Carlton not offering D.Thomas another contract...interested?

[Raw Hammer]

Is he coming home?

[BazBoy]

Is that official—-not the coming home part

The not offering new contract part

[Pies4shaw]

We're getting "Mr Fabulous" and "Blue Lou" next.

"The band, Elwood, the band".

[Woods]

[BazBoy]

“Asta La Vista Daisy”

[RudeBoy]

We let him go to the scum for a reason.

Sadly, his body was wrecked when he left us.

I'll always have a soft spot for him, as he was a prodigious talent and an instant star for us, and clearly our best player over the finals series when we won the flag in 2010.

Thanks for the memories Daisy.

[3rd degree]

[BazBoy]

Daisy has been doing a “Luke Hodge” at Scumland and their recent lift has been aided by his experience
I drink at Parkview Hotel (a Carlton fortress) and they always have a Blues game on tv —-he ain’t quick nowadays but pill in hand he sets up good moves

Come back to us. Well don’t see it

[MagpiesTheGreat]

Thanks Daisy.

Now finally you can totally eliminate the scum dirt from your blood.

[BazBoy]

Born June 1987 (six months before fellow inductee to Collingwood Scott Pendlebury) he could well have a couple of years in that body —tho unlike Scott he had a bad injury period

Would he be a “on field general” for the likes of Stewart Dew or other struggling sides —-Doubt be to our advantage

[WhyPhilWhy?]

Well, if Mick's really a chance to coach the Saints...

[BazBoy]

Give the man three names.
DRJ Thomas. aka Dale Robert Jordan Thomas

[David]

I always liked him and think he's actually played pretty well for Carlton at times, albeit only a shadow of what we was like at his best for us. I think he definitely still has something to contribute at AFL level, but I don't see why he'd be particularly interested in coming back here.

As for us, we have enough injury-prone veterans as it is, and one of the less promising under-23 groups in the comp (according to a recent afl.com.au article, which made the case pretty well). Time to invest in youth.

[neil]

No too old too injured

[Pies4shaw]

^ The "under 23" line is fairly arbitrary, though.

De Goey, Stephenson, Quaynor, Callum Brown, Tom Phillips, Daicos, Kelly, Murphy, Moore, Tyler Brown, Sier, Maynard, Crocker, Appleby, Tohill, Lynch, Keane, Noble and Bosenavulagi are all 23 or under. It just looks a lot less impressive if you take the couple of 23 year olds (JDG, Moore, Phillips) out. If you add the players who are 24 or 25, you put in Grundy, Langdon, Scharenberg, Aish, Adams and Broomhead.

Really, the only players who look to be close to the end and in apparent need of imminent replacement are Wells, Reid, Goldsack, Dunn, Mayne, Beams, Varcoe and Greenwood. 6 of those 8 were recruited late in their careers to add experience to a young list. On what those players have produced in 2019, it shouldn't be too hard to replace them - there are no top-5 best and fairest types in that list on their 2019 output.

The next bunch of players behind that lot but also racing against time includes Pendlebury, Roughead, Howe, Cox, Sidebottom, Thomas and Elliott. That list probably includes 5 of our first 10 picked players. We obviously need others to come on to fill the void that will be left. I'm reasonably confident that we have good young defenders on the list (although, sadly, not on the park because of injuries) but Cox is obviously one out of the box and players don't come along every day who have the size and athleticism to do what he does when he is going well and Pendlebury and Sidebottom are our two most consistent star performers of the last decade. At some stage we need to get some high picks to replace the real stars, or else attract top end free agent talent.

Other than the medium-term problem of replacing those 5 consistent senior players gradually over about 3 seasons (some sooner, some later across those years), the list is just fine. As Hawthorn showed in 2012 to 2015, you can fill even gaping holes in a list with good recruiting, once your window is open.