Training Pre season training

[Joffaboy]

5 minutes of footy doesnt make a season. What did he do for the remainder of the game and how much of his workload did his team mates have to carry because he cant run out games. He runs like a draught horse in a game played by thoroughbreds.

Hell Billings had some of the best highlight reels getting about.

Just ask yourself WHAT top 8 midfield group would Clark get a game in? If you are genuine the answer is zero.

Maybe over the summer watch the last 8 games of the season when he Jones and Dow were match fit. His inside work getting it going forward from stoppage.

This is the gameplan and type of football Lyon is after. He wants the ball moving forward out of stoppages. He wants a physical, high paced game when fatigue sets in in the second half. He has trained the team like this all preseason. If there is a fitter team who are harder running than us, I would be surprised.
Noticed I didn't say more skilled than us because I think our most skilled players are still to develop.
While Jones, Clark and Dow aren't A grade mids, if we add Macrae and Steele who are, we have the whole which is greater than the sum.of it's parts.
A player in isolation can be judged however a midfield group complementing each other, Steele in and under. Macrae, big left foot inside mid, Clark, wins his own ball and dual sided, Jones, quick and has some mongrel in him, Dow is skilful and a good mover, then we have Phillipou, Carroll, Hall, Boxshall, and Garcia all with specific skills, then our midfield can work without all the superstars.
Every one of those players can run including Clark. So far Lyon is happy with what Clark brings.


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[Diehard Saint]

Would the club have gone out and got Macrae, Carroll and Boxshall if they thought Hunter had a reliable and bright future. Look at what the kids bring - Phillipou, Windhager, Garcia, Wilson even Travaglia and Boxshall they are all elite runners and thats what the current game requires.

Yes. They would’ve.
Macrae because we needed an immediate Crouch replacement.
And the other two for the future.
They’re 8 years younger than Hunter, they’re not replacing him now.

 

[ScrappyDo]

If anyone can watch that and not see Clark's value, particularly in the play that lead to the Phillipou shot on goal, they're blind imo.

Yeah you beat me to it. Amazing stuff.

 

[stfan]

Would the club have gone out and got Macrae, Carroll and Boxshall if they thought Hunter had a reliable and bright future.

How small a midfield group do you want?



IMO, we were already short of mids, even if Hunter becomes a star this season.

Crouch was good, but his knee was not. Ross was value without being a star, but it was time for him to go. Plus in the draft we were not low enough, or able to trade lower, to get one of the higly rated mids.

I am not sure why it is a struggle to understand that with, or without, Clark that we needed more mids. It is one reason why Jones was kept for another season, with the other being his solid any of season form.



As it stands right now, while we still lack gun mids, in 2025 we will most likely have our best group of mids for many a year.


Maybe Clark gets passed by others in 2025. Maybe he becomes a good mid for us. Either is possible for us, but we certainly needed more players capable of running through the midfield that we had. If Clark gets pushed out, then it should means that some one else has stepped up.


With now having some talent, and depth to our midfield group I would be hopeful that by the end of 2025, if not before that we will have a pretty capable midfield group if if it still needs and out and out midfield gun. Who knows maybe Pou may be that player, maybe not too.

Macrae should make a big difference, even if his number of years as quality mid may be limited.

 

[Saint Ray]

5 minutes of footy doesnt make a season. What did he do for the remainder of the game and how much of his workload did his team mates have to carry because he cant run out games. He runs like a draught horse in a game played by thoroughbreds.

Hell Billings had some of the best highlight reels getting about.

Just ask yourself WHAT top 8 midfield group would Clark get a game in? If you are genuine the answer is zero.

Oh FFS give it a rest. Your posts are boring

 

[Palantine]

Anyway, here is a Chrissy present from uncle Joffa.

Glory in this over the gloomy summer days until Jan 9th where we remorselessly march towards that last Saturday in September.

My favourite is the Italian looking Sheila desperately hitting her hand screaming touched touched

Plenty of Carlton despair. Just so so so so good!


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[CursingFijian]

Plenty of Carlton despair. Just so so so so good!

How about the stunned silence from Saints fans knowing that picks 5 & 6 had just slipped out of our grasp.

 

[austinnn]

View attachment 2191682

Doubt that will be in the Top 10 phone wallpaper choices anytime soon, even within the Clark household!

Dude's best bet is to shave his head and go for the Ray Shoesmith vibe, those eyes could visit oppo players in their nightmares.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I just decided to look at the stats for average score involvements for 2024.
Not pretty for Saints.
Our best was Sinclair. 40th in the AFL.
then 70th Jack Higgins.
79th Jack Steele.
94th Mason Wood.
106th Hill.
112th Henry
118th King
141st Owens.
149th Clark
157th Marshall and Membrey

least score involvements on the list ,
650th Hastie with Paton and Collard challenging him.

 

[Neil Elvis Winmar]

We got Macrae, Carroll & Boxhall because we lost Ross & Crouch and our midfield lacked depth even with those players

100% Mike! We need 8 good mids to cover for niggles and injuries like all the top sides do. Crouch out last year really hurt us as he was our best mid the year before. You need a mix of complementary mids. When all were available he was clearly in and playing an important role. I would be picking him before Dow, Carrol, Jones and Garcia in a heartbeat, probably before Poo and Windhager too if I’m honest. To me out of the mids I would be taking in order McCrae, Steele, Clark, Poo then there’s the next group to pick from of Windhager, Dow, Carrol and Garcia. Wouldn’t be surprised if Boxsal doesn’t play at all this year unless mass injuries. Wilson may play a little bit in the middle but predominately HF/Wing and Travaglia wing.


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[thewatcher08]

Hearing about the leadership qualities that Pou has displayed this preseason, it makes me think of Elijah Tsatas slumming it at the Hangar. One is looking like a standard setter, leader and potential star of this league, while the other is a chance of being delisted.

As much as you want this to be true, Tsatas was Essendons best on in their last two match sims to end the year.
He is no chance of being delisted.

 

[stfan]

Yes. They would’ve.

Yes 100%

Macrae because we needed an immediate Crouch replacement.

Yes, and is most likely an upgrade though Crouch was our best mid in 2023.

And the other two for the future.
They’re 8 years younger than Hunter, they’re not replacing him now.

Carroll is just 4 years younger. Boxhall just over 7.

Boxhall is for the future, but I can really see that Carroll will be a good chance to be pushing into our 22 this season.


For 2025, I think we have our best group of mids for a long time. Competition should be fierce amongst our mids to be in the 22 and that is a very good thing. Hopefully it means that Sincs can play in his best postion for most of each game, HBF. With only some mid rotations to mix it up, or if we need to mix things up a bit.

Plus if we have some injuries we should have coverage.

 

[snails13]

Pardon my ignorance in regards to the Carlton supporter getting a life ban
How does the AFL monitor this,does he get Micro Chipped?

 

[Saint Watto]

Reckon I've racked up a good 10% of the views of this since it was uploaded.

It's like going past a bad car crash.........you just can't stop looking.

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

Not saying that they won't make it, but I think Hastie, Heath, Keeler and Schoonermonster still have to show a lot more before they are put in the same category as the other 4 names.

Coz of their age & size, referring more, to them being given more time to develop.

 

[The Jack]

Just saw max king drop all his luggage at the Gold Coast airport, he’s looking pretty thick thought he’d be a lot taller then what he actually is to

Sure it wasn’t Ben?

 

[OxSaint]

Clark does some rally good things on the inside but struggles outside the contest.

I hope he finds a way to impact outside of stoppage because if he doesn’t he will find if difficult to get selected. Ross wants multiple position types and a greater mix rolling through the middle. This is something Clark hasn’t suited so far.

With Steele, McRae, Pou, Windy and Sinclair will all spend good minutes in the middle. Not sure how you can play Clark if he has to spend half of his minutes out of the midfield.

 

[StFly]

Pardon my ignorance in regards to the Carlton supporter getting a life ban
How does the AFL monitor this,does he get Micro Chipped?

One word: Cameras.
Two words: Cameras & "Cards".

Let's use an example and say I own a pub, you walked in, saw someone you didn't like and you decided to uppercut them (well deserved). Me, watching the cams, saw this and my security asked you to leave, you didn't, so they threw you out the front door, in this moment you then got a document from me stating "you are banned from my establishments for throwing a mad right hook inside instead of outside FFS".

If you then decided to give it a week and come back;

You might gain entry.
You might get a drink.
As soon as an employee or myself then saw you on video, or your payment pinged for example, my security guard won't ask you leave, he will pick you up and throw you out a window because he's Russian and it comes naturally.

In this example, the stadium is just a bigger pub, with more employees, more cameras and more ways (given you are very proud of it and dox yourself on social media to show your form) that you then either get told to leave, or if afterwards you get a letter of litigation saying "my lawyer is charging you for tresspass..." since you know, you're banned and gained illegal entry to my thing, so my Russian got a window on the second floor this time.

So nah he's not microchipped, but there'd be a core list somewhere and people who need to know would be informed of that list. The rest is a person is smart, the people are stupid so will do half the work for you and since you know your bays as you are at the ground you then know "seat this, bay this" to send security.

As it was a member of a club (Carlton) they'd then have a member number, say 1234567 and a name, they'd then have details to say "this person and these things are banned" to formulate on that list.

If the supporter comes to a Blues thing, as they would also then have their card info, the Blues could also go "hey, AFL, this banned guy is here at X" also. So there are ways and things.

 

[Geezington]

Sure it wasn’t Ben?

yeah I’m certain it was max, blokes looking thicker then a bowl of porridge

 

[SteeleSaints]

Oh FFS give it a rest. Your posts are boring

And not one modicum of intelligence from yours!

 

[Michael Goodinski]

Yeah I've watched it a few times too.

I make up the other 90%.

 

[Michael Goodinski]

Yeah you beat me to it. Amazing stuff.

I think some habe forgotten how good Hunter's best was prior to McKay performing reconstructive facial surgery without an anaesthetic nor consent. He was tracking nicely towards being one of our most important and valuable mids prior to that shameful piece of viciousness.

In the latter part of last season, once his fitness and confidence were back up to snuff, he showed us all what he is truly capable of.

If at the end of the season, if it came down to a choice of who I'd keep, with all relevant factors being equal, I would send both of them out hunting, with the warning, "Two go out, but only one comes back." The one returning would be Hunter.

 

[austinnn]

Anyway, here is a Chrissy present from uncle Joffa.

Glory in this over the gloomy summer days until Jan 9th where we remorselessly march towards that last Saturday in September.

My favourite is the Italian looking Sheila desperately hitting her hand screaming touched touched

F yeah, it's a bit bitter knowing they actually did play finals but just for the thrill of snatching that win away from them and won off our own good work rather than luck or a technicality makes it repeated viewing. Thanks!