No AFL wins but Blues are growing: Bolton

Correction: Auto correct turned SPS in his second year into Sos

Bolton is doing a good of developing the young players, but it's not often that the coach who is there at the start of the rebuild is still there when it is completed and reaps the benefits. Bolton will have to do something special to buck that trend.

Yep, that's the only reason, nothing to do with being patient in his development, earning his debut, returning to the 2's on occasion to work further on his game, play a more dominant role, refresh and develop a hunger to cement a spot in the firsts. And then there is attitude of Fisher himself. By your theory anyone you give game time to will start playing well. There's a bit more to it than that.

SOS in very little time has added a lot of talent to our list which we had none of when he arrived. What he hasn't done is bring in in many players from other clubs that help us win now, Plowman, Marchbank and Wright the exception. But even from his first 2 drafts Curnow, Fisher and SOS are becoming more solid contributors and expect that we will add Cunningham's name to that list by the second half of the season as well. That's a lot quality acquisitions in such a short period of time. It is easy to forget how poor that Carlton list was just 2 and a bit years ago.

Geez I'm sick of the Bolton bashing. Al clarkson wouldn't be able to manufacture wins with our current list. Keep playing the kids, it's only going to be a matter of time before they start geling. The only reason why fisher is started to play well is because he pushed him and gave him game time last year.

I also find myself agreeing with Barrett. These long rebuilds rarely work and just gifting games to high draft picks is damaging to the culture. The blues have a few older players who would help them try to win now and must be given some games. Theres only so long a club can rely on "hope" to sell memberships.

SOS the savour. The mastermind behind GWS. Fact with that many cracks at it even a monkey could put together a decent side.

What members?

I reckon Bolton could be finished this year if this sort of thing goes on. Couple of things not in his favour. He doesn’t have a background in elite AFL. Never played at the highest level. Not many of those make a fist of it as head coaches. Currently the only other head coach apart from Bolton who never played AFL is Chris Fagan at the Lions, but his expertise lies in psychology and he’s old and experienced enough to show he’s got plenty of strings to his bow. Bolton is far younger, and far less experienced. Last coach I can remember who had that particular handicap was Brendan McCartney at the dogs. Bolton is on a similar trajectory at the moment. This is a coach too, who may well have been made to look better than he really was by dint of working at Hawthorn, the rolled gold premiership factory of the East. He coached Box Hill for a long time after coming from Tasmania, then sat at the feet of the master. Yeah, he won 5-0 when Clarko was off in 2014 with guillain-barre I think it was, but I also remember he very nearly crashed Clarko’s rolls Royce of a side against GWS first up, and that was 2014 GWS mind you, not 2018 GWS. Increasingly I’m thinking Carlton have got the right players, the right method of rebuild, but they’ve got the wrong coach for it. This rolling contract may well be a masterstroke. If this season is another dismal failure of a rebuilding type season, with wins you can count on one hand, I reckon Carlton would be eminently justified in giving him the boot and going to someone with a bit more mongrel to them

Agreed with not gifting spots. Fisher along with Curnow and Cunningham were in and out of the 2's in their first seasons and it hasn't hurt their development. Compare their development to Weitering who seems to be guaranteed a spot regardless of his performance. I'm not anti Weitering, I just think he is a product of poor development by the Carlton football club. Not too late for him, but being beaten weak in week out at senior level has destroyed his confidence. Dow will probably work it out, but he didn't look ready and certainly hasn't contributed much to Carlton's chances of winning in the first 3 rounds.

Yuck. I've just seen that Damien Barrett agrees with me. First time for everything I suppose.

Bolton is the new king at saying a lot without saying anything. His press conferences are turning into a joke. Maybe a career in politics beckons.

Agreed on all of that Dingo. I think Dow and Polson need more time too. I'm not sold on the idea of gifting spots to young talented draftees on the strength of it being for their future development - encourages the tanking attitude if spots aren't being handed out on merit at the time they are assigned. The acceptance of playing an inferior team because we'll be better in a few years because of it can't help sides win. Fisher though - that is a different story, he looks the best of the young crop so far, geez he's got some skills. Natural footballer in every sense. Cox just doesn't have any football sense. He is tall. That is it. But you have to be more than just 2.1m to be successful at AFL. And he can't jump to save himself, so his height is wasted anyway. I just could not believe the 2nd quarter at all. Carlton were doing well, Collingwood didn't even look like kicking a goal - and then just blaaahhhhhh, I'm still scratching my head as to how it all happened. The commentators reckoned it was when Marchbank went off injured, but surely just his temporary absence is not the catalyst for 8 straight goals or whatever it was

Just 2 decent mature midfielders would make a huge difference right now

I know when Lyons went and SOS was in charge then too. Those were just some obvious names off the top of my head. The focus should be on youth at the blues at the moment, but just 4 players on our list who are afl ready now, 24 - 29 years old, would have taken some pressure off the young players, the load on the few experienced leaders we have and help us compete a little more this year. And they they are players that only have to be a short term fix, 2-3 years, while the young players come through. ideally they are all playing in the reserves by the end of next year replaced by young players actually ready to play (contribute and compete) at AFL level.

Steve - my point with Dow is that he simply needs to adapt to the speed and quality of AFL, that is something that can't be done at VFL. I thought he was better this week than he was in th opening two which shows he is learning.

Good to hear Silvagni is spending time in the middle. He needs it for himself to get into our 22 at the moment and even if it's only for short stints it will help Carlton with their shortage of depth of midfielders. Uses space well and could be a valuable marking link player through the middle

Dow is part of our future whether he and Weitering play a few weeks in the 2's or not. We've got the the young talent on the list to develop, we don't need to play everyone of them this week. The amount of young. talent on the list is no longer a problem, what is becoming a larger problem at Carlton is the losing culture and the current acceptance of not just that, but the constant message to players that success is going to be there for them in the future. I don't expect Carlton to win too many games this season, but I did expect them to compete to win. When challenged so far this season, most players at Carlton have wilted under that pressure. These bunch of players are being told how great their futures are going to be, while being fed all the excuses on why they aren't expected to win in the here and now. And the coach is now even using the we are so young excuse (and then after using the excuse, say but we are not using the excuse). Carlton's future will come, but you would think that they would have learnt from our last rebuild that success isn't guaranteed from bringing a pile of high draft picks. Carlton needs to address it's losing mentality and that starts at the selection table when they select a team that best enables Carlton to best compete on a week to week basis. The best 22 according to who we are playing that week. And at least for this month Kerridge is in that 22. And players that don't compete at an expected level , despite their age or draft pick number don't play in the firsts.

I am not fussed that they are better now, we are focused on the future, playing Dow now is better for that. On another point did you se Silvagni has been playing a bit as an onballer in the 2's and was in the best yesterday ( although that doesn't look hard ). Kerr also kicked 3.

Dow will turn out ok whether he plays first or seconds. His a tremendous talent. First month or two in the seconds while he acclimatises to the club, adjusts to the requirements of being an afl player and and importantly learns what strategies Carlton is trying to implement as a team and his role in it. The latter would have have a positive effect on his disposal, if he had a better understanding of where his teammates are going to be and where the ball is supposed to go. If he is going to be a 10-12 year player anyway, why is Carlton throwing him in the deep end without preparing him first. At the top clubs players don't come into the firsts until they are ready, but I guess they are trying to win games of football, not showcase the future to excite their members