...or no idea how to play, therefore who to play.....

That's where my money is

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Nice to see Graham and Casboult in the side.Well earnt promotions after there solid outing in the magoo's last week.

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All my dangerous friends

Good to see Smith coming back in agree Psych lots of young players to look at and assess
Hope Smith plays as a small forward think ultimately that may be his best position
Difficult to see where the goals are coming from

Will we be able to run the game out with thomas, smith and bokehurst not fit enough

I like scones

Was super confident.

Gone now.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

Cause apart from one season, he's given us 7 years of false hope, mediocrity and underwhelming football
Gift wrap him to the GWS for Shiel

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

Agreed... All 6 should be 'singled out' for a good verbal and written rodgering

Murphy too.... But instead we made him captain- there has been no worse

by no means is gibbs anywhere close to not deserving criticism.....but murph has been crap for 3 years. if gibbs gets hate, murph deserves the same or more.

Is Shiel the new Judd?

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

My records show there were 5 in total. Two of them were Wood (brought in from the VFL) and Warnock (traded in from Fremantle). We must have at least one of them in our side. Warnock therefore has to go. Simpson was another one (age 31). He is out injured. Buckley was another one (age 22). He gives us much needed run and carry. Then there is Gibbs (age 26) a number 1 draft pick and current best and fairest. He was in our leadership group the first year he played. Who should now be in the prime of his career and one of the best players in the competition? Yes Gibbs. But he won't lay a tackle.

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Silvagni

Gibbs was rubbish last week, but he has made 26 tackle this year (@ 5.2 per match) which is more tackles than anyone else at Carlton. Cripps is the only one at Carlton to average more per game (@ 6) and he is a tackling beast!

Gee, short memory.



I think Murphy has struggled with injury and tags in his time as captain. Not a very good captain either way, but it hasn't exactly been a great environment.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I think Murphy would work much better in a deeper midfield where he isn't always tagged and pushed around. Notwithstanding all the angst on this site this year I think he is trying hard and throwing himself in but FFS, there is no depth in there and very little flexibility to cover fgor him particularly whilst Gibbs is having a terrible start to the year. We need 5-6 B graders at best and we have him, Gibbs (poor), Judd (terrific but old) and a few others trying hard but that's it.

I think MM owes him development time as a small forward but our midfield is too weak and he cannot afford it.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

Imagine Gibbs if he copped the tags Murphy got. Imagine he got the hits Murphy got putting his head over it.

I think Murphy's best days are behind him but to hate on him ahead of Gibbs would be odd.

Both can still play roles in good sides. GIbbs as a halfback flanker. Murphy flanking it up with the occasional run inside the stoppages.

I look at it this way ...

Many moons ago Carlton got the rare, awesome, unbelievable opportunity to secure three number one draft picks, THREE!

All of these picks were (back then) viewed as giving us the best center-men in the business. Kreuzer was hailed as a ruckman/midfielder with his ability to follow up his own ruck work. Murphy was hailed as a future champion of the game, and leadership material from the get go.

But Gibbs?

Lets have a look at Gibbs as a number one draft pick ...

"In 2004 he won Glenelg's Under 17s Best and Fairest award, despite spending part of the season playing SANFL reserve grade. That year he also captained the South Australian under 16s team at the national championships. From Round 7 of the 2005 season, at age 16, he debuted in Glenelg's League team and was a regular until the end of the 2006 season. Playing as a teenager against grown men in the SANFL, Gibbs excelled, coming third in the Club's 2006 best and fairest, and dominating recent ex-AFL players during the season. He featured prominently in the 2006 under-18 national championships where he was captain of South Australia. He was selected as the All-Australian RUCK ROVER and was adjudged South Australia's Most Valuable Player."

That there above is extremely impressive in anyones language. If you were to be excited about any one player coming to Carlton, it would be the above.

But to be fair lets look at Murphy's stats ...

"Murphy attended Whitefriars College in Donvale. He played for Beverley Hills Junior Football Club and Doncaster Football Club, before playing TAC Cup football with the Oakleigh Chargers. He represented the victorious Vic Metro team at the 2005 AFL Under-18 Championships, winning the Larke Medal as the best player of the tournament.

As the son of John Murphy, a Hall-of-Famer and legend of the Fitzroy Football Club, Marc was eligible to be taken by the Brisbane Lions under the father-son rule. However he exercised his option to decline the offer and nominate for the 2005 AFL National draft. Carlton subsequently took him in the draft with the first overall draft pick, a priority pick."

Now go back and read the quoted remarks on Gibbs again.

To be fair and balanced lets take a look at Kreuzer ...

"Kreuzer played for St Mary's Greensborough Junior Football Club and the Bundoora Football Club in Melbourne's north as a junior, before moving to the Northern Knights to play under-18s football in the TAC Cup in 2006 and 2007. Kreuzer established himself as both the team's No. 1 ruckman and as a key forward during that time, scoring 51 goals in his 33 games with the Knights. In 2007, he won the Morrish Medal and the Knights' best and fairest, and he was selected in the Victorian Metropolitan and All-Australian under-18s teams, and in the TAC Cup Teams of the Year in both 2006 and 2007.

Noted for possessing a level of agility and endurance unusual for a player of his size, Kreuzer was widely expected to be selected early in the 2007 AFL Draft.[1] He was selected by Carlton with its priority draft pick (No. 1 overall) in the draft;[2] Carlton received that draft pick only after losing its final round match against Melbourne in 2007, a controversial match which became known as the Kreuzer Cup."

Now go back and read the quoted remarks on Gibbs again.

Kreuzer has been a heartbreak. Personally would have loved to see this young man show the football world what he was truly capable of. Luck has not been so kind to us or Kreuzer. But there's always tomorrow ...

Murphy, imho has come from relatively humble beginnings (besides his fathers name and status) and taken on not just the roll of captain of an AFL football club, but has been the target of some of the best taggers in the business week in, week out. He hasn't been the superstar we'd hoped, but its a team sport, and his support on field has been deplorable to say the least. We watched (in horror) this same lack of support when Judd got on board with us and was battered from pillar to post also. Again, its a team sport, especially in the middle. Sure you can be the superstar fullforward, even a legendary backman, as tight as a fishes arsehole, accountable week in week out, and worth your weight in gold. But in the middle of the ground is a whole different monster. This is why players such as Gary Ablett jr are such highly regarded players of the game, albeit, Geelong wasn't without their own solid performing midfield which only helped Ablett in allowing him to show how good he is, as was Judd in WestCoast with the likes of Kerr and so on.

Murphy? Name Murphy's midfield support of players like Geelong's or WestCoasts? ...

Anyway, of any player to come to Carlton in this modern era, it was Bryce Gibbs I was excited about most. As a junior (read above) he had all the hallmarks of a future champion of the game. Its 7 seasons in and he's not tagged by the best in the business, he not under a constant could of injury. Opposition coaches must be grinning with glee knowing he's nothing to fear. What a complete and utter waste this potential has been. Last week he DISGRACED our club - don't believe me? Watch the replay and watch Gibbs. Absolute disgrace.

Not dropped this week? And we mean business?

Seriously why don't we just be honest as a club and make Bryce Gibbs an honorary bench warmer and be done with it. Pay him big bucks just to sit on the sidelines and keep the bench warm for us. He's taking a valuable position on field were someone who actually gives a shit could play. Some young kid, give him a shot. Surely your junior accolades can only get you so far. Its earned him a good wage, a secure future, with little to no return, could the Gods be so kind?

If only Bryce Gibbs luck (and he would have to be the luckiest so called footballer I've ever seen) could rub off on our club. Why can't we win premierships without doing anything in return? Just show up and play and win flags?

I don't know how he's managed to do it. Picked each week regardless of output. Given leadership roles without example. The guy is a genius if you ask me, a master of his craft. The only player I've ever seen with all the accolades one could wish for come to a club and do nothing, yet never a bad word spoken, no, extended, promoted and revered.

Maybe, just maybe, he didn't really earn all those accolades in junior football? Maybe they were just given to him for showing up, because after all, its Bryce Gibbs!

He was sublimely talented. Unfortunately it's not all his fault, he simply wasn't pushed to or punished for not achieving a tough, uncompromising level of effort.

If he had of gone to Sydney, McVeigh, Kirk and the others would have demanded he push himself on field - if not, they would have had him out of the team and punished until they met the high standards expected.

We didn't have that on field leadership. Whilst we have consistently had coaches who have been put into the position of coaching for their career every week (thanks to the board) so they wouldn't drop him.

He is the perfect example of what a lack of leadership provides.


In saying all that........I'd take the risk and trade him to GWS for Patton

Gibbs is a sublime talent , has the poise and natural ability to finess superbly with the football in his hand very few players can do that.
The thought of him being surrounded by a disciplined and talented team like Fremantale , Hawthorn or Swans, gives me the jitters , we would never live the trade down.
Let's build a reasonable side around our few rays of hope and watch the difference.
The next month or so will be crucial to the evolution of our team and Micks game play.
As the pieces come together and luck , we may just witness the dawn of something special.
Ciao

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Go Blue Boys

Good point

Murphy has never beaten a tag, captain or no captain. The captain stocks were low when Whitnall was appointed. Murphy was a mistake and it is now impossible trade him. More fool us