Carlton will continue to unveil attacking layers in its game plan in 2018, senior coach Brendon Bolton has revealed.
The Blues’ coaching boss indicated his team would find more ‘offensive flair’ this season, after stabilising the side’s backline in the first two years of his program.
“As a result of our list (previously) we probably had to focus in on our defensive part of the game, but in saying that offense is something that’s learned and trained and we’re working really hard on that this year,” Bolton said.
“We wanted to make sure we were a hard team to play against over the past couple of years. Our supporters see that we play with absolute effort in games.
“The second layer to that is just starting now where we put some offensive flair into the group and hopefully that starts to change now.
“We also have a couple of new coaches in this year with Cameron Bruce and David Teague and they’re assisting with those (attacking) layers of our game too so we’re looking forward to seeing where that goes in the next few years.”
After a breakout year in 2017, young forward Charlie Curnow has caused much excitement amongst the football fraternity but Bolton was quick to manage expectations around the 21-year-old moving into a midfield role on a permanent basis.
“There’s no doubt Charlie is a huge talent. We have to remember though that he’s only going into his third year but all of us can see that he’s an athlete,” he said.
“He can run, he’s got a huge engine and because of that, we think he can play some midfield times as well as forward. But right now while he’s learning the craft – and he still has a bit to learn as a forward too – he’ll predominately play there with bursts on ball too.
Exciting forward Charlie Curnow on the training track. (Photo: AFL Photos)
While the Blues lost All-Australian defender Sam Docherty on the eve of the pre-season campaign, Bolton was confident the void would be filled by a number of rebounding defenders on field in 2018.
“Our back half are really determined to fill the void of a missing Docherty. We think Aaron Mullett, Cam O’Shea, Ciaran Byrne, Tommy Williamson can step up to the opportunity,” Bolton told 3AW.
“They are all rebounding defenders who have to share the load and I don’t think its just up to one person.
“But ultimately, our group is really hungry to climb the ladder this year and irrespective of age, we’re not putting a ceiling on what we can achieve. We’re excited.”
