Now no one is talking as though we are formally back in the game...yet. All we are saying is that we’ve improved, we’re improving, and that you should jump on board as the top kids picked over the last few years take the game on and learn to win. Yes, we all know that we beat 4 Bottom 8 teams of 2006 in coming to the Flag but if you always beat Bottom 8 teams…Guess What? You are likely to make it to the finals! That’s the challenge.
The Blues of 2007 are a far different story than that of 2005, and there’s a few key reasons for that. Let’s have a look at who is in and who was out from a simple 2 year time comparison between Pre-Season Premiership teams:
In: | Out: |
Adam Bentick | Adrian Deluca |
Adam Hartlett | Barnaby French |
Brad Fisher | Callum Chambers |
Bryce Gibbs | Cory McGrath |
Cain Ackland | David Teague |
Cameron Cloke | Digby Morrell |
Eddie Betts | Ian Prendergast |
Jarrad Waite | Jordon Bannister |
Jordan Russell | Justin Davies |
Josh Kennedy | Luke Livingston |
Marc Murphy | Scott Camporeale |
Setanta o'hAilpin | Trent Sporn |
Only 12 of the Blues who took the field on Saturday night also took the field 2 years ago. That’s half the team in just on 24 months – quite a turnover. There are some current senior players who were absentees from 2005, but if you can recall Fish was still in ‘ACL-Land’, Waite was injured and Cloke and Ackland were donning the ugly colours (Cloke can’t even say that) of others. The other 8 inclusions are all recent draftees and rookies to the Blues. Of the ‘Outs’ only 2 remain at Carlton, Bannister and Teague. In fact, looking through these two lists and one thing that is very noticeable is the relative ages of the groups. On respective game days, the ‘Ins’ are a massive 3 years younger than their ‘Out’ counterparts were in 2005.
Out: | DOB | Age as at 12/03/2005 | In: | DOB | Age as at 17/3/2007 |
Luke Livingston | 11/04/1982 | 22.9 | Setanta o'hAilpin | 18/03/1983 | 24.0 |
Jordon Bannister | 31/10/1982 | 22.4 | Jarrad Waite | 4/02/1983 | 24.1 |
David Teague | 5/05/1981 | 23.9 | Cameron Cloke | 20/02/1984 | 23.1 |
Trent Sporn | 23/09/1982 | 22.5 | Adam Hartlett | 22/04/1986 | 20.9 |
Callum Chambers | 19/11/1979 | 25.3 | Jordan Russell | 6/11/1986 | 20.4 |
Scott Camporeale | 11/08/1975 | 29.6 | Marc Murphy | 19/07/1987 | 19.7 |
Digby Morrell | 10/10/1979 | 25.4 | Josh Kennedy | 25/08/1987 | 19.6 |
Barnaby French | 25/11/1975 | 29.3 | Cain Ackland | 16/03/1982 | 25.0 |
Cory McGrath | 4/02/1979 | 26.1 | Brad Fisher | 9/04/1984 | 23.0 |
Justin Davies | 7/07/1983 | 21.7 | Eddie Betts | 26/11/1986 | 20.3 |
Adrian Deluca | 15/05/1982 | 22.8 | Adam Bentick | 13/06/1985 | 21.8 |
Ian Prendergast | 2/09/1980 | 24.5 | Bryce Gibbs | 15/03/1989 | 18.0 |
| Average | 24.7 | | Average | 21.7 |
Most noticeably above the Blues hit the Grand Final with 3 teenagers and a further 3 fellows just shy of their 21st birthday. Of course, the 12 players who have played in both Pre-Season Premiership teams (Koutoufides, Whitnall, Carrazzo, Thornton, Stevens, Houlihan, Walker, Fevola, Lappin, Scotland, Wiggins and Simpson), have aged 2 years in that time. But even the simple among us can see that if half your team are 3 years younger on average and the other half are 2 years older….funny, I’m having flashbacks to Grade 5 Maths classes so perhaps we should just leave that. The second point you may notice is the relative height of the new Blues. Now back in 2005 we had two pretty tall ruckmen take the field for us, with Barnaby French and Adrian Deluca manning the ball-ups. These days we have 2 smaller ruckman in Cloke and Ackland taking the ruck. Before adjusting for the ruck, the heights of the 2 groups are almost identical – basically ½ a centimeter to the ‘New’ guys. But if you adjust for the 2 ruckmen, the new Blues are almost 3 centimetres taller. As you’ve probably picked up, the Blues are building a taller and faster outfit, with all 2007 Draftees (National Draft) 188cm and above – and pretty fast for their heights. So in addition to the list above you have a handful of youngsters chomping at the bit to add to that comparison, plus the yet-to-be-seen Jake Edwards who will make an impact – don’t doubt that for a second. We’ve already touched on the third point – pace. This is a bit harder for us to measure from the outer but the press is agog with the pace of our new defence, with Setanta and Waite being supreme athletes in the back half and up-field Betts and Russell joining the reaction pace of Murphy and Gibbs. Again, add some of our younger Blues that we’re yet to see including Edwards, Benjamin and Anderson and you realise that the story you’ve seen is only the opening chapters of a Big Blue Book that surely has a happy conclusion. Finally, and there’s no other way to put it, but the ‘Ins’ are better than what we had in 2005. Consider the inclusion of class inherent in being able to select 2 #1 draft picks plus a further 2 top 10 picks (Kennedy and Russell) and what that means for the talent levels of any team. In a world first linking of a football article to the artistic talents of Guy Sebastian, the Blues are ‘taller, stronger, faster’ and better than a few years ago. Now, the challenge has to be to convert the hope on our list and from the weekend’s performance into the real season. To paraphrase Denis Pagan - we’ve come a long way and there is a long way to go, but the journey itself is filled with a gush of new blood that promises much for the future of the Carlton Football Club. Mike & Dan have sourced the information for this article from the Blueseum, particularly the 2005 Pre-Season and the 2007 Pre-Season links.
