Opinion Has this Carlton list already peaked?

Has this Carlton list already peaked?

  • Yes

    Votes: 117 68.8%

  • No

    Votes: 53 31.2%
  • Total voters
    170

Remove this Banner Ad

GC2015

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
May 27, 2013
7,507
9,547
AFL Club
Gold Coast
Carlton's spine is interesting. New recruit Nick Haynes is turning 33 next year. Cripps is turning 30 in a few months and McGovern is already 30. Hewett is turning 29 next month. Curnow will be 28 before the start of next season. Weitering and McKay will both be 27 before the end of this year. Lewis Young is turning 26 next month, as is Adam Cerra next year. Sam Walsh is turning 25 next year. Depending on who you want in the ruck, Pittonet is turning 29 next year and Tom De Koning is turning 26. They're essentially all in their peak years right now, with Sam Walsh being arguably a year or two away from his peak. It's worth mentioning other best 22 players like Sam Docherty (31), Nic Newman (31), Adam Saad (30), Zac Williams (30) and Blake Acres (29) are arguably in or past their peak years as well.

Carlton seemingly took a step backwards in 2024 and barely qualified for the finals. So, does it get any better for Carlton from here or did they peak in 2023 when they made a run to the preliminaly final?
 

Log in to remove this ad.

I think theyve got 2 years. Once players start to retire theyre going to need free agency and trade ins to stay in the hunt for a premiership.
Clubs like the Pies and Cats did it despite being old, and the blues do have a bunch of good players in that mid to late 20s bracket that wont fall off just yet, but there really isnt enough to replace the guys who are already past 30 in the pipeline imo.

Theyve probably copped a few too many injuries to make full use of their list. Losing some of their depth this year doesnt help either, Kennedy, Carroll, Owies etc may hurt if they keep getting those injuries

I think they went too hard to get pick 3, theyve got nothing in the draft next year and the Camporeale twins arent that highly rated, theyre expected to be picks 40+ or something.
 
Made the prelim final last year.

We were in genuine premiership contention this year until injuries hit and it all went **** up. The OP mentioned 14 players (I am ignoring Pittonet and Young who are backups). Of those 14, by the end of the season 8 were out injured, and 2 others were playing when they probably shouldn't. Still made the finals and ended up within 5 goals of the eventual premiers on the road.

Yep, the list is probably 'peaking' and is probably slightly off the pace. But still miles ahead of where we were before, and I think the reason for optimism is there seems to be a much better sense of long-term thinking over the past 3 years. Having Brian Cook from Geelong has no doubt helped that but there feels a lot more stability and a goal of being competitive (if not dominant) for a long run.

As such, we have a list undergoing a mini transition. We will bring in pick 3 and two F/S prospects and hopefully add some long term stability to the midfield (Walsh and Cerra were weirdly listed in the OP with next year's age but are still 24 and 25). If pick 3 is good, along with TDK/Curnow/McKay/Weitering that is a core that will be good for 5 years, and then we can ideally play the Geelong game (as big contracts come off the salary cap year after year we have flexibility to add good free agents etc).

So hopefully we are set to hang around the mark for the next 5-6 years at least. If everything pans out then maybe we pinch a premiership. If it doesn't, still a decade far better than the previous two.
 
I mean who knows but you'd say they're in their windows at least the next two years. They seem to have a ton if class and they're trying a few things to improve, they're not drifting like the poor old Saints.

Footy is full of luck and chances an circumstances, they might jag a flag or come 10th, but you'd feel pretty confident they play finals.
 
Their list demographic is what you want if you're going to win a flag in the next 2 years.
They need to perform better but its not like they are too old. They would be counting on improved injury management to make up the difference between where they were this year and where they want to be.

Their best 5 players are still in their absolute primes. So even if a few of the support cast were to fall away, well its a lot easier to replace support cast than it is to replace your stars.
 
No I think we are in an era now where “peak” gets pushed back 2!62-4: or so, or maybe more extended.

Geelong, Pies & Brisbane have all had a huge chunk of players (Geelong more so) who won a flag well past their so called peak but were still out performing everyone.

Compare Neale to Cripps, and Zorko to say Docherty - yes there is differences etc but I guess the point is that the feared “30” is not the cut off it used to be if you’re a good player.

If you’re rubbish? Sure, delist time. But if you’re good & in a flag side, 30 is a meaningless number. I’d be looking at 32 now before starting to cut players down.

My problem with Carlton is their coach. Don’t rate Voss. I think fully fit their list is good enough & if they got the right match ups on prelim & GF day (non Vic teams) the momentum and adrenaline of the crowd could get them home. But I don’t rate Voss as a tactician
 
Geez I hope not, but I’ve asked myself this question in some of my darker moments in 2024.

My feeling is that we’ll see significant improvement next season with a better high performance set up. Every team has injuries, but we’ve consistently been one of the worst in the league. If we can manage a league average injury run it could make a massive difference.

I guess my next point is slightly off topic, but I think the Carlton list will peak 4-5 years from now. We’ve got pick 3 coming in this year who will hopefully be an elite mid and Cody Walker in 2026 who is meant to be a top 5 prospect. If our current core can maintain/improve their level of performance while the younger brigade develop, we could see our window extend further than expected. Hopefully we’ll also see some high quality free agent pick ups over the next years.
 
stallon said:
I think theyve got 2 years. Once players start to retire theyre going to need free agency and trade ins to stay in the hunt for a premiership.
Clubs like the Pies and Cats did it despite being old, and the blues do have a bunch of good players in that mid to late 20s bracket that wont fall off just yet, but there really isnt enough to replace the guys who are already past 30 in the pipeline imo.

Theyve probably copped a few too many injuries to make full use of their list. Losing some of their depth this year doesnt help either, Kennedy, Carroll, Owies etc may hurt if they keep getting those injuries

I think they went too hard to get pick 3, theyve got nothing in the draft next year and the Camporeale twins arent that highly rated, theyre expected to be picks 40+ or something.
Click to expand...
I thought they would be all in on bringing in a player to maximise their shot at winning a flag over the next two years.

Houston’s great but i don’t think he’s a need with their half backs. Bolton would have been amazing for them but he was set to go back to WA. Barrass probably another good fit and I would have thought they would have gone hard at him.

Their list movements this year indicate the club believes the list is ready to contend for a flag.

For them to do so they need to have a healthy list, with their key backs, hard running link men and small forwards all over performing.
 
I voted yes because it's Carlton...

But I said the same thing about the Brisbane Lions have peaked the previous year, what I will say is the next couple of years for Carlton are crucial cannot afford to have another making up the number's finals campaign.

In reality they still have a chance to get to the top.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

stallon said:
Theyve probably copped a few too many injuries to make full use of their list. Losing some of their depth this year doesnt help either, Kennedy, Carroll, Owies etc may hurt if they keep getting those injuries
Click to expand...

According to champion data they had basically the same number of injuries to best 23 players as Brisbane. Their issue is depth and the concentration of their talent.
 
I love these threads. We have a very solid core in the right age bracket but need to build more depth via the draft - have more than enough stars.

But like all clubs, we will continue to advance our list in the years to come. Opposition supporters talk about lists like the current list will be locked in for years to come. In reality we have made 10 list changes this year, have pick 3, 38 and Campo boys. There wasn't a huge amount of quality free agents available at our price this year so we are targeting the draft. This might change next year following the hopeful resigning of TDK and a large chunk of players out of contract which could open up money.

I'm not sure if this list could win a premiership. I think we're a fair way off at this point. But it's a solid list.
 
Elixuh said:
According to champion data they had basically the same number of injuries to best 23 players as Brisbane. Their issue is depth and the concentration of their talent.
Click to expand...
Yeah it didnt really make sense to me for them to get rid of the players they got rid of, but at least theyre trying something I guess
 
stallon said:
Yeah it didnt really make sense to me for them to get rid of the players they got rid of, but at least theyre trying something I guess
Click to expand...
We needed to create opportunities for players below them and change the balance of our list. Too many slow pokes and not enough run and carry.

We might miss them a bit next year but overall we needed to do it at some point so bit the bullet. I'm of the opinion that Kennedy is the only one we may miss, but guess we'll only really know in 12 months time.
 
Matrix10 said:
Camporeale quality youth 🤣. Spare me , the only “ quality” they inject , is their father’s surname. , will be at best , good ordinary footballers .
Click to expand...
Why did the Camporeale twins fall away so dramatically? Ben was best on in the U17s Futures match last year (source) and both were considered first round prospects, with Ben being considered a likely top 10 pick (source). Now people are saying they're not even in top 30 contention. Was it the pressure of living up to the hype that comes with being a highly rated F/S prospect? The same thing appeared to happen to Adelaide's F/S prospect Tyler Welsh this year so it's not uncommon for this to happen.

I'm guessing that's a part of the reason Carlton pushed to secure pick 3 this year. They would have been thinking at the start of the season that they were probably going to recruit a top 10 midfielder (or two) and likely planned for that accordingly. Then they probably had to pivot when it became obvious that neither Camporeale twin was going to live up to the hype and that leads to trading in pick 3 instead. It's an interesting insight into their list build and probably suggests that they suspect their midfield will need refreshing in 2-3 years from now when Cripps is nearing mid-30s.
 
GC2015 said:
Why did the Camporeale twins fall away so dramatically? Ben was best on in the U17s Futures match last year (source) and both were considered first round prospects, with Ben being considered a likely top 10 pick (source). Now people are saying they're not even in top 30 contention. Was it the pressure of living up to the hype that comes with being a highly rated F/S prospect? The same thing appeared to happen to Adelaide's F/S prospect Tyler Welsh this year so it's not uncommon for this to happen.

I'm guessing that's a part of the reason Carlton pushed to secure pick 3 this year. They would have been thinking at the start of the season that they were probably going to recruit a top 10 midfielder (or two) and likely planned for that accordingly. Then they probably had to pivot when it became obvious that neither Camporeale twin was going to live up to the hype and that leads to trading in pick 3 instead. It's an interesting insight into their list build and probably suggests that they suspect their midfield will need refreshing in 2-3 years from now when Cripps is nearing mid-30s.
Click to expand...
Should have stopped at "I'm guessing".

On SM-G980F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Opinion Has this Carlton list already peaked?

Similar threads

C
Best at Peak Team of 21st Century
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
peetoo
peetoo
PerthBoy86
Is playing too good early/peaking too early a big disadvantage?
Replies
13
Views
627
PerthBoy86
PerthBoy86
BigVic
Who has the potential to be a dynasty this decade?
2 3 4 5
Replies
117
Views
5K
Freomaniac
Freomaniac
PerthBoy86
Why has 4th on the ladder not won a grand final this century?
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
DaTBird187
DaTBird187
Cleric
List Mgmt. If you could change the AFLs team list structure, what would you do?
Replies
22
Views
622
hawkman
hawkman
Bunk Moreland
List Mgmt. The unchecked power of player managers
2 3
Replies
51
Views
2K
burge13
B
JHF1870
Has the media disrespected Brisbane?
2 3
Replies
63
Views
2K
Rosscoe_666
Rosscoe_666
Back
Top