Carlton pre-season news: Defender Liam Stocker out for 12 weeks | Former skipper Marc Murphy’s remarkable Mick Malthouse spray
Carlton young gun Liam Stocker is set for an extended stint on the sidelines after an incident at training this week. Will he be ready for Round 1? Here’s the latest.
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Carlton young gun Liam Stocker will miss for up to three months after an incident at training.
The 21-year-old suffered a medium-grade syndesmosis injury after his ankle was caught in a tackle this week, and scans confirmed surgery would be the best way forward.
The injury, and 12-week timeline, puts him in doubt for Round 1, with Stocker taking to social media on Thursday night to confirm he is in a race against time to be fit for the season opener against the Tigers.
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“It’s disappointing news for Liam but these experiences are part of footy and we know with his tremendous work ethic, he will throw everything into his rehabilitation over this next period,” Blues footy Boss Brad Lloyd told the club’s website.
“We’ll assess his progress over the next few months and will have a clearer indication on when he will be available to play as we get close to the start of the season.”
It’s a blow for the Blues and Stocker, pick 19 from the 2018 draft, who took a big step forward last year after not making an appearance in a difficult 2020 season.
After a blistering start at VFL level, Stocker was recalled to the senior side in Round 6, and didn’t look back, playing the next 17 matches, mainly in defence.
‘Wrong decision’: Should Blues have kept Ratts over Mick?
Former Carlton captain Marc Murphy has unloaded on the Blues’ mistake to sack Brett Ratten as coach and declared his replacement Mick Malthouse was “not in it for the right reasons”.
Murphy retired at the end of the 2021 season after playing 300 games for Carlton.
He revealed that when he was appointed club captain in 2013, Malthouse told him to his face that he wanted someone else in the role.
Malthouse won just 20 of the 54 games he coached at Carlton before being sacked.
Murphy said it all went “pear-shaped” at the end of the premiership winner’s tenure.
“I haven’t really listened to too much of what Mick has had to say post leaving the footy club because what’s the point, but he probably would’ve said that he would’ve chosen a different captain at the time and he even said that to me at the time when I got appointed captain,” Murphy told Dylan Buckley on the Dyl and Friends podcast.
“He would’ve gone with someone else, but because they weren’t going to be featuring regularly in the side, he couldn’t go down that path.
“So initially when you get told you’re captain, you’d like to be a positive period, so it wasn’t a great start, but that was his prerogative.
“Would’ve been nice for him to turn up to a leadership group meeting now and again.
“But there’s no point me coming out and bashing Mick Malthouse, he’s obviously one of the great coaches of all time.
“He’s got the record for longest coaching, so what am I going to do coming out and slamming him? But his time at Carlton, I don’t think he was really in it for the right reasons, and once it turned pear-shaped, it was all about him unfortunately at the end and I was left to be thrown at the bus quite a bit.
“He was obviously a terrific coach, but for Carlton and for me and the boys, it just didn’t work out.”
Murphy said Carlton officials made the wrong decision to sack club champion Ratten, now St Kilda coach, after he guided the Blues to one kick away from a preliminary final in 2011 before a less productive 2012 season.
“It was definitely the wrong decision,” he said.
“We were stiff, we missed by two or three points against West Coast and then, I know it’s all ifs and buts, but you get through that game and you play Geelong at the ‘G’ the following week and we’d played against them and we were too quick for the Cats.
“You never know in a prelim what happens, but I thought we had their measure at that point, we were probably a bit more dynamic.
“Our forwards were pretty incredible. The three amigos (Chris Yarran, Jeff Garlett and Eddie Betts), we had Jarrad Waite, some pretty talented players in there. They wouldn’t have got overawed by the occasion because they just played footy and had great chemistry down there.
“And then the decision to get Mick was like, ‘He can take us to the next level’, that was the thinking with the hierarchy at the time, but I just think the support needed to be better around Ratts to help him. I think that was the way forward.
“I know hindsight, it’s easy to say that now because everyone at the time was thinking Mick was one year out of coaching, he’s the guy who’s been proven to get teams to grand finals, you could understand that decision at the time.
“I think the support and the communication needed to be better at that time.
“I was never one for going upstairs and getting involved in all of that chat.
“I was dealing with coaches, not necessarily getting involved with CEOs and the rest of it … but I think it was a bad move.”
‘Intense’ camp, fireside chats aid Voss-Blues connection
- Jay Clark
Carlton’s new-look coaching group has spent a four-day camping trip in the Grampians forming stronger bonds with the players ahead of the new season.
The Blues want to hit the ground running under new coach Michael Voss, who will have a bolstered midfield group featuring new recruits Adam Cerra and George Hewett to try to help capitalise on a kind fixture in 2022.
Voss, whose family won’t arrive from South Australia until the new year, has made an impressive start to his second stint as senior coach, helping create a positive atmosphere and bedding down a new game plan after a terrible 2021 for the Blues.
Football boss Brad Lloyd said the daylong hike on Thursday and some fireside chats gave the Blues plenty of opportunity to connect with a new coaching group.
“With Vossy and three new assistant coaches, and the guys we brought in (in the trade period) we really wanted to get everyone together and build those relationships, and connection at the same time as doing the hard work,” Lloyd said.
“There was a huge orienteering-type session where the boys would have covered a lot of ground through the Grampians and some activities on Friday and some cultural activities, and some team dinners.
“So, you come back and it feels like everyone has been around the place a lot longer than they really have, after that more intense period together.
“There was a lot of walking so there was huge opportunity to spend time one-on-one and have those one-on-one conversations at different stages, and the fireside chats at night because we had no power.”
Voss has replaced David Teague and will attempt to repair the defensive frailties that repeatedly cost Carlton last year, with Mitch McGovern in line to replace departed full back Liam Jones.
Lloyd said Voss and his deputies, including Ashley Hansen, Tim Clarke and Aaron Hamill, had made a strong start.
“Vossy has started really well. He’s huge on the engagement and connection side of things, and he does that very naturally,” he said.
“Right from day one he has been getting to players and getting to know them and understand them outside of footy.
“His family haven’t been able to move over yet, but they will post Christmas.
“So while he has missed them, that has also given him some opportunity to spend more time with the playing group, as well.”
Carlton is in good health as it prepares to start the season against Richmond, Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Gold Coast in the first month.
The only top-six side it plays twice next year is Greater Western Sydney.
Lloyd said only David Cuningham and Caleb Marchbank were not doing the bulk of main training.
“The players have come back in really good condition across the board, so we have had a good period where a number of our senior players voluntarily returned to training earlier than they needed to,” he said.
“So we have been able to have a good lead-in to Christmas and there has been a really good feel about the place.
“There are always some modifications, but broadly the group is really fit, and everyone is up and running.”
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