One of the best aspects of our recent wizard cup wins is the continuing development of Livo Sporn and Wiggins.Whilst it is only the Wizzer Cup each have shown that they are going to make a valuable contribution to the senior team this year.
Wiggins is very courageous and adds steel to our backline.He has also built up over the summer and seems much stronger over the ball than previously.Enjoyed him kicking that perhaps fortuitous goal in the last quarter last night and he is due some good luck.
Always loved Sporn he reminds me of houlihan and has precise disposal but also seems stronger over the ball this year.The great advantage of them having a rather long apprenticeship and the last few years under Pagan is that sporn and wiggins whilst predominantly backline players can play as run with players as well as on a wing or hff.Interestingly sporn was on YZE for a bit of yesterday who is highly skilled and has carved us up before

Enjoyed seeing Livo play well on Neitz even if he didnt amass a great number of possessions.He seemed to be a lot cooler in the crisis last night and played an excellent last quarter .The beauty of Livo taking on the monster forwards enables the creative thorton to play chb and also enables Norman/Morrell to take the third tall.
Although strictly speaking not in original class of 2000 I have enjoyed the performances too of Bannister who shut down Bruce yesterday who normally stars against us.Bannister at 190 cms is rarely marked over but has the endurance to take on these gun midfielders

Congratulations to those who have created this new site they have done a great job

The Blues spirit lives on the net
best regards
Frank Dardew

Concur with all of that Frank.

Livo has now gone back to back "shutouts" on Neita.
Sporn is just a cool cucumber. Never looks fazed.

Agree Frankie, now how's nurse hatchet and those training reports.

Welcome, it's getting the comfort feel again.

Sporn has always been good - just need him out on the park a bit more - not too surprised as the yze move. Imho, sporn is potentially our best option as a 'tagger' as he has shown he can also find the ball himself and hurt the opposition going the other way (see games on hird)

Agree Frank about wiggo. One thing I noticed is that although under pressure his disposal is poor he was winning the ball under pressure inside fifty and getting it outside fifty when it really had to be one.

Livo on the other hand doesnt look as tentative, he seems confident enough now about his size and looks prepared to get in there and use it.

Sporn looks as cool as a cucumber and has good decision making skills. Great to see player check their kicks to a short option instead of simply bombing long into the fwd fifty to a 50 50 contest.

Cant wait for Sat nite should be good to get me into footy mode for my trial on Sun

Spot on Frank, I'm particularly excited about Sporn's potential if he can finally have an injury free season. he has that deceptive loping style that looks slow but actually moves reasonably quick (like Rhys), he has great hands which is one of the first things you'd ask for in a footballer, and he is very good overhead, marks tall I think.

Livo was very promising, simialr dour style to Presti at C'wood, and will improve with confidence. Always thought he was a good mark and took one on Sunday but with confidence will take a few more. Needs to improve his kicking as we know. Interesting that he went the big bomb coming out of defence once last night. Prefer that to an imprecise pass.

And Wiggo has blind courage, denis loves him and could improve a lot this year (although along with Livo has his share of critics).

Great to read your positive style again Frankie. You have always kept the faith - looks like the boys are blossoming.

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"Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about puppies." - Gene Hill

Still flying the flag Frankie for your boys and obviously, like you, am very encouraged by their form. Each has shown improvement so far. I also think we need to start including Bannister in the Class of 2000. Admittedly, he was not drafted by us but he was from memory a third round draft choice of Essendon* in that draft and I believe is now playing up to that potential and beyond. He kind of gets overlooked being a recycled player but you have to remind yourself that he is as young as Livo, Wiggins and Sporn and has a lot of upside IMHO. Finished Top 10 in the B&F last year which indicates what regard the match committee hold him.

If we get 100 + games out of Livo, Sporn and Wiggins our much maligned class of 2000 will certainly start to make a lot of people eat their words and even Seagull will be able to light up a cigar or two.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Good post Frank - agree totally. I've said it before but Sporny keeps reminding me of David Glascott.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

As usual great work Frank! Like Frank this is one of my favourite topics and I wanted to post something very similar on the Week End until the TBV imploded. Just to add to Franks words that I thought all 3 look stronger and instead of being the ones getting pushed around they were the ones doing the pushing (fairly). Now the difference between a skinny 18yr and a more mature body 21yr old might be only 10kg and 4 seasons of experience but how much does it help! Natural improvement. Maybe the people with the beer goggles might have seen this had they taken them off once and awhile over the last few years. The amount of PERSONAL abuse that these 3 and plenty other Carlton players have got in my opinion has been disgraceful not the I don't like them or I don't think they will make it threads but the F and Hack and Livo is a spastic etc I would hope the Moderators take a hard line on this in the future on this site or where ever we end up.

Also well done to those who got this site up and running!

If Sporn can stay injury free (surely he is due for some luck) he will be an integral part of the Blues line up. Unsung hard at it players are generally a clubs heart & soul. Guys like Sporn will play a big part in the Blues resurgence.

Finally a chance to smile & dream. TC is the way to go. A big thank you to all involved in getting it up & running

Give it up Frank, Scotty...you know we should have taken Daniel Harris at pick 11....

Livo is more uncordinated than Prenda.
Luckliy for Livo, Neitz didn't kick straight for goal, if he did we would have lost.

Agree with posts heaping praise on Livo and Sporn, but Wiggins pluh-ese!

In short, he's not up to it. Crap decision making and disposal and vice versa. Having said that, I can't fault his courage, but it's simply not enough.

I suspect the praise for Wiggins is more wishful thinking than anything else.

As for the goal he kicked, that was embarrassing. If it wasn't for him crashing into Chambers (I think) it would have been an easy shot from the square.

Please don't go on about him being a backman, that tried that experiment out and failed miserably. I still have nightmares of what Didak did to him a year ago and the towling that Motlop gave him.

I thought he may have been able to fill the void that Hickmott left, that crash and bash type forward. He's got pretty good hands and would fight to keep the ball in our forward fifty, but it's not the case.

He'll be gone in another year, possibly two.

Sorry guys.

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The artist formally known as Lenny & Karl

Patently wrong. Prenda can't even go to the toilet by himself, he's that unco.

Thats a pretty simple analysis, whos to say what would have happened if Neitz had have kicked straight earlier in the game? What if Whits had have kicked straighter? Theres too many ifs & buts when you analysis like that.

Regardless, you'd take 3 goals to Neitz going into any game, and thats how many shots he had. Either way you look at it, the full back did his job.

Clearly Chambers controlled that ball, I don't know why he wasn't awarded the mark anyway, there seems to have been a change in the interpretation for marking.

Anyway to the point, I agree that it's good to see improvement in all the class of 2000. Livingstone clearly is benefitting from a full preseason, while Wiggins is done some good things and of course we just need Sporn to play an uninterupted season.

That was the excuse last time Livo beat Neitz at pp late last year and now it is trotted out again .It was also the excuse when Lloyd didnt kick a goal on him last year as well.Also when we got thumped against West Coast last year and he held Mcdougall to a meagre return it was also the excuse.Mcdougall as you know is an early draft pick from the 2000 draft as well as.
He is no superstar and disposal is sometimes ordinary but lets acknowledge that he has done the job on some of the better forwards in the competition recently.Moreover given our dearth of key position backmen surely the job he did on sunday was adequate.Neitz could have been the difference on sunday but wasnt because he was effectively blanketed by Livo and in contradistinction Melbourne had trouble holding our key forwards

Touche Elwood and it will be interesting to see in the first round who plays best at the dome on 27 March because I reckon wiggo livo and sporn will all be playing -By the way Elwood I still think Mathews is a better ruckman than Hedge.
best regards and great to be talking footy again rather than other matters
Frank

Neitz had five sets at goal inside 50 meters. It will be interesting to see how he goes on the weekend, the Bulldogs field a small and nimble forward line.

Yo doughnut - he had 4 kicks for the game. 0.3. most kicks from 40m out too.

Look, you can hate him all you want, and say he aint going to make it in your view. Thats fine. But please dont try to make out that Livo a) played poorly on the weekend b) was beaten by Neitz or c) didnt contribute to the win.

Livo is a key player; not because he's great (yet) but because we need him to star.