News what an embarrassment- Robert walls

[Bradles21]

Murphy is an A grade footballer, Last year he was close to All Australian. This year he missed most of the pre-season because of groin issues, which has effected preperation this year.

As for Gibbs, he does need to work on his contested footy. But what about Brendan Goddard.. he didnt exactly set the world on fire in his first few years as a number one draft pick, as well as he wasnt the hardest player going around. Look at him now.

Walls is a peanut! The game has past him, yet he thinks he knows the game better then everyone. Not to mention three months ago, he was talking up the Carlton side as genuine premership contenders.

 

[Bradles21]

Travis Johnstone, Aaron Fiora, Joel Bowden are a few players with elite kicking skills, decision making and a truckload of ability but never delivered. Gibbs is a danger of falling into that category if he doesn't harden up and give that extra effort.

Joel Bowden didnt have a bad career. Fair few All Australians..

 

[40yearBLUE]

Pretty ordinary and lazy article IMO. Nothing new in there. And talk about changing his tune even Abbot is more consistent in his beleifs than Wallsy. I like and respect the guy but just because he once coached does not mean he is the font of all wisdom. The General highlighted it best, a few months back according to Wallsy we had the gun midfield of the comp and our structures and set ups would have us top 4 any day and now we have an ordinary list. And he very neatly tells us all it takes 6-8 years or so to build the list to where the likes of Saints, Cats and Pies are but then goes on to criticize our recruiting of just 2 years acknowledging that Ratts did inherit a poor list thanks to Pagans recruiting. How about some consistency Rob, if after 8 years we are not a power then fair enough, same goes with the criticism of the "non existent" game plan, again good enough to have you screaming in the papers how good we were 2 months ago....like I said very lazy piece of work.

And he criticizes our recruitment of Hadley, Johnson and Mclean claiming it is way to early to top up (with 22 and 23 year olds) and cites Collingwood as the beacons of sensible recruitment who took O'bree and Woods a couple of years or more back and did not reach a final so spare me the too early bullshite. Every club tops up for need via trades, the too early call is only relevant in hindsight Rob. 2 months ago we were top 4 material did it seem too early to you then?

No all that piece was was a vent of his frustration at being made to look foolish with his early hubris. He forgot how long it takes to build a quality team and jumped ahead of himself and now needs to vent. Nice job of it too. Rob will just need to be patient and wait out the years it takes to build that list. We are doing just nicely thanks all the same Rob. He could also be looking to pump us up a bit for tonights game, it wont make much difference, we might win, we might not, it wont much matter, we are building. We have a long way to go. But we are on the right track. And the clincher for me was using Melbourne in his closing arguments to show us how it should be done, umm sorry Rob, they have as many first round picks as we have had and what have they achieved yet? No finals appearances? They may do ok in years to come but a bit early to make that call isnt it? Or is it? If it is not too early to call on Melbourne why is it that you can make a call on us already? Pretty much just chip wrapper.

 

[Stamos]

I appreciate a big article on game day giving us a caining. I wish there was one every week. Essendon and Hawthorn in particular have greatly benefited from these sort of articles against us. So thanks to Robert Walls.

However, much of the article is bullshit. For a 3-time premiership CHF and a premiership coach, Walls has a very poor understanding of football.



On A graders/B graders etc, the biggest problem with these categorisations is that everybody uses them as categories, but has different concepts of what they mean. To some, A grade means top 15 players in the league. To others, it means top 100. Some use it to denote class, others output. Either you're an A grade player, or you're not. You don't go from being one to not being one because you missed a pre-season. These categories have essentially become meaningless.

 

[blue healer]

Pretty ordinary and lazy article IMO. Nothing new in there. And talk about changing his tune even Abbot is more consistent in his beleifs than Wallsy. I like and respect the guy but just because he once coached does not mean he is the font of all wisdom. The General highlighted it best, a few months back according to Wallsy we had the gun midfield of the comp and our structures and set ups would have us top 4 any day and now we have an ordinary list. And he very neatly tells us all it takes 6-8 years or so to build the list to where the likes of Saints, Cats and Pies are but then goes on to criticize our recruiting of just 2 years acknowledging that Ratts did inherit a poor list thanks to Pagans recruiting. How about some consistency Rob, if after 8 years we are not a power then fair enough, same goes with the criticism of the "non existent" game plan, again good enough to have you screaming in the papers how good we were 2 months ago....like I said very lazy piece of work.

And he criticizes our recruitment of Hadley, Johnson and Mclean claiming it is way to early to top up (with 22 and 23 year olds) and cites Collingwood as the beacons of sensible recruitment who took O'bree and Woods a couple of years or more back and did not reach a final so spare me the too early bullshite. Every club tops up for need via trades, the too early call is only relevant in hindsight Rob. 2 months ago we were top 4 material did it seem too early to you then?

No all that piece was was a vent of his frustration at being made to look foolish with his early hubris. He forgot how long it takes to build a quality team and jumped ahead of himself and now needs to vent. Nice job of it too. Rob will just need to be patient and wait out the years it takes to build that list. We are doing just nicely thanks all the same Rob. He could also be looking to pump us up a bit for tonights game, it wont make much difference, we might win, we might not, it wont much matter, we are building. We have a long way to go. But we are on the right track. And the clincher for me was using Melbourne in his closing arguments to show us how it should be done, umm sorry Rob, they as many first round picks as we have had and what have they achieved yet? They may do ok in years to come but a bit early to make that call isnt it? Or is it? If it is not too early to call on Melbourne why is it that you can make a call on us already? Pretty much just chip wrapper.

Did you forget Bryan?

I agree wholeheartedly, the best thing about commentating is you can change your opinion in a couple of weeks and nobody really gives a rats arse.

If we actually find some form and go into the finals with a bit of forward momentum I'm looking forward to his comments. I admit probably unlikely at this stage but we can dream.

 

[Thrawn]

Gibbs seems lost at the moment. He has had games where he has floated across half-back and picked up 40-plus easy possessions. That teaches bad habits. Either play him on a quality tall forward or work him as an inside midfielder who is expected to win hard, contested ball. At the moment he does neither.

What, no mention of putting him in the ruck?

Lift your game, Robert. And putting Gibbs on someone like a Pavlich doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence. Gibbs is not a FB or CHB.

 

[40yearBLUE]

Did you forget Bryan?

I agree wholeheartedly, the best thing about commentating is you can change your opinion in a couple of weeks and nobody really gives a rats arse.

If we actually find some form and go into the finals with a bit of forward momentum I'm looking forward to his comments. I admit probably unlikely at this stage but we can dream.

Ah yes I had deliberately tried to forget the Cloke/Bryan swap for obvious reasons.

Yeah recent form is what all commentators seem to rely on, I recall the see saw comments about the Saints, world beaters, then oops Roo goes down, wont make 8, then after a good run without him Roo returns and HE upsets their structure......I mean its just fodder for the uneducated masses.

 

[ratten7]

"Give small forwards Chris Yarran, Eddie Betts and Jeff Garlett time in the midfield. It will make the Blues less predictable, allows the three to realise how much fitter they have to become and gives Judd a chance to develop their skills in new areas"

Can't agree more, they all need to be part of the midfield rotation. They all excell in the area of reading the ball off the hands. Carlton will benefit greatly having these 3 in the regular midfiled rotations.

I would personally set a specific program preseason to build there engines as as well as their strength/mungrelness. They all have good to sublime skills and that inate ability to position themselves and read the ball off hands. They are all quick and personally i would fast track this area of their developement.

 

[Stamos]

"Give small forwards Chris Yarran, Eddie Betts and Jeff Garlett time in the midfield. It will make the Blues less predictable, allows the three to realise how much fitter they have to become and gives Judd a chance to develop their skills in new areas"

Can't agree more, they all need to be part of the midfield rotation. They all excell in the area of reading the ball off the hands. Carlton will benefit greatly having these 3 in the regular midfiled rotations.

I would personally set a specific program preseason to build there engines as as well as their strength/mungrelness. They all have good to sublime skills and that inate ability to position themselves and read the ball off hands. They are all quick and personally i would fast track this area of their developement.

Thing is, they have all had runs through the midfield this year, and done quite well, but none have the tank to play here consistently. This will come with a few more pre-seasons.

 

[Blue Bawls]

Sorry for intruding...
But he's having a laugh if he thinks Murphy isn't already an A grader. Didn't he get something like 15 Brownlow votes last year?

Be lucky to have one this year.

 

[Sir CJ]

The last sentence of that article certainly was off the mark, but all in all, I think Wallsy is pretty accurate, my concern is we haven't recruited players according to our needs, we have just recruited the best available player, which generally is a midfielder, yet the midfield is a concern as much as our defense and fwd line, adding to that we haven't recruited enough players who can use the ball efficiently going fwd who are reliable at hitting targets

I certainly agree with him on the game plan, Rats and the coaching staff seem so inflexible with different game situation, all the team tends to do is kick long and high in to the fwd line expecting the likes of Betts and Henderson to take marks one on 2 or 3

 

[40yearBLUE]

Thing is, they have all had runs through the midfield this year, and done quite well, but none have the tank to play here consistently. This will come with a few more pre-seasons.

Good point Stamos, a few more pre-seasons. Some believe oh well we can do that over summer, then late next season when they run out of steam they blame the coaches or when a hard bodied player just brushes them aside we say they have no passion for the hard ball. It takes years and years to build the bodies that we see win flags such as Cats or Saints. Years. I cant stress that fact enough. Yet for some reason we including Walls talks out after inter season form. Fully acknowledges in the same article that it takes many seasons but complains about a 6 week turn around. Its just a joke. Imagine poor Garlett being bundled aside in the 1on1's by the likes of Chapman.....its a joke to expect second year rookies to have the match honed bodies and core fitness of a player like Chappie. Just a joke. Yet we keep having to read such garbage.

 

[TheOz]

Harsh on Walker considering he's been plagued by injury throughout his career.

Can't fault the club in trying to bring in ready made, able-bodied midfielders to help Judd out in the guts, unfortunately Hadley and McLean have been susceptible to injury. No one is questioning the Hawks in bringing in Shaun Burgoyne or Collingwood in bringing in Luke Ball to shoulder some of the grunt work in their respective midfielders.

Hopefully Yarran can have a huge pre-season and build a massive tank over the summer, he'll really shine as a midfielder.

 

[Athomas]

Pretty fair assesment, glad he doesn't say anything bad about Simpson and Scotland.

No mention of Carazzo/Houlihan but otherwise mentioned most of our core 22 players. I don't know how Joseph is still in the team.

 

[Sin City]

and cites Collingwood as the beacons of sensible recruitment who took O'bree and Woods a couple of years or more back and did not reach a final so spare me the too early bullshite.

Yes surprised he didn't mention Chris Bryan, Anthony Corrie, Simon Buckley, Chad Morrison, Blake Caracella out of that period. Even Paul Medhurst isn't getting a game.

 

[Shambolic]

Be lucky to have one this year.

I agree. Top 1-0 in the Brownlow last year, would be lucky to be in the top 100 this year. Impacted pre-season doesn't help, but Murphy hasn't been anywhere near the player he was last year. Surely opposition clubs are targeting this, but with Murphy subsiding, Gibbs partly injured, we've actually had Simpson and Scotland as our main possession winners of late. Our Big 3 arent performing at that level in 2010. There is upside for the future but Walls is right on this one for 2010, particularly the last 6 weeks.

 

[Sir CJ]

AJ and Carazzo are the two players that really have me dumbfounded as to how they have maintained their place all year, surely Rats has worked out that AJ is no good at playing in defense whether he's a tagger or not, he just gets outmarked way too easily cos of his height and that was evidenced last week on Davis, ifthe opposition isolate him AJ one out he's a goner

Carazzo has been pretty ordinary for most of the year, he has done some serviceable jobs but his use of the ball is a massive liability and hurts the team, even when he does tag he doesn't do enough with the ball when he gets it

 

[Stamos]

Pretty fair assesment, glad he doesn't say anything bad about Simpson and Scotland.

No mention of Carazzo/Houlihan but otherwise mentioned most of our core 22 players. I don't know how Joseph is still in the team.

This is one of the areas that he is so wrong. Our most senior player, part of the leadership group, who shows no leadership or defensive pressure. He doesn't block or shepherd. The biggest downhill skier of them all.

One of our big problems is a complete lack of onfield leadership. Only Judd and Simpson show any.

 

[jimsta10]

I don't mind articles like this. Tell it how it is............ We have an issue dealing with pressure, regardless of which end of the stick its coming from. I would prefer us being talked down rather than talked up. Thus we never respond well to hype.

Its time for us to talk the bottom up approach and go back to the basics. Seeing a full contest for 4 quarters is what I expect to happen.

 

[Sir CJ]

I don't want to think on the -ve side, but the thing I want to know is, what would happen if we lost tonight? The reason I ask if cos so much has been made of us in the media and built up for tonight

 

[ratten7]

Good point Stamos, a few more pre-seasons. Some believe oh well we can do that over summer, then late next season when they run out of steam they blame the coaches or when a hard bodied player just brushes them aside we say they have no passion for the hard ball. It takes years and years to build the bodies that we see win flags such as Cats or Saints. Years. I cant stress that fact enough. Yet for some reason we including Walls talks out after inter season form. Fully acknowledges in the same article that it takes many seasons but complains about a 6 week turn around. Its just a joke. Imagine poor Garlett being bundled aside in the 1on1's by the likes of Chapman.....its a joke to expect second year rookies to have the match honed bodies and core fitness of a player like Chappie. Just a joke. Yet we keep having to read such garbage.

I realise that an engine and hard body is built over years not one preseason. But the point you missed here is there is no reason whatsoverer this can't be fast tracked by giving specific programs to specific players to give them as much chance to succeed in that position. If your attitude is it takes 7 years to accomplish then that is a negative mindset and gets us nowhere. So rather than a generic thought that it takes years to accomplish , i would rather have the thought of what can we do to make it 4 years or less. Nothing is impossible, just requires some lateral thinkers and new programs set in place and not lemmings like yourself that can't think outside the box.

One example of fast tracking is to get all of Carltons sons on a program from a young age. obviously more generic when they are young and more specific when they realise what kind of player he suits.

 

[jimsta10]

I don't want to think on the -ve side, but the thing I want to know is, what would happen if we lost tonight? The reason I ask if cos so much has been made of us in the media and built up for tonight

Most supports expect a nuclear arsonist will be in front of Visy Park...

However, most will not be counting their chickens either........

 

[ratten7]

Thing is, they have all had runs through the midfield this year, and done quite well, but none have the tank to play here consistently. This will come with a few more pre-seasons.

I agree, but i would have liked to have seen them in more than i have. especially Betts. Like you said they have done well with th elimited time they have had. Hence why is mentioned to place them in specific programs to fast track this.

 

[Blueboys7]

He is clearly giving us a bake and hoping it has the opposite effect that the positive article had on us earlier in the year. He has stated numerous times that he regrets writing that article.

 

[Salaryman]

Cant wait for Splendini's response on the recruiting comment

WTF would Walls know about recruiting??? How many games a year does he get to?