I've still got all of the press clippings that featured the 15 "New Blues" that arrived to give the Club some long awaited new faces in the December 2003 Draft.....they of course were:

Nick Stevens.

David Clarke.

Glen Bowyer.

Ricky Mott.

Brett Johnson.

David Teague.

Jordan Bannister.

Digby Morell.

Adrian DeLuca.

Andrew Walker.

Steve Kenna.

Daniel Harford.

Cory McGrath.

Setanta O hAilpin.

Heath Scotland.

Assembled from places as far apart as Ireland and Perth; the group soon engendered a genuine feeling of belief at our beleaguered Club.

The guernsey presentation that December was the biggest presentation of guernseys at Carlton since the introduction of numbers for the Final Seies of 1911.

If they'd all played at their best or to their injury free potential; Pagan would have been hailed as a genius.

They did give us a much better 2004 than we all expected at least; and 8 of the 15 are still with us for season 2006.

In hindsight....what do we all think of that influx of 15 new faces now?

I know I was excited....some of the players we grabbed I thought were a real chance to go on; and I still do.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

I actually didn't mind Morrell and Johnson. I think Digby was hard done by in particular.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

View my detailed account from Oct 12th 2005.

Considering the position we were in, I still think we have done spectacularly well out of that trade week to currently have what we have left.

Stevens, Teague, McGrath, Walker and O'hailpin are all wins in my book, even though big Santy hasn't made an impact yet. I'm still not sold on Bannister, but he has still served a purpose.

Was that year the year we rookied Carrazzo and Bentick? If so then it's a bumper crop really. Under the circumstances we are lucky to have what we have.

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

With all due respect; I wasn't posting on this site then.

Whatever; surely it won't hurt to discuss them 6 months further down the track.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

I think we did well out of it. We were never going to have all 15 turn into stars. I'm not sold on De Luca but Stevens, Teague, Bannister, Walker, McGrath, Setanta & Scotland were great gets. We also got Bowyer - while he wasn't a great player he was/is great around the club & has an enormous amount of character. And Harford's a good MC at home games!!

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Witty signature required.

Yeah; I agree...and I'm hoping Archie will blossom injury free, under the teachings of Gary Dempsey and Terry Daniher.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

Yep. Not a bad strike rate all things considered.

We really have nothing to compare it to, so we can just hope that if things went differently that we wouldn't be in a better position.

I really don't know much anyway...I kinda just leave it up to the people who are trained to know and buy my membership no matter what......

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The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger

If you look at the history and stats in terms of games played:

Average number of games played by all traded players 39.

Games played so far
Scotland 41*
Teague 43*
McGrath 31*
Morrell 32
Johnson 32
Harford 9
Clarke 12

Average number of games 28
- with 3 players still playing.

Average number of games played by all drafted players 24.

Stevens 42*
Walker 33*
Mott 2
Bowyer 20
Bannister 22*
De Luca 33*
Kenna 5


Average number of games played 22
- with 4 players still playing


From those numbers it looks like we are going to end up well above the competition average for drafted and traded players. I think we did really well with drafting and trading that year. If you include the Rookies, O'hAilpin, Carrazzo and Bentick, it looks even better.

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of those still on the list, I expect deluca, teague, mcgrath and possibly one of bentick/carazzo/scotland to be gone within 2 years.

stevens was a gift from collingwood as well so cant really be included into the list of 'trades'/draftees

Overall i dont think we did as well as most of you claim. Would have been better off with untried youth imo

edit forgot to include bannister into the list with carzzo/bentick/scotland - I'd expect 2 of them to be gone within a couple of years

Untried youth wasn't really an option due to draft penalties.any picks we had would have been 70+.

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

I'd think there would be a few posters who'd have a dollar or two with you on that assertion.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

What you expect and what will happen could be two very very different things.

For example, I expect to get a massage from a Swedish mistress, as yet unmet, for my birthday. What is likely is that I will get slapped on the back by my Mum & Dad and told that there ain't enough money this year for presents. Again.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

http://talkingcarlton.com/phpBB2/viewto ... sc&start=0

Look at this list..... who else did you want? What other options were there,.... REALLY?

I mean Scotland ws pick 35 i think, so you could argue for someone else there.

Next pick was 57.... Mott/ Allan trade effectively.

The rest were absolute late round, last minute picks. We've been lucky in the past with such players, like Fisher, but theres more Croads than Fishers in history.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

Your Mum and Dad would get you a massage from a Swedish mistress for your birthday?....jeez! ....half your luck! ....

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.