PROS - Walsh. No second year blues, in fact he improved in difficult circumstances and is a B&F chance. Gun. - Weitering. Has become the player we hoped he would be. An example for persisting with young talent because he had his doubters 18 months ago. Dow & O’Brien take note! - Martin. We’d like him to be more consistent, but for a guy we got for nothing he has been a resounding success. A match winner type. - Setterfield. After a shaky start to the year, established himself and should get better. I wish more tackled like him. - Newnes & Pittonet. Exceeded expectations and should be handy over the next few seasons. - Docherty & Williamson. Their form fluctuated, but it was great to see them back out there. They will be better next year. - TDK & Harry. It’s exciting to have couple of talented young talls coming through. I’ve been critical of Harry but it looked the penny started to drop late in the season. - E Curnow, Gibbons & Plowman were solid. - Cottrall, Philp, Honey & Owies got a taste. - Number of quarters won.
CONS - No proper reserves competition meant our group of young players missed a year of development and the step up from 12 a side scratch matches to AFL was simply too much when they came in. - Dow, O’Brien, Cunningham & McGovern did not take the steps forward we needed them to. - Charlie, SOJ, Newman, Marchbank & Macreadie had wasted years. - Stocker. We still don’t know what happened there. I hope he is busy getting fit somewhere. - Kreuzer. The end came quickly and cruelly. - Our bad was the worst in the competition and we showed it too often.
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN - Betts helped us pick up some extra members, TV viewers and ‘good will’ - but his on field impact was marginal. He applied good forward pressure and was like playing assistant coach, but simply did not kick enough goals. - Murphy’s season was not as bad as some say (I expect him to be top 10 in the B&F) but it is an indictment on our young mids that he is still comfortably in our best 22. - Casboult was a Pro in the first half of the year and a Con in the second half. He served up some absolute rubbish late in the season. He may have been carrying an injury, or the mental/emotional toll of 2020 may have got to him. It’s a shame because he was terrific before that. - Cripps did not have one of his better seasons, but on the flip side, we won games when he was quiet. In fact, I thought there were times we looked better when he was out of the middle. - Simmo retiring while still playing good footy.
WHERE WILL THE IMPROVEMENT COME IN 2021? We will be better with Charlie, Marchbank, Newman, SOJ & Kemp available. But that’s offset to a degree by the loss of Simmo and the inevitability of other injuries. A lot rests on the continued improvement of Docherty, Fisher, Harry, Setterfield, SPS, TDK & Williamson. Martin, Walsh & Weitering must maintain their 2020 form; and we need at least a couple of Cottrell, Cunningham, Dow, Honey, Kemp, O’Brien, Philp, Ramsay & Stocker to step up a level. Cripps should have a better year in 2021.
DELISTINGS/TRADES It’s a very important off season coming up. Wrong decisions on our list could set us back significantly at this point. I suspect that the likes of Dow & SPS won’t attract the return to make trading them worthwhile. Moreover, the club has publicly said it will look to stabilise the list; ie. no major turnover planned. Accordingly, I expect us to make the minimum number of delistings (noting the minimum number will increase if list sizes are reduced). Kreuzer, Lang, O’Dwyer, Simpson & Goddard (rookie list) will be cut. Kennedy, Macreadie, Polson, B.Silvagni & Owies (rookie list) could go too, depending on list numbers next year.
RECRUITMENT PRIORITIES It’s a no brainer, the best result would be to land a quality midfielder via FA so that we don’t need to trade out good players or picks. Carlton has not been good at doing this, so Austin & co will need to work very hard to turn it around. A ruckman (ideally a 21-24 year old from another club or state leagues) and a small forward are needs I would attempt to address via DFA (there might be some decent players available via DFA this year, due to reduced lists), secondary trades (mid/late draft picks) or in the draft itself.
In short, I think the improvement will need to largely come from within in 2021; it will be a massive, massive bonus if we can somehow attract a quality midfielder via FA.
_________________ It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.
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