The boys are supposedly training at 10am tomorrow morning. Would really appreciate it if one of our track watchers could report on how Harts trains tomorrow. According to the injury list he is only 1 week away from returning so he should be moving pretty well. Thanks in advance.
http://carltonfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=injurylist

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There's so much I could say...

He trained last friday and did everything and looked pretty good. As traning was coming to an end he and Stevo had a bit of a kicking comp and having a laugh, looked like he pulled up pretty well.

There is a video from last weeks traning in TalkingTraining.

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Not so best of TheSexySquad


AWWWWWW STEVENS.

I will be very happy if he performs well in the second half of this year.

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There is no footy god

cheers for that fullmont

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There's so much I could say...

Will be back on 2/7/06. VFL Split round means the extra week for him.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Interesting to see where he fits in at the Bullants - the number of talls competing for spots there is amazing. Some of them are even mobile! Pity it is so different in the 1's.

Getting even half a dozen games and determining what players like Adam and Bower can do for our tall stocks (especially in defence) will be pivotal to our recruiting come draft time. If one or both can truly show something down there and make a strong case for a key defensive post for the next 10 years it will sway the recruiters thinking immensely.

Especially CHB.

It might mean we aim for a Sellar or Gibbs or Selwood instead of a Hansen if the requirement is not as strong. At the moment, CHB is a long term problem

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C'mon Blueboys!

I doubt WH is easily swayed one way or another

Marci I thought WH was suppose to pick the best player available, regardless

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

I am not sure this rule applies all the time. Collingwood have taken quick midfielders with flair with their past 2 first picks. This year there will be a jam of top players, might give clubs the opportunity to pick for need more than they would in normal years. What happens if you have Hansen, Selwood, Gumbleton and Thorp and it is felt bugger all separates them?

Apparently that's the case this year.

You look closer, you look harder and you hope for something to seperate them, otherwise you pick on need.

Selwood's not going to rock up to the championships - there's one.

Thorp has OP and supposedly hasn't looked like he's playing at his explosive best yet - there's another.

Anywho, there's still plenty of sorting to be done - unless we all fall into a coma and wake up in October or November.

I suppose in theory....

With so many touted as on par at that no.1 level (Sellar, Gibbs, Hansen, Gumbleton) then the form of Harts and Bower could sway things a little.

Ideally, I would like the club to aim for mids as for me this is our greatest deficiency, close second CHB and ruck in the long term.

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C'mon Blueboys!

I agree that we need more mids, but don't you think we have an immediate problem with our ruck stocks at the moment? Where do our ruckmen rank in the league? 16th is my guess and I don't see where our improvement is going to come from.

malleefowl, our rucks are a definite problem in two regards - our current 1st team blokes aren't really up to it and our developing stocks are either struggling or a long way off.

French - having a terrible year, really struggling
McLaren - honest toiler but back up ruckman at best
Deluca - does this bloke have a position at all?!!?? No good as a ruck or marking forward...
Bryan - Will never be an AFL ruckman. Not up to it
Batson - Not making any progress. Will be VERY lucky to be elevated at years end (last year as rookie)
Aisake O'hAilpin - could be anything but still has a LONG way to go

So Sellar becomes a very attractive proposition. But we are so desperate for classy, fast-paced mids. And a CHB.

I still lean towards mids but if we dont see remarkable improvement in terms of some of our ruck or KP prospects, then we may need to look at ruckman or key position tall

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C'mon Blueboys!

Disagree with the Batson one.

Ruckman always take a little longer to develop. But Aisakie and Batson have been a pretty good ruck team in the VFL Reserves this year.

By the looks of things, DeLuca & Bryan aren't seen as having too much of a future with the club.

French is seriously on his last legs.

McLaren is a decent back up Ruckman, but is more suited as a Ruck Rover.

That leaves us without a #1 ruckman really.

Aiskaie will no doubt be continued on the rookie list, but Batson (i believe) MUST be picked up by Carlton. He's recieved 3 BOG's this year and has continually impressed
(note:- unfortunatly i haven't gotten to as many of the reserves games as i would have like this year - but seeing him last year and comparing that to his form this year...........well it shows that he has come a long way and has a long way to go still).

Wouldn't be upset if we drafted somebody like Stellar this year - but would prefer a midfielder like Selwood.

Imagine a midfield of Murphy/Selwood/Walker & Blackwell with Simpson/Carazzo & Russell bringing it off HB???? in years to come, that'll be seen as the dominating midfield of the AFL.

We can always draft a Ruckman/Tall/KP Player in this draft with our second pick. There are about 30 kids that will be on display next weekend that will be decent KP players, but not a great deal of midfielders.

A player that i'll be keeping my eye on is Renouf from QLD who played down here a few weeks back. 200cm+ and can kick a goal.

I'm still trying to find out if he is realted to Steve Renouf, who was my hero when i was a kid growing up in QLD. He played for the broncos and was so entertaining to watch.

But even still - if we draft another ruckman WHILST keeping both Batson & Aisakie we would have three delevoping ruckman on our list.........................Not a bad thing to have IMHO!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Even if they don't upgrade Batson on to the senior list, I wonder if they would consider trying to re-rookie him after he gets delisted. After all, they say developing a ruckman takes a long time ... And besides, playing for Bullants 2nds you'd think he'd probably be out of sight and mind to recruiters from other clubs (especially with a much deeper pool of talent coming available this year).

It's not that he's lacking in the talent department, it's that he plays the game like Bryan.

Stone statue with solid skills. They should both follow Ben Graham or something.