AS news spread that Carlton vice-captain Patrick Cripps had re-signed with the Club for a further two years, it marked the eighth player to recommit to the Blues in 2018.
Throughout the course of the season, Carlton has secured the signatures of high-flying forward Charlie Curnow, skipper Marc Murphy, last year’s early draft picks Paddy Dow, Lochie O’Brien and Tom De Koning, as well as second-year players Zac Fisher and Patrick Kerr.
Facing the media at Ikon Park yesterday, ‘Crippa’ spoke about his staunch belief in the Club’s direction and the family-like friendships he had formed at the Blues – sentiments echoed by all eight players at the time of their re-signings.
Speaking to SEN radio host and self-proclaimed Bluebagger Andy Maher on Thursday, Carlton’s Head of Football Andrew McKay said retaining these core players would go a long way to luring experienced talent to the Club come October’s trade period.
“For Charlie to sign on long term, for Paddy to sign on long term, Murphy to sign on for another couple of years, and the youngsters in Dow, O’Brien, Fisher, Kerr and De Koning, it really shows that they’ve got confidence in the direction of the Club and I think that is a really helpful thing for anyone contemplating coming to Carlton,” McKay said.
“The players all do talk, particularly someone looking to come to a club. They’ll talk to people in that club and if those people have got great confidence in what we’re doing and the programs in place, then that all goes a long way in recruiting them.”
It’s been well documented that Carlton’s list is “thin” for players between the ages of 23 and 27. McKay stated that adding depth to this area of the squad remained an important focus for list manager Stephen Silvagni and his recruiting team, who plan to play an active role during the trade period.
“We are very active and will continue to be very active,” he said.
“We’re thin in that 23-27 age bracket and that’s a really important age bracket for us. We have a few young boys and a few older boys as well, so we do need to get some of those middle-range players in at the end of the year. The list management group are working really hard to make that happen.”
With the Blues potentially holding the No.1 pick at this year’s draft, McKay said the Club hadn’t made up its mind whether it will trade for its first-round selection.
“We haven’t really got a feel for it as yet (trading the Club’s first pick),” he said.
“What we do know is that we’ll have a really good pick on our hands come the end of the season, and what we do with that, we’ll have to decide closer to the time.”
The Blues travel to the Gold Coast this weekend to face the Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night. All the action kicks off at 7:25pm.
Little Bluebaggers, Charlie has signed on – but have you? Charlie is currently recruiting new members of his 2019 crew! Time is running out to take advantage of our special introductory offer on our new-look junior membership – Charlie’s Crew. Click here for more details.
