Mid season report card: Carlton

[Jeremias]

The AFL website is putting up an article (a report card) for each club up to the half way point of the season.

Here's Carlton's:

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=61251

Pretty spot on, except you can add Steven Browne to the "surprise packet" category to go alongside fellow draftees Matthew Kreuzer and Dennis Armfield.

That draft already looks like an absolute beauty for us

 

[thegreenmachine]

Very good review done. You don't know what to expect when you read reviews of your club, but the reviewer wrote a very good article, well done to him.
It's strange that Adam Bentick was left out of the side at the start of the year. His only weakness is his kicking, otherwise you've got to love the way he goes about his footy. As the writer mentioned, there must have been something that Ratten wanted him to work on.
Apart from that, that's all I've got to say.

 

[Bluebear]

Good read.

On Bentick, he was carrying an injury late pre-season (didn't play our last practice game vs Dogs at PP.......he was sitting in front of me in the social club)

So it may have just been match fitness and run that he needed to get into his legs.

No mention of the Gibbs development, but I guess they can't cover everything.

Looking at the run home:

Best case - 7 wins, 4 losses
Worst case - repeat last year.

 

[[ToTTi]]

Houlihan's season all but over?? News to me...

Overall good report.

 

[BlueStreak]

"Captain Judd led from the front and the three No.1 draft picks were all sensational."

damn straight

 

[as0l0]

Houlihan's season all but over?? News to me...

Overall good report.

I wonder if he just got the word that he might not be playing at Carlton anymore. Maybe they mentioned that his trade value would be higher if he was injured throughout the year rather than omitted?

I don't know anything, just speculating.

 

[CarltonFan]

"we havnt over achieved, and we havnt under achieved"
if its good enough for judd, then its good enough for me.

 

[HBF]

Looking at the run home:

Best case - 7 wins, 4 losses
Worst case - repeat last year.

7 wins would give us 12 all up, which would mean we'd be right up there fighting for a finals spot. Oh yeah.

Great read as well.

 

[Brighton_Diggins]

geez. you'd take a B- at the start of the year.
I must agree, the port win was awesome.
A real turning point for the club.
A little moment in time that we'll all reflect on.
Glad i was there to see it.

Mr Miyagi clapped his hands together....
and it all starts to happen.

 

[Stig O'Hara]

No complaints from me about where we are at the moment,
and how we have faired.

Other clubs are whingeing about us,
which is a great sign.

They are killing me in tipping though.

 

[Bentick's My Man.]

"we havnt over achieved, and we havnt under achieved"
if its good enough for judd, then its good enough for me.

A really good report.

Great to see the emergence of our surprise packets Browne and Armfield and the competition are seeing it two, they can become a massive part of our backline in the future as running backman who can also play on the ball along with Joe Anderson if he can keep his injuries down and form up.

Imagine a future backline with;

B: Browne Jamison Bower
HB: Armfield Waite Thornton

with players like Carrazzo, Houlihan, Anderson & Austin changing it up through there.

For the fist time in a long time our backline looks positive for the future.

 

[Marc Shmurf 3]

Interesting he noted that Judd would definately have 3 best on grounds ATM. Do you agree & would my wager of $100 for Judd to place in the Brownlow be out of the question???

 

[Bentick's My Man.]

Interesting he noted that Judd would definately have 3 best on grounds ATM. Do you agree & would my wager of $100 for Judd to place in the Brownlow be out of the question???

Haha, I put $20 on him last night, he is at $26 now on TAB Sportsbet.

Also had a punt on Aker and BuddyLove for medal contention as I think they are both fair value.

Saw in the paper yesterday champion/data rate Bartel as up there for Brownlow votes again and he is also $26

Also pulled a big win on the QLD State of Origin at $2.05 -4.5 last night!

 

[bibi01]

suprised we are a B- IMO at best we are a C- so far

we have improved from last year but IMO a large portion of that improvement has come from:
natural progression and improvement- year older, 1 more pre season, upto 22 games additional experience
addition of Judd
return of stevens and cloke
removal of selfish dinosaurs

at the 1/2 way point of last year we were 4 - 7

in reality, on form and personel available we beat 3 teams we should have expected to beat and we lost to 2 teams we should have beat

we beat collingwood which was a very good win

we beat port which if it wasn't in adelaide we would ahve expected to beat.

we should be happy with the seaosn so far, but there has not really been anything exceptional to say we have fully turned the corner.

we still play in patches
we still fall asleep at crucial times
we still look 1 dimensional going fwd

 

[BlueWorld]

I wonder if he just got the word that he might not be playing at Carlton anymore. Maybe they mentioned that his trade value would be higher if he was injured throughout the year rather than omitted?

I don't know anything, just speculating.

Obviously not. What are you suggesting? That his injury and operation he supposedly had are just a cover up to improve his trade value, he's not actually injured but has been given most of the season off as a holiday? Why would a player with a serious long term injury have good trade value anyway?

 

[LemmingMaster]

It is strange, I think there have been a couple of small defining moments.

Finally winning a game and against our old rival Collingwood. This is exactly what the team needed, to taste victory.

Watching WCE coming back in the 4th quarter, I was getting memories from a couple of years ago. They held on to win that game, away from home. That is character building.

Then lastly the win verses Port, that is the icing on the cake. It hopefully shows that Carlton can win from a variety of positions.

Having a look at the run home, I would predict another 5 victories. 10 and 12 season and unfortunately, just missing out on the 8 by a win or two.

 

[Mike_blues]

great read