Bolton's Blues become Pies' party poopers

Steve, Weitering is still only 19 and already has 27 games under his belt.. Re-visit the 2015 national draft and list the players you think are going better than Weitering.

Steve - on Weitering when considering his performances you should also consider this; Last year our leading goal kicker kicked 22 goals - Weitering is on track to kick 19. Why is it that Casboult and Kreuzer are averaging career highs goals this year - I would argue it is partly because they are getting better looks at the marking contest because Weitering is not allowing his defender to influence the contest. How is number 2 pick Schache going in his second year after being drafted as a forward.

Steve - Weitering isn't suffering second year blues, just being asked to play a harder position where is averaging almost a goal a game, just 0.4 less marks than he did last year and just 3.3 less possessions - there is no question we got the pick correct. As for Cuningham - have a look at some of the footage from the weekend game and the Williamstown game - it will put your mind completely at ease.

Weitering is not a star yet, in fact one game aside he has struggled to make an impact up forward this season. He will come good, but with the first pick in the draft you want him to become the best player from that draft, maybe even the best from the surrounding drafts. It's to early to tell if we made the right choice on Weitering, personally I think we did, but in true Carlton style we are playing him out of position. Cunningham and McKay have been talked up and clearly have talent, but have been near unseen at AFL level other than those late couple of games by Cunningham last season where he hardly set the world on fire. Curnow has been really impressive over the last couple of weeks. So from 4 first round picks we have 2 almost unsighted players at AFL level, a number one pick whose suffering the second year blues and Charlie Curnow who looks to be a great pick up at (was it) pick 12. So sorry if I'm not ready to declare the Weitering draft an outright success at this stage, but I think it's far to early with far to many question marks yet to be answered. Hopefully in 4 years time I'll be tuning in to see all four starring in a Carlton finals game, but for now the champagne isn't even being chilled.

"Still big question marks on the Weitering draft" Weitering is a star, Charlie Curnow is getting better and better and a bloke his size with a leap like his and that running capacity is going to be something special and Jack Silvagni has been very good I think - so the question marks are Cuningham (who hopefully will get a game this week after some impressive form in the 2's) and McKay (who has all the physical attributes but is coming along slowly) - I am confident we will end up with 5 from 5 in that draft but even if it is just 3 3 to have played AFL this year it is still a very good draft.

We know the smalls come on quicker and I'm rapt see so many players from our last draft already in the team or pushing for selection. Some of the talls from the year before are also showing encouraging signs, but as excited as I am I like to hold my judgement on draft success until 4-5 years down the track. Still big question marks on the Weitering draft, and patience is required on the big fellas. As the number one pick however he would have to become one of the best big men in the game for that pick to be deemed a success and Harry McKay at pick 10 you would want a regular 50-60 a season goal kicker. The early signs are good, but time will tell. I'm not popping the champagne just yet though.

I hope that this circus is dealt a lethal blow after the next loss so that we can stop listening to how good we were but unfortunately A B C etc....

Congratulations to Carlton for getting the simple facts straight. You go to the ground to play a hard game of footy and not play it out on the media during the week talking about 125 years of history and wearing 1950s jumpers. i have had enough of this back slapping nonsense from McGuire and Buckley. You beat Geelong and that is fair enough but your mission is to buckle down for the following week. I don't like this hoo-hah trumpet blowing. Where are the good old days of T-shirt Tommy? He would have won more if they had only recruited a key forward and a rover. In Buckley´s case they´ve given him the proverbial kitchen sink and it is simply poor recruiting and poor game plan. All in all, a damn waste of time and money with nothing to show for other than media hype and self-created gods. Let's get back to basics. A new broom is required with a strong firm handle asap. By the way, have you noticed that Gary Pert is making himself scarce? I think he is hedging his bets and wants to keep his cushy job because strife is on the horizon! Clarkson, Malthouse, Roos, Bomber Thompson. Who is it going to be? Let´s get rid of the window dressing and get to the nitty-gritty and stop making wretched fools of ourselves. i predicted two weeks ago that we would be 3-9 by the time the bye comes around. I have revised my prediction and it will be 2-10. Another wooden spoon on the way! I am terribly disappointed that the real Collingwood tradition of Johnston Street is well and truly gone forever....

The big thing for me is that we don't need many of that second group to come through for the 2 drafts to be a massive success. I think Cuningham is going to be very good, I was really impressed with Fisher and McKay has all the Physical attributes - if we just get those 3 (I would be surprised if MacREadie doesn't make it but I'll ignore him for the time being) we will be well on our way when they are added to the first group.

Of that second group, Fisher and Polson certainly look the goods, I think they did ok in the games I saw. I haven't seen enough of the rest of them to form an opinion. I will be disappointed if SPS doesn't get arising star nomination this year, he should have it this week.

Jack - I watched him a couple of weeks ago against Williamstown and his work around the stoppages was sensational - he has a real burst of speed and very clean hands - I would love to see him get a game this week, I think he could thrive at the higher standard.

A good coach says 'We', a poor coach says 'they'. 'They' failed to execute the game plan. Listen to Beveridge, Hinkley, et al, they all say 'we' failed to execute the game plan. Buckley is gone because he is now blaming the players and trying to dodge the responsibility, it is the beginning of the end.

Cunningham was best in the twos yesterday. His only played 3 games and was draft 19 (yarrans replacement) Would love to see him get a run on weekend. Could be a 10 year player for us as well

I am a big fan of Fisher as well, just think that with a light frame we can be patient after an injury - especially if it means getting the bigger Cuningham in, his explosion away from a stoppage is phenomenal and will be much needed against the Saints, Fisher will get a chance again soon enough.

I've heard of the huge rapts on Cunningham internally at Carlton, I'd like to see him get a few games to have a look at him (I only caught his few games last year on the radio). Not ahead of Fisher though, he's been more than just a young player showing a bit, he really contributes.

Cuningham and MacReadie had good games in the 2s, hard to find a spot down back at the moment but Cuningham should come in against the saints, even if it means giving Fisher a game or 2 in the 2s.

Dunno what to say, had a superstition after last week that this would happen. Gutted, demoralised, broken, defeated and very much in a dark place, frustrated and confused. How can this team serve up that diatribe after looking like that no one could beat them after last week, what is going on at the Holden centre? There is surely something wrong there that list is simply so much better than that performance today. Why is this happening? Just to rub salt into the wound we'll probably win next week just to keep us aimlessly floating around the bottom 6 of the table

Too early to be declaring outright draft success, but the early glimpses of these players is both encouraging and exciting. That second list of players McKay, Cuningham, Fisher, MacReadie, Polson and Kerr is probably a good example of how we can get a little a head of ourselves as supporter's at times. I really like what I've seen of Fisher so far though.

We quickly went from having a list full of older average to below average AFL players to young average to below average AFL players, but with the potential to improve. Some such as Plowman and Marchbank are already looking to be on their way to meeting that potential.

Thanks Col - yep, agree with pretty much everything you've said, both in terms of the team and the players. It's sad when pies and blues supporters are in agreement about both their team's prospects :) --- I agree that it's probably 'time' for Bucks and it's just a question of 'when'. The blues do seem to have a promising young team --- I was impressed with their methods out of defence yesterday in particular. Ironic that Sav is apparently improving Casboult's goal kicking - he can certainly take a contested grab that's for sure!