Jacks Seething Rage
Team Captain
- Apr 13, 2024
- 560
- 1,576
- AFL Club
- Carlton
It seems a shallow analysis, but it really does all boil down to injury. Only Richmond sat behind us on the games lost ladder, and they didn't really have a lot of motivation to be rushing players back. Two of our best competitors down before a ball was bounced, and apart from the early rounds the dominoes fell regularly thereafter. In addition to a huge amount of games missed I'd wager we carried additional players through more than just the 'usual' niggles too. Charlie wasn't right from midway through the year, Weiters carried multiple serious corkies from week to week, Walsh and Saad looked restricted at various stages and we literally broke TDK.
It's an enormous factor...far bigger than coaching or list build or any of the other issues we are all bogging ourselves down in at present. At anything close to full strength we were, and I am sure we remain, a formidable team. I can't say how much of this rests with Russell or how much was just a terrible run of luck, but I do believe Inness will be our biggest off season recruit. Fresh perspective will be important.
It's a shame to finish with a meek whimper, but it was a strange old year. Brisbane were shot earlier in the year, and now have momentum in the finals. Hawks were garbage, now the form team of the competition. Essendon were laughing it up in second, Freo looked to have finally clicked and still managed to missed finals, the premiers missed the eight, the Swans were unbeatable for much of the year, but also unwatchable for a good period too. Port fans were rallying a lynch mob mid-year and they stormed home to second place, we made Geelong look second rate and now they are likely flag favourites. Our best block of footy was as good as anyone, but as has been our achilles heel for some time we were clueless when it came to managing momentum.
Round 0 was miraculous, but I think our best wines were rounds 12 and 15 against Port and Geelong. They were dominant wins against quality opponents, and as close to four quarter efforts as we have seen for some years. No slingshot footy, no herculean comebacks, no game winning individual efforts....just good, tough, team oriented football.
Letting Adelaide under our guard earlier in the year was our worst loss for mine. It was only a narrow loss, but the nature of the loss was poor - our home game, a poor to middling opponent and wilting in the last to snatch defeat from certain victory. It planted the seeds of doubt for the close losses to Geelong and Pies in following weeks. The inconsistent, self sabotaging, doubt plagued, speed wobbles Carlton of old was back.
The injury roller coaster makes it hard to read too much into form lines. Motlop and Durdin have fallen furthest down my personal list rankings...I would have had Jesse somewhere around 20th on the list coming into the year and our first picked small forward. 24 goals, multiple goals in 10 matches, a valuable cameo in a winning final was a great platform to launch from...no one predicted the wheels falling off so spectacularly. I don't think Durdin has been genuinely injury free since a handful of games into his career. I give them both some benefit of the doubt based on lack of continuity...suffice to say it's a huge off season for both.
It's our middle tier that concern me most.
I'm not as whelmed as some by Elijah. I see AFL quality traits, but I don't yet see a 150 gamer. Boyd regressed to the VFL reserves player we plucked from obscurity, I still can't tell if Cottrell is an AFL player or just a running fool, Acres came back to the pack from an excellent 2023, Pitto soared like an eagle and sunk like a cannonball, Kemp still doesn't have a position, Williams is now an expensive rarely available forward pocket, Fantasia showed some incredible forward craft though they were few and far between, McGovern predictably lapsed back into contractural comfort and Carroll's early sub cameo was to be his highlight of his year. I'll add in Cerra and Fogarty as forgotten men who finish the year with more question marks than they started. Injury played a role in pretty well all these cases, but still...
My pass marks for the year are Cowan who I have to keep reminding myself is 19, O Hollands whose gradient of improvement is slight but steady, and Cincotta who added valuable strings to his bow. Among the older guard Newman, Kennedy, Hewett and Owies all had career or near career best years.
Obviously special mention is reserved for our four AA squad members. Weiters finally gets his jacket with probably the least accomplished of his last four campaigns, though his standard is incredibly high, and he is peerless in terms of one on one contests. Charlie obviously made it on production, but I think will be disappointed in his year and will hopefully be stewing all summer and Harry showed that for his occasional mental vulnerabilities he is still on the top rung of KPFs league wide. It was simply a delight to watch an unencumbered Cripps do his thing for an entire season...I think clearly his best year, and to improve athletically and disposal wise to the degree he has points to an incredible amount of dedication off the track.
And TDK for mine is the revelation of the year. So often young rucks fail to turn potential into production, but he was genuinely transformative for us, and might be the most important four syllables SOS called out in his time.
Assuming it happens, another less obvious positive for us will be finally moving on from the handful of perma-injured players that have teased us for multiple seasons. Nothing but good thoughts for Martin, Cuningham, Marchbank and Durdin, but the most important attribute of a depth player is being ready to go when called upon, and these guys spend most of their time up on blocks. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
For a few fleeting weeks there we knew how old Icarus must of felt flying about the heavens, blissfully unaware that things were about to take a nasty turn. My greatest knock on Carlton for some years has been our unwillingness to genuinely play for each other - team above self. For a brief window we had it, we found our magnum...and it was beautiful...
It's an enormous factor...far bigger than coaching or list build or any of the other issues we are all bogging ourselves down in at present. At anything close to full strength we were, and I am sure we remain, a formidable team. I can't say how much of this rests with Russell or how much was just a terrible run of luck, but I do believe Inness will be our biggest off season recruit. Fresh perspective will be important.
It's a shame to finish with a meek whimper, but it was a strange old year. Brisbane were shot earlier in the year, and now have momentum in the finals. Hawks were garbage, now the form team of the competition. Essendon were laughing it up in second, Freo looked to have finally clicked and still managed to missed finals, the premiers missed the eight, the Swans were unbeatable for much of the year, but also unwatchable for a good period too. Port fans were rallying a lynch mob mid-year and they stormed home to second place, we made Geelong look second rate and now they are likely flag favourites. Our best block of footy was as good as anyone, but as has been our achilles heel for some time we were clueless when it came to managing momentum.
Round 0 was miraculous, but I think our best wines were rounds 12 and 15 against Port and Geelong. They were dominant wins against quality opponents, and as close to four quarter efforts as we have seen for some years. No slingshot footy, no herculean comebacks, no game winning individual efforts....just good, tough, team oriented football.
Letting Adelaide under our guard earlier in the year was our worst loss for mine. It was only a narrow loss, but the nature of the loss was poor - our home game, a poor to middling opponent and wilting in the last to snatch defeat from certain victory. It planted the seeds of doubt for the close losses to Geelong and Pies in following weeks. The inconsistent, self sabotaging, doubt plagued, speed wobbles Carlton of old was back.
The injury roller coaster makes it hard to read too much into form lines. Motlop and Durdin have fallen furthest down my personal list rankings...I would have had Jesse somewhere around 20th on the list coming into the year and our first picked small forward. 24 goals, multiple goals in 10 matches, a valuable cameo in a winning final was a great platform to launch from...no one predicted the wheels falling off so spectacularly. I don't think Durdin has been genuinely injury free since a handful of games into his career. I give them both some benefit of the doubt based on lack of continuity...suffice to say it's a huge off season for both.
It's our middle tier that concern me most.
I'm not as whelmed as some by Elijah. I see AFL quality traits, but I don't yet see a 150 gamer. Boyd regressed to the VFL reserves player we plucked from obscurity, I still can't tell if Cottrell is an AFL player or just a running fool, Acres came back to the pack from an excellent 2023, Pitto soared like an eagle and sunk like a cannonball, Kemp still doesn't have a position, Williams is now an expensive rarely available forward pocket, Fantasia showed some incredible forward craft though they were few and far between, McGovern predictably lapsed back into contractural comfort and Carroll's early sub cameo was to be his highlight of his year. I'll add in Cerra and Fogarty as forgotten men who finish the year with more question marks than they started. Injury played a role in pretty well all these cases, but still...
My pass marks for the year are Cowan who I have to keep reminding myself is 19, O Hollands whose gradient of improvement is slight but steady, and Cincotta who added valuable strings to his bow. Among the older guard Newman, Kennedy, Hewett and Owies all had career or near career best years.
Obviously special mention is reserved for our four AA squad members. Weiters finally gets his jacket with probably the least accomplished of his last four campaigns, though his standard is incredibly high, and he is peerless in terms of one on one contests. Charlie obviously made it on production, but I think will be disappointed in his year and will hopefully be stewing all summer and Harry showed that for his occasional mental vulnerabilities he is still on the top rung of KPFs league wide. It was simply a delight to watch an unencumbered Cripps do his thing for an entire season...I think clearly his best year, and to improve athletically and disposal wise to the degree he has points to an incredible amount of dedication off the track.
And TDK for mine is the revelation of the year. So often young rucks fail to turn potential into production, but he was genuinely transformative for us, and might be the most important four syllables SOS called out in his time.
Assuming it happens, another less obvious positive for us will be finally moving on from the handful of perma-injured players that have teased us for multiple seasons. Nothing but good thoughts for Martin, Cuningham, Marchbank and Durdin, but the most important attribute of a depth player is being ready to go when called upon, and these guys spend most of their time up on blocks. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
For a few fleeting weeks there we knew how old Icarus must of felt flying about the heavens, blissfully unaware that things were about to take a nasty turn. My greatest knock on Carlton for some years has been our unwillingness to genuinely play for each other - team above self. For a brief window we had it, we found our magnum...and it was beautiful...
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