It was supposed to be an aggressive trade period at Carlton – they were talking about bringing in players to provide depth and to help in all key areas – but unfortunately this failed to materialise.
Stephen Silvagni ultimately failed to bring in back-up small forwards and the Blues were too confident of getting Tom Papley and Jack Martin. The pair both failed to land at Ikon Park at the conclusion of the trade deadline.
Plan A for the Blues under Silvagni and Mick Agresta was to get some key small forwards – namely Martin and Papley. Instead, they got Carlton’s favourite son Eddie Betts back to the Blues after falling out with the club he loved under Mick Malthouse. Marc Pittonet was seen as a Dean Cox mould and is a worthy second-tier ruckman to Matthew Kreuzer and potentially will be the first-choice ruck once Krezuer retires and Tom De Koning will be a good partner in crime.
(Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Another thing Silvagni and co. failed to deliver was a Plan B. Look at small forwards on the market like Lewis Taylor (gone to Sydney), Dan Butler (gone to St Kilda), Riley Knight (out of contract and looks to be delisted by the Crows) and Sam Gray (out of contract and looks to be delisted or given a one-year deal from the Power). These are players the Blues could’ve looked at but failed to.
Silvagni needs to front up and apologise to the Carlton faithful for failing to communicate with his colleagues on what the team should look at for depth. If you look at Richmond, they stacked their depth with players who are working hard to get back into the senior side – Carlton are still blinded by that old-style confidence, and should’ve had the trade period Brisbane had last year, which will help them get up the ladder.
Carlton won’t get up the ladder much again in 2020 with a young team, and although Eddie Betts will be good, he won’t be a match-winner.
Jack Martin will not be at Carlton in season 2020. Martin will be picked up by Melbourne because they are screaming for a small forward and Martin covers those bases for them, even though Gold Coast’s list manager Craig Cameron made an idle threat of redrafting Martin back into the Suns and make him fall in love with the club again.
Carlton had a royally bad trade period, and Silvagni should hand over the reins to Mick Agresta, who built Sydney’s list and did a successful job at it.
It’s time for Silvagni to hand the keys to the Ferrari to somebody who knows what they are doing.
Griffo2
Guest
This trade period has not been so bad. Newness is a good pick up and Eddie was the contingency. The lists were cut too early. The bring ins have not geberally been as good as many of the throw outs. Eg Jamison and Thornton were good players given the flick for GC and Giant rejects.
Henry
Guest
Criticism of SOS unwarranted. Not picking up Martin for a high draft pick is a win. Martin was not even playing in the firsts how much can he be worth, over rated player and is likely to get to Carlton via the trade that does not mean he is a match winner. Paps was only going to happen if Joey was traded, supporters should not count players in if it is impossible to get them released by their club. These articles are dreadful leave SOS alone.
Blues07
Roar Rookie
I agree....a harsh assessment. With the exception of maybe Gray I think it's all problematic. The trade period leaves clubs open to failure as the key trades are often done in the final 1-2 hours (not allowing any Plan B to be effected). By all accounts Martin may still find his way to Carlton (admittedly at an extra cost to the club) and with stories circulating about the likes of Ollie Wines the future may not be as clouded as it currently seems.
EaglesFan
Roar Rookie
Carlton's troubles go back two decades, perhaps as long as the establishment of the AFL, to which they have never properly adapted. I think its rather unfair to heap blame on SoS in particular, given he finally seems to have built a semi-competitive, broadly happy team. For Carlton in the past two decades, that is a major achievement. Generally, Carlton really is a byword for under-performing business - all brand, no returns. They're just lucky they have history and assets, otherwise they'd be not far off the GC bucket these days.
shifty
Roar Rookie
Couldn't agree more.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
I had a 404 and my father rallied a 203 wagon in the late 50s.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The hottest woman over 40 and she is 60, born 17/1/59, but I'm not an obsessive, truly, I'm not.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
My only comment about Ferrari is posers buy Italian showponies. People who know how to drive AND have lotsa money buy Porsches.
shifty
Roar Rookie
Sorry Rowdy, I didn't realise Ferrari ran aussies 6's. What model was that? It definitely wasn't an Enzo, maybe it was the Yobbo.
TomC
Roar Guru
$700k seems to be the figure bandied about the most. It's a young list, and they haven't had a lot of big name recruits in recent years, and . They can probably frontload it pretty heavily, especially now they've missed out on Papley. As Tom M says above, you've got to use the space somehow. This is as good a way as any.
David C
Guest
Butler didn't go early, he was one of the later trades. They can be forgiven for not getting Papley but not getting Martin was a big failure. I hope he stays at GC for another 12 months and then leaves as a FA.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Nobody seems to be questioning Carlton paying $600k to Martin. Is Carlton's list so bad that this won't present any problems? Or is $600k just not that much anymore?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Susannah Hoffs...now there's another story.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I’ve had Renault 16TS and they’re an insane car. No Aussie 6 of the same vintage could beat a 16. Incredible acceleration and hang on in a corner like I’d hang on to Susanna Hoffs. And I had a 12GL too. Renault 12s are great little car. —- I’ve also had 14 VWs and 14 Peugeots (the greatest long-distance rally cars of all time).
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
At least no-one insulted a Porsche.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
P76, the only whose advantage was a rarely used one. Like who can put a filled 44gallon drum in a car.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Don't knock the Beetle. I got away from a lot of V8 powered cops and other thugs in Beetles. (When you include ovals, footpaths and creeks) If l was a kid now, I'd have an EJ25 in a Beetle. In fact I'm still a kid, I have an EJ25 in a Kombi now
Fred
Guest
Now days cardboard boxes are used. If SOS can get Martin , grey and newnes a job at visy. SOS wins. So he can sell pick 9 for future picks.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
If I was to guess, he is somebody else using a new character to stir the pot. Commas are just the thespanic prop.
Sachit Dassanayake
Roar Rookie
Buddy why do you use so many commas? You do know you only need one per statement, right? Hell, half of these don't even need commas lmao. I'm going to guess you're probably in your 60's from this comment, in which case get off the laptop and go play Lawn Bowls or something before you embarrass yourself further.