And yes I would play Graham, Kerridge, even Mullet, O’Shea or Shaw ahead of them until SPS, Dow and O’Brien are ready (SPS and Dow are almost there, but a few weeks in the two’s would both refresh them and hopefully give them the opportunity to learn how to become more influential on a game rather than just collecting stats).

When clubs talk about investing in the the draft there is more to it than just acquiring the picks. Clubs also need to invest time, work and education into those draft picks . Since the start of the draft Carlton has failed in this and unfortunately has failed many young talented players.

So yes, send out the likes of Graham, Kerridge, O’Shea, Mullet and O’Shea as cannon fodder in 2018, Carltons worst season in its club’s history and do what’s best for the long term development of SPS, Dow and O’Brien.

That was meant to read high draft pick and for the record I know how to spell week, but it appears my phone doesn’t.

I’m really not worried about the team, they suck. The worst team ever put together on the field in the club’s history.
I’m more concerned of what’s best for the development of SPS, Dow and O’Brien. Getting smashed every weak and being team passengers each can’t be good for these young players. Just have a look at the lack of confidence in Jacob Weitering. SPS’s decision making with the ball is also looking increasingly shaky at times. Each player entered the Carlton football club with a lot more confidence in their games and decision making than they do now.

I’m not saying banish them to the VFL for punishment, but to (in a Bolton cliche) work on their craft. When they have shown consistent (dominant) form in the VFL they get a a stint of a few weeks in the firsts, not just because they were a draft pick, but because they are ready for it and have earnt it..

So much for those green shoots. They’ve been mowed down in 2018. I know they’re young, but the lack of contribution of Carltons 5 top 10 draft picks from the last 3 drafts, combined with their slow to stagnant development in 2018 is disappointing and a little disturbing.

Could Carlton please send Dow, O’Brien and SPD back to the VFL to protect them from this mess and possibly give them time to develop into AFL ready players. When they can consistently dominate at that level then bring back into the senior team and not before. I don’t care who replaces them.

Carlton and many of their supporters continually state that they are being patient and the club has a long term focus on this rebuild, but they continue to rush in their high draft picks before they are ready (Harry Mckay the exception and he has shown improvement this year) and then they are left there to struggle

They were the defensive skills of the day and they produced greater backman forward one on one battles than we see today.
And I’m not to sure how handicapped that list of some the greatest forwards were, they seemed to do alright.
Certainly not the handicap modern forwards face from modern coaches.

I do miss those one on one stand your ground marking contests we would see such as SOS v plugger or Fletcher v Kernahan. A lot more enjoyable than the whistle, free kick, umpire explanation we have to watch today

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

Dow will become a much better player than Kerridge and Graham, but in April 2018 they are better AFL players than Dow and Polson. That hopefully will have changed by the second half of the season.
Liked the look of Cunningham and his a good example of a player who developed through the seconds rather than being gifted games because your a high draft pick.

Zac Touhy was handy, and I know it could pay off long term, but trading him out makes us a worse team this season. As for who could have come in Lyon was there to be taken for a late draft pick, Ben Lennon, hartung we definitely should have worked harder to get Devon Smith. We did try for Rockliff. We made a big mistake during the trade period not getting the deal done for Tomlinson. And why didn’t at least try and convince Tom Mitchell to come to the blues, we had more salary cap room. Rockliff aside though Carlton hasn’t attempted to bring anyone of quality over 24 in.
One of the things that GWS did so well where Gold Coast failed in was bringing in the right veterans to lead the youngsters.

Agree with polson and dow, I’d replace them with Kerridge and Graham on his last, last chance. Neither have a great upside, but they will contribute more than Dow and Polson can over the next 4 to 6 weeks. Hopefully Dow will be ready to make the step up in the second half of the season.
Not sure on Lamb, he doesn’t do enough, but does well with an assignment. Give him one.
And as forJones and Weitering, if Marchbank is injured they stay, but if Marchbank is back Weitering has to go with either MaCreadie (another tall I know) or hopefully the addition of extra midfielder in Lang if he’s ready to go.

They’ve got to get their bodies right, but Alex Silvagni and Sam Rowe in and Jones and Weitering out makes for a more reliable defense in my mind

I think the reason Carlton play such a tall line up, and we are playing Dow and polson before they are ready stem from the same reason. In year one of the rebuild we targeted talls and we are playing them. The rebuild of the midfield is only into its second year and Carlton as a result have very little AFL ready midfield and small defender depth. SPS, Fisher and Williamson last year look good, but there is only 3 of them and they are only in their 2nd year and then add Dow (looked ready in the pre season) and Obrian from this draft who just aren’t ready yet.
I like the young players SOS has brought in, but he cleared out most of the players that would be in their peak playing years now, and most of the older midfield/ half back recruits that he has brought in to date have proven to be below afl standard.
Simply, with an eye on the future SOS has put together a list for 2018 that has too much of the load on Cripps, Murphy and E Curnow and is asking too much of a large a group of midfield players only in their first few years of footy.
2020 should be awesome, but it’s unfortunately it’s 2018

But at least Jones can adjust his game and get back to what he did so well. Weitering on the other hand just hasn’t shown to be physically (or mentally) capable of being a key defender at AFL level. I think it would be better for him to go back to the VFL where the physical match ups are more in his favour and get back to learning how to win one on one marking contest’s. At the moment we are just gifting him games he doesn’t deserve. He’s an invisible forward and the blues don’t need a third floating tall intercept marking defender in our back line.
I haven’t given up on Weitering becoming a great player, but I think it would be best for his long term development to spend some time in the two’s. He’s lost all confidence and continued poor performances at AFL level could destroy him as a player completely. Bring him back when he is ready (and hungry) to compete at AFL level.
When does Alex Silvagni come back? He’s a better defender that both Jones and Weitering particularly at ground level, a weakness for the blue’s.

I think Jones has been reading to much of his own press. It’s good to see a player back themselves at times, but Jones has become become completely unacceptable for his direct opponent, which he was doing so well when he first joined the team as defender.
Also how many times did we see his unrealistic cannon ball pack marking attempts just end up with the ball going over the top of pack and into an opponent’s hand’s goal side?

I know it has a lot to do with how the ball was going into the Collingwood forward line, but we got carved up at ground level. We can’t continue to play all of Jones, Marchbank and Weitering, particularly with all three being so unacceptable for their own man. One needs to go and Marchbank is the best of the bunch so it’s got to be either Weitering or Liam full back of the new century Jones who head’s back to the VFL. Weitering would be my choice and I think it would be better for his football long term. Currently he is unable to or unwilling to physically compete with key forwards at AFL level.

Growth??? I’m growing sick of Brendon Bolton’s fake smile and the empty positive spin rhetoric he serves up after each losing performance.
3 years at the club and i know his team is young, but they are also uncompetive. after a positive 3 quarters against Richmond they rolled over in the last quarter. 3 quarters of good footy is apparently enough for this team to get a pat on the back, job well done.
They crumbled under gold coasts pressure. Rather than rising to the challenge, most of this ‘futures so bright I’ve gotta wear shades’ group of high draft picks wilted.
And that 2nd quarter last night was the most gutless performance I have witnessed in a long time.
Maybe Bolton needs to stop telling these players how great things are going to be as we keep growing, and start developing players who are competitors and are willing and wanting to do what it takes to win now.
If he doesn’t, he will be out of a job and another coach will reap the benefits of his growth

But the AFL is already lined up to introduce new teams, stretching the thin talent pool even further.

“Simpson needs to be pushed out”

Simpson is everything you want these young players to be. You don’t push out leaders and people who have given so much to the club just to get some games into some kid whose got potential his yet to live up to.
If his form warrants it, Simpson plays and even last year he was still one of our best game day performers.
Young players need leaders to follow and there aren’t to many better than Simpson

I agree with Col as to that group of players, plus maybe Oshea, that will rotate through to cover the Docherty position. I also think that the continued improvement of Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman will help cover his loss particularly with their intercept marking. With the loss of Docherty I also see Plowman’s ability to use the ball by foot and Weitering’s decision making being important in the way we bring the ball out of the back line, particularly if Carlton are going to be more attacking this season as advertised.

Thats a lot of names, but essentially it’s going to have to be a team effort if we are going to cover the individual brilliance of one player. Fortunately it’s a team game.

Sorry Paul D that first line was supposed to read
Rebuild going nowhere in early 2010’s all but the faithful have jumped off.

The Fan’s were still there when Malthouse arrived with false premiership hopes, they were still there when Carlton beat the tiges in the finals that year. They were there round 1 2014. Not that long ago.

And yeah, 2014 and 2015 were about as bad as it gets and then as would be expected during a period like that the fans dropped off.

Enter Bolton for season 2016, not that long ago.

Rebuild going nowhere in early 2010’s Paul D?

Carlton were premiership favourites with a lot of sections of the media a few rounds into the 2012 season. Then the wheels fell of royalty, with a few injuries exposing the growing lack of depth and quality in the list.
2012 wasn’t that long ago, but a lot of incredibly poor decisions were made in the following years.
At least in the football department I think I Carlton are making a lot of good decisions under Bolton.

The hole in our playing list is quality players in their prime playing years, rather than players in any particular position of the ground. And that makes sense in a rebuild.
We traded out a lot of the talented players over 24 for draft picks and moved on the average and below average afl players in that age group to create the list space to turn over the young talent from other clubs we have brought in from other clubs.

We could have kept the likes Henderson, Touhy, Gibbs, Menzel, Simon White and a few more of the work man like, but average players we’ve moved on and we would probably be looking to do a little better in 2018 because of the age demographic, but instead we are going to field a young inexperienced team in 2018 that may not win as many games, but clearly has the potential to achieve greater things than if we had have held onto those older players.
Of course now it’s about those young players and club reaching that potential. Failed potential is a terrible thing to watch.

As for those holes though, as a supporter I would like to see either McKay or Kerr show that they are going to be a long term key forward for the blue’s. Im hopeful but if neither of those two become a quality AFL forward then there is a hole in our list.
And seeing a few extra quality mids coming through is always nice to see, but I think that is happening.

Poor decision making with Carlton, not poor culture.

Yep, this rebuild has gone for a whole 2 years.
The talls taken in the first draft (plus Cunningham) are entering their 3rd season.
Midfielders targeted in the next 2 drafts are entering their 1st and 2nd seasons.

If Cam’s correct 10 top 30 draft picks in the last 3 drafts. + late draft pick finds Tom Williamson and Jack Silvagni. With Harry McKay, Paddy Dow expected (hoped ) to play regular footy this season and possibly Lochie Obrian that’s 12 players in their first 3 seasons of football that will play a lot of football for Carlton this year. Add Marchbank, Kennedy, Pickett and Lang as players at the early stages of their careers. Talented yes, inexperienced definitely. Patience is required, it’s just part of the process of building through the draft. Again, it’s been only 2 years people.

Add Cripps, Docherty and Plowman to that list of young talent that Carlton is developing and you can probably understand why blues fans are being both patient for now and excited for the not to distant future.

Living in Brisbane I will get the family to the Gabba to see the blues and am likely to get to the metricon game a few weeks later.

The blues interstate membership doesn’t have much appeal, 5 games in Melbourne. There are more worthy charities than Carlton.

Anyway, enough on Carlton in a North article. I like Josh’s ultra positive sliding door 2020 outcome for North, over the one where Gwyneth ends up living in Tasmania.

North is certainly a team that can’t afford to get their rebuild wrong and am surprised that they have moved away from their regular stance that North can’t afford to bottom, but that said I’m in the camp that doesn’t think North’s list is as bad as many think, with plenty of good (maybe not great) players in their prime playing years. With the right additions North could be ok again in a couple of years.