For bigfooty, that's peanuts. Go to the AFL or Bay 13 boards. Fresh Carlton-hatred daily, even from the mods/admins.

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An interesting read... and I mainly agree.

The thing which the poster didn't mention is that both Adam Simpson and Nick Riewoldt have mentioned in recent weeks that their club's respective spies are noting a significant increase in the quality of training across the league. Higher competition means it will be harder to eke out wins.

Overall though, the BF poster is right... the defence still has flaws, the ruck situation is dire for 2008 (next year we will see vast improvement in this area), and besides Fev we don't have a noteable goalkicker.

To the positives though:

Onball, I would say we are much stronger than last year
The confidence in kids like Grigg, Gibbs, and Jamison is quite noticeable compared to when they were playing under Pagan
The overall depth of our list is a lot stronger. Compare guys coming in like Anderson, Edwards, Grigg, Browne, Armfield compared to when we were bringing in Harford, Mott, Prendergast etc a few short seasons ago
We are developing a gameplan

All of this will help. So while 2008 will be developmental, it can still be a great ride for the fans.

What a lot of bull, the way I see it we will improve that much in the middle which means the ball will be less time in our backline and more time in the forward line that alone will make our back looks lot better than last year and the same you can say about our forward line.

I like the way the opposition supporters think, they accused us of thanking which means in their eyes we were good enough to win more games, but when it comes to make the eight they say one man alone wont make that much difference so they cant see us winning many more games if any to make the eight no matter how good Judd is.

What they forget IS that it wont be just one top man Carlton is gaining from last year but you have to add Stevens and Cloke as well who both were burning before their injuries plus we wont know what Hadley and Pfeiffer have to offer, I must admit we lost Kennedy but up to last year he hasn’t set the world on fire, that doesn’t mean I’m knocking the guy because I know he could have been a top player for us if we could have kept him, another point that I see will happen is with the likes of Jamison, Edwards, Hampson and Hartlett coming of age plus Saddington I cant see Setanta O’hailpen being an automatic choice in the first eighteen unless he will improve out of site as these players mentioned can read the game lot better than him at the moment.

So going back to the point, especially Carlton will be playing more the Geelong game if last Saturday’s match any guide we will kill a*ss mind my expression.

GO BLUES.

Some interesting points raised.

It is true as Molly suggested we lack a real goal kicker other than Fevola. But with the same token Bluekettle is right also when he says our midfield should be vastly improved which means we will control more ball which in turn means less heat on the backline as the opposition will have the ball in their forwardline less often. The only times we will get comprehensively toweled in midfield, will be when we take on the truly elite sides, and the truly elite rucks. But outside of these times, we should be much, much more competitive this year (so long as Judd plays and Fevola doesn't get hurt).

Molly probably the other two glaring positives you could have mentioned are...

- A guy called Judd; and
- Hampson, Kreuzer and Aisake should form a great ruck combo in the years to come

But yes, moving forward I think what we really need to find now is another topline forward prospect. The rucks look very promising; the midfield is good with Judd leading Murphy, Gibbs, Simpson, Carrazzo, Hadley and Walker; and down back I think we will eventually find enough talent amongst Jamison, Waite, Thornton, Setanta, Bower and Austin.

It is finding the next Fev that will be the next recruiting task.

I think a couple of points made were mistaken.

For one, our midfield has the potential to be one of the best in the league. Judd, Stevens, Carrazzo, Murph, Gibbs, simmo, Scotland and more, once they start working together and learn each others skills and weaknesses, we will be hard to match.

As for the ruck, yes we are behind but as we saw on Saturday, Hammer did get alot of taps but were goin straight to the opposition or their midfielders were readin it better, if our midfielders do the same thing while our rucks get experience we could still win the close games.

Or backline, it has been our weakness for a while now, if the midfield improves it will help them dramatically. Te ball won't go there as much and most importantly not as quick and direct.

Our forward line is good enough at full strength easily. Fevola is the best in the comp when he puts his head down. Fisher, Betts and Houlihan can all kick straight and take good marks, hartlett and edwards will be the same soon and our midfield will only score more. We have enough fire power.
When you look at West Coast 2yr ago, they had Lynch and hanson/Hunter who were injured alot, none of these are anywhere near as good as fev. it was the eagles midfield and runners that won it for them all year. Who did Port have last year in the forward line, Westhoff and Ebert. You don't need 2-3 50+ goal kickers you need 5-10 20+ goal kickers.

Having said that, We will improve maybe not top 8 but some luck with injuries and we will end up somewhere between 6-12

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The climbing has alread began

a pretty crap post

The guy is basing his prediction on the basis of not having premier defenders, ruckmen, forwards and then as examples proceeds to list established players who have been in the system for years and writes off those who havent reached that level yet due to being kids. Consequently he sees no real improvement in the list.

The problem with that statement though is that no team is ever able to recruit a swathe of experienced premier players. It also ignores the natural progression that can be expected from our younger players as they get stronger, more experienced.

Whilst we are unlikely to win the flag, we can expect to see some real improvement in the players on our list THIS YEAR and the 8 is certainly not out of the question (particularly if we can maintain the same around the ground pressure throughout the season as was shown in the first NAB game). Player skills will also be vastly improved given the FIVE-fold increase in kicking/handballing during training (sort of makes me wonder what we did under the previous coach!)

I'm a bit more postive than that poster.

I don't think we should underestimate the impact genuine spirit amongst the group will have, coupled with a gameplan designed for the modern game.

Each year there are teams which make big, unexpected leaps up the ladder - last year it was Port and North.

Having said that I don't believe we would reach a prelim final, however history shows that teams can rise quickly. If we stay injury free I very much think we'll be out of the bottom four and playing meaningful games in August, if not September.

The backline will be far more competitive by virtue of more midfield help, never mind the organic development of players there. The midfield is one of the deepest in the comp and potentially one of the most explosive with Judd and Walker if he gets a regular gig there. As long as we get a contest out of the rucks this year, IMO that will be good enough to give us a fighting chance at stoppages.

The forward line for me is the major concern - have we worked hard enough over the break to not make Fev the focus of 80% of our entries? If the likes of Harts, Edwards Fish etc step up enough to take the load of Fev and provide a viable 2nd/3rd/4th option then again, I think the midfield providing more and better quality supply will see us score reasonably.

I'm expecting us to finish somewhere in the top 1

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Love Cricket? Love me

I see vast improvements in our list, i think the pressure and responsibility put on the young draftees due to injury etc, especially that too Murph and Gibbs will make them mature and grow to a far better player and its from here on that we will start to see their potential. As I have said in a previous post, there is all this talk about collingwoods Pendlebury, thomas and marty clark being awesome, if any of our kids played with a team established already they would be far better than those i have listed.

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The climbing has alread began

Judd
Stevens
Hadley
Pfeiffer
Hampson

There's 5 players whose inclusion should make a big impact this year. That's a quarter of the side.

We will travel far better in midfield this year. Don't worry about that.

You expect intensity in a NAB cup game?

our defense isn't as bad as what our last coach made it look

Exactly. Last year Pagan refused to put players behind the ball. Mainly because we all complained he was too negative in 06. Nonetheless we were the only team in the league that didnt have players pushing back to support the backs. Ratten changed that later in the year and less goals were scored against us.
I reckon this year we will push players back then run it out of defence by handpassing and targeting the centre of the ground. From there we will kick long to an open forward line. The skill we need to improve for this plan to come off is being able to stand up in a tackle and still get the handball off. We need tree trunk legs on our players like the Cats have.

In short our defence will be better than last year.

billybloggs wrote:
I did happen to notice with the Port game how we lacked intensity in close, ( second to the ball at centre bounces and stoppages) and as good as our mids are or could be, how port brushed us aside too easily when we tackled. Our ability to pin arms to foil clearances left alot to be desired.
No doubts Ratts will work on this in the coming weeks.

You expect intensity in a NAB cup game?



I expect intensity whether it be a training drill or match game. practice makes perfect and coming from our present position , we need as much practice as we can get.[/list][/quote]

I agree. It will improve. But I still think we'll win 8 games. That's a 100% improvement people. That's not too shabby.

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!