Agree on last year's list ...... What's of concern is next year's list !!!

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"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz

You do it to yourself.

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

Yes everyone here is an expert after the fact!
Keep perspective, its Game 1 of 24.
Agree though that apart from the first quarter and a half it wasn't impressive

Agree

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Houston and Smith were taken by Pies and Cats for aa tilt for another flag with veterans still playing.

WE seemed to do an unCarlton thing and invest for a future of sustainable success (whatever that means), and hope injury and Jagga added the value to win a flag.

Would Houston be an upgrade on what we have?

Forget Newman because he was still best 22 and turning 32 this year, but Houston would have provided us more than Ollie Hollands and Cowan.

Jagga cost us 2 2024 first round picks and our 2026 first round pick, or 3 first rounders in a deep draft. Jury is out.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I don't know if it's the Liam Jones thing but we seem to not recruit players to a needs position, instead we look at the list and think who is under-performing and we can change the player to give that position a go.
Not make the hard call to persist in their natural role or delist/trade and get that role sorted.
Kemp now a forward, SOS a defender, Cottrell as small forward, Fogarty as a small forward who never scores, Ol' Hollands is a half back, Docherty is an inside mid, Midfield recruit Zach Williams halfback/small forward, Saad now a lock in defender. Cerra part time half back. Cripps ruckman, McGovern forward recruit now a Defender who takes small forwards.
Some are so talented they can adapt and be serviceable but at this level it seems a low win strategy.
Kemp knows about playing forward about as much as any AFL player who has never played there, he leaps and hopes, he has no leading craft, to be fair nor should he, and if we persist maybe it works in three years or so, (but he's clearly no Tommahawk) and if not we probably never give Lemmey or Moir (or Liam McMahon) highly rated forwards a chance, and delist/overlook a position specialist.

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Green Shooter

The list is the list. As far as personnel available to help us win flag:

Newman and Smith are out for the season

We expect Boyd back in next fortnight.
We expect Cincotta to come back and tag Daicos etc.
We expect Durdin to be fit enough to play every game as the quickest smallforward
We expect Elijah to return in the next month??? to give us an avenue to goal at HF and midfield minutes.
We expect injuries to Gov & co, but we have cover for him.


We expect Harry to give TDK the chop out in the ruck when we have 3 marking talls in the forwardline.

Of the kids, Lucas & Ben, Carroll, Moir and Lord to push for a spot in the team

That's our lot this year. No way is anyone at the club writing this year off. I am not. We have to find a way ... if we can.

Thereafter we either keep or lose TDK and looking for a Ruck and a Fwd Ruck, and make salary space and replacing out of contract players:

Docherty, Newman, Haynes, McGovern, Fantasia, Kemp, Cincotta and SOS, after discarding depth players Marchbank, Martin, Cuningham, Carroll, Durdin, Kennedy and Owies.

Looks like a mini rebuild has already started and we will have cap space to improve list with better players, whether we retain or lose TDK.

Depth will be an ongoing issue with so many kids on the list.

Becareful what you wish for.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Not quite.

We held pick 12 for 2024, then traded our 2025 first and second rounders to Hawthorn to get pick 14 in 2024. Then traded 12, 14, 73 and Owies to WCE for 3, 63 and 68.

Let's say Owies covers the late picks upgrade, then effectively we gave up 2 firsts and a second, with only one of the firsts originating in 2024.

If this year's draft is significantly weaker than 2024 and we finish top six then it's probably a good trade, but therein lies the gamble. If we finish bottom six it's a big loss, and huge banter points for the poo 'n' wees .

At least we can console ourselves that we'll still have an elite first year player in 2026 assuming the knee repairs itself correctly. "Like a new signing", as the eternal optimists would say.

Love this post.

I will give it a try...just too hard to fill Jones' vacant spot since 2020....and can't consider the injured either: Newman Hollands Smith Cincotta

The "Get Back" team...get back where you belong:

B: Haynes Young Williams
HB: Saad Weitering Docherty

F: DeKoning Walsh Cerra
C: Acres Cripps Hollands

HF: McGovern McKay Moir
F: Fantasia Curnow Silvagni

IC: Boyd Hewett Cottrell Fogarty Kemp Cowan

Take them on the road and you have an emergency amongst them.
Kids are too young to go on tour: Ben & Lucas, Carroll White Lord

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Good explanation From the wonderful world of GE x ... That makes me feel better.

Basically got pick 3 for 12 & 2025 1st & 2nd & Owies. I think Jagga will be worth every cent, for all that's worth. Could've kept Owies, and not taken Evans. Yeah Nah.

As for a tilt for the flag this year was about Houston or Jagga. No guarantees with either, one or the other, but now Jaggas done his ACL for 2025 with get neither.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

With the Tassie drafts closing in, it really is decision time

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#DonTheStash

Did anyone really believe we were in with a shot for top4 or a flag this year with or without Houston/Jagga. I think we were always going to need more than that. However, if we were honest with outselves we would have a keen eye on having a more modern list by 2027. Jagga is the man for that. Hopefully some big trades at seasons end will help us on our way to having a team that can run and use skill to match it with the good teams. How do we get our hands on Darcy Jones !

Unfortunately if we have a bad year and possibly next year as well this could have a detrimental domino effect on our list.
TDK might decide this is enough and go as too some other players.
We won't be able to attract better mature players to keep moving forward or support our list.
These players may all but be done:
Haynes, Newman, Doc, Saad, Williams, McLovin, Crippa and Fantasia.
Not that some are a loss, but they are experienced.
Even Cody Walker might choose the Tigers if our list and ladder position start to slide too much.

I agree we need some big trades though, we need to get back in the draft if that is what we are doing or we need to start topping up the list to support the kids and remain competitive.
No body wants to go the struggling clubs unless there is money or guaranteed improvement or opportunity and sliding down the ladder is not that.

Have Cripps, Silvagni, Newman and Weitering for leadership. Start blooding some kids. Retire some players/contracts like Doc, Mclovin,Saad and Williams. Trade one or two of H, Charlie, Walsh or TDK. Start working on getting some proper wingers and flankers. Pick a tweaked version of the team that played WC last year and play that team each week for two seasons. Trade and draft in players that fit a particular gamestyle.

Austin should have kept both first rnd picks ,we have many holes to fix and yet he chooses 1 player as a Savior said this before Jagga went down. ( i hope he becomes a superstar now ) .

Even if jagga does go all superstar on us… it’s another high end contract in a club full of top heavy contracts.

There’s no balance or spread… and the way we run this club, it’s hard to imagine there ever will be. Hawks a great example of running a club. Top tier recruiting, drafting and developing. Imagine having their list and you can add TB and battle in one off season to the current mix…

It’s stuff of dreams for the navy blue, where instead we prefer to give all our cap to a few players and fill out the rest of the roster with has-beens and never-wills

It’s maddening. 25+ years into the salary cap and draft and we still don’t understand it and how to maximise ourselves within it.

As much as I hate to say it - we need to do what the Pies did in 2021.

New coach.

Gut the list without going full rebuild mode. Fire sale/salary dump/whatever you want to call it.

Build a side around TDK, Cripps (yes I know he's 30 but you can't get rid of him), Weiters, Charlie (stop playing him injured ffs!!!) and Hewett. Keep all the young kids under 22.

Everyone else - on the table. Priority number 1 is to get 2 first rounders / quality ready made players for Harry McKay - he's not gonna win us a flag.

Everyone being on the table doesn't mean we get rid of everyone - it gives us options to secure what we need.

No more mega contracts for average B and C grade free agents.

Recruit good kicks and speedsters.

It can turn very quickly. The pies almost won 2 flags in a row after they were being laughed at when they gutted their list in 2021.

We don't need to blow up the joint, but we need to seriously shake its foundations!

This really is the last chance before Tassie comes in, otherwise we're gonna lose another decade.

I hope Graham Wright can do it. I worry about the egos and boys club still on the board that would prevent him doing his job.

There will be huge changes at the end of 2025.
We have what we have, and no need to blow the joint up
But I like your thinking re creating cap space and list space to fill gaps and trade for "high value" players (good kicks and speed)

TDK is the priority, and his decision is in his court, not ours.
So lets not mess around with coach sackings before the decision, please.

Do consider the following cap space created at the end of this year and list space, and you know what we can do with that.

1. McGovern 500K
2. Newman 500K
3. Docherty 500K
4. Kemp 300K
5. Haines 300K
6. Fantasia 350K
7. Cincotta 200K

Free up $2.6M cap space

Pay out Young's 2026 contract 250K
Increase TDK 300K
Reduce Hewett 50K and recontract ... he may become depth or continue solid citizen
Retain SOS same hopefully ... he may be depth or continue to be solid citizen

Add $500K to salary cap

Leaves us with an extra $2.1M in our salary cap for 2026 or 3 GOOD PLAYERS but we lose 7 players.

Hopefully we have earmarked a Fwd Ruck and a CHB. Maybe an elite small forward plus we add Smith to the playing group.
Maybe Harry McKay plays CHB. Maybe SOS plays Fwd/ Ruck and we add good players around the good players we already have.

We still need to recruit depth players to cover Cincotta Fantasia and Gov, and another 3 or 4 to cover the loss of Kennedy, Owies, Marchbank, Martin, Cunningham. May keep Cincotta as a bonafide tagger. Depth types of players are in the WAFL, VFL, SAFL, fringe players not getting a go who can play a role, who have pace and skills we need. Shouldn't be too hard if you look at what you're upgrading from.

Retain Wilson, Lord, Lemmey. We can draft at least 3 kids from draft if we can match picks for FS Dean, Allan, and, NGA, Jack Ison

Knowing at the end of 2026 we have Williams $900k contract ending, Saads $600K, Fogarty $300K, Durdin $250K (ie total salary or salary space $ 2M end of 2026), and Young discarded end of 2025.

We also have Walsh contract and Ollie & Elijah's contract to work through.

We also know Cody walker comes to Carlton end of 2026.

We are in a much better place than when we started our rebuild in 2016, with only Cripps and Docherty remaining on the list from 2016. My point is a Collingwood type list wholesale list change can happen at the end of this year and the following year.

If we can't change the people, change the people.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

3000% spot on mate

We have the bare bones here to do something special. We have to be proactive and move fast.


The current regime isn’t doing it and the time to move on is now. The list isn’t balanced… so let’s balance it, let’s get a viable gameplan and structure and bring in players that will implement that.

Has to be done before tassie enter or it’s game over

Agree. If the first 20 are red hot and there is not much gaps between them then it makes sense to get two players in.