for it.

Mick knows what he is doing.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Agree with the op and disagree with most of the posters.

A player like McCarthy needs a month to settle into senior footy. Giving him one solitary game is not enough to help him or to help Collingwood win a flag. The timing was poor and was unlikely to give him sufficient exposure to seniors to be of any use.

We'd have been much better off playing somebody we might actually use in September like Anthony Lockyer or Medhurst.

The time to play McCarthy was midseason. Its probably too late now.

 

[wicksy]

Seriously... What a bullshit thread!!!

Can we give him 1, 2 or maybe 3 games in the row before we write J-MAC off again??!!

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Seriously... What a bullshit thread!!!

Can we give him 1, 2 or maybe 3 games in the row before we write J-MAC off again??!!

Exactly. He shouldnt be given a run in Round 22 where he has no opportunity to string games together.

Hopefully he'll get plenty of opportunity in 2011.

 

[Quicky]

I was really happy to see McCarthy get given a game. His form in the twos had warranted a shot and this was the game to give to fringe players pushing for selection some AFL exposure. I was even more stoked to see him used as a tagger, it's an idea i've liked for awhile now and was really interested to see how he went. I wasn't too happy to see his opponent was Mitchell as I think he is the most difficult type of player to tag so wasn't expecting him to have a great deal of luck. He didn't do enough to hold his position in the side but what he did do was show passages of play where I thought geez this kid has something. There were some really good bullet like passes under pressure which showed skill and vision. There were also some really good moments where his attack on the ball was ferocious. He will get dropped this week but he's still showing plenty to be excited about.

 

[Zahki]

What he needs now is a big, uninterrupted preseason. If he can reach the start of next season without an injury then he'll be right up there for selection with O'Bree and Lockyer gone.

 

[Pie eyed]

So youd rather bring in an inexperienced player who has previously failed at AFL level but is tearing it up in the VFL into a finals series rather than a player who is proven at AFL level but needs an extra game or two to get back upto speed of the AFL?

Btw I have nothing against J-Mac. I just believe its a wasted opportunity so close to the finals.

The fact is Fraser got a look, we know what we are going to get from Davis and Medhurst (best and worst) and McCarthy was pressing for selection for weeks.
Do you suggest we play him in a final to get an idea of how he goes?

Personally I don't think he went so damned bad, in a side that looked half asleep.
Name a player who has not had a chance who deserved it over McCarthy?

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Simply put, we had 21 players the moment we ran out today.

Exactly my words at the game.

How many times does this dud have to do nothing before Malthouse realises he is NO GOOD.

He's not a key position that takes years to develop. He's on on-baller. In MOST cases, if an on-baller isn't well on their way to showing something within a couple of years, then write them off.

They don't have to be stars, they they should show a HINT of something.

Thomas, Davis, Swan, Wellingham. All of them took time to achieve high levels, but even in their early spud years, they showed SOMETHING. a GLIMPSE as to how great they could be.

This kid just shows how Mick still could sabotage the whole thing at the selection table.

 

[Kirby]

I think he shows a bit.

I think we played him because we wanted to play an extra midfielder to lesson the load on the regulars.

Some of our better players/midfielders only had about 70% time on ground. Pendles was played half forward etc.

I think it was a very deliberate ploy in what was a nothing dead rubber match.

 

[shawthing09]

Some people over react so much and love a scapegaot just as much.

To say he was worse then Medhurst against Essendon is plain crazy. Medhurst played as a foward in a 100 point smashing and didn't manage a goal, only one genuine assist and 10ish touches. J-Mac tags one of the best mids in the comp in a close game and is like playing a man short?

Anyone watching with any kind of attention would have seen for a majority of the game yesterday we structured up very differently. Fraser, Maccaffer, McCarthy and Sidebottom all spent a lot more time in the midfield whilst Pendles played low game time and a lot of it foward, Jolly foward, Cloke seemed to be playing a lot higher then he has in previous weeks etc.

It was a dead rubber match and was treated as such, perserving guys and trying some things out.

Over the past 2 months all of Blair, Sidebottom, Goldsack, Heath Shaw and Harry have played similar or worse games then that and haven't copped near this amount of criticism because we have been winning.

On the selection, he was one of the inform VFL players who is AFL standard who is yet to be given ago, it was a dead rubber match and we where trying a few things and giving the core midfield group a reduced workload.

On his game, he kept Mitchell pretty quiet early but Mitchell is to good a player. The other way he showed a bit with a couple of exceptional bullet like passes whilst running under pressure, some clean hands in contested situations.

He has (besides the St Kilda game this year when he was rushed into the side) always been put into the side at the pointy end of the year which wouldn't be easy but he has certainly got a great skill set and if you watch the game again I am sure you will see it, he has at times crazy clean hands when in contested situations at ground level, he hits the packs hard with good pace and a great attack on the ball and has the ability to hit targets on the tit with bullet passes whilst running at pace. What he doesn't have is an AFL tank yet, which is the result of no pre-seasons and the concentration to tag because well he has never done it before.