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I hate being last and hate the thought of tanking games, but I also remember where we have come from as a club.
When I think about this, I hate thinking even more about how far we have fallen and what we once were compared to what we are now..
Because of the way the AFL is now and the way talent is shared around via the draft, I hate contemplating what we once were compared to what we are now even more than the prospect of a spoon,...
You know, we gradually lost our star players one by one after the 95 flag. We did get some replacements that were pretty good for a while, but we lost the Williams, Bradleys Silvagnis Kernahan Dean etc etc.
Fact was that for what ever reason, we never really replaced these players with anything near equal talent. It was a slow decline, slowed due to patch ups along the way, but a decline nevertheless, with a huge crash at the end,a train wreck, or maybe 2 or 3 train wrecks with a series of terrorist bombs thrown into the carnage afterwards just for good measure.
In our last really good year, 2000 some on this forum had us a flag chellenger if it wasnt for Kouta's injury.
In other words, some think that we might have won with a fit Kouta.
This may or may not have been true, but the reality was that we were a team than had lost depth.
If we had a couple more A grade stars in 2000, we might have been able to cover Koutas loss a lot better than we did. But in fact, we were a genuine finals team team in a state of decline, covering it very well, not many were reading it, but the writing was on the wall.
Where was the A grade talent that we needed going to come from?
So where is all this going?
Well in 2005, we have the worst list in the afl. We have a Kouta that is a shadow of himself and maybe a couple of possible A grade players in the making. God we are awful.
We desperately desperately need maybe 5 or 6 A grade players to get anywhere near where we were. Even 2 or 3 would start to make a big difference.
We dont want B plus or A minus players, we need A grade players,
Anything else is a compromise that will cost us in the future.
So how do we get the talent we need?
I dont want to be a Collingwood, a bits and pieces team that has a bit of a revival, has a shot at a flag against obviously vastly superior opposition - then collapses in a screaming heap.
I want to build a top line team here, with the best possible picks that we can.
The only way to do that under the current system is to finish last.
Murphy is the best prospect we have in 2005 of getting talent of the calibre of Williams / Silvagni / Ratten etc back into the side.
We desperately, desperately need talent of this type at Carlton right now.
When you read about him, it does look like he is the kind of player that can bring that X factor to Carlton.
True, he wont save us himself, but we absolutely have to get players of that talent level into the club.
Yes, picks 2 and 4 arent massively worse than 1 and 3, but they are still worse.
We will rebuild and go forward with worse but still good picks, but it would probably mean the difference between being a rough finals challenger that ends up being thumped, but has a good season overall, a nearly there team that peaked at number 2.
Do you want that???
Or do you want to build a team than has a real chance of winning a 17th flag.
Yes, theres a chance we mightnt get murphy, but its we need to put ourselves in the best position to get what we really do need.
I remember a few years back, Stan Alves talking about tanking games and getting first round draft picks.
He said that no one would ever admit to wanting to tank games, but deep inside, by god a coach would secretly really, really want to grab those A grade picks even if it meant finishing last to do it.
It hurts me so badly to say this, but I know what I really want, the best quality we can possibly get, even if it means that we win a spoon to get it.
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My Blue Heaven
Last edited by blueman on Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Denial of this is emotional blubbery.
