Given we are now faced with the prospect of being without Fevola next year, how does everyone see our forward line structure for next year.

In my opinion, as much as Waite has been a revelation (prior to his knee) coming out of defence, I think he simply must play forward next year. He is talented enough and smart enough to play as our premier forward. Add to this now you would think that The big Kreuz would have to be seen as more of a forward option now with Warnock and Hammer as our permanent ruckmen. Setanta to rotate through where required. Also factor in a hopefully improving Yarran and I think we can still have a genuinely dangerous forward line.

Betts.................Waite...............Setanta

Yarran...............Kreuz................Garlett

if that seems too tall, move garlett into the pocket for setanta, and rotate our mids through half forward

Its not all doom and gloom. With the qulaity of midfielders we have, the key target doesn't necessarily need to kick 90 goals a year. The cats leading goal kicker was Mooney on 41, and they seem to cope ok. It has to become about the spread of goal kickers. would you prefer to have a 90 goal kicker, 2 x 30 goals kickers and a couple of dozen goal kickers or 6 or 7 players chipping in 25+.

there is still light

Go Blues

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Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

What about Hammer?

I know he only kicked 3.3 from 14 games this season, but if he were given more opportunities do you think he'd be able to kick 20?


Also , it's such a shame about Fisher's injuries - I just checked his stats - he's kicked 126 goals from 98 games.
He's on par with Eddie who has 123 from 97 games.

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The turning of the tide, falling in behind
Pretending not to find, the questions in my mind
The shining of the day, the old familiar way
Follow the road where it leads
And all the way we will sing...

IMO, Fev will be there.
He will be contrite in the knowledge that he wasn't wanted.
He will play better footy.
He will behave himself.
We will be better for all this.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Problem is, what if a defender goes down? Waite will probably be required back there.
What if Warnock can't get his body right? Kruezer will be required to ruck again.

In a full strength side our forward line looks damaging without Fev, but how often is a side full strength. Especially in our ruck and defense positions where we've struggled to keep players fit for a couple of years now.

I reckon that is a fwd line that would stretch any defence. Any other options that come from Fev trade are a bonus.

But Bluey that's always the case.

As things change we need to adapt.

If we're playing on a side that has a rubbish forward line, we push Waite up the ground.

Against Brisbane, we need Waite, Jamison, Bower, Austin and Setanta going to Jonathan Brown.

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Congratulations CK95

We have developed reasonable depth in these areas with improvement this year from Sauce and Austin. I agree to the extent that I think Jamo needs to stay healthy.

If we trade Fev, I think we need to look at our backline to see who can handle him when we play against him.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

So we put Waite in there coming off a knee reco and put him at FF and expect him to twist and turn and leap
Sure, we're gonna kill sides

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C'mon Blueboys!

I think, for once in a long time, we can say that we have depth. If you look at the guys that came in and out of the team this year, a fair few of them were only in their first or first few seasons. With another pre-season under their belts I am confident that several of them will be able to hold down a spot more regularly.

This is a list of the 2009 fringe players (played less than 12 games)..

*Position as stated on CFC website*

- Anderson (def)
- Austin (def)
- Grigg (def)
- Bannister (def)
First three should take next step. Expect Bannister to be gone.

- Browne (def/mid)
- Bentley (def/mid)
- Johnson (def/mid)
Possibly Browne may be the only one of these to make a real impact, however Johnson should still be in the mix.

- Hadley (mid)
- Robinson (mid)
Both are tough and can see them both playing a big role next year. Both can kick goals too.

- Cloke (fwd)
- Fisher (fwd)
- Yarran (fwd)
- Hartlett (fwd)
- Garlett (fwd)
- Jacobs (ruck/fwd)
We all expect Hartlett and Fisher to be gone next year. Cloke is borderline, but we do know that he can kick goals.

Garlett, Yarran and Jacobs will have benefitted from this year and I expect they will play a lot more footy next year.

Then there’s guys like Ellard (mid/fwd), Edwards (fwd – who is/was expected to provide backup to Fev), O’Keefe (def) and even Tiller who are yet to come through.

And then there’s Walker and Hoops who are both capable of kicking goals.
With the addition of Brock, and Warnock a& Sauce, guys like Kreuzer, Hampson will be freed up and Judd and Murph should be able to kick more goals too.

Basically, we have the depth. Ratts is just going to have to spend a lot of time working on a new gameplan and working with the players to see which combinations work best prior to Rd1 2010.

_________________
The turning of the tide, falling in behind
Pretending not to find, the questions in my mind
The shining of the day, the old familiar way
Follow the road where it leads
And all the way we will sing...

Just get the players to get inside his head (shouldn't be too hard as they'll have inside info) till he cracks it.

..agreed, injuries will make many sides juggle their players around, but keeping Fev doesn't change that chance, afterall it need not be a defender or ruck to get injured, if Fev got injured it'd amount to the same thing..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

In that case... Thornton

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#23: Lachlan Henderson

Cloke will lead us to the promised land.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Fev is pretty much the only true Full forward left playing the game

We need to develop a structure where the key player is more a CHF than a FF-

Fev sits to far back in the goal square and leads to the pockets - to easy to double and triple team and provide a chop out - Need to get someone who works further up the ground like Riewoldt- Brown and Franklin do and assist getting the ball inside 50 and not just sit back and wait for it to come to him . these blokes get 3-4 more disposals a game doing so and often provide that missing link that we have so often cursed in the past

If Pagan said one thing about Fev that I agreed with is that he will never be truely great until he learns to play CHF - He was correct

You never know whats going to happen with any of the players as we don't know how they will fare having the ball directed at them 600 plus times in a season


I honestly think Ratts and the match committee will be sitting down hoping like high hell that a trade is completed so they can start working on a structure that doesn't involve a FF

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

I think that's an excellent point. A player or two may surprise us and relish in a CHF role that they hadn't previously had the opportunity to play.

I find that exciting

_________________
The turning of the tide, falling in behind
Pretending not to find, the questions in my mind
The shining of the day, the old familiar way
Follow the road where it leads
And all the way we will sing...

Nah

We need to dominate the midfield for 4 quarters instead of 3.

That'll happen because:

* the experience of putting the cue in the rack in the final was the greatest lesson this young group could have learned.

* another preseason under the belt of these kids is going to improve their stregth and stamina

* next time we will have a fit Bower, plus Jamison, plus Austin, plus Setanta to use on Brown (Waite can still be forward)

* we will kick more goals with a multi pronged attack

* there's heaps more reasons why we will be a better team in 2010 with or without Fev (top 4)

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

One M Kreuzer could be a colossus for us on the fwd line - a freak footballer, best of the No 1's. Marking, straight kicking, mobility, second efforts, footy smarts, endurance - the ANSWER is staring at us, FFS.

He will terrorise defences into the future. Plonk him inside 50, let the havoc begin!!

Kreuzer = Paul Salmon.

Tanking, oh the joy!

We have enough ruck options to cover him, too. We'll still let him pinch hit every now and then.

Oh, and one more thing - think Jamo on Fev if panicking about how we'll contain him. Daniel Bradshaw, a similar type, has had huge problems with Jamo. Jamo has CLOSING SPEED, Fev struggles with this. Hudghton, Pears, Merrett, Tarrant all readily spring to mind.

Most premiership winning teams have multiple options to goal.

Geelong (a 12 man attack sharing the goal kicking)- Johnson, Mooney, there whole midfield, Bartel, etc

Hawthorn (2 key forwards and pacy crumbers/runners)- Franklin, Roughhead, Rioli, Williams)

WCE - (similar to Geelong) - Multiple goal kickers and goal kicking mids that shared goals but no FF that dominated

Sydney - (Similar to Hawthorn) - Hall, OLoughlin, Schneider, Okeefe, Etc

Carlton needs to either keep Fev and Keep Krooz up forward to make us less predictable, Betts, Garlett and Yarran need to play crumbing types as was starting to happen. Fev alone has not worked and Fev started to play selfless footy at the end.

I just think that with or without him we need to develop a more flexible forwardline structure.

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They coud'nt.....could they?

well from what ive just been told you can add another cloke to that forward line. as if the week couldnt get any worse