2017 season preview: Carlton Blues

Aransan - that is why I have been saying these young players will play more games than you think - there is simply not many other options. On Weitering playing forward while he did a very good job by all accounts against Freo Charlie Curnow is almost certain to come into play round 1 and play the role Weitering did on Friday and McKay will get games at some stage - the blues aren't going to develop Weitering as a forward at the expense of developing the players the drafted as key forwards.

Macca, having just looked through your list Jaksch was the only name I could come up with who could assist Casboult on the forward line while your young players are developing. That is a real problem for Carlton and brings pressure on to move Weitering forward -- some of the "experts" are already recommending this, I don't know if they realise just how young he is and how much further development he needs in terms of building up the strength and endurance required to play on the forward line.

Aransan - " younger players is to be careful with their match load" the blues do seem to be on top of this - Barker deferred to the sports science blokes when asked how much Cripps would play against Freo. I see the likes of McKay, Polson & Cuningham all played VFL on the weekend instead of going to Perth - makes me much less certain about the round 1 side. Another interesting development is Jaksch has kicked 7 goals in 2 VFL practice matches - if he has another good game this weekend he might push his name into contention.

Travis - you have no idea.

Macca, mate I love your passion and belief for Carlton, but sooner or later you have to realise the reality; Carlton is nothing of it's former self and I feel embarrassed to be a Carlton fan. I was at the game against St Kilda last week and there was little effort or heart right throughout the game. Hearing Bolton speak after the game saying "we don't want to be judged on wins or losses" is exactly why Carlton is where it is today. AFL is a competition where you play to win games and chase the premiership. Every other club, including Brisbane, will be fighting like mad to win every game possible, while Carlton, who is only interested in development, will be getting flogged every week, simply because they know their will be no major consequences based on the results. But I don't entirely blame the players and I certainly don't blame Bolton. I blame the president and CEO. They have made a commitment to 'rebuild', change our 'aggressive culture' and all the things that made Carlton the most successful and feared AFL club during the 20th Centuary. Not only is this an insult on all the working class people who grew the football club but it also shows they are happy to waste years in hope for the bigger goal (short term pain for long term gain), if thats the case why even bother playing in 2017. Let's just have intra club games for 4 years and come back to the AFL when we are ready to start competing. Lets remember when we were aggressive under Kernahan (starting from 2008) we were targeting finals within the first year, then after about 3 it was top 4 talk. And all those years from 2009-2011 we made finals. We only missed top 4 in 2012 due to injuries, sacking Ratten was a huge mistake, but at leased we were aggressive. Now under the current system their is little hope, unless we can assure a premiership (which you can never assure) within 6 years, their is not much point being so hopeful. All these kids may just be no good and we may just be wasting our time. I hope this year I see some fight from the players and I will start getting passionate once I see the players really want to win and play for the jumper. Their skills may be terrible, but they can at leased tackle.

Macca, the other point I would make about younger players is to be careful with their match load -- don't play them if they are sore, and if the team is depending very much on them they should be rotated through the VFL or even miss a week. These players will gain a lot from playing in 2-3 game blocks, but they won't gain much if they are just not ready for AFL football.

Could not agree more. The need to get games is fairly obvious but they will need to be managed carefully. Just because Weitering has settled in easily does not mean the other lads are ready. This goes for this years recruits as well. This sounds all good but if we get a run of injuries they will have to be played regardless. depth is not one of our strong points. Bolton made the point last year that just because you are high draft pick their is no entitlement to play. They have to earn their spot.. Hopefully he can continue with this this approach.

Aransan - You are right about the need to be patient with those younger players but the way the pre-season selections have unfolded I would expect that all 5 draftees from 2015 played in round 1 barring injury. That isn't expecting them to dominate or even maintain their spot for the whole year.

Maybe the word "rad Ic@l" - they might think you are a ter ror ist

Yep gotta agree with you there Col

It is now 9:04pm, can anyone explain why my 4:22pm post was trapped in moderation?

Can't argue with that Col.

Agree with most of that I just believe the style Bolton will have us play will mean 100point losses will be rar. saturdays team was ,sing about half our best 22, so I am not taking much notice

Macca, Brinnx, looking at the senior list I would say at this stage Jones is the only definite delisting. The following players will be gone unless they show something this year - Boekhorst, Lamb, Jaksch and Graham. Others in danger are Armfield, Thomas (hopefully he doesn't trigger his option clause), White, Casboult, Sumner and Rowe. I would imagine we will need to delist 7 to 8 players and they will come from the above 11 players.

I think this years team will be very different with a focus on blooding youngsters. Our last 100pt belting playing with a team of kids was less than a week ago. I know that team didn't include the likes of Gibbs, Simpson, Docherty, Murphy etc but the potential will certainly be there for some big losses. Dont get me wrong, I'm a 15 year plus member and I hate seeing the blues lose as much as anybody but the litany of false dawns in our recent history cant help but promote skepticism among the faithful. i agree with the statement: “Gallant efforts from the youngsters in defeat are more important to the Blues right now than victories on the back of Kade Simpson turning back the clock.” We need to see those Gallant efforts though. If we get a new generation of kids repeating some of the lacklustre performances of Yarran, Menzel etc in seasons not too far distant then the 'Green Shoots' will be hard to spot.

I get the opinion they like to write articles about Carlton when things are a bit slow. Always gets a reaction, one way or another. Ryan did something similar last year and if I remember correctly got a similar reaction.

How many 100 plus point beltings did we cop last year 2ndeffort? I think b and large we will be competitive, at least for large portions of games, we just won't win a heap.

As hard as it is to admit, the article is pretty accurate I think. Bolton keeps using the line about 'Green Shoots', whilst I have no doubt the strategy to renew the club is sound, the continual rebuilds and renewals could bring pressure from a weary supporter base tired with continual under-performance and regular noncompetitive beltings. Dont get me wrong, we'll stick fat we just might not be so keen to drag ourselves out to Etihad on a rainy day in August to see our boys get monstered in a totally predictable 120 pt belting where we barely give a yelp. All of the talk is about patience and I understand why but I wonder where the collective limit of patience sits. If we get a new Cripps out of the bag of new recruits, if we get some stirring performances or a few rising stars to watch things might be OK but if we have to endure another 2 seasons of regular thumpings and noncompetitive turnouts it will lead towards increasing pressure on Bolton/SOS. I am not calling for a 'messiah' recruit, not calling for a bag of recycled recruits, I know where we've come from and why we have to endure to progress but as with everything somewhere there is a limit. If the mantra is all about 'green shoots' then we will need to see some. The message will get tired very quickly if the likes of McKay, Petrevski Seton and Cunningham stall or dont progress.

I think it pays to be careful with your expectations of younger players. In the 2015 draft Carlton selected Weitering, Harry McKay and Jack Silvagni who were all very young for their draft -- this is where the value is but with especially McKay and to a lesser extent Jack Silvagni they must be given time to grow into their bodies. Harry McKay should be compared with his identical twin brother Ben McKay at North Melbourne, one would expect the twins to follow a similar development path. I would compare Charlie Curnow (194cm, 91kg) with Aaron Francis (193cm, 92kg) of Essendon, in the past these guys would have been developed as key position players but in the modern game clubs attempt to develop them into big bodied mid-fielders with an emphasis on endurance -- this may take time. I rated Francis and Curnow about equal in the 2015 draft and would expect them to follow a similar development path although Francis is 6 months younger. Carlton have taken radical surgery to their list, this was necessary for the longer run but patience is required in the short run -- especially this year.

Brinxx - On your hopes Kerr is only 194cm so McKay is you only hope but I would suggest the blues aren't going to risk him in the ruck for a couple of years. Rowe & Casboult will pinch hit this year and it will be interesting how they structure the team once Phillips is fit again. Completely agree on your second hope and I think we should get at least 2 from the 4 you mention in the longer term. They seem to also be trying to get C Curnow to run through the middle (which could make an interesting combination with Cripps) and hopefully Pickett can get to the stage where he can at least pinch hit