Former AFL coach Terry Wallace fears the failure of Carlton’s youth to develop at a rate fast enough to intersect with the careers of its core of senior stars will leave the club in no man’s land.
Having stockpiled a bevy of young stars, including Charlie Curnow, Patrick Cripps, Sam Petrevski-Seton, Caleb Marchbank, Jacob Weitering and Jack Silvagni, the key for coach Brendon Bolton is to develop the group fast enough to marry up with the careers of Marc Murphy, Kade Simpson, Levi Casboult, Matthew Kreuzer and Liam Jones.
“The biggest issue for Carlton is that they’ve got no mid-range age bracket players,” Wallace told SEN’s The Run Home.
“They’re all kids or all senior players. Can the kids develop quick enough to have the senior players around when they are good enough? I’ve got my doubts on that.”
Regular senior performers aged between 23 and 25 include Sam Docherty and Lachie Plowman.
Others, including Jed Lamb and Sam Kerridge, are yet to cement senior positions on a regular basis.
“I think that the group of young players they’ve got will take Carlton back to being a good side but it’s going to take a bit longer than fans would be hoping for,” Wallace said.
“And that’s where the pressure, somewhere along the line, whether it’s next year or the year after, starts to come on Brendon Bolton because I don’t think fans will see the improvement quick enough with senior guys tipping over the other edge.”
Despite winning just six games in 2017 Wallace believes the Blues took a step forward from the side that won seven matches last year, given this year’s team contained infinitely more young players.
Carlton heads to this month’s national draft armed with picks 3, 10 and 30. Trade period acquisitions included former Giant Matthew Kennedy, former first-round Cat Darcy Lang and veteran Port Adelaide ruckman Matthew Lobbe.
Wallace said the other question needing to be answered was who would step up and kick the side to victory.
The Blues finished dead last in points for last season with an average of 11 goals per game.
Only two players - Levi Casboult and Matthew Wright – kicked more than 21 goals in 2017.