I was just idly thinking about the athleticism and speed of TDK, and then separately about how quick Billy Wilson is, and that got me to thinking about the fastest Carlton players I've ever seen, then the fastest Carlton players ever and from that to trying to put together a fastest Carlton All-Time 23.
I decided to make a 100 game minimum to ensure that only genuine league quality players were counted not couple of game speed freaks with a limited football CV - allowing an exception for TDK himself who hasn't made that mark yet. Obviously that ruled Billy Wilson out but c'est la vie.
Now naturally to pick just the fastest players you would end up with a heap of smalls and third talls, but I wanted a workable team, so I decided to include 2 rucks (with the speed requirement I decided the team could handle 2 rucks) , 2 2nd/3rd tall types forward and 1 key defender and 2 2nd/3rd tall backs. The bench is stacked with mids naturally enough.
Some of the players may not be a fast as others I have omitted but at the very least they are genuinely quick and how could you leave out someone like Judd, Bradley or Betts?
In my voyage through the Blueseum to unearth older grass burners I can across plenty of speed demons who didn't meet the games requirement but were awesomely fast - these I have added as emergencies.
I named Armfield as the injury sub because of his versatility - everyone else on the bench is a midfielder. Anyway, here is the team:
RUMNEY JONES MCGOVERN
SAAD PEROVIC N CLARK
BRUCE MCGREGOR E KENNEDY
JACKSON KOUTOUFIDES L KERR
MCKERNAN WAITE BETTS
DE KONNING JUDD BRADLEY
COLLINS COOPER KELLY QUIRK ARMFIELD
Emerg CARNEY GREEN GUTTERSON G KERR MARCHESANI MCCONNON OGDEN O’HAILPIN ROBINSON SKINNER SIMMONS
I couldn't not name the 1906-8 centreline as a unit notwithstanding that you could argue for Laurie Kerr and/or Socks Cooper to be across the centreline ahead of one or both of the wingmen, both of whom were utter stars.
And with the exception of Armstrong and Dennis Collins the team is entirely made up of stars and outright champions. if you want to make it exclusively stars replace Armfield and Collins with Ern Henfry and Keith Shea both speedy genuine champions who fell a little short of the 100 game mark - in both cases due to playing for extended periods in the WAFL.
Keith also had the distinction of being the brother of legendary publican and Blues fanatic the late Kath Byers of the Notting Hill Hotel (who I grew up calling Aunty Kath so regular a Nott patron was my father).
So who have I missed - or included undeservedly?
I decided to make a 100 game minimum to ensure that only genuine league quality players were counted not couple of game speed freaks with a limited football CV - allowing an exception for TDK himself who hasn't made that mark yet. Obviously that ruled Billy Wilson out but c'est la vie.
Now naturally to pick just the fastest players you would end up with a heap of smalls and third talls, but I wanted a workable team, so I decided to include 2 rucks (with the speed requirement I decided the team could handle 2 rucks) , 2 2nd/3rd tall types forward and 1 key defender and 2 2nd/3rd tall backs. The bench is stacked with mids naturally enough.
Some of the players may not be a fast as others I have omitted but at the very least they are genuinely quick and how could you leave out someone like Judd, Bradley or Betts?
In my voyage through the Blueseum to unearth older grass burners I can across plenty of speed demons who didn't meet the games requirement but were awesomely fast - these I have added as emergencies.
I named Armfield as the injury sub because of his versatility - everyone else on the bench is a midfielder. Anyway, here is the team:
RUMNEY JONES MCGOVERN
SAAD PEROVIC N CLARK
BRUCE MCGREGOR E KENNEDY
JACKSON KOUTOUFIDES L KERR
MCKERNAN WAITE BETTS
DE KONNING JUDD BRADLEY
COLLINS COOPER KELLY QUIRK ARMFIELD
Emerg CARNEY GREEN GUTTERSON G KERR MARCHESANI MCCONNON OGDEN O’HAILPIN ROBINSON SKINNER SIMMONS
I couldn't not name the 1906-8 centreline as a unit notwithstanding that you could argue for Laurie Kerr and/or Socks Cooper to be across the centreline ahead of one or both of the wingmen, both of whom were utter stars.
And with the exception of Armstrong and Dennis Collins the team is entirely made up of stars and outright champions. if you want to make it exclusively stars replace Armfield and Collins with Ern Henfry and Keith Shea both speedy genuine champions who fell a little short of the 100 game mark - in both cases due to playing for extended periods in the WAFL.
Keith also had the distinction of being the brother of legendary publican and Blues fanatic the late Kath Byers of the Notting Hill Hotel (who I grew up calling Aunty Kath so regular a Nott patron was my father).
So who have I missed - or included undeservedly?
