Thanks Crusader, I was completely ignorant to that. I thought there was a salary hit and basically a 'taken it or leave it' last chance saloon style thing.

Very interesting.

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Congratulations CK95

We’ve gone past the window where the older head would’ve fit into the ruck mix.

Pittonet - 9th season
De Koning - 6th season

If six years isn’t enough, then we’re getting into Ahab territory. If we find ourselves in the shit again next year (incidentally, three years on the trot for Pitto), then we’ll be kicking ourselves if we haven’t started the regeneration.

Mirkov is a wildcard. I was pilloried for suggesting that we couldn’t possibly make any plans around him this year, but now it seems the consensus is that 2023 is also a wash… well, no shit. I mean, what are we expecting here? We’ve seen some of the most supreme athletes (which, he ain’t) get chewed up and spat out trying to switch codes.

The only realistic goal of the Mirkov Project is to create a capable reserve ruckman - more of a club resource than a 100 game AFL player. We won’t even know whether that’s a possibility until next year.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

I’m not exactly certain here… the Kennedy & Betts situation would’ve triggered the ‘Carlton Clause’.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

Regardless you need at least 2 guys on your list who are bona fide capable rucks

Not a 1.0 and a 0.75 and several 0.2s and a 210cm 0.01 (no disrespect to him but if he isn't getting picked now then he is not currently serviceable)

It irks me that O’Brien will get another year, but he’s played too many games this season to get the arse… there’s always next year .

Similarly, Newnes and Hayes are just placeholders. Not locking anything down, but providing senior minds and bodies to plug a hole in the defensive structure.

Cuningham is up against it. Truth be told, the player that comes back will probably be more of a high half forward than wing & the young talent seems to be gravitating towards that role.

Cottrell is the one that has surprised me this year. This 80kg version might be alright. He has more hunger for the contest than O’Brien, which isn’t saying much, but if you want an Ed Langdon type of guy and had to chose between the two… it ain’t Lochie.

Statistically, Cottrell is a reasonable comparison to Langdon per 100 minutes of playing time. The major caveat, obviously, is that one plays an extra 30min per game and leaves 3-4 rotations on the table for his teammates.

Still, there might be enough organic improvement without having to pinch pennies elsewhere so that Amon, for instance, can come across.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

Well put.
Well defined.
We need to get fair dinkum as to where the players are in their development.
We are here to win games and premierships.
We need bonafide support for roles, not bums on seats, or Titles that aren't fitting.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Hope we go to the draft this year. Our list is developing well and needs an injection of young talent. This will also help with any Salary Cap issues.

I would then look for a couple of cheap mature options for back up Ruck and KPP. If we can reduce our injuries I don't believe we need to do much more

The ruck position is an interesting debate.

How many is the right number to have on the list?

Port always seem to contract and develop 5.

I remember we took their scraps off their hands with No.5 ruck Cain Ackland but also attracted the 4th ruck on their list with Barnaby French who turned out allright, whilct their No 1 & 2 rucks (and No. 3) took them to a Flag: Dean Brogan, Brendan Lade, and Toby Thurstans. That's 2 bonafide first class rucks and one part timer. Talk about insurance against the brutal Lions back in the day

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I don't think it is about how many 200cm players you have but more how many 200cm players you have who can actually be relied upon.

We went into the year with 1 of those.

TDK lit it up on the weekend. Is it possible he could do a Kouta of 1995 and growth out of sight in the lead up to the finals?

I didn't think he would deliver that sort of game in the ruck after Pitto went down. If anything he had been struggling the last month or so. He has tried valiantly but nowhere near dominated games let alone broke even. But then this game he was amazing. I saw the game on replay when I get home and he was arguably BIG for mine behind Walsh. I wonder if he has changed his approach to the ruck contest. He seemed to back his leap more on the weekend. Either way I am thrilled. Key is to back it up on Friday night.

Cunningham
Marchbank
Martin
McDonald
McGovern
Williams

There’s six talented players who miss too much footy with injury. I’ll be surprised if all six are on our primary list again next year.

Contract terms and medical prognoses will largely inform the decisions. We obviously don’t have access to that information.

But unless their bodies are cooked, and if the TC contract tracker is to be believed, Martin (2024), McGovern (2023) and Williams (2026) will stay - unless the club needs to make a salary cap dump and is willing to trade them for peanuts. We shouldn’t have to do that though, if it’s true they had front loaded contracts.

Cunningham, Marchbank & McDonald are apparently out of contract at the end of 2022. I reckon McDonald is gone. As long as Cunningham & Marchbank don’t suffer any further significant set backs over the next couple of months, I think moving those two to our rookie list would be a good result.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Boy oh boy those dates are frightening. I hope a lot of these deals are front loaded.

Here are some stats. Years at Carlton and games played. It doesn't make for pretty reading and confirms all these players are injury prone.

Martin
2020 : 15 games played
2021 : 11
2022 : 9
Summary : seems incapable of playing a full season , his last 2 years at GC were similar (15 & 16 games)

McGovern
2019 : 16
2020 : 12
2021 : 5
2022 : 2
Summary : seems incapable of playing a full season , his last 2 years at Adel were similar (12 & 13 games). Note : I assume he missed games at Adel due to injury as opposed to not being in their Best 22?

Williams
2021 : 14
2022 : 8
Summary : seems incapable of playing a full season , his last year at GWS he played just 11 games.

Marchbank
2017 : 16
2018 : 12
2019 : 13
2020 : 0
2021 : 0
2022 : 1
Summary : seems to struggle to even get on the park at Carlton, his last 2 years at GWS he played 2 & 5 games (but was he in their Best 22?)

McDonald
2021 : 3
2022 : 2
Summary : seems to struggle to even get on the park at Carlton, his last 2 years at Melb he played 7 & 12 games (but was he in their Best 22?)

Cuningham
2016 : 3
2017 : 8
2018 : 5
2019 : 9
2020 : 12
2021 : 4
2022 : 0
Summary : in 7 years he's only cracked double digit games once but early doors he mightn't have been a walk up selection.

I'm surprised it hasn't been posted. I heard from someone who knows that Oscar had the 2 screws inserted to 'fuse' the injured part and if all goes well by end of the year, he has an offer on the table.

I'm guessing Oscar will be the KPD back up as rookie, and if Durdin is retained he's the KPD back up on a list. We can then go to the draft and select a KPD in the 1st or 2nd round to develop.

Marchbank is only 25yo. He has a developed body. Is a potential A grader. Showed glimpses of his prowess in only game he's played, and his team mates love him. We stuck with Charlie and Doc, and I can't see the club not doing the same.

I take your point that there's 6 injury prone players from 8 last year, and they take up valuable list spots, but are they stopping us from making the selections in the draft we want to make eg KPD, Ruck, Wing? I don't think anyone is forcing our hand to drop any of those uncontracted players this year.

I'm guessing we want to create 4 list spots for 2 draft picks (#18, #36 ), 1 Trade, 1 upgrade LOB

List spots can be created by:

1. Ed Curnow = list spot
2. Williamson = list spot
3. Fogarty = list spot
4. Jones- Durdin = list spot ...rather do this than lose Marchbank
5. Hayes- = list spot ... rather do this than lose Cuningham.

Then there's Newman and Newnes, like Marchy and Cunners, also out of contract.

Looking at it like this, Marchbank and Cunners aren't safe if Durdin and Hayes valued higher. Ditto Newman and Newnes who have had good year thus far.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Club made it pretty clear that the MSD selections weren't just with a six month outlook. Still, everything needs to be sorted out end of year and trades / FA in and out effect the available spots.

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░L░I░N░K░I░N░B░I░O ░

I’m told the club is keen for McDonald to continue and it’s why they took the conservative route with his back and recovery. They believe they can fix it
He’s 26 and looked good at FB early this year and kept Young out of the side. If he can get fit he’s going to be a good player for us

I’m pretty sure Newman got a two year deal at the end of last year?

It’s probably a choice between Durdin and McDonald, rather than between Durdin and Marchbank as I think Marchbank plays a different role to the other two. If the prognosis for Marchbank is reasonable, I hope we can move him to the rookie list. That might be bad news for Parks, who I thought showed improvement early this year and seems well regarded.

You mentioned Fogarty & Williamson, Philp & Setterfield are another two who might be in the gun. Plus Dow (who I think is contracted and so is more likely to be traded than delisted) and Ed Curnow (ret?).

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

If I was to guess I would think Ed Curnow, Philp, Fogarty, Parks, Williamson are the ones most in trouble. Cuningham will need to show something as well. That would leave 5 spots to fill if we keep S.Durdin & Hayes

Dow I’m told will stay.

Also a rumour floating around that McGovern wants to move back to SA as his wife is from there and they have a young child

I note Footy Classified (if you prefer McGuire Media) already ramping up the Blues Salary Cap bursting trying to sign 3 x $1million men next year. What can I possible say.

i really do hope we slowly start locking Curnow, McKay and Dekoning up now rather than leave it to next year. But the club cant be negligent enough not to have prepared for this. I hope so anyway.

Bloody media trying to find something negative as they have nothing else at the moment.

TDK showed flashes of his athleticism early in his career so we knew he could develop into a star one day.

I think one good thing is we have a lot of young players who look like they will be (some already are) good players for us. It might be we don't need some of the more expensive injury prone experienced players but if they are contracted there isn't much we can do about it.

I am sure they would have factored in TDK's likely rise.

All that said how the hell would Cornes know the deals our players are on?