Hey abns, not having a crack at you but ...
Like some other posters, you do tend to paint the worst case scenario in many of your posts this summer.
I think, like many Carlton supporters you are scarred from the past 2 decades, and the last 2 games of 2022. I totally get it.

As soon as there's an injury , it seems like the end of the world.
As soon as there's a loss the season is predicted to fall apart like it did in the last 2 decades.

"Injury crisis"? "Diminshing number of available players"? That's a bit of a stretch writing that as fact in your opening lines, when its more like an opinion. Only Williams and Philp have been written off for the year due to injury. Walsh will miss the start of the season and Boyd, maybe first half season.

I notice later in your post you do use the word "presumably" when explaining your predictions, but the truth is none of us outside the 4 walls at Ikon know what the individual programs consist of and what the plan of each program is to write off all the above you list. That is the worse case scenario if the injuries are as bad as you "presume".

This is a different era. This is the Voss, Sayers, Cook era. The team showed plenty in 2022 to have confidence going into 2023.

I believe there's plenty of reasons why Marchbank will be played ahead of Cowan in a Finals like game in Round 1. Baptism of fire is one main reason. Cowan is in his first preseason and on lighter duties than 2nd and 3rs year recruits. Pittonet competes with TDK in every trial game we hear of, and Pitto is winning the dual if training reports are to be believed. There's 5 weeks before Round 1. Lets see if Cottrell gets back for a praccy game, and if he does, do you really think Cottrell will take more than a month to regain fitness?

Looks to me the individual programs this preseason is part of a well thought out plan.

We have to wait to see what happens in the praccy games. Bad luck to Boyd, Walsh and Williams with their injuries; that's footy. They're the only 3 we can write off (and Philp, but he's a developing player like Cowan, Hollands, Lemmey and Binns are, as are the players you mention.

We have a list of 44 players. My money is on more than 30 players will be available for round 1 AFL team, and we only need 23 of the best available. I don't feel I'm over confident, but there's plenty of reasons why the team that runs out to play Tigers in round 1 will be more than competitive, and improved on last years team.

We are not going to win every game: no team will.
Its a long season and Walsh and Boyd will be back too.
If we don't win the Flag this year, its not a failure, but if we improve on last years performance with the "injury crisis" we DID have, and the individual programs benefit the playing group....

I can only go by what’s reported - ie. it’s mid-February and Williams, Philp, Walsh, Cottrell & Boyd are sidelined, and another handful are still on modified duties. History shows that playing catch up with your injuries never works.

I think injuries will be the biggest enemy to our success. The same people are in charge that were in charge last year, so I don’t follow why I should be confident that we’ll have more ‘luck’ with injuries this year - especially based on the injury list as at mid-February.

It would be unseemly for me to defend my posting style - I’ll let others (and time) judge whether my concern about our injuries is founded or not - but the highlighted section of your post is curious to me in that context.

The people you mention have little directly to do with injury management and, in any event, they were in charge last year. What did you think of our injury outcomes last year, and does the current evidence suggest that our injury outcomes will be better this year?

While the Williams injury could definitely be categorised under “that’s footy”, losing three young players to foot injuries in the space of three weeks doesn’t engender confidence in the program. That’s another layer on top of what happened in 2022 under the same regime.

As an aside, do I detect a slight whiff of “the poster doth protest too much, methinks” about your post...?

Top shelf players
Cripps
McKay
Docherty
Walsh
Weitering
Curnow
Saad
That’s 7
Next level
Hewett
Kennedy
Next level
Acres
Fisher
Cerra
That’s 12
Durdin
Motlop
DeKoning
Have shown potential
That’s 15
Whose are next best?
Granted our age demographic is younger than Collingwood but relying on 15 blokesisnt going to give you a top 4 spot
Losing Kennedy and Hewett showed our lack of depth
Hewett in particular was a massive loss. Best clearance player on our list
At least 15 players on our list have to step up
Please don’t add Martin or Mc Govern to those 15 players
They have been crap