This year is gone. So, IMO, the football department should be concentrating solely on next year . Pre-season training should start NOW.

No doubt there is a certain degree of individual training that takes place but looking at our players lacking in certain areas, maybe the individual training should be boosted with the help of some former Carlton greats ….right now.

DeLuca, Aisake & Batson – are all over 200cm …we lack ruckmen ….they should be almost chained to Gary Dempsey & exclusively working to improve their ruckwork and around the ground marking.

Fisher – Is very good at contested marking and is very mobile ….but is a weed & is an ordinary kick …should be locked in the weights while not chained to a good kicking skills coach like Geoff Southby or Peter McKenna.

Bentick – has almost everything but lacks a yard of pace off the mark …has huge potential IMO ….I think I read he did extra sprint training in the off-season (?). If he’s not doing that now he should be.

Ask people like Kenny Sheldon, Rod Ashman & Craig Bradley to come down and work intensely with our link up runners, Russell, Carrotts, Walker, Simmo, Blackers, Betts, etc. improving their decision making and disposal skills under pressure.

Waite & Kennedy – need a full-time mentor IMO …I think sticks would suffice.

Tbird – is very mobile and reads the play well …but is still a weed like Fisher …lock him in the weights room with Fish.

Hartlett, Bower & Setanta – both have shown signs of being tall defenders ….would love to see Peter Dean & Swan McKay taking them under their wing and instilling some hard tough defensive skills in them.

Feel free to add some more….

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There's so much I could say...

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

I'll go back to my "initial sprint" point with Carrots and also Bentick and anyone who looks like a midfielder.

I wouldn't mind someone teaching vision in handball - Maybe Diesel, he went ok - ie handballing to advantage rather than training simulation I saw Sat'd night with close in hands along the boundary. Clear the area handball. Looking for targets 15 metres away, not 2.

Peter Dean with Santy for some backline training. I reckon he showed glimpses of having what it takes. A lot more game time and some one on one with positioning and defensive drive training and he'll be ok.

Wayne Hughes with Bryce Gibbs and Matt Luenberger.

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Why do we have to get old Carlton players in to coach these players?

Get the best possible in to coach.

Just as the concept of looking for a senior coach within old Carlton ranks is a futile quest for mine, if we want quality coaching, we need the BEST for our boys, not just the best ex-Carlton player.

Sorry, back to the topic now...

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Don't have any problem with that Kaptain, but with our history there's no shortage of powerful candidates to provide support tuition roles.

Can also work to strengthen our somewhat tattered club fabric.

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

Agree with that, but maybe that could be tended to in a "Club bonding" level, rather than a training and skills level?

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Great timing and well said budzy.

You've identified the areas that personal tuition can help improve and fast track our boys, whilst 13 other teams are trying to get a finals berth/top 4 position. And it should not be limited to the above players either.

Once this 'preseason' gets off to a start, we can identify our strengths and factor improvements that will come with some of our weaknesses of our personnel over the next 8 months, and work on fine tuning game plans (plural) to suit.

Practise, practise, practise is the mother of all learning. We should get a good outcome from the exercise, as well as the natural progression we would get from pumping more games into our kids, as well as with the maturity that comes from being a year older.

I have also been advocating the same for the remaining 10 weeks of the season and the next 8 months of what you call "our preseason". It must happen, because it doesn't seem to happen over the period of a normal preseason, and we do have the youngest list by far, let alone with Kouta retiring, French tiring and Lappin in his last year next year we will further lack leadership and experience in 2007.

KK raises a good point. The coaches don't have to be exclusively ex Carlton players, and attracting the best available is always prefereable, but I don't think our financial situation and the sheer numbers of players requiring the intense coaching will suffice chosing the best alone.

The door should remain ajar for all candidates able to and qualified to coach the kids, and the focus of the exercise should be made public, and may go hand in hand with a marketing theme for 2007...."The rise and rise of the "baby blues"...which will be a perfect fit with selections 2, 18, 20, 35 and 51 from this year's superdraft.

I hope the board are listening. The idea is too good an opportunity to ignore.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Adrian Hickmott...Ryan Houlihan.

Does anyone know what Hicky is up to? From memory he was back in Horsham coaching. I reckon he had a great attitude and got the best out of himself.

He'd be able to teach any team a lot about tackling, desperation, putting your body on the line and I always thought he was good at positioning himself in a 1-on-1 marking contest.

Obviously we dont want 20 ex-players involved at training, but extra tuition throughout the day, even as a once off thing would be great.

Ex-players are generally mentioned for the romance of it, but I think they're more passionate about the club and the current players should be able to pick up on that.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Waite and Kennedy need goalkicking practice.
Fisher, Blackwell, Russell, and Simmo need food (and maybe some weight training).
Houlihan, Russell, Walker and perhaps Carazzo need to work on their foot skills and decision making.
T-Bird needs strength.

de luca needs balls and a bit of bulk and he could be perfect trade bait for us. i hope he keeps playing the rest of the year like he has been the last 2 weeks.

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Last edited by true_blue3 on Mon Sep 26, 1981 5:07 pm; edited 92 times in total

Name names KK. Who'd be gettable & better than those I named?

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There's so much I could say...

Simon Madden/Paul Salmon for ruck/tall forward coaching, for one....

I'm not talking down anyone else's suggestions, more saying that our field of options should be as wide as possible.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Coaching Rumbalara in the Murray Football League.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

Yeah no problem with that ...except cost.

It's debatable whether for example Madden or Salmon would be better specialist coaches than Dempsey but I think in other areas we'd all agree that qualified Carlton people would do the job for less money and more of a willingness to give something back to the club.

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There's so much I could say...

Yep, I would hope that would be the case, that's for sure.

What was Dempsey's history? Would a Madden/Salmon be better at helping someone like DeLuca, for instance, in the tall marking/goalkicking option area?

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Salmon would be perfect for DeLuca.

That is if you believe that it is worth getting a tall forward coach for a 'B' grade AFL hack!

Deluca played an OK game on sat night but is he the answer?

I hope not.

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Revenge is a dish best served cold

&

I AM PROUD SPONSOR OF THE CAROLINE WILSON HATE CLUB

Dempsey was a great around the ground marking/tap ruckmen like Simon Madden.
Fish Salmon would be better for Archie as a purely dedicated forward.
I'd prefer Archie in particular to get specialised training predominantly in ruckwork and marking around the ground.
Dempsey or Madden for mine.
How would Perc Jones go as a ruck coach I wonder?

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There's so much I could say...

B grade? (i wish)

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Last edited by true_blue3 on Mon Sep 26, 1981 5:07 pm; edited 92 times in total

That's why I said "for instance". He's the sort of ruck/marking forward who could do with the sort of help I was outlining specifically from Madden/Salmon.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Salmon would probably be a good coach,

However I believe our problems are more severe in defence and the midfield. Libba might be Betts's surrogate father but he is a shit midfield coach and the defence is a shambles when Whitnall doesnt take every single contested mark.

The coaching dep is not doing us any favours. The lack of strategy in our game is really getting on my nerves.

I reckon if we had a real plan we would have beaten Brisbane, Kangaroos, Sydney and West Coast.

All of these games were up for grabs and our lack of structure and discipline made all of these games should have beens.

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Revenge is a dish best served cold

&

I AM PROUD SPONSOR OF THE CAROLINE WILSON HATE CLUB