Did you claim Jack Martin was shit too?

A few things: See Part (3) for an interesting outtake about Jack from Ed Curnow from pre-season...

1) Thanks Bondi for those insights from the Carlton event. I love reading things like that. CD does appear menacing but I think it's just how he looks! He probably intimidated the teachers in primary school!

2) On Jack, for starters I feel like we mucked him around for a fair bit of his career. We finally put him back where he should have been long ago but that was already after chopping and changing his positions, incl putting him in the ruck, dragging our heals with his contract AND although I loved his dad as a player, and I'm not as harsh as some about his recruiting choices (although I accept he didn't do a good job)... HOWEVER, I would be very surprised if he wasn't affecting Jack's perception of the club. So, when things got a bit awkward with our performances and Voss... and then you have Craig McRae making him feel wanted at the Pies, and then he gets an even better offer from the Saints, together with TDK etc... I can understand what he did.

3) On Jack, Part 2: I was at a fairly small gathering with Ed Curnow just before the season started. I'll come back in the next point about Charlie. Ed said he (Ed) loved the club and will always be a Carlton man and very grateful etc. He also said that, as a perennial fringe player, he was always fearful of losing his spot and so he worked hard to build rapport with all his coaches. And he also worked hard on his studies and non-footy career options. So, when Ed was injured or found himself out of the side around the middle of the 2023 season, he was keen to maintain contact with Voss and sent him a selfie of himself with a beer at his campfire, remembering that Voss had used a campfire metaphor during the pre-season. Kind of reminding the coach not to forget about him... This photo triggered the idea for the Camp Curnow retreat that has become legend. Now, although Ed prepared heaps of alcohol, he said that he still has most of it because hardly any of the players had much to drink. Except Jack, who got out of control and was reprimanded by several of the senior players - I found this super interesting. Also interesting, he said that when they arrived, Weitering and Cripps began detailed planning about how the camp should proceed etc... but Ed lightheartedly persuaded them to just ease up on the planning and just chill, which is how they approached the camp.

4) On Charlie... I was expecting Ed to be fairly guarded with any questions about Charlie etc. but actually he was pretty open and honest. He disputed any claims that Charlie is slack - says he is a very hard trainer etc... He did say that Charlie did not get along with Voss. He also recognised that Charlie doesn't always stick to gameplans/instructions but then again he also does special 'Charlie things' which can move a whole stadium to rapture. All fair, I think. FWIW, Ed was super impressive as a guy. He also said his mum was the hard-driver in their lives never accepting any of the kids half-arsing it.

5) On Fraser, it does look like he has made some material changes. However, I am still not comfortable with just appointing him. I'm perfectly happy if he joins the process. I am completely putting my trust in GW/CD - this may be misplaced but GW has a good record, albeit only with a couple of cases, and I certainly trust him more than I do our Board. It will be interesting how I feel, then, if GW does just appoint Fraser although I don't believe he or CD will get sucked in by Fraser simply releasing the shackles within a nothing-to-lose/no-expectations environment. Having said that, if we win 10 of 14 games it would be a compelling proposition...

6) On the question of whether it is better to win more and potentially give up a(n additional) first round pick to secure Cody, I'm in the 'win now' camp. I think the value of winning to our psyche, and to attracting other players/coaches outweighs the value of an additional draft pick. Of course I do hope we find a way to trade up and secure more first round picks if that is possible.

Way too long, sorry

Great post 17th, not too long at all.

On Charlie, I don’t think any thought the issue was him not being a harder worker or trainer, it was his lack of second efforts and hard work during matches. He was never capable of finding ways to stay involved in the match if things weren’t going his way. Unlike Ed.

good post 17th.

'win now' is the way. doesn't mean the club can't plan for the future, but overtly compromising performance just for for the sake of picks is a toxic ideology. for example we should be 'managing' injured players but at the same time, no players should be put in 'cotton wool' for losing a game to get slightly better picks. do deeper recruiting research is a much better ROI. As Fagan said, Logan Morris went pick #31 2023 National Draft, and he played in Werribee, so it's not like he went under the radar.

and on injury management, look at what Geelong have managed to get out of Jack Martin. more than we ever could. ditto Sydney with Charlie?

i agree with sinibagger, though. Charlie obviously worked hard in the gym and if Ed says he trained hard then, he trained hard. Was more above the neck and what some perceived as petulance on the field, others may call it mercurial. I wonder how much of it was injury in the last couple of years with us? at his peak, the Coleman medal years for e.g. Charlie was a dead-set game changer, for sure. Will be interesting to see how he performs in finals with Sydney. having a lot of tall support around him at Swans certainly seems to improve his game and remove the double/triple defenders from his marking contests. This could be his year, but I'm still glad we traded him on net results, for whatever reasons and there's a few probably, it wasn't working for Charlie at the Blues any more. And Howard and Florent have added a lot in the last 6 weeks.