Mickstar wrote:
Miles W wrote:
Attached is a photo of the great Garry Crane with the book.
Are there any Carlton supporters here who would know what he was selected for the Victorian team? He made the state squad just once.
I am guessing there are some here that might have a few memories of seeing Garry Crane as a player.
Talking about wingers, I noticed that our wings were rated #16th in the comp on that Fox Footy draft show the other night. When Garry was playing alongside Quirk & Robertson as fellow wingers we had arguably the best wings in the comp. I might be biased but in 1968 I had them as number 1. Some might have justifiably had Clay and Bourke at number 1....but in the finals of 1968 at least we had the best wingers.
Miles'y . Welcome . At last , someone who agrees with me . Bourke , Barrot , and Clay were widely regarded at that time as the greatest centrelines of all time . And , make no mistake they were fantastic . But at that time we had Brian Quirk , Ian Robertson , and the legendary Gary Crane . Our boys played on the fabulous Richmond trio many times and more than held there own . Always a great contest with no quarter given or no quarter taken . It was ferocious . OK , the Tiger trio were famous at the time but i won't say our trio were better but i can tell you our boys more than matched them and came out on top more often than not .............. Trust me folks , Brian Quirk , Ian Robertson , and Gary Crane were GREAT , GREAT , players . Great Carlton legends who are right up with the best for mine .
Fantastic to have you on board Miles'y .
Thanks Mickstar and that is well put. I agree with you.
The media in those days always talked down Gary Crane, "Oh, he's not going to be able to compete in the air against the six footers" etc... but Crane was such a competitive machine that he just made the media look foolish.
In a way, premierships are often won by teams that display a lot of internal improvement from "fringe players" or players who didn't play many games in the previous season. Crane had played plenty of footy in '66 but he was on the outer in '67.
Crane was a perfect example of that improvement if you compare his '67 season to his '68 season. He went from four games in '67 to 18 games in '68 - many of them he was best on ground, so I start thinking of today's team - who can we see the most improvement from?
It is exciting to think about it. Is it Zac Williams - only 9 games in 2022 (due to injury) - where is his best spot? ..Or Brodie Kemp...only 4 games.
I want to see those guys or someone else who didn't play much in 2022 force their way into the team.
Jack Carroll was one I was impressed with (5 games) but it might be too much to ask of such a young player to get a permanent spot in the team, but who knows. He has to make the most of every opportunity.
1987 is one of my favourite flag teams - they had
Gleeson '86 - only 3 games
Gleeson '87 - 23 games
Someone has to do something like that in 2023.