Opinion What are our current areas of concern or improvement required

[Kruezing]

Team needs a preseason with strictly army training imo …

 

[Juddernaut08]

Everywhere

Everything, everywhere, all at once.

 

[Juddernaut08]

Outdated basic bash and crash game style…that’s one of the key underlying issues.

Of course the list can be improved as well.

Spot on.

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Everything, everywhere, all at once.

Reminds me of that great scene in Moneyball where Scott Hatteberg was being converted from a catcher to a first-baseman and having a conversation over breakfast with David Justice:.

• David Justice: What's your biggest fear?
• Scott Hatteberg: A baseball being hit in my general direction
• [Hatteberg and Justice share a laugh]
• David Justice: That's funny. Seriously, what is it?
• Scott Hatteberg: No, seriously, that is.
• [uncomfortable pause; Hatteberg leaves]
• David Justice: Well, hey, good luck with that.

 

[jj1978]

I think 50% culture. We still don't really understand how to be successful as a club. To sum up a complex area, we are way too all or nothing. We are either premiership favourites after a 3 game winning streak, or we are wooden spooners. Our players are superstars or duds. It's success or failure, never any realistic appraisal and certainly never any growth, and that means that the second we have a bad spot it's gloom and doom. We have a collective Messiah complex and are always looking for the saviour who will fix things, then crucify them when it doesn't work Our fans are vile after losses (and while I have had moments, it's a huge problem for us and getting worse). Our board is a bunch of corporate crooks and a plaything for rich investment bankers, which is somehow the only possible downgrade from what the Elliott/Mathieson year's.

Then to me it is 20% luck. We have barely had a father son or academy player for years. COVID hit an awful time in our rebuild/handover to Teague. Docherty won all Australian then did his knee and missed two full years, then got cancer. Curnow had a breakout game then did his knee and missed 2.5 years. You can go on and on with injuries... Even historically we got caught by bad timing and gave up our suburban ground, we got caught by the expansion drafts, we got shafted by changes to the ruck and sub rules, eve our salary cap scandal happened at the worst possible time (and cost us 3x top 4 draft picks and more). It happens, I guess.

20% is list management. We blew the best of our rebuild by panicking when success took longer than we thought and spent too much overpaying McGovern, Williams, Saad, Cerra. All solid players but only B graders. Now they have aged and we have lost all our depth players, and have a paper thin list. The only solution seems to be to pray that low tier draftees come good, or let TDK (or McKay?/Curnow?) go and replace him with 3-4 others just to put a competitive team on the park. Fortunately our father/son luck seems to have changed (just in time for draft rules to change...) but we should at least get Harry Dean, the Walkers, to go with the Camporeale brothers and that will help.

10% is coaching. We are a brutally tough club to coach. Voss has the best winning record of any Carlton coach this century and people want him sacked because we lost one match to Richmond and because what our badly thought out list is not winning. The second best coaching record this century was Ratten, who we chased out after 3 straight finals appearances because he had one 'down' and we 'only' went 11-11 (we didn't reach that mark for 10 years afterwards...). Voss isn't an amazing coach, but also, no one else wanted to coach us because of our culture, and he did, and he has given us more joy than anyone since Parkin, so I dunno, let's try to be reasonable here. Voss was maybe one of the few coaches who could turn us around after our decade long malaise, took us to our only prelim final in 25 years... His game plan is frustrating... But things could be a LOT worse, (and usually are for Carlton...)

I will add, that it is also 20% not as bad as it seems (see the top again). We aren't winning the premiership this year, and that's fine. We lost to Hawthorn, and so will many teams - we actually defended them well and were competitive with almost literally no forward line. This is a retooling year, which many teams have - we might drop as low as bottom 4, and it could still be a successful year if we figure out some structural things, rehab some guys who are injured, and get some blood into the young guys... Two straight finals (unlucky not to be 3), not unusual to drop off slightly then build back for next year...

Look at Voss’ tenure.. never a complete consistent season. We play in season halves.. one good one bad. Same mistakes being made. Still trying to find the best version of ourselves. I’ve seen nothing tactical like we clearly see with very good coaches, just solely relies on our top tier having a blinder. Take the last 22 games that is a full season and we’re bottom 4.

 

[Stamos]

Take the last 22 games that is a full season and we’re bottom 4.

Why would you write something like this, which is clearly factually wrong?

Everyone is acknowledging we have big problems, we don't need the hyperbole.

 

[Wickzki]

Coaching / Gameplan -- 30%
When we brought Vossy in, the promise was that we'd build a strong coaching team around him. After the first year, we were meant to upgrade our assistants and give him the support staff needed for a legitimate premiership tilt.

That hasn’t happened. Every premiership team in the last decade has had a high-quality coaching group. We don’t. We might have a couple of coaches who are genuinely up to standard compared to the rest of the comp.

Our line coaches are the worst in the AFL. Players aren’t just struggling—they’re outright questioning what they’re being asked to do. Just look at Charlie Curnow’s heat map last week. That’s our leading goal scorer, completely lost and out of sync with the game plan.

The system itself is a mess. For NBA fans, Vossy needs his Tex Winter for his Phil Jackson. Jackson was an elite motivator, but he had Winter to handle the X’s and O’s and the intricacies of what he was trying to execute. Right now, Vossy doesn’t have that tactical mastermind beside him. I like Ash Hansen—he’s come up with some solid plans (Harry McKay in R2, 2023 vs Geelong was a great example)—but it’s inconsistent at best.

We need coaches who can build a fully connected system from defence to attack.

Vossy can motivate. But motivation alone won’t win flags. The coaching panel needs to step up.

List Management -- 50% (and growing)

List management has been an ongoing issue for years. Every year, we sit down and talk about the same needs. Yet when you look at our actual list changes, how often do we really address them properly?

I’m not saying we don’t have enough AFL-level players. We have plenty but they do not fit into a cohesive whole. But look at the top-end talent: the core players we rely on have been here for years. Agresta and Austin haven’t added anyone who’s genuinely lifted that group to the next level. Can you name another club where that’s the case?

The only legitimate AFL-ready KPD we’ve added in years is Lewis Young. That’s it. Haynes is another third tall. O'Farrell is a kid that will take years to develop.

We still lack pace and skill in experienced players.

Our small forward stocks were already an issue before Owies left. And how have we addressed it? By bringing in injury-prone players (Fantasia), SSP signings who aren’t up to it, and project players who don’t fit our immediate window (Moir).

None of this is new. These have been the same issues for years.

We keep recruiting the same types of players instead of finding guys who give us a point of difference.

HP/Rehab -- 10%

This area looks like it’s finally improving, but we’re coming from a long way back. We probably won’t know if the changes made in late 2024 and early 2025 are actually working until 2027. The key now is continuous improvement—no more stagnation.

Player Effort -- 10%

The best teams consistently find that extra 10% that gets them over the line. We need to find that edge.

I don’t doubt that our players are giving effort, but the best teams push beyond that. If we’re serious, we need to find that next gear.

 

[Arr0w]

Coaching / Gameplan -- 30%
When we brought Vossy in, the promise was that we'd build a strong coaching team around him. After the first year, we were meant to upgrade our assistants and give him the support staff needed for a legitimate premiership tilt.

That hasn’t happened. Every premiership team in the last decade has had a high-quality coaching group. We don’t. We might have a couple of coaches who are genuinely up to standard compared to the rest of the comp.

Our line coaches are the worst in the AFL. Players aren’t just struggling—they’re outright questioning what they’re being asked to do. Just look at Charlie Curnow’s heat map last week. That’s our leading goal scorer, completely lost and out of sync with the game plan.

The system itself is a mess. For NBA fans, Vossy needs his Tex Winter for his Phil Jackson. Jackson was an elite motivator, but he had Winter to handle the X’s and O’s and the intricacies of what he was trying to execute. Right now, Vossy doesn’t have that tactical mastermind beside him. I like Ash Hansen—he’s come up with some solid plans (Harry McKay in R2, 2023 vs Geelong was a great example)—but it’s inconsistent at best.

We need coaches who can build a fully connected system from defence to attack.

Vossy can motivate. But motivation alone won’t win flags. The coaching panel needs to step up.

List Management -- 50% (and growing)

List management has been an ongoing issue for years. Every year, we sit down and talk about the same needs. Yet when you look at our actual list changes, how often do we really address them properly?

I’m not saying we don’t have enough AFL-level players. We have plenty but they do not fit into a cohesive whole. But look at the top-end talent: the core players we rely on have been here for years. Agresta and Austin haven’t added anyone who’s genuinely lifted that group to the next level. Can you name another club where that’s the case?

The only legitimate AFL-ready KPD we’ve added in years is Lewis Young. That’s it. Haynes is another third tall. O'Farrell is a kid that will take years to develop.

We still lack pace and skill in experienced players.

Our small forward stocks were already an issue before Owies left. And how have we addressed it? By bringing in injury-prone players (Fantasia), SSP signings who aren’t up to it, and project players who don’t fit our immediate window (Moir).

None of this is new. These have been the same issues for years.

We keep recruiting the same types of players instead of finding guys who give us a point of difference.

HP/Rehab -- 10%

This area looks like it’s finally improving, but we’re coming from a long way back. We probably won’t know if the changes made in late 2024 and early 2025 are actually working until 2027. The key now is continuous improvement—no more stagnation.

Player Effort -- 10%

The best teams consistently find that extra 10% that gets them over the line. We need to find that edge.

I don’t doubt that our players are giving effort, but the best teams push beyond that. If we’re serious, we need to find that next gear.

Well done Wick

Whether people agree with your version or not, at least we gain a great understanding of how you see the footy department

 

[Juddernaut08]

Coaching / Gameplan -- 30%
When we brought Vossy in, the promise was that we'd build a strong coaching team around him. After the first year, we were meant to upgrade our assistants and give him the support staff needed for a legitimate premiership tilt.

That hasn’t happened. Every premiership team in the last decade has had a high-quality coaching group. We don’t. We might have a couple of coaches who are genuinely up to standard compared to the rest of the comp.

Our line coaches are the worst in the AFL. Players aren’t just struggling—they’re outright questioning what they’re being asked to do. Just look at Charlie Curnow’s heat map last week. That’s our leading goal scorer, completely lost and out of sync with the game plan.

The system itself is a mess. For NBA fans, Vossy needs his Tex Winter for his Phil Jackson. Jackson was an elite motivator, but he had Winter to handle the X’s and O’s and the intricacies of what he was trying to execute. Right now, Vossy doesn’t have that tactical mastermind beside him. I like Ash Hansen—he’s come up with some solid plans (Harry McKay in R2, 2023 vs Geelong was a great example)—but it’s inconsistent at best.

We need coaches who can build a fully connected system from defence to attack.

Vossy can motivate. But motivation alone won’t win flags. The coaching panel needs to step up.

List Management -- 50% (and growing)

List management has been an ongoing issue for years. Every year, we sit down and talk about the same needs. Yet when you look at our actual list changes, how often do we really address them properly?

I’m not saying we don’t have enough AFL-level players. We have plenty but they do not fit into a cohesive whole. But look at the top-end talent: the core players we rely on have been here for years. Agresta and Austin haven’t added anyone who’s genuinely lifted that group to the next level. Can you name another club where that’s the case?

The only legitimate AFL-ready KPD we’ve added in years is Lewis Young. That’s it. Haynes is another third tall. O'Farrell is a kid that will take years to develop.

We still lack pace and skill in experienced players.

Our small forward stocks were already an issue before Owies left. And how have we addressed it? By bringing in injury-prone players (Fantasia), SSP signings who aren’t up to it, and project players who don’t fit our immediate window (Moir).

None of this is new. These have been the same issues for years.

We keep recruiting the same types of players instead of finding guys who give us a point of difference.

HP/Rehab -- 10%

This area looks like it’s finally improving, but we’re coming from a long way back. We probably won’t know if the changes made in late 2024 and early 2025 are actually working until 2027. The key now is continuous improvement—no more stagnation.

Player Effort -- 10%

The best teams consistently find that extra 10% that gets them over the line. We need to find that edge.

I don’t doubt that our players are giving effort, but the best teams push beyond that. If we’re serious, we need to find that next gear.

Yes no doubt it's important to get the right assistants and line coaches in. On that aspect, we have certainly failed Voss as a club.

Is it also about his own personality and standing though? Alistair Clarkson is/was the biggest name in the game as an extreme example. He moved and brought in his handpicked people to work under him. They come because they respect him, want to learn and feel their input will be valued.

To a lesser degree, same with Ross Lyon.

I think a lot of the blame is to do with our footy department and Vossy's Bossy's not getting the assistants he needs. My gut says his personality is also tough to fit in with though. He's got the ego and greatness from his playing days, but without the genius and achievements to back it up.

 

[Wickzki]

Well done Wick

Whether people agree with your version or not, at least we gain a great understanding of how you see the footy department

Thanks.

Overall, I believe Lloyd is the top problem. With a new president in place, and a new incumbent CEO, I anticipate what changes the entire club will make.

I agree with a lot of your own response to your thread.

Whether people agree or not is their choice. I'd rather be transparent and on record on where I think we need to improve. If I'm wrong, so be it - I'm open to the expertise and insight of others.

Yes no doubt it's important to get the right assistants and line coaches in. On that aspect, we have certainly failed Voss as a club.

Is it also about his own personality and standing though? Alistair Clarkson is/was the biggest name in the game as an extreme example. He moved and brought in his handpicked people to work under him. They come because they respect him, want to learn and feel their input will be valued.

To a lesser degree, same with Ross Lyon.

I think a lot of the blame is to do with our footy department and Vossy's Bossy's not getting the assistants he needs. My gut says his personality is also tough to fit in with though. He's got the ego and greatness from his playing days, but without the genius and achievements to back it up.

Good post. There may well be some of this at play. I also think the footy department spend probably had a lot to do with it too. We signed Andy Russell to an exorbitant contract to lure him across from Hawthorn and subsequent to that the AFL brought in the footy department spend cap. I have a feeling that the plan was to spend copious amounts of money on getting A+ tier coaches across the board and the cap put an end to that and some of the damage from overpaying Russell (compared to other club's high performance salaries) came into play.

 

[Juddernaut08]

Thanks.

Overall, I believe Lloyd is the top problem. With a new president in place, and a new incumbent CEO, I anticipate what changes the entire club will make.

I agree with a lot of your own response to your thread.

Whether people agree or not is their choice. I'd rather be transparent and on record on where I think we need to improve. If I'm wrong, so be it - I'm open to the expertise and insight of others.



Good post. There may well be some of this at play. I also think the footy department spend probably had a lot to do with it too. We signed Andy Russell to an exorbitant contract to lure him across from Hawthorn and subsequent to that the AFL brought in the footy department spend cap. I have a feeling that the plan was to spend copious amounts of money on getting A+ tier coaches across the board and the cap put an end to that and some of the damage from overpaying Russell (compared to other club's high performance salaries) came into play.

Yes that sounds right.

Part of me wishes we would just pay it and deal with the luxury tax. I still don't think it's too late to capitalise on our core of talent. When's the next time we'll have a spine full of AA-worth players all peak at a similar time comprising of Cripps, Curnow, Harry, Weitering, TDK? Not to mention Walsh when fit and firing.

 

[gbatman]

Diabolically bad forward line. Worst in the league. Our recruiting of forwards.

Selfish player culture. Players who think they are bigger than the club, happy to throw everyone under the bus.

Our coaching is not great but it's not as bad as it's performing. Thing is it's not good. I nearly guarantee a change is coming.

 

[BlueTongue]

Thanks.

Overall, I believe Lloyd is the top problem. With a new president in place, and a new incumbent CEO, I anticipate what changes the entire club will make.

I agree with a lot of your own response to your thread.

Whether people agree or not is their choice. I'd rather be transparent and on record on where I think we need to improve. If I'm wrong, so be it - I'm open to the expertise and insight of others.



Good post. There may well be some of this at play. I also think the footy department spend probably had a lot to do with it too. We signed Andy Russell to an exorbitant contract to lure him across from Hawthorn and subsequent to that the AFL brought in the footy department spend cap. I have a feeling that the plan was to spend copious amounts of money on getting A+ tier coaches across the board and the cap put an end to that and some of the damage from overpaying Russell (compared to other club's high performance salaries) came into play.

Yep, if we're sticking with Voss until the end of 2026, then Lloyd should not see out another week.
There was no urgency extending his contract.

 

[BlueTongue]

Diabolically bad forward line. Worst in the league. Our recruiting of forwards.

Selfish player culture. Players who think they are bigger than the club, happy to throw everyone under the bus.

Our coaching is not great but it's not as bad as it's performing. Thing is it's not good. I nearly guarantee a change is coming.

As individuals, we have an abundance of Excellent forwards, but they are a cluster#u% and cannot play together. None of them know how to lead in to space. That has not changed in 3 years, and I can't believe the players are that dumb, it must be coaching/gameplan to bomb it in and back our talls to win the contest.

The very definition of madness

 

[jd2010]

Not too many...

1. Kicking skills
2. No real 2nd KPD on the list
3. Vanilla same-same midfield
4. Long down the line slow game plan
5. Safe and stale nature of the coaching group
6. F50 entries long bomb and hope never lowering the eyes
7. Scoring shots are hard to muster
8. Scoring accuracy below 50% because we make our lives difficult
9. Small forward pressure
10. Going into R1 with over 10 players unavailable

It's not even April yet

 

[Gointocarlton]

Not too many...

1. Kicking skills
2. No real 2nd KPD on the list
3. Vanilla same-same midfield
4. Long down the line slow game plan
5. Safe and stale nature of the coaching group
6. F50 entries long bomb and hope never lowering the eyes
7. Scoring shots are hard to muster
8. Scoring accuracy below 50% because we make our lives difficult
9. Small forward pressure
10. Going into R1 with over 10 players unavailable

It's not even April yet

IMO if we tidy up the 4 highlighted ones, it will go a very long way to winning more games than we lose.

 

[Flaggers22]

80% Coaching
20% List Management

It's pointless to speculate on the other two areas of concern, given the absence of medical and psychological data. Consider the Jagga injury for instance, my recollection of the incident is that Jagga's knee was at about 45° of flexion (where the ACL is bearing a significant load) when the collision happens, which causes a valgus movement which caused the ligament to snap. At face value it seems like the doctors and high performance team bear no blame. But can we really determine that? Now suppose Jagga had been on the ground too long and was starting to become fatigued, could this have led to delayed muscle contraction, and reduced proprioceptive feedback, that diminished the 'protective' response? Yes. Suppose Jagga has some inherent biomechanical vulnerabilities like a larger Q angle, or joint laxity that make him more vulnerable to acl injuries, could this have been detected and flagged by the medical staff? Yes.

I say all this to highlight the futility of assigning blame to the people in these positions. There are so many variables at hand that determine mental states and injuries, and supporters are privy to none of them. Moreover, considering we're talking about highly specialised fields, most wouldn't be able to make sense of the information.

Coaching
My biggest complaint regarding the coaching is just the lack of spacing around the ball. In other dynamic and continuous ball sports like basketball and soccer, spacing is everything. Throughout the Voss years it's become all too common to see 2-3 guys hunting the same loose ball, or 4-5 guys converging on an opposition player who has possession. I think other clubs do a better job of occupying the space around the ball, to present as receiving options if attacking, or to restrict them if defending.

On numerous occasions Voss has stated that they want to 'outnumber at the contest', so if we take him at face value, this is precisely what he wants. Moreover, he routinely sends a spare man to stoppages, when most other coaches prefer to play the extra behind the ball. I think this actually hurts our stoppage and clearance game if anything. We have four brilliant contested ball winning on-ballers in De Koning, Cerra, Hewett and Cripps, and he should back them to win their 1 on 1s more often than not. Instead he sends the extra there as insurance, but in reality the extra often clogs running lanes, and restricts our inside mids ability to make plays.

He also drives me insane with his team selection. He has an obsession with playing failed inside mids with poor kicking on the wings. Which seems to be antithetical to the requirements of the position. If 80% of your touches are going to be uncontested, wouldn't you want a good ball user in that position? You can make the argument that he doesn't have the necessary players at his disposal to correct our ball movement. Which has merit. However, I would contend that it doesn't seem to be high enough on his priority list - given he doesn't select the players who would be an upgrade over our worst kicks.

Moir wasting away in the seconds is bizarre to me. Yes, his fitness is not up to standard, but this should not be a disqualifier. I could understand the decision to develop him in the VFL if we had Charlie Cameron and Bobby Hill in our team, but we don't. Moir is the only guy on our list who would have a high conversion rate on boundary line set shots. Which is invaluable, because guys like that require marking all over the 50. If Fogarty leads to the pocket, most defenders would peel off and run to Charlie, if Moir does it his man has to go with him, which opens up space for Harry and Charlie.

List Management
I give more leeway to Austin and co. because it takes a while to see a 'return' from a draftee. 75% of the players Austin has drafted in his tenure, have spent less than 3 years on an AFL list, so any criticism of his drafting is a bit myopic. We will have a much better sense of his capability with more hindsight. You can see this with Silvagni, in 2019 the consensus opinion was that SOS was doing a pretty good job, and most supporters were disappointed that he was forced out. I think most people would concede now that they made the right call. Still, this does not preclude him from criticism for some of the list management decisions he has made.

• Williams - Spent way too much money for what he is.
• Cerra/Hewett - Happy with both of them as players, however, I would've preferred it if we only recruited one of them.
• Acres - His disposal is just unsuited to the position he plays imo. I think he'd be a good inside mid for some teams, which is what he was drafted as.
• Haynes - His best footy looks to have passed him.

 

[JustaBattler]

....

Coaching
My biggest complaint regarding the coaching is just the lack of spacing around the ball. In other dynamic and continuous ball sports like basketball and soccer, spacing is everything. Throughout the Voss years it's become all too common to see 2-3 guys hunting the same loose ball, or 4-5 guys converging on an opposition player who has possession. I think other clubs do a better job of occupying the space around the ball, to present as receiving options if attacking, or to restrict them if defending.

On numerous occasions Voss has stated that they want to 'outnumber at the contest', so if we take him at face value, this is precisely what he wants. Moreover, he routinely sends a spare man to stoppages, when most other coaches prefer to play the extra behind the ball. I think this actually hurts our stoppage and clearance game if anything. We have four brilliant contested ball winning on-ballers in De Koning, Cerra, Hewett and Cripps, and he should back them to win their 1 on 1s more often than not. Instead he sends the extra there as insurance, but in reality the extra often clogs running lanes, and restricts our inside mids ability to make plays.

......

100% agree with you and has been pointed out on here numerous occasions - it is the one definite and easy to spot week in week out flaw in how the team is asked to structure around contests- they just pile in - no wonder Carlton has the worst scores against from such situations incredibly easy to fix and it hasn't been...

and probably the major reason I am neutral Voss as a coach - at best.

 

[BlueBlood15]

List management - 50%

• Maxed out salary cap with a number of glaring weaknesses which have not been adequately addressed (skill, speed, quality small forwards, second KPD).
• List is not built for where the game has gone which is towards skill and speed, rather than inside brutes.
• Too many overpaid players relative to their performance - Williams, McGovern, etc.
• No real wiggle room to acquire players unless we offload a big contract.

Coaching - 40%

• Despite the holes in our list, we still don’t get enough out of what we’ve got. We’re less than the sum of our parts.
• Lack of tactical and game day nous - very often beaten in the coaches box.
• Sticking with a game plan which hasn’t worked since Melbourne won the flag in 2021.
• Same mistakes repeated and not coached out of players.
• Completely unadventurous at selection by backing in the same players week after week despite their shortcomings.

Player commitment - 10%

• By in large, I think we’ve got a reasonably committed group, but we have a couple of players who play week in and week out who are conditional and should not be persisted with because of it.
• While I think we often try hard, there isn’t the collective buy in and belief in the game plan (potentially for good reason - see above).

HP/rehab - 0%

- While injuries have been a big issue for the club for a while, we’ve only recently turned over this department so I’m not going to apportion any blame yet, until I get a better feel for how we intend to manage injured players. Not necessarily a great start based on Charlie appearing underdone in round 2, but let’s see how it plays out.

 

[Sonny Jim]

Hit a ****en target.

Move ahead of the ball. Give the kicker options. Make space for each other. Block, Shepperd and support teammates.

Run through blokes standing in front of you. Ragdoll players when you tackle them. Grind them into the ground as you get up. We cop this treatment every week and never dish it out.

On SM-F946B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Excellent post

 

[Sonny Jim]

40% coaching - love the message Voss says, hate the way we move the ball, press so high up the ground, and totally ignore the basics: presenting, delivering the ball to advantage, moving to space, opening the forward line, leading, passing into F50, any form of run and carry, sticking tackles... I can go on forever.

40% match committee - I feel we have lost many games before the ball was bounced due to simply ridiculous selection. Overly tall lineups in the wet, selecting out of form players, refusing to drop players due to poor performance, rushing players back from injury... Just horribly amateur. Maybe they're overthinking their strategy, but I don't honestly believe that myself.

10% recruitment - no-one gets them all, and I had been reasonably comfortable with recruitment until this offseason, but this was a bad offseason for us, and after showing a distinct lack of appreciation and respect for senior players who bled for the jumper, we replaced them with absolutely no-one, and then gambled two firsts on a single rookie instead of backing in our development team to get the best out of 2x top twenty young players in the country, and still we almost completely ignored our KPD issues, and completely ignored an AA who was pretty determined to get to our club. Mind-blowing. And and and... I could go on about this forever too!

Fix the gameplay and selection issues first. Recruitment can be a funny thing and can change very quickly and surprisingly.
Look at Jeffy Garlett - he was a hungry young player, actually playing for a sandwich.
No joke.

 

[Wickzki]

My partner asked me earlier why I thought we were struggling while commenting that her brother's team (Hawthorn) has been able to rebound so quickly.

Understanding that she didn't want War and Peace, I said, "We're built to beat the 2015 Hawks, not the 2025 ones.'

I feel that is a reasonable analogy for this thread regarding coaching, list management, and high performance.

 

[BlueTongue]

COACHING:

• Lack of, or understanding of the Game-plan in general
• Structure is chaotic and players seem to be just playing for themselves without any positioning around the ball, line coaches clearly not doing their job - or Head coach over-ruling?
• Despite our lack of disposal skills, we have moved away from our only strength (Contested Footy) trying to speed our play up, without the players to do it​
• Reluctance to make changes despite things clearly not working, doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result​

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

• We keep recruiting from outside hoping for quick fixes
• We don't play our draftees unless there is a hole to be filled, and continue to play our injured champs into the ground, rather than give them a break and allowing someone else a chance, and when we do, they are out the next week unless they dominate. Reeks of a coach in self preservation mode.

RECRUITMENT:

• Despite years of relying on Weitering, Cripps, and having no small forwards that can do the job, we are still 1 KPD short, and our midfield doesn't have anyone to step up if Cripps is down. Hewett is a workhorse but not polished. Walsh's disposal is not great, he is not fast, and we have taken away his only 1-wood (endurance) by bulking him up. Cerra is average.
• We have paid overs (picks/salary) in desperation to get players into the club but they haven't been what we've needed to make a real difference. For every Success (Acres, Saad), we have offset with arguable failures (McGovern, Cerra), and continued to add older & injury prone players (Fantasia, Haynes) despite have our list only recently having been culled of these types.

OFF FIELD:

• Lack of transparency and continual BS fed to members & media despite issues obvious to everyone
• Continual reliance on pokies and showing no sign of phasing them out

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

50% Recruiting
30% Coaching
10% Players
10% High Performance

Recruiting: We have no recruited to make our side quicker for years, barring a second rounder for Wilson and an intent to turn him from a half back flanker to a midfielder. Saad is really the only player Austin has traded for specifically for pace. You can argue for Fantasia along those lines too. The point is no draft capital and no free agency money has gone towards addressing this massive deficiency. Even the announcement last year that would address the lack of pace in our midfield, resulted in a trading up in the draft to nab Jagga Smith. Now Smith is not slow by any means, but he does not have elite pace. His quickness is in the way he stop, evades and sums up situations. We did nothing else to address this problem we conceded we had and announced we would address.

Further, there is the issue of us not spending draft capital, or free agency money, or trading for a genuine second tall defender. We nabbed Lewis Young with a late third round trade, he had a good season, but has gone missing since. Throwing undersized McGovern, Haynes, or Silvagni at the problem is hit and miss depending on opposition. We have seen Sam Durdin, Oscar McDonald and Dom Akuei come and go. All free hits costing nothing. We got what we paid for. Harry O'Farrell looks promising, but that doesn't address the now. We had Grainger-Baras train with us, but this is the Carlton way of trying to recover failed early draft picks, like we've ever had the key to unlocking these types. Did we try to pry loose a player that another club actually wanted? In the end, we gave up and used our final two list spots on 2 small forwards.

Speaking of small forwards, we have 2 who are genuinely quick. Corey Durdin and Will White. Pick in the 40s and a freebie. We have a creative small forward who lacks a yard in Motlop, a makeshift small/medium forward in Williams who failed down back and in the midfield for us, despite being on a huge earner. We have a slowish defensive small forward in Fogarty who is there to apply pressure first and foremost and Frankie Evans, mid-paced, decent overhead ... kind of a Owies replacement. I watch as other teams keep unveiling young small forwards with skills and pace and salivate at the prospect.

Coaching: Does it really matter how many skilful, or pacy players we have in our side anyway, when we are determined that we are going to be a grinding, contested, dour side anyway? Any creativity and flair in the side is lost by the stringent regime in place, or because the players are exhausted working harder than their opposition to get the ball and maintain it. Skills drop away, injuries happen more frequently, and players aren't enjoying themselves.

Why do we consistently blood less players than most other teams? If they aren't showing enough in the reserves, why aren't the reserves being coached better? Why are the development coaches developing them faster? Is it because they aren't any good, and we return to recruiting?

Seeing Patrick Cripps unable to run late in the Hawks game as they scored a goal blowing past him, tells me a bit. We want to be a high endurance team, but the game plan is too taxing, and we have thrown Cripps in the ruck, far more than we did last year (hear that Vossy?). Way too much energy wasted chasing tail as we lose possession time and time again.

Mick Malthouse played a shocking boundary line, kick it long game, and then hit the contest. But at least he would wait until we were 5 goals down, throw his hands in the air and let the players play with some freedom. He gets no credit for that Plan B, but at least it was a Plan B and we got a glimpse of what the team was capable of.

If I have to hear one more time, that we are going to see what that looks like (wtf does that even mean Michael?), look more like us (@#$% mutha-****er), or we are going to get busy (as opposed to what exactly?), I'm going to ... I'm going to ... piss and moan and do nothing, but that's not the point.

Players: I can't blame players who already lacked the skill, pace or footy smarts when we recruited them. We do have games where multiple players can't even offer close to two shits, but by and large we have effort, as ineffective as it is. Our team is unbalanced, so players that lack something need others around them to offer those things, so they can do what they are best at. Our one-paced midfield is not the players fault. They are what they are. There are a certain amount of opportunities for one-paced inside midfielders. We just have to share those opportunities among 4 of these types every game. Where is the outside class? The ball users? Even our wingers have poor disposal, and let's face it, they don't have elite pace either because we pride endurance over everything.

After making excuses for our players who can only do what they are capable of ... we are top heavy. Let's say for arguments sake that our top 6 are all million dollar per year players (sure some are probably a little under, but others are looking for overs).

Cripps, Weitering, Curnow, Walsh, McKay, De Koning. That's a $6m per year cap hit. Now how many are worth that?

I'd argue Cripps and soon to be De Koning. Cripps is the superstar leader and I can't dispute his right to be paid as such. TDK is the prototype modern ruck who can jump, take spectacular marks, rove off the ground and kick goals. Cripps gives his all, fitness permitting every week, and TDK is at the beginning of that consistency journey.

Weitering is the next one who is close to deserving that money, but realistically, how many key defenders earn that much money? He is one of the best in the comp, but not necessarily the best. He's getting that much money because he's the only A grade defender we have and we can't afford to lose him. Still, he is consistent and he gives his all almost all of the time.

Walsh ... how can you tell when he is seemingly always carrying an injury? He's become a little bit of a plodder, one who accumulates and gut runs, but a plodder none the less. In some ways, his skills have dropped off so much, we'd be better off if he was getting less of the ball. We are praying he gets back to his best, and most of all show that consistent match-winning ability we know he possesses. Right now, he is not worth what he is getting paid, but the contract is in his favour. When he is right again, he's worth it.

Okay, we know that Charlie and Harry are not it at the moment. They should be the dominant one-two punch forward combo in the comp. They both have bucket hands, both have pace for big guys and can both change a game in a few minutes. But how often do they do it? Injury issues, personal issues, workrate issues, accuracy issues ... are these guys living up to a professional million dollar pay day?

There are other players who go missing, but if you have half of your big guns going missing, how does this flow on to the rest of the team?

I've only rated this as 10% of our problem, because a lot of it is attributed to team balance, coaching, and injuries.

High Performance: Not much we can do about the long term preseason injuries. We have changed managers and we have re-turfed our training ground. My big concern is around how late we discover that some players need surgery after they sit around doing rehab for months, and how some players due to come back seem to get secondary injuries as soon as they hit the training track again. But, I don't know ... I can't see the training regimes, the individual programs, the doctor's reports, scans etc etc. I can only say that there is still a minor problem there, but I have no idea why.

 

[Blueing]

Keep a few key players, that's if they want to stay.....start a fresh revamp of the entire club top down.....and make it snappy, the entire list has gone backwards this year.....and wrong choice of players selected fir the season.....we purged players that actually made this list better!!! No point in trying to polish a turd!!! Too much underlying problems within the club affecting the playing list....the rot has instilled itself.....