Whitnall Captain, NOT

[BlueBelle]

Denis Pagan backs Lance

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21215784-11088,00.html

LANCE Whitnall still wants to be Carlton captain and he has an influential man in his corner -- coach Denis Pagan.
In the aftermath of yet another off-field embarrassment for the Blues, Pagan yesterday indicated Whitnall remained a strong candidate for the captaincy.
"One indiscretion doesn't mean you automatically get your head chopped off," Pagan said.
"We haven't got perfect leaders here. Who has got perfect leaders? There are leaders all over the place who have indiscretions, unfortunately it's a human frailty."
Whitnall and midfielder Nick Stevens remain favourites for the job and could become joint captains, a Carlton first.
It's believed the Blues, including new president ******** Pratt, were satisfied Whitnall played an insignificant role in a 5am incident in Ballarat on Sunday.
Police are investigating an alleged assault outside a pub which involved Whitnall's teammate Heath Scotland.
A man and women told police they were punched and hit in the face.
The woman is understood to have handed a photograph of a mark underneath her eye to police.
Whitnall yesterday was fined under the AFL players' code of conduct for being out late. The penalty is thought to be $1000.
Scotland was fined "considerably more" than Whitnall while four other players -- Kade Simpson, Brad Fisher, Shaun Grigg and Michael Jamison -- will also be sanctioned for being out late.
Whitnall, who is believed to have tried to stop the altercation, yesterday apologised to teammates privately and then later at a press conference attended by Scotland, Pagan and club chief executive Michael Malouf.
Whitnall said yesterday the captaincy issue remained in the hands of Pagan and the board.
"It's a job I'd really like to have and I'm trying hard to get it, so hopefully something like this won't affect their decision," he said.
Whitnall's manager Ricky Nixon, who yesterday criticised radio station SEN for running a impromptu poll on whether Whitnall should be captain, last night remained supportive of his player.
"It wasn't that long ago when another high profile sportsman, Ricky Ponting, was in trouble after a late night incident in Sydney and he went on to become captain of the Australian cricket team," Nixon said.
Scotland's involvement is in police hands. He also apologised yesterday and said he was seeking counselling.
Pagan said the club would support both players.
"The easiest thing in the world -- and I'm sure we'll get criticised whichever decision we make -- (is) to cut Lance's head off or Heath's head off," Pagan said.
"Nobody's perfect, everyone makes mistakes along the way."

 

[BlueBelle]

Mike Sheahan's article

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21215785-2863,00.html

WHATEVER your assessment of Lance Whitnall the footballer, footy nous never has been at issue.
His smarts have been apparent since his debut against Essendon on the MCG at 17.
This bloke can read the play from 100m, yet he misread one of the basic rules of life for a sportsman on Saturday night.
If you're out at 5am in the vicinity of a public house, you're either looking for trouble, or trouble is looking for you.
Doubly so if you're famous, even more so if you're a footballer in Victoria.
The danger level climbs to "extreme" when in the company of Heath Scotland, who now has a reputation at two clubs for being a time bomb in drink.
The issue now for Whitnall -- and Carlton -- is how the weekend's events impact on his hopes of becoming club captain.
Until the weekend, he was a couple of weeks away from being named leader of the football club he has followed or represented his entire life.
Basically, the Blues had just two, maybe three, choices: Whitnall and Anthony Koutoufides, captain for the past three years, with Nick Stevens the outsider. Right or wrong, Kouta is seen to have walked away from the job. Anyway, he is 34 and in his last year.
Which leaves Lance and his mate Stevens.
While Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs are captains in waiting, Murphy is 19, looks 15 and has played 13 games; Gibbs is yet to make his AFL debut.
Carlton could proverbially cut Whitnall's head off and present it to the public on a platter as proof things are changing at Princes Park since the arrival of ******** Pratt as president.
Or, it could say the long-term best interests of all concerned are best served by moving on. By investing its faith in Whitnall, the 2006 club champion.
Big Lance isn't a trouble-maker, he simply makes the odd bad call. This time, it was bad calls, plural. At 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am and finally 5am, when the fireworks started.
While Scotland is at a most delicate point in his career, the Whitnall "crime" seems to have been simply being in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Certainly the wrong time.
Six of the players stayed out too late and will pay the price -- Scotland with the authorities, Whitnall with the public, all of them with the club treasurer.
The players might argue it was their last weekend of freedom, but surely they know by now "freedom" for them is a limited commodity. Anyway, their holidays finished weeks ago. Surely it's time Carlton's senior players showed a bit of maturity, responsibility, leadership.
Whitnall is the club champion, Scotland finished third . . . and Brendan Fevola split them. Sydney's three best last year were Adam Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe and Brett Kirk.
Draw your own comparisons and conclusions.
In coach Denis Pagan's words yesterday: "We haven't got perfect leaders here."
The Blues simply have to pick the best man for the captaincy; they also must avoid a repeat of Geelong's handling of Steve Johnson, a major over-reaction that benefits neither the club nor the player

 

[C4[2]Yo`DooR]

Just give it to bloody Stevens and be done with it !

 

[jules101]

Exactly. Well said. And I'm sure it won't disqualify him from the captaincy. Nor it should.

People like to see way too much into things. Put football and emotion together and you get all sorts of stupid thoughts running out of people's minds onto their keyboards.

If your captain stays out past his curfew, how can you expect your 18/19 year to abide by it. I dont care what his reason was.. Ignorance is not an excuse. I can not imagine Matthew Lloyd or Chris Judd breaking team rules..

 

[pumped]

Just give it to bloody Stevens and be done with it !

What credentials has Stevens for the captaincy that would make him anything more than the guy you pick when the better candidates fail? Stick with Kouta for one more year until someone really deserves the great honour of captaining Carlton.

 

[V_Townsend]

I was actually out on saturday night at the elbow and lance did not seem very drunk to me.

 

[anth22]

If your captain stays out past his curfew, how can you expect your 18/19 year to abide by it. I dont care what his reason was.. Ignorance is not an excuse. I can not imagine Matthew Lloyd or Chris Judd breaking team rules..

Who gives a ******** what other teams and other captains do ...... If Judd was out until 5am 2 weeks before the nab cup has started would that effect his on field performnce ??

These people are still human .... wrong place at the wrong time .. when you are with a group of mates it happens a lot .. so get off whitnalls back and give him the captaincy he deserved a long time ago.

 

[murphster]

Alright lets put this to bed, who was Lance out with, Scotland his second in command in defence, Grigg who will most probably play half back, Jamieson who will probably play down back, Simpson who plays down back half the time, and Fisher no excuse, they went to Ballarat to meet Griggs mother and went to the pub and lost track of time, not hard to do at the pub. Now the only bad part regarding the Captaincy is the losing track of time and staying out past curfew, the rest is good Captaincy in terms of bonding with other members of the defencive unit and making the new guys feel part of the club, in my opinion the latter 2 out weigh the first one in terms of importance to the Captaincy, end of story. Lance for Captain. I mean Lance and Scoto were basicly the ones in charge last year anyway, in the defence at least, and they should be made Captain and Vice Captain respectively.

 

[jules101]

Who gives a ******** what other teams and other captains do ...... If Judd was out until 5am 2 weeks before the nab cup has started would that effect his on field performnce ??

These people are still human .... wrong place at the wrong time .. when you are with a group of mates it happens a lot .. so get off whitnalls back and give him the captaincy he deserved a long time ago.

Its about leadership, its about setting a good example for the rest of the team. It might not effect Judd's perfromance but what if another player who doesn't have the natural ability of Judd saw that his captain was staying out til 5 am and said well if he can then I can too

 

[blue-insider]

its off season - no dramas. relax people!

 

[jules101]

its off season - no dramas. relax people!

pre-season not off-season, theres a difference

 

[Andyt30]

Who gives a ******** what other teams and other captains do ...... If Judd was out until 5am 2 weeks before the nab cup has started would that effect his on field performnce ??

These people are still human .... wrong place at the wrong time .. when you are with a group of mates it happens a lot .. so get off whitnalls back and give him the captaincy he deserved a long time ago.

the Media must be running out of Carlton News and find anything to write about them so we don't know who Started it only if you actually saw it happen so its hard to commit on it

 

[princess park]

Hey guys........give it all a break.
Lets stop rubbishing or questioning the Blues players, coaches and directors.
Leave that to the people who hate the Blues....C.Wilson, Demettriou, Walls (seems like it) and all the other team supporters.
We should be talking to each other about only positive things and at least try and see a positive in every situation for at least all of this potentially very difficult year. We have a significent number of new players and it's going to be difficult to find the right blend of youth, experience, height, pace and form.
I'm old enough to have been through all this before in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
I can tell you the Blues are generally at their best during these times.
"Beware the wounded Blue"

 

[sunwin]

Are you really this dense? The fines were for staying out past curfew, nothing more. There might be more to come, but we haven't heard anything definitive yet.

I understand the fines were for breaking curfew... the second statement within my post (if you chose to read it before calling me dense) was talking about the fact that he made a public statement saying he has "issues that need to be managed better”. What other “definitive” proof do you require?

 

[AlecDuncan]

I understand the fines were for breaking curfew... the second statement within my post (if you chose to read it before calling me dense) was talking about the fact that he made a public statement saying he has "issues that need to be managed better”. What other “definitive” proof do you require?

Something along the lines of "I'm sorry I hit that person/those people without provocation during a drunken rage" would be definitive. "issues that need to be managed better", isn't.

 

[Pie_squasher]

well i heard on the news Lance Whitnall said they wern't Drunk they just lost track of time
and they wern;t involved with what happend outside, they were only fined for being pass their curfew
so thats good news and like anyone else they had rights to go for a drink were not the only club who had players in trouble for drinking and past curfew

Apparently after the guy stole his chicken parma Lance (who was in a distressed hungry state by then) ate the watches of all the players and all clocks in the town.....hence the reason for losing track of time.

Gotta give it to Scotto, he is definitely not sexist - he'll smack a guy or a chick!!! A feminist's pinup boy........