Carlton is backing coach Brendon Bolton, and weekend has shown Blues the way forward
BRENDON Bolton is safe and JON RALPH writes there’s a reason the Blues can rebound quickly. A top-five draft pick can make an immediate impact, and one man has just the young gun in mind.
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OF all the questions Carlton’s hierarchy must answer this off-season, the coach’s job security is not one of them.
A seemingly spiritless effort on Friday night against St Kilda set out another round of media gnashing of teeth regarding Brendon Bolton’s tenure.
Bolton will coach Carlton next year.
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From president Mark LoGuidice to CEO Cain Liddle to football director Chris Judd, the Blues hierarchy is united in backing in their coach.
You don’t trade away your best players in Zach Tuohy and Bryce Gibbs for picks, endure footy’s worst injury crisis, then cut the coach off at the knees.
There might come a time when the Blues decide he isn’t the right fit, but as Liddle said over the weekend it sure isn’t now.
“He has managed the club through one of the biggest list turnovers in the history of the game and now has had the compounding effect of the most injuries of the year,” the first-year CEO said.
“All we can ask for him is to teach our kids the right way and develop and play that young talent.
“For us he’s doing exactly what we are asking within the restrictions we have had. We are really confident Brendon will get us there.
“We have invested three years into his coaching career so we want him to stick around and develop with the benefit of that.”
On the weekend the Blues had just 31 fit players, making Bolton’s viewing of the club’s VFL game largely academic.
Instead if he decided to watch the rest of the AFL action rather than kicking the cat, he would have seen the way forward.
On Saturday it was last year’s No. 1 draft pick Cam Rayner and 2016’s No. 3 draft pick Hugh McCluggage putting his old side Hawthorn to the sword.
On Saturday night the 2016 draft’s No. 2 pick Tim Taranto was playing like a man in the GWS win over Richmond.
One of the single rousing passages of play on Friday saw Carlton’s No. 2 pick Paddy Dow win a hard ball and flick the ball out of congestion.
Carlton’s No. 10 pick Lochie O’Brien released Dale Thomas into space for a running goal and the green shoots were being fertilised.
The point is this: for every Jack Watts or Jimmy Toumpas there is a top-five draft pick making an immediate impact on their club the year after they were drafted.
The 2016 draft’s top 3 in Andy McGrath, Taranto and McCluggage are all jets, with this year’s top 10 boasting Rayner, Dow, Adam Cerra, Jaidyn Stephenson, Hunter Clark, Aaron Naughton.
Experienced list managers say the Blues would be insane to use pick one on GWS mid Dylan Shiel this season.
Go and take a kid, then in 12 months time offer him a blank cheque after he has had another year to win a flag and you get him as a free agent for nothing.
Comparing a draftee to Joel Selwood is one of the biggest calls a player can make.
Yet that’s what Patrick Dangerfield did to No. 1 contender Sam Walsh, an inside-outside mid who perfectly fits Carlton’s needs.
“I would not lose hold of Pick 1,” said Dangerfield, after training with Walsh over summer.
“Sam Walsh, for mine, a good Geelong Falcons boy. I think he’s the next Joel Selwood.”
“If you look at his statistics, they’re one thing. He averages 30-odd possessions per game,” Dangerfield said on Fox Footy.
“But it’s just the way he plays, how composed he is and the leadership he possesses.
“If you’re a side that’s lucky enough to pick up this young fella, he’s going to play for a very, very long time.
“He’s just the complete package.”
As David Parkin said of the over-reliance on Patrick Cripps on Friday: “We will kill him”.
So spend some money on a free agent like Mitch Wallis or Luke Dahlhaus to help Cripps out.
Then save the cash for Shiel, start Round 1 with a midfield of Cripps, Marc Murphy, Dow, O’Brien, Ed Curnow and Walsh, and then back the coach in to get results without an arm tied behind his back.
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