Bluemour 'Silly Season' Edition XXXIV

[djw1952]

Isn’t it tiresome being so negative all the time?

You hit the nail on the head with that one, as it sure is tiring seeing that sort of stuff on here so often!!!

 

[rp84]

This whole place needs a week off.

It's ****ed right now.

 

[DrTrain]

To those who watch the VFL will Akuei make it and if so what position will he play?

 

[GoBlues!]

The more I see it bandied about, the more I think 'mental weakness' has become a nothing term. It basically just means that someone made an error, but labelling it 'weakness' makes a key difference: it shifts it from an action to a characteristic.

This makes it seem like something that can be controlled, e.g. by a sports psych, rather than just something that happens sometimes. It's also often used to justify a harsher critique of the player or team involved, because you see it's not just that they made a mistake, it's that they're mentally weak. (Mentally strong players don't make mistakes in crunch moments, donchaknow.) And it also ignores the other team completely, because apparently if you're mentally strong then you just overcome everything regardless of the opposition and win no matter what. It's kind of like The Secret, but rebranded for football.

The fact is that nobody and no team gets it right all of the time. The best teams get it right maybe 90% of the time? I don't know where we were this year -- maybe 70-80%? But the exact numbers aren't important. What matters is that this isn't a binary 'you're either strong or you're weak' situation. It's a spectrum, made up of any number of components including skills, training, confidence, fitness, gameplan, time spent playing together, etc, and we're working our way along it. This year was better than last year. Next year will be better than this year.

And honestly, if I never see the term 'mentally weak' used to describe our side or one of our players, it will still be too soon.

Agree, it’s a ridiculous term used by mentally lazy posters.

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

Have to say that there were quite a few on this forum that were wanting the club to push him out as they said he was spent, but I get the feeling that they might be having memory lapses about now actually....

interestingly, when CFC interviewed Crippa's mum after the JNM award, and asked what the difference was between Crippa 2022 and Crippa of the previous two years...

First thing she said was "well, he wasn't injured!".

 

[Magruder]

He made his choice and the Club has moved on Flowers.

Lewis Young has been a very adequate replacement & will only get better.

Young becomes a Blue after three-way trade

Key defender Lewis Young has arrived at IKON Park.

www.carltonfc.com.au

read flowers as ****ers lol

bit like when I see “campaigner” in any other context.

clear sign I spend too much time on here…

 

[Red_man2008]

Teams I’m comfortable Carlton should beat next season:
North
Hawks
Freo
GWS
WC
Dogs
Saints
Ess
Ade
GC

Teams that should provide a test

Coll
Rich
Port
Syd
Melb

Teams we will struggle against

Bris
Geel

Still keeps us in the 6-10 bracket - let’s hope we get all our double up v the first group.

 

[majesticseacapt]

Now that Dow is likely to be traded, does that mean we'll keep Setterfield?

Setters played his best footy for us on the wing, but with Acres coming in I can't see Setters being anymore than depth being Acres, LOB, Cottrell.

 

[Matty411]

Can't see us getting Harmes. Seems an * type fit for mine. As for Hunter... just not sure if we want or need him now. But if he were cheap and came for right reasons with right attitude, wouldn't be categorically against it.

Not sure what this Horse trading comment is about.

 

[zeggie]

Now that Dow is likely to be traded, does that mean we'll keep Setterfield?

Setters played his best footy for us on the wing, but with Acres coming in I can't see Setters being anymore than depth being Acres, LOB, Cottrell.

From what's been said, we want to keep Setters but our offer has only been and will only be minimum chips. We can't force him to sign. If he gets a decent multi year offer elsewhere I suspect he's goneski.

 

[Coops93]

Each of them will have seasons when they crack the 1mil mark. But the power of having the core signed to long term deals means we can move the spends around and balance the cap.
None of them will be averaging over a mil for the lengths of their contracts. Media continually fail to understand how contracts work, and will always report on the largest figure being the entire contract.

On a side note, one could argue that 1m contract is taking unders for each of these players. I know that two of them were definitely offered higher this year, and can safely assume that if Cripps was ever truly on the open market, he would as well.

I suppose another way to look at it is they are the 2 most recent Coleman Medallists and the most recent Brownlow Medallist. A sound case could be made that they should be the 3 highest paid players in the game so getting them for under $1m avg a year is a great deal. Realistically they could each be looking at $1.3m average.

 

[4flagsin5yrs]

Now that Dow is likely to be traded, does that mean we'll keep Setterfield?

Setters played his best footy for us on the wing, but with Acres coming in I can't see Setters being anymore than depth being Acres, LOB, Cottrell.

Can't agree. Setters is an inside mid, but certainly should be retained....

 

[Coops93]

Geez Barrett is dickhead. Banging on about how we’re paying Charlie, Harry and Cripps $1m or thereabouts per season. As if he’d even know. And isn’t the narrative that they boys are taking more than unders to stay together?

He was blithering on about our cap before McKay signed up, asking how we would even afford him given our cap squeeze with Charlie and Cripps certainly on over a million a year each.

He seems to be a lone crusader trying to convince everyone that our cap is in absolute bits and we surely can't afford anyone or anything for the next 23 years.

 

[Sector 7G]

Teams I’m comfortable Carlton should beat next season:
North
Hawks
Freo
GWS
WC
Dogs
Saints
Ess
Ade
GC

Teams that should provide a test

Coll
Rich
Port
Syd
Melb

Teams we will struggle against

Bris
Geel

Still keeps us in the 6-10 bracket - let’s hope we get all our double up v the first group.

Port???? Dixon and Boak will be a year older. Have lost Amon who had a good season. I would be disappointed if we can't take care of them

 

[Coona Blues]

To those who watch the VFL will Akuei make it and if so what position will he play?

There is no definitive answer to this. The kid has some great athleticism and has shown some very nice flashes. He absolutely could “make it”, but he is a very long way off. Free hit at the moment, but needs a monster pre season and to display a bit more substance.

His best position on display is as an undersized leaping ruckman. He does not have the focus in defence in my opinion, and was very stifled by trying to follow instruction without the nous to read the play. A more instinctive forward role is a better fit.

Can make it, but at this stage if locked to a yes or no option, I would lean to no, but will have a nice VFL highlights reel by the end of 2023.

 

[BringFevBack2021]

To those who watch the VFL will Akuei make it and if so what position will he play?

He won't make it.

However, if he were going to make it I would imagine it'd be as an intercepting defender. Very athletic with a great jump at the footy. Happy to persist for one more season but the experiment needs to end if he doesn't get a game next year. I hope he does, as his athletic traits are extremely exciting but his football IQ and basic skill execution leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Arr0w]

To those who watch the VFL will Akuei make it and if so what position will he play?

To difficult at the moment to determine if he makes it or not, but will spend all of next year in the VFL

IMHO, his best chance would be as a 3rd tall forward

 

[HaydossJ]

To difficult at the moment to determine if he makes it or not, but will spend all of next year in the VFL

IMHO, his best chance would be as a 3rd tall forward

Where do you see Kemp's long-term position Arrow? Was Kemp playing forward as a necessity (for VFL structure), or does the club view him as a 3rd tall going forward?

 

[katmanblue]

John Longmire has some trades up his sleeve

That's not a sleeve and that's not a trade

On SM-F926B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Carl Tone]

To those who watch the VFL will Akuei make it and if so what position will he play?

One for Pommylovescarlton

 

[Michael Jezz]

Now that Dow is likely to be traded, does that mean we'll keep Setterfield?

Setters played his best footy for us on the wing, but with Acres coming in I can't see Setters being anymore than depth being Acres, LOB, Cottrell.

It all depends on the Setters offer but he is out of contract. I would take pick around 35 but keep him for a pick over 40.

 

[RoyalBlues]

Can't see us getting Harmes. Seems an * type fit for mine. As for Hunter... just not sure if we want or need him now. But if he were cheap and came for right reasons with right attitude, wouldn't be categorically against it.

Not sure what this Horse trading comment is about.

With time on the club’s side there is no harm in looking at James ‘Horse’ Harmes.

No reference to Lachie Hunter from me and Essendon are interested in Harmes more so than the Blues.

If, both Dow and Setterfield were to be traded then a player and a pick might be favoured.

Hunter is probably the better player (although that may have been one or two games against us!)

Esava Ratugolea is a ruck/defender option too

 

[NavySteel]

So on one hand the H deal duration is criticised, but in the same headline the Taranto deal is praised/filled with potential?

They both have the same contract duration!!!

 

[Matty411]

With time on the club’s side there is no harm in looking at James ‘Horse’ Harmes.

No reference to Lachie Hunter from me and Essendon are interested in Harmes more so than the Blues.

If, both Dow and Setterfield were to be traded then a player and a pick might be favoured.

Hunter is probably the better player (although that may have been one or two games against us!)

Esava Ratugolea is a ruck/defender option too

Esava doesn't really fill a need and was categorically stated as staying by the Cats the other day, if I recall.

I'm okay with us moving on Dow but rather we keep Setters for a year to make him earn it like Kennedy and LOB before him.

 

[CJMB]

He was blithering on about our cap before McKay signed up, asking how we would even afford him given our cap squeeze with Charlie and Cripps certainly on over a million a year each.

He seems to be a lone crusader trying to convince everyone that our cap is in absolute bits and we surely can't afford anyone or anything for the next 23 years.

From memory, it sounded like he was saying Harry, Charlie & Crippa were all definitely 7 figures, Walsh and Williams about 7 figures then Weitering, Saad & McGovern a hair under.

Doing some very quick math, including the ~480k outside the cap for rookie base wages, that's suggesting the remaining 34 players on the list are averaging about 180k per year. Pretty sure draftee wage is about 120k, and we know that between Doc, Martin, Newman, Kennedy, etc there's going to be a heap of guys on quite a bit more than that. Of course this ignores year-by-year contract fluctuation, front/back loading, etc.

TLDR: Purple doesn't know jacks***. And probably struggles with excel or even a calculator.