Hardy Har Har returns.
Our list shits all over Collingwood's. Find something else to whinge about.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I may be wrong, but I can't recall a time when we had 4 rucks on the list

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#DonTheStash

At one point (2008-10ish), we had Kreuzer, Warnock, Hampson & Jacobs.

Off the top of my head, the only other time I can recall was 1985 (Madden, WoW, Honeybun & Baynes).

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

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#DonTheStash

Do we fill the vacancy now or wait for the MSD?

I would prefer to wait, but my concern is our diminishing number of available players.

Williams & Philp are gone for the year. And for the first month of the season, we can already rule out:
Walsh
Boyd
Cottrell

The following are still on modified programs so will presumably need to start the season in the VFL until they have caught up:
Cunners
Marchbank
Fogarty
Honey
Pittonet (?)

Then add the players in development who you wouldn’t remotely consider for senior selection early in the season:
Mirkov
HOK
Lemmey
Akuei

There’s five weeks until round 1, and you can bet we’ll lose more before then (paging Drs Martin & McGovern). In that case, we will have less than 30 players who could be realistically considered for round 1. And that >30 includes Binns, Hollands & Cowan.

So I can definitely appreciate why the club might be tempted to roll the dice now on a mature bodied 26 year old who, though unlikely to be on our list next year, can be counted on to have a crack as we work through (another) injury crisis.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Lemmey could play from round one, there just isn’t a position for him.

If we do fill the spot now, it’ll be an outside runner which risks taking away the carrot for the young blokes.

A back pocket/tagger would be a point of difference, but they’re not the sort of player you can add sight unseen.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

When was Gov last seen in full training?

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░L░I░N░K░I░N░B░I░O ░

Yeah, I seriously doubt mr bojangles markov was a saviour. Compared to Williams he is some serious spockage. He could perhaps play a role. Sometimes that is all you need. Cincotta might also do the job

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

If round 1 was tomorrow-

B: Newman Young Plowman
HB: Saad Weitering Doc
C: LOB Cripps Acres
HF: Fisher Charlie Motlop
F: Owies Harry C.Durdin

R: TDK Hewitt Cerra
Inter: Kennedy, SOJ, Hollands, Cowan
Sub: Dow

I’ve got Cowan in the side as the 7th defender, but I’m not convinced he’s ready. That’s the spot Cincotta will take in the short term if he’s elevated.

Reserves (either because they’re underdone or because others are ahead of them in their position) - Pittonet, Cunningham, Fogarty, S.Durdin, Akuei, Binns, Carroll, E.Curnow, Honey, Kemp, Lemmey, Mirkov, HOK.

Unavailable - McGovern (?), Martin (?), Marchbank (?), Walsh, Boyd, Cottrell, Philp, Williams.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Trained really well in Qld and has been flying all pre season. Scheduled week off but will be back next week. No issues at all

Only players ruled out for Rd One are Williams Boyd Walsh Philp. Everyone else progressing well and should be fine. Very indiviualised programs this year.

Lovely….

the Farmer puts me at ease…thank you sir…!


kindest regards tommi

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

Hey abns, not having a crack at you but ...
Like some other posters, you do tend to paint the worst case scenario in many of your posts this summer.
I think, like many Carlton supporters you are scarred from the past 2 decades, and the last 2 games of 2022. I totally get it.

As soon as there's an injury , it seems like the end of the world.
As soon as there's a loss the season is predicted to fall apart like it did in the last 2 decades.

"Injury crisis"? "Diminshing number of available players"? That's a bit of a stretch writing that as fact in your opening lines, when its more like an opinion. Only Williams and Philp have been written off for the year due to injury. Walsh will miss the start of the season and Boyd, maybe first half season.

I notice later in your post you do use the word "presumably" when explaining your predictions, but the truth is none of us outside the 4 walls at Ikon know what the individual programs consist of and what the plan of each program is to write off all the above you list. That is the worse case scenario if the injuries are as bad as you "presume".

This is a different era. This is the Voss, Sayers, Cook era. The team showed plenty in 2022 to have confidence going into 2023.

I believe there's plenty of reasons why Marchbank will be played ahead of Cowan in a Finals like game in Round 1. Baptism of fire is one main reason. Cowan is in his first preseason and on lighter duties than 2nd and 3rs year recruits. Pittonet competes with TDK in every trial game we hear of, and Pitto is winning the dual if training reports are to be believed. There's 5 weeks before Round 1. Lets see if Cottrell gets back for a praccy game, and if he does, do you really think Cottrell will take more than a month to regain fitness?

Looks to me the individual programs this preseason is part of a well thought out plan.

We have to wait to see what happens in the praccy games. Bad luck to Boyd, Walsh and Williams with their injuries; that's footy. They're the only 3 we can write off (and Philp, but he's a developing player like Cowan, Hollands, Lemmey and Binns are, as are the players you mention.

We have a list of 44 players. My money is on more than 30 players will be available for round 1 AFL team, and we only need 23 of the best available. I don't feel I'm over confident, but there's plenty of reasons why the team that runs out to play Tigers in round 1 will be more than competitive, and improved on last years team.

We are not going to win every game: no team will.
Its a long season and Walsh and Boyd will be back too.
If we don't win the Flag this year, its not a failure, but if we improve on last years performance with the "injury crisis" we DID have, and the individual programs benefit the playing group....

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

That's a good team you've assembled there abns.

Add 2 or 3 of those names I've highlighted and we are ready to rumble with the Tigers....and developing players Cowan, Hollands and Dow are replaced with seasoned players.

We will be OK for round 1 and 2 ... and I will be in town to watch the boys circa 2023 with newfound optimism.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Bad move by the Pies
Our list shits all over Collingwood
So explain last year
Stupid comment

Sounds positive to me.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Won 11 of their H&A matches by less than 2 goals. That wont happen again.
Far better run with injury than us.
9 of their best 22 are 29 years of age or older. It's not hard if you think about it for a change.
Our list is significantly better.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

With Philp being on the Inactive List, does that mean he is done for the season?

Or can he come back?

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Go Blues

It would be unseemly for me to defend my posting style - I’ll let others (and time) judge whether my concern about our injuries is founded or not - but the highlighted section of your post is curious to me in that context.

The people you mention have little directly to do with injury management and, in any event, they were in charge last year. What did you think of our injury outcomes last year, and does the current evidence suggest that our injury outcomes will be better this year?

While the Williams injury could definitely be categorised under “that’s footy”, losing three young players to foot injuries in the space of three weeks doesn’t engender confidence in the program. That’s another layer on top of what happened in 2022 under the same regime.

As an aside, do I detect a slight whiff of “the poster doth protest too much, methinks” about your post...?

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

I'm sorry abns but I don't really understand your response...especially the last line re "whiff" and the "doth". No capiche. I'm no Shakespearean.

Describing the state of our list as "diminishing numbers" I suggested was a bit of a stretch and I explained why, unless you know more about player injuries.
The names highlighted I feel can't be written off, because club hasn't, therefore not an "injury crisis" till it is.

The highlighted names above are those not yet written off for round 1. That's all.

Boyd refractures his ankle.
Philp breaks down again with foot injury
Cottrell in moon doot for foot injury.

You blame the program? That's the inference. I don't.

As far as this year is concerned. The season hasn't started. Praccy games haven't started, and I'm not writing off the players I've highlighted. I have no reason to. They are in good hands imo. We are carrying injury prone players and we have cover for them.

I think some people are still spooked with the past, and I'm understanding of that, but I'd rather look at each season separately. Only Walsh's injury is lingering from last season. Sure we have some injury prone players on our list, and you can bet, for or against , that they will be injured for a majority of the season, if you like, but that's betting and guessing. You haven't mentioned Martin whose on a modified program too. Is that because he's past previous injuries or you think he's being managed better than others, or you can add him to the list with Pitto and Marchy ???? I don't know and I can't tell.

I think Vossy Sayers Cook (if they are the people in charge youre referring to), will have learned something from last year. There's more of a focus on customised programs. Looks to me they have recruited to fill gaps in the team and for cover in the future. They have conducted their review of the S & C program. I'm sure they would be doing some things differently. None of us know why Marchy, Martin, Cunners to name a few are on modified programs or if they are responding well to a well managed plan.

I was trying to find out if the reason for your outlook was more to do with scarring from the past or something you're expecting because you know something about players in your post, or is it you don't think (guessing) they will not stand up to the rigours of AFL. That's all. Curious, what's fact and what's opinion.

I think you may be right to think we are vulnerable and I feel we cant afford to have 5 players out from our best 23 to perform well, and until are in that spot, I reckon we are right on track for a crack from round 1.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Thanks...have a feeling that at the very least, the club have acknowledged things they can do better with strength and conditioning and eventually, we will reap the benefits
Williams was just a freak ACL...Boyd Walsh and Philp may???? not have been on the injured list if we'd reviewed our S&C earlier, but no point looking back now

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!