ianh wrote:
I was just working through an exercise of putting together our best 22 recruited post our last premiership. In doing the exercise I left out players from the last 2 years on the basis of lack of longevity, although I included Corey McKernan based on only 2 years given his B&F/leading goalkicker double in his first year at the club. I only considered the players career at Carlton, so for example Sam Jacobs was overlooked. I also went with the single ruckman with a forward who could ruck as back-up. If picking a second specialist ruck I would have gone Barnaby French who is really the only other ruckman to have established himself in the team for any length of time.
This is what I came up with:
Kade Simpson Michael Jamison Bret Thornton
Sam Docherty Jarrad Waite Heath Scotland
Nick Stevens Patrick Cripps Ryan Houlihan
Bryce Gibbs Lance Whitnall Charlie Curnow
Corey McKernan Brendan Fevola Eddie Betts
Matthew Kreuzer Chris Judd Mark Murphy
Andrew Carrazzo Lachie Henderson Matthew Lappin Andrew Walker
Notably there is not one player there recruited to the club as a key backman in the National Draft (Jamison and Thornton being rookied). But frankly the cupboard was bare. Given that Weitering, Plowman and Marchbank were in the draft year before last and so excluded, this is the list of others recruited as primarily key backs:
Ben Sexton, Stephen O'Reilly, Luke Livingston, Mick Martyn, Kris Massie, Jason Sadington, Murray Vance, Karl Norman, Paul Bower, Mark Austin, Matthew Watson, and Patrick McCarthy. Not much there!
Some very talented players in that team. A shame the culture was so poor otherwise that team looks capable of a flag.