Quicky
Brownlow Medallist
- May 27, 2008
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Player Watch Josh Carmichael (Retired 2024)
- Thread starter TradeDraft
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TradeDraft
Post-Human
- Thread starter
- #352
- Dec 16, 2013
- 9,269
- 9,577
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- Collingwood
Ok
What number will he wear next year?
I'll say 8
What number will he wear next year?
I'll say 8
Everybody Panic
All Australian
- Oct 30, 2020
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10 tackles showed the intent and conditions. I thought he looked a bit lost early and was really solid by the end. We got smashed though. Still would like to see Poulter come into the afl side more.
jmac70
On the porch
He did alright. Needs to build his fitness.
TradeDraft
Post-Human
- Thread starter
- #356
Could Turn out to be another John Noble.
Not our Best Player but gives 100% and does lot of Tacklng and 1%ers
Not our Best Player but gives 100% and does lot of Tacklng and 1%ers
Jen2310
Premium Platinum
Pretty solid first game I thought. Got better as the game went on. He'll definitely get better with more times too.
Jen2310
Premium Platinum
11 is available next year.
Not everyone can pull it off. But think he could.
- Oct 8, 2004
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A bigger, longer kicking O'Bree? I'd love to see it.
Jen2310
Premium Platinum
Toney Hurley has a few stories about Josh Carmichael.
Like the time Carmichael turned up with some mates to help Merbein Football Netball Club fill its Under 18 team. Merbein president Hurley watched him train and quickly formed the opinion the youngster wouldn’t be playing in the Under 18s for too long. “I could see from day one he was pretty special,’’ he says.
Like the time another club president pulled Hurley aside after a game and said Carmichael was just about the best footballer he had seen in the Sunraysia league.
Like the time Carmichael had “50 or 60 possessions and kicked five or six goals’’ out of the centre when he dropped back from the seniors for an Under 18s match.
Put together, the stories form a picture of a talented young country player capable of earning higher recognition.
Last Sunday, having been selected by Collingwood in the AFL mid-season draft, he made his debut for the VFL Magpies and had 23 possessions and 10 tackles in testing conditions against Casey Fields.
If or when an AFL debut comes for the right-footer, it will set a seal on one of the more improbable rises to league ranks.
Carmichael was drafted from West Adelaide after eight, mostly impressive games in the SANFL and selection in the state team. He averaged 25 possessions for the Bloods.
But his grounding in the game came in the Sunraysia league, at Imperials and then Merbein, which he joined in 2016 to play in the thirds.
He was in the Magpies’ senior team in 2017, ’18, ‘19 and ’21. Carmichael also spent time in the Northern Territory, sharing the Division 1 best and fairest medal while playing for Nightcliff in 2019.
Hurley, Merbein’s president for nine years, says Carmichael “always glided along on natural ability’’ but in the past two years “really started raising the bar and getting better and doing a heap of extras after training’’.
“He’d gut-run two laps, actually sprint two laps, and reach that pain barrier,’’ he says.
“Then he’d work for 30 minutes through that pain barrier. He trained himself to do it.’’
The midfielder played nine games for Merbein last year. He won the local media award, but he did not win the best and fairest. It went to club great Ash Rowe.
“Ash has won it the past four years. Josh would have learned a lot off him, just the way Ash goes about it,’’ Hurley says.
“Ash is an onballer. He gut-runs for 100 minutes every game.’’
After Merbein defeated Red Cliffs in round nine, Red Cliffs president Tony Marciano pulled Hurley aside and told him Carmichael’s performance was as dominant as he had seen in the Sunraysia league.
Patrick Irwin coached the Merbein seniors in 2021. He’s reluctant to take any credit for his former charge’s ascension to an AFL list, saying it’s mostly down to him and his determination to improve.
“Josh has had a lot to do with Josh being where he is today, if that makes sense,’’ Irwin, who had selected Carmichael in an Under 16 representative team, says.
“He’d always had that raw talent. But he made the decision to get better. He pushed himself. The big turning point for him was going up to the Northern Territory over a summer. His fitness started to really come along, his understanding of the game too. He came back the same Josh, but a different player. I think that’s where the spark ignited, when he started to see some personal wins.’’
When Carmichael confirmed he would be joining West Adelaide this year, Hurley was asked how Carmichael would fare in the SANFL.
“I’m not big-noting myself here but I said the kid’s that good he could be drafted,’’ he says.
“I always thought he had that sort of ability. He’s a little bit unique. He’s not the stereotype footballer. His running action is a bit different. His attack on the ball is a bit different. He’s very effective. He always stood out. I was thinking he’d need a year over there and Adelaide or Port Adelaide would take a look at him and give him a pre-season. That’s how I saw it happening. Happened a hell of a lot quicker than anyone thought it would, including himself. All been a bit of a whirlwind, as he describes it. He’s pinching himself to make sure it’s all real.’’
Hurley points out the state selection was a “pretty big achievement’’ considering Carmichael had so few games for West Adelaide, where he played under former Fitzroy and St Kilda rover and seasoned state league coach Bradley Gotch.
West assistant Adam Hartlett coached in the Sunraysia league and alerted the club to Carmichael.
He had a few training sessions with the Bloods ahead of the 2021 season, chose to have another year with Merbein, but said he intended to return to the SANFL for 2022.
It turned out he was there for eight games.
Gotch says the right-footer is “pretty raw’’ and has plenty of attributes to please recruiters: “He’s a good size, good learner, easy to coach, he’s a natural ball-winner, covers a lot of ground and he can get forward and kick a goal. Penetrating kick too.’’
He was unsurprised to see Magpies scout Derek Hine pop up in Adelaide to watch the newcomer.
Gotch’s assessment of Carmichael’s rise? “When you think about it, pretty amazing, isn’t it? He’s really jumped up. Ripper kid too. All he kept saying to me was thanks.’’
Carmichael is also an accomplished cricketer. In his only match for Merbein South last season he blitzed 121 not out off 66 deliveries, with 8 sixes and 11 fours.
Twelve months earlier he played an innings of 153 (run out).
In successive seasons Carmichael had gained selection for Country Mallee Murray rep team in the Cricket Victoria Youth Premier League Under 18 series.
It led to another Magpies sporting connection for him: he played in the Third XI with Victorian Premier Cricket with Camberwell Magpies in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
There was an even 50 in a match against St Kilda. The Magpies rated him highly and hoped he would play with them if he decided to concentrate on cricket and make the move to Melbourne.
Hurley runs a paving business and Carmichael worked for him for a couple of years. He laughs as he tells how Carmichael asked him to go watch a game of cricket.
“He said to me, ‘I’ll get a hundred’. I went for a look and the peanut saw me pull up and I reckon he was trying to hit my car with the ball! He was playing backward sweeps and stuff like that. He got 60-odd off 30 balls. He wandered around to see me after he got out and I said, ‘You were trying to hit my car, weren’t you?’ And he goes, ‘Nah, I was trying to hit you a catch’. He’s a pretty laid-back sort of kid.’’
He says Carmichael comes from a family that had success in table tennis, football and cricket.
His father, Wayne, was a gun centreman with the old South Merbein club in the Milawa league.
He rarely trained but regularly had 35 touches, Hurley says, remembering a “superstar’’.
Toney Hurley was invited to Adelaide to watch the AFL mid-season draft. He became ill and was unable to attend.
“One of my biggest disappointments since I’ve been involved in football, that I couldn’t get over there and be with him when he got that honour of being drafted,’’ he says. “A few of his mates went over and made a night of it. Would have loved to be there. But hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of the kid anyway.’’
Could find himself playing this weekend, depending on what happens with JDG.
He seems to be a logical replacement should DeGoey miss, because of his power as a inside mid.....
He seems to be a logical replacement should DeGoey miss, because of his power as a inside mid.....
The Phantom
Border Collie-wood
He’ll play if form demands it, he’s ready and there’s a spot for him.
Dragging JDG into is ridiculous.
Don’t get sucked in to the frenzy and leave the JDG stuff in it’s own thread.
I hope Carmichael debuts in the next few weeks.
jmac70
On the porch
He is nowhere near ready for AFL.
On what opinion you basing that on, considering he is coming from a senior base at SANFL level, which is much stronger a competition then the VFL, and has been one of West Adelaide’s best players this season?
Well l was basically comparing his strength as an inside mid, which JDG has, so if something was to happen on that front, and hopefully again nothing does, then we would have a replacement in waiting...
jmac70
On the porch
I watched him play in the VFL.
So did l, l thought he played well for a first game in those conditions
jmac70
On the porch
He did do well. Not enough for AFL selection yet.
- Dec 16, 2013
- 9,269
- 9,577
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
Let him marinate in the VFL for a while
Copeland
ABZ
Does our VFL team have another bye?
JoinDate
Premiership Player
- Jul 16, 2021
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- Collingwood
Yep.
JoinDate
Premiership Player
- Jul 16, 2021
- 4,388
- 7,130
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
Wrong thread.
TradeDraft
Post-Human
- Thread starter
- #375
Sadly Yes
