No not for the Priority Picks that some are praying for. Although I do think that at the moment we are pretty much a monty for them. Praying definitely not needed.

No I am talking about some of our younger players. Often there is a key game or incident that convinces a young player that they can play good footy at the highest level. For young Andrew Walker that occurred on Saturday night. Spending the night running with a player like Akermanis can be an education for a younger player but it is how the player responds to the challenges a player like Akermanis can put to a young player is what counts. There were, in my mind, two key incidents that would confirm to Walker that he can play at the highest level. The first occurred when Akermanis slipped away from Walker, caught him badly out of position and kicked a goal. Instead of dropping his head as many around him were starting to do. Walker responded in kind and kicked a goal of his own employing the same tactic on Akermanis that had been employed on him. The second incident was on the city wing later in the game. Akermanis tried to be ‘physical’ on Walker. Andrew didn’t flinch and took the challenge right back to Akermanis, throwing him to the ground and holding him there until Akermanis eventually relented. Good solid statement making stuff from young Walker. The Walker- Alermanis battle was one that I enjoyed immensely and salvaged something from an otherwise pretty dismal night. I would also like mention both Carrazzo and Davies game. Carrazzo is starting to back himself against his opponent and a couple of those weaving runs through traffic were magic. Davies never stopped working all night and his run through the centre of the ground showed what he can do when he also backs himself. I need not mention his magnificent goal. Davies just needs to keep working hard and trust more in his natural instinct rather than trying to ‘force’ something to happen. It will ‘click’ for him if he keeps up his current workrate.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Agree on Walker and Carazzo...not on Davies.
Walker's performance was excellent and Aker kept trying as well and didnt give up unlike some of our highly paid so called champions which made Walkers game even better.
Carazzo hasnt played a bad game for the club and is improving his suspect disposal skills.

Not convinced about Davies....for me just a cameo performer who does the odd good thing but not enough and then makes too many mistakes.

I'll add Bret Thornton to the BM list as well...I thought he was struggling this year but did well on the juggernaut that is Jon Brown and was back to his best...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Disagree on Davies and Carrazzo...but wholeheartedly agree with AW.

A magnificent effort against a highly skilled, very wily opponent. Well done Andrew!

Totally agree Mark. Walker has arrived not only the job he did on Aker but the fact he went head to head with him not just a tag. That goal you talked about was because Walker had stopped like everyone else thinking the umpire would pay a free which when they didn't the only one who didn't stop was Aker who had a 5m break on him. He will learn and he did by kicking a goal not long after that which showed he didn't drop his head at all. It was also great to see at the end of the game Walker & Aker shake hands and have a chat. Aker was also very glowing about Walker on Sportsworld on Sunday. Would hope that Pagan starts to play him offensively for the last 1/2 of the year or atleast the last 6 games to give him a good buildup for next year.

Yeah I think Walker will just be an incredibly well rounded player (but not in the Dean Rioli sense...)

What Denis is doing with AW is brilliant. It would have been easy for an inexperienced coach to just let him loose every week and hope he turns in a west coast game every few weeks.

This would be the Dean Laidley method in my opinion. Daniel Wells is an absolutely superb player, no doubt about it, but when he goes missing he does so fairly dramatically. Laidley is a very ordinary coach. He knows a bloke like Wells will win him games on a semi regular basis, he's just a natural talent. So Laidley has taken the easy option, and as a resultWells won't have the all round skills that he would have had under a long term thinking coach like Pagan or Matthews.

Walker will be a complete package.

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Congratulations CK95

Agree about Davies - He will be a 100 game player for us and have his name on the number 7 locker beneath W. Johnston and B. Ratten.

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Just on that Davies goal - has anyone noticed that Carlton players have a habit of kicking that particular type goal, left foot snap from the left pocket facing forward?

Davies kicked one earlier this year (ess), I remember Fraser Brown kicking one against Richmond at night, and I remember one from ratten too. I have a theory for this:

Look where our rooms are at Optus Oval! They're in that exact position. As a player runs into the rooms from training they would have to kick at goal with a left foot snap from left pocket. It seems that our players would be well accustomed to this kick.

It may explain why this year Davies is more accurate from that angle than from a set shot 35 metres out straight in front.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

as i called it on saturday - "he kicks these - he kicks these" and he does. he bags them all the time

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

Posted this in the "need talent" thread
I was right behind Davies first goal....confidence...awareness... a beautiful kick early in the match.....

Then late in the third...he ran after his player and ran straight past the Brisbane player who had been called to play on after the mark. I'm talking dropping his shoulder to get around him.
Confidence shot...awarenss shot, panicking running after the guys you are on ...all within the space of a half.

That's the tale of our season also!


**********

You can look a lot better and have the conmfidence to back in your skills when you're doing well. If you're young (and getting dropped every other week) you will play with caution ....and look ordinary (as above)

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Totally agree with Walker's performance. He was absolutely sensational on a guy like Aka, and considering the age and experience difference between the two, then you really couldn't of asked for anything more from Walker.

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You can just smell that fresh Carlton arrogance coming back into the air

Agree with this post entirely, though I think Carazzo did have a bad game earlier this year against Essendon*, certainly not an absolute shocker though

So far this season Davies is shooting 100% for freakish goals - unfortunately that 100% only equates to 2 goals (albeit freakish).

He is shooting about 20% for stock standard goals, you know the ones 20 to 30 metres out straight in front.

Dont get me wrong I think he will make it - but we wouldn't be having this debate if his shooting stats were the other way around.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Walker is a champ, against adelaide he did a great job on mcloed and then again on saturday night did great on aka

Would much prefer to see Walker play as an attacking midfielder rather than the run with roles he's been asked to perform this year.

Prefer to see one of our taggers play on Akermarnis, Macleod etc and have Walker play an attacking role. Sure he'll get tagged as well but through experience he'll learn to overcome taggers. I can't see how playing him in a tagging role will aid his development.

Agreed Phoenix we want him to be the next Kouta not the next Franchina.

Not "mentally" we aren't.

How will it aid his development? He'll learn exactly how hard the best players work, he'll learn how these players find the ball, where they position themselves, how they use blocks, what fitness levels are required, how accountability helps your team mates, he'll learn in which situations these players back themselves for the benefit of their team, he'll know what it means to sometimes sacrifice a personal game for the greater good of the team, and he'll learn how to pressure good footballers and how the absolute best of them respond to that pressure.

But apart from that, yeah I agree. It can't possibly aid his development.

He has talent. You can't teach a kid talent. What you can teach them is how to use that talent. What better way than following a guy around who has harnessed their talent already.

Do you honestly think Denis has earmarked him for a 10 year career at carlton as a tagger?

I guess the only viable alternative is to throw him into the middle with Campo and he'll learn how Campo deals with taggers...

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Congratulations CK95

Bluehammer, Do you seriously think that when the club recruited Walker that in his second year his primary role would be that of a tagger? Taggers are renowed plodders, they're not ball winners. Walker needs to learn how to win the ball, not stop someone else from doing so.

He's supposed to be our gun recruit! Look at Cooney, Brock Mclean from last years draft to see the difference. There's no better way to learn than doing the job you're employed to do, it'll take time but he will nevertheless develop. He has far to much skill to be tagging week in week out, in the short term I would rather see him battle to break a tag rather than be a tagger. I don't want to see him develop a negative mentality, that's a taggers mindset.

How is he supposed to get the ball when we don't have a true midfield? Given our midfield, I think he'd learn far more from Aker than he would waiting for Stavens and Campo to get him the ball...

Phoenix do you seriously think that when the club recruited Walker that in his second year he'd be surrounded by a bunch of so called senior players who set the worst example of unaccountable footy in the league?

Do you seriously think that Denis wants AW running around with them, watching what they do in the midfield, and basing the quality of his game on how many possessions he racks up?

Denis is giving AW a healthy respect for his opponent, respect for the defensive side of the game, and respect for his team mates that do a job that allows the more skilful players to exhibit their trade.

In junior footy that aspect is just nowhere near as important. The hugely talented players like Walker can dominate games without fear of being exposed as much because the talent gap is so much greater.

You're very impatient Phoenix. Walker will not be a tagger. He will be a complete player. He's still 19 and has less than 25 games under his belt.

As for the two guys you mentioned...

Cooney is a freak, and was playing senior footy for 12 months before getting drafted. He's a different player to AW but at the end of last year when he was 19 (ie Walker's age) he hadn't set the world on fire either. Oh hang on, he too was struggling in a team with few senior players and a lot of young blokes finding their feet. Sound familiar?

McLean has top notch hard working midfielders around him which have eased the jump for him. See Scott Camporeale circa 1998. McLean will be a great player, but playing in a good team can make a big difference.

I know that Walker will not be a tagger beyond this year. But I do know that he'll be a highly accountable midfield prospect as a result of jobs like the one he did on Aker. Denis will release the shackles, and when he does, Walker will take this game by the scruff of the neck.

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Congratulations CK95