If you look at the consensus for Best 23 prior to the start of the year, then look at the injury hampered players this year you may find the reason why so many Best 23 Carlton players fell out of favour. See Boyd, Cerra, ... in fact Marchbank, Martin and cuningham were let go, not because of their ability but because of recurring injury.

I think Carlton fans are too harsh on their own players.

Boyd's game against the Lions in the Prelim was an example on how and why Boydy is so hughly regarded by the MC.

You can judge Boyd by what you've seem, but its the things you don't see that need to be factored in judgement of Boyd and others imo.

What was Boyd's role in games he wasn't prominent in?
Why wasn't the ball given to Boyd if he's our best kick?

Was he rushed back from injury too early?
Was he playing injured? Did a change in role for Boyd see his numbers fall?
You say he was crap after suspension/ injury (he played out the game against Hawks with a hip flexor injury...WTF), OK, so what was he like before injury? Are you suggesting he was good prior to injury/ suspension?

Why was the S&C dept changed up?

Boyd very underrated imo. There's a dozen on our main list I would consider dropping before Boyd.

Lose him from the backline mix and have a look at what you're left with. Sure there's Cincotta, but we don't have an idea of Cinc's standing in the team, let alone his best role. There's Wilson, but he's just developing, and drafted as a midfielder, Saad, Newman are mainstays but aging. Cowan, thank god he's made the grade is the future, but he's also earmarked as a midfield too.

As for his toughness and fearless approach to the footy...he's miles ahead of most of the nice, well behaved, Carlton boys. Give me the Spotswood boy and his toughness any day.

Grass is always greener on the other side.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Bloody hell Cru, your ressies team is so similar to mine. I'd have Boyd in if Cincotta isn't playing BP. I have Young ahead of Gov and Kemp at KPD till he loses his newfound confidence.

McMahon can play KPD and KPF imo. I've seen it. He's taller than SOS and about the same height as Young. He's also only 21yo this year; a baby in KP terms. His takes marks you'd think he couldnt because of his reach and timing. He's a damn good footballer with ground ball too. McMahon looked much more accomplished than 20yo Lemmey imo.

Barrass-Granger, S.Durdin, E.Phillips, Cooper, McCartin or McMahon? Not saying they are the only options for the SSP till fill the KPD role, but I'm confident to piack McMahon followed by Cooper ahead of the others based on my limited exposure of McCartin and Phillips.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

There is a rumour on BF that we have expressed an interest in Noah Cumberland.

Honey 2.0

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

Most didn’t think Selwood would last very long or that Steve Johnson would do what he did with his knee.


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Missed a chunk of the pre season, missed a chunk of games at the beginning of the year, polled 16 Brownlow votes, 3rd in our B&F……done and dusted, Walshy is gone.

Sam has huge pressure on him , and a serious back injury just which exacerbates easily is a real concern and needs to be understood and managed well.
I’m hoping Innes has cart blanch to revamp his support and medical team.
His approach , new regime is vital.
Not only Walsh, Cerra, Williams, Gov, Durdin there are a few that need help.

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Go Blue Boys

It will be good to have a new set of eyes on the fitness and durability of all players.

Every pre-season Walsh seems to return to training early and really push himself.

Wonder if he is ever given this directive or affecting his body before the start of the season.

Can anyone add to this?

Yeap, that’s what my post says, isn’t it.

He missed a chunk of preseason, missed a chunk of games at the beginning of the year and looked laboured in the back half of the season. Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s two years running he’s been hampered by his back?

My point is that you can’t sign him to a six year million dollar contract based on the risk. Which is what would have been expected given our current strategy to retain our best players.

So post eye roll emojis all you like, I’m not writing him off, rather suggesting that maybe the club exercise some caution when reviewing his contract.

Not having a roll at you Des, you’re views seem balanced

It was directed at the general sentiment that Walsh is in trouble

Six years for only a million?

Where’s the pen?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

I thought Walsh's injury later in the season was related to his hip? Perhaps there's a bit of shadow jumping taking place.
He's a pro. I trust him to manage his body properly to play consistently high level football.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Walsh is the ultimate professional, we hear it all the time from other players, but he's still a young man in a big sporting system and there's lots of ways to treat back injury professionally. I know he's said to have consulted chiropractic care, but to my mind it's as much art as science, and the experience and insight of the practitioner is at least as important as the theoretical basis for treatment. Hip injury can be directly related to back injury too, they're not necessarily unrelated injuries.

It's fair to say there's still a fair bit of professional exclusion exercised by the the exclusivity-minded physiotherapist/medical imaging scans regime shutting other professional approaches to prevention and cure of soft tissue injury, knee injury, and yes, back injury in the AAFL world. I've heard first hand accounts, and I'm not claiming expertise so much as opinions based on my own experience with back injury and consulting various professions about it , but for mine surgery is very much a last choice option, and yes I know several people who choose elective back surgery without even considering other professional treatment options.

Most back injury is manageable under chiropractic care, my Chiro claims that the founder of the system he uses, Clarence Gonstead never was present with a case he didn't treat successfully, effectively to full functional recovery. He was treating 600 patents a week at his peak, and his clinic 200-300 per day. With assistants, notably Alex and Doug Cox doing all the additional treatment workload and others shlepping with the x-rays and notes and patient wrangling to keep Gonstead hands on at all times.

Gonstead developed an art of practice that few if any in the field have matched then or since according to those who are his students. The two Cox brothers who tried to codify what they could of Gonstead's methods and seminar lessons for the benefit of other Chiropractors ultimately took over Gonsteads practice when he retired, and it now runs as a NFP training facility. back to football, Alex Cox went on to become the offical NFL Green Bay Packer's chrio and then was promoted to head of fitness and conditioning (I heard this from someone who knows him well but yet to find online verification for it). According to my Chiro (and this is one of the things I can't confirm yet b/c it was in the early 90s, pre-www covering all the news) his stats for reducing soft tissue and knee injuries to close to zero were so impressive all NFL clubs introduced chiropractic healthcare to their players. And now a days college teams too.

Every NFL club in the USA (possibly one exception) and most college teams have one, two or three chiropractors doing hundreds of manipulations to players every week. LINK1: https://www.profootballchiros.com/chiropractic-in-the-nfl/ LINK2: https://www.profootballchiros.com/team-chiropractors.html And it's not just prevention, treatment and cure of back injury. All injury other than head injury.

Was discussing this with my chiropractor (a Gonstead Chiropractic practitioner) a month or two ago about the Blues soft tissue and knee injuries the last few years. He said it's very often back related and AFL is decades behind where NFL are on chiropractic care of players. he told me a few stories which I'm trying with publicly available info to verify and wont repeat until I can verify.

I asked him how these soft tissue and knee injuries are likely to be spine related. I already knew the answer but didn't join the dots straight away. He explained by asking me questions I knew the answers to: Where do all the nerves for all limbs and internal organs travel between the brain and muscle/organ? via the spine. What happens if the legs is in a kicking action and one of the muscles gets a signal to tense up? risk of muscle tear.

Any "subluxation" (misalignment/partial dislocation) of vertebrae (as Chiros refer to spinal injury/misalignment) can cause pressure on nerves entering the spine between the two misaligned vertebrae.

Subluxation (as I understand it) can both cause illness and injury by impacting the healthy functioning of our nervous system and at the same time be caused by illness and/or injury. The analog typically used is say a car hits a telegraph pole and the power line starts to have poor conductivity, causing fluctuations in current or not enough current to pass to the end users. Back to football, when a player say kicks a ball, their leg typically extends to shoulder height, not usual position and one that needs full elongation of the right muscles. But what if the the one of the leg muscles, inner or outer is getting a signal to tense up during the kicking motion, as the leg extends it's potentially going to tear something in the muscle. Knees have several muscles operating to open and close the locking mechanism and move flex the leg about the knee, same story, it all needs to happen in synergy, any muscle not with the programs can cause an injury, which is why knee injuries can seem so innocuous when players aren't hit or hyper-extending their leg.

I want to confirm stuff I heard about resistance within AFL clubs to Chiropractics from physiotherapists and their "get the scans" regime from primary sources before naming clubs or anything more specific. And none of this is about bagging all physios at all. I've heard remarkable stories about physiotherapists and chiro-phsyio practitioners (trained in both) getting players up for a final which everybody at the club thought was impossible based on the prior experience of seeing players with such injuries taking months to recover. But I do think that just being a young professional in the system, it's easy to be wowed by the medical imaging professionals and dominant practitioners to the exclusion of better options when it comes to spinal care. I wish Walsh all the best and can't wait to see him return to his Player of the Finals best as I know he can, surgery or not, I think he can get back to the with the right care, but like I say its as much about the insight and experience of the chiropractic practitioner providing the care as the science behind it at this point in time.

what I came here to post was not about chiropractic healthcare and our injury woes — AFL journo Riley Beverage (who I suspect is a blues fan) is suggesting Carlton are interested in Harry O'Farrell, a KDP player with our pick #38. Not sure if the story is as much about the fact that his father is a barrister who got Crippa of dangerous conduct suspension in the year he won his first Brownlow as any real prospect of this coming off.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/1250597

When Cal Thomey was going through the top 30, er top 30 with 10 extras, I liked the look of Noah Mraz. At 199 cm, 6:22 in 2 km time trial, a mobile but tall intercept marking defender who can play either end of the ground. Missed most of this season due to injury. I he were to slide to #38 or we could trade up a few spots would complement the beast that is Weatering nicely.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/1248385
07:10 IIRC: https://www.afl.com.au/video/1248360

If we could sure up the back six in 2025/26 with one more top quality tall KDP with our pick #38 I reckon it goes a long way to improving the durability of the rest of our territory and contest based game plan under Voss.

We're just too leaky and shaky down back half the time to have our defenders pushing up so high unless we are playing are very best football down back and in the middle and forward to stop the opposition fast breaks and kicks over the back to fast moving and spreading high forwards. One more KPD to get back to a Weiters/Jones type of machine down back is what I want.

Jones was a significant loss no doubt our defense structure has been unsteady and threatened ever since. We gave pick 1 to secure one.
A capable , quality tall defender is as rare as hen’s teeth. Let’s keep our fingers crossed we get to use pick 38, we need some luck with this one.

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Go Blue Boys

We’ll move it before we lose it like that.

Very confident we won’t be matching any bid until the 3rd round.

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

You trust SOS to control his ego? To control his grievance with the club? To temper his anger? ... and show some class? Some maturity?

Maybe you have your reasons Cru. Why do you believe that?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Couple reasons, aside from not having the guy living rent free in my head…

1. I don’t think he’s making the decisions & Gubby won’t risk adding another inside mid to that list through shithousery.
2. I don’t think St Kilda will have that pick on the day. They’ll be hoping to land Tauru, but if he’s off the board, I suspect they’ll do the deal with Sydney to split #8 (with 32) into 19, 22 & future first.

But yeah, mainly not having the bloke occupying my mind.

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