Carlton shows signs of growth but Brendon Bolton keeping a lid on expectations
Everyone at Carlton is aware of the urgency to improve after last year’s two-win season and it was evident at the club’s Sunshine Coast training camp that significant growth has been made over summer.
Coaches are barking instructions and players are shouting at Carlton’s Sunshine Coast camp when suddenly everything goes silent.
Million-dollar yearling Sam Walsh is slumped on the turf holding his leg.
Coach Brendon Bolton had a sleepless first night on an Harvard leadership course after being woken with news of Sam Docherty’s December ACL tear.
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He has then endured a drip-feed of summer injuries to recruit Mitch McGovern, Caleb Marchbank, Matthew Kreuzer, Jarrod Pickett and Alex Fasolo’s broken arm on Australia Day.
Bolton’s heart must skip a beat as a group of journalists shadow him at Wednesday’s training session.
Walsh, last year’s No.1 draft pick, slowly gets to his feet, shakes himself off and trots to the next drill — the victim of only a kick on the ankle from Charlie Curnow.
“He’s a tough bugger,” says fourth-year coach Bolton.
That quote might be edited slightly to remove the mild expletive but it shouldn’t dilute Bolton’s admiration.
Everyone at Carlton is aware of the urgency to improve after last year’s two-win season and signs of growth this summer are easy to see.
On one side of the training track there is Harry McKay, the two-metre forward who hasn’t missed a session this pre-season after two summers where he was lucky to get through a quarter of training.
Across the field is ex-GWS midfielder Will Setterfield, who fitness boss Andrew Russell estimates has lost 5-6 kg in a body transformation since setting foot inside Ikon Park.
Training drills sharpen the defensive press.
Bolton’s theme of the summer has been absolute team buy-in and how every player’s actions have a positive or negative ripple effect.
In a few months, AFL hopeful Michael Gibbons has turned into an elite runner and high draft picks Paddy Dow, Sam Petrevski-Setonand Jacob Weitering have impressed.
It is hard not to wonder at the potential of Walsh, who every Carlton staffer and players has fallen hard for.
In short, they have a collective man crush on the Geelong falcons wunderkind.
Kade Simpson says he doesn’t have a weakness, Patrick Cripps says he will take his first year by storm and Andrew Russell has never seen another first-year player run like the midfield freak.
For his part, Bolton goes a little deeper when he reflects on his impact.
“He is as prepared a first year since I have seen. Extreme running power, in our top three or four, but most importantly he has an insatiable hunger to improve,’’ he said.
“He is all over Brucey (Cam Bruce) and Barks (John Barker) on his pattern running.
“When he talks to you, he is eyeballing you all the time. He is right in the conversation. He is in it up to his teeth and you are the most important person in that conversation.
“I wondered when he got drafted how long he could keep it up, if he would fatigue mentally.
“He is still doing it now and what that tells you is he’s a special person as well as a player. He will throw everything at his first year.”
The midfield bats deep now, with Cripps able to push forward at times, Lochie O’Brien able to push to half back, Ed Curnow being trialled as a pressure forward and Marc Murphy playing stints on the wing.
VFL star Michael Gibbons, like Daisy Thomas before him, looks set to be rewarded for his personality just as much as his football prowess.
“I am not going to publicly commit to (his spot on the list) right now but gee, he’s given everything he can to it right now,” says Bolton.
“He’s had a fair swing at it. I was only sitting with Lochie O’Brien over dinner last night and we want up to the surf club and had a roast dinner.
“I said to Lochie, ‘Would you put Gibbons on the list’. He said yes. He said worth ethic and then he said this without me asking.
“He said when a bloke comes to a club they go straight to the stars — Murphy and Cripps and (Sam) Docherty.
“He said Gibbons is invested in all of us. I liked what I heard …”
For the first time in five years, Carlton actually has the cattle to compete after years of getting progressively younger as Steve Silvagni stripped the dead weight from the list.
How many games will they win after a 2018 season where inexperience intersected with a side ravaged by injury?
Bolton is too smart to put ceilings or targets on his team, but the midfield depth is representative of the growth across this list.
“We have got an expectation there is an improvement on last year, but you ask me how many wins? We don’t go into that space.
“But we think we have built some midfield depth. It’s really exciting Sam Petrevski-Seton has got through a full pre-season, Paddy Dow has come through.
“But they want to grow as a group together and they know Patty Cripps isn’t the answer to win the stoppage on his own.
“Stoppages are won by working together and they have worked hard together all summer to make sure it happens.”
Originally published as Carlton shows signs of growth but Brendon Bolton keeping a lid on expectations
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