I am happy to point out the crap, also happy to accept that everything that we have dished up has not been crap. You on the other hand are black and white. It is this. It is not that. I prefer a little more nuance.
I had hoped for more wins - but my side (once Doc went down) had Pickett playing, Marchbank playing, Williamson playing, Bryne playing, Macreadie for a few games, Kennedy playing, Lang playing, Murphy playing, Garlett playing, ASOS playing, and Shaw playing - and with all that I still only expected around 4 wins (though I admit I hoped for
.
I expected a bigger year of Weits and I hoped Mckay might play more, I hoped Cunners would play more..and still 4 wins (hoping for 8, and I thought Nth would crash and prayed the Filth would not get their act together - they did))
Most of those players mentioned above have been injured - Shaw has not really delivered but as a rookie I accepted the gamble, same with Garlett as such a late round pick. O'Shea was never a good pick up for mine but I accepted the argument perhaps it had more to do with the VFL's ability to attract talent than O'Shea per se (after all I really do not know what is thought/said behind the doors of Carlton, not even by SOS - when speaking privately).
Let's be clear -the list this year is again different to last year - it has more talent at the bottom and less at the top so it was always going to be a step back.
So am I pissed off with Bolts? - no. I see the glimmers. I see Curnow and Fisher and Dow as real potential superstars - 3 to add to Cripps and Doc.
I see Doc, Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman as mainstays of the backline for years to come.
I still think McKay will be a ripper and I have hopes for De Koning (could be a "special" talent) and Schuie,
Midfield of Cripps, Fisher, Dow, SPS, Kennedy, O'Brien, Pickett, Curnows (I still hope Charlie plays some time in their) and perhaps SOS - plus a further two or three midfielders this year please.
And yes, I can see what we are putting together here, a list of real depth - but it takes time. I do not want the club to succumb (yet again) to those voices who can't see the forest for the trees. I want it to hold its nerve for a full 5 years and then assess - yes five years because the picture will become much clearer in 5 years (this year and 2 more - i can hear your screams from here) and I'd not risk any change to the strategy before then.
You, and others bang on about Bolts, but Bolts is just one of the trees, as is SOS, as is Cripps, and Dow and a host of others.
When I step back and look at what is being put together here I am genuinely excited by a list that, finally, will have depth, will have talent, will challenge because it will be able to take injuries, and suspensions and the like... the adversities of sport. We have not had a list like that since Parkin coached!
Will Bolts take us all the way?
Seriously, who the @#$%&! knows. Not you. Not me. None of us.
But he is helping to put together a strong bunch of kids who do seem to play for each other, who seem to enjoy the team being assembled - (because all of the kids report that is how they feel and so far that's about all we have to go on). So yes, Bolts gets a big tick from me.
If we gave in to the doomsayers, then Old Carlton would be back, Old Carlton would sack Bolts, (probably SOS as well) find an old coach who was once great, plonk them in and watch another list get torn apart. If that happens it will because too many so called supporters want the instant fix and the days of instant fixes are so far gone I doubt anyone under 40 can remember them! I do not want a return to that.
I want this club to build such a @#$%&! great list that in about 10 years time everyone will point at Carlton and say, 'that is how you build a list!"
How long has it been since anyone pointed at us with anything but ridicule and sniggers? Follow the doomsayers and that will continue for at least another 10 years!
So for me its about sucking up the hurt - and yes it hurts, yesterday hurt, Freo hurt - it all @#$%&! hurts, but so what? As Seneca mused
Never give in to adversity
Don’t dare trust prosperity.
The blow you’ve anticipated
Will do the least harm.
We are learning again to take the blows, something we tried to avoid for too many years. That was the real lesson of Elliott - he wanted to avoid all blows...it was his great weakness.
I want us to take the blows, to stick to the plan, to build this awesome list - and if you can't see the list being built then I suggest just watch another sport for about two more years and then come back to us - I want us to do it well, not in a hurry, not in a panic, or succumbing to the loudest, gloomiest voices, but well. A plan developed, executed and assessed properly along the way.
2 more years of this pain still to come by my reckoning, 2 more years of drafting, trading and assembling...I can wait. After all there is only waiting, doing and waiting again, so we might as well learn to do the waiting as well as we once did the doing.
Sorry for the rant but Braithy, I love your passion but fear you, like others who are lost in the pain, will encourage this club to do what is does best - avoid the pain for short term gain - and that is always gain consisting of fool's gold.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
