I think it's more informative to look at who Cale is competing with to get a game in round 1, and there aren't many on the list with his attributes. I reckon he is jostling with the likes of Blease, Strauss, and Tom McDonald, judging on his training group. Blease is almost the incumbent, Strauss may not be ready, and Tom is being tried elsewhere... Cale is in the mix but it will be tough getting a gig in the back half if all our blokes are available... Our best back-half includes Frawley, Garland, Rivers, Bennell, Grimes, and perhaps Sellar and Joel Mac.

Although several of you believe Cale is a dud one only has to watch his first 2 years at the club to realize the talent is there. He is tall, has a great tank and can play forward or back. Having him in the midfield was a mistake of the past coaching team. His physical size is irrelevant, it's his desire to get the ball that must get bigger not his biceps. He needs to be coached to play to his strengths,running, marking and kicking must become top notch for Cale to fulfill his promise.

As for expectations being too high, bull dust, he was pick 4 and needs to deliver. I'm backing him to make it simply because he is now surrounded by a top notch coaching team with the facilities to match.

Geez a lot of talk again about Morton.

FWIW, I reckon Morton still has big potential. I was talking to a couple of mates recently who don't follow the Dees and from the outside their thoughts were that Morton would be a gun at say Collingwood. I was surprised as many on here would be, so pressed further for them to explain. They both for different reasons rated him, but to summarise they saw him with elite qualities you just cannot buy, i.e elite tank, relatively good speed and very good height. Not a bloke to play the Luke Ball role inside, but the perfect outside on-baller (wing, on ball) to kick to and possible run forward and kick a few. Yes and they knew he is not physical at present.

When i suggested they had not see enough, they argued they had in recent times and saw a bloke playing in a side against a tidal wave at times, and nobody looks good when that happens.

It did get me thinking though, would we regret it if we traded Cale? I remember watching training years ago and saw Jolly miss mark after mark, a bloke with zero confidence despite developing into a good size. He literally took years and years but came good.

Too much can happen in development to discount any player I reckon.

In Cales case I reckon when his tackles start to stick we will see some real improvement. Thats the biggest weakness in his game and the one I know should turn around.

I was really shocked when the club gave him a two year deal to tie us to him until the end of 2013, I felt he hadn't earned it and it was a massive leap of faith on our part. I'm hopeful that he can make good on our faith but not overly optomistic, happy to be proved wrong but it really is down to him.

No one can ever deny there's talent there, but so too with the other Mortons and they have all fallen on the scrap heap as well. This must be a do or die year, if he doesn't make it then I think we should look for a trade.

Edited January 30, 201213 yr by Pates

As far as i am concerned Cale gets the present preseason and this season to prove us all wrong. I will be really interested to see how the FD & Neeld use Cale in the structure, or if he is not used. It is now up to Cale to shape up. His pace throughout a game is his positive. Where will that place him?

Interesting...

How can he prove you wrong, if you're giving him the upcoming season before passing judgment..?

Personally, I can't wait for the next training reports thread to be hijacked by how poor Cale was.

How can he prove you wrong, if you're giving him the upcoming season before passing judgment..?

Don't quite understand what you mean there 25. I Am giving him a year under the new football department before i make any judgement. I think Cale has talent. But does he know how to get it on the park?

I think Cale is an interesting case. Does he lack confidence? Heart? Both? Like many, I think he definitely has the potential and just needs to put it into good use. I hope Neeld and co show some faith in him and help him get his confidence up so we can see what he's got. I think having a full preseason should definitely help in his development and hopefully help him reach the heights that he is capable of.

Edit: FWIW It seems that a lot of people on here are against Cale and hoping that he doesn't succeed. He's not going to gain any confidence if the supporters are jumping all over him every time he screws up.

Edited January 30, 201213 yr by Good Times Grimes

I signed in to read about Mondays Training and found 40 threads about Cale.

In the future if anyone mentions Cale Morton can they start a new thread, so most of us can then ignore it.

I have been a Cale supporter to this point... In relation to my training report, Cale was getting quite a bit of the ball deep in defence (I suggest the coaches wanted it this way) and he had a few bloopers with short kicks. Nothing critical, mind you, but reminiscent of a few in games we remember. FACT: Cale is unreliable when kicking from 15 to 40 metres... He needs to improve in that facet of his game and we supporters want to see the improvement now!

Don't quite understand what you mean there 25. I Am giving him a year under the new football department before i make any judgement. I think Cale has talent. But does he know how to get it on the park?

It's an oxymoron.

He can only prove you wrong if you already judged him... but you're saying you will reserve judgment.

Anyway, just a quirk I noticed.

I have been a Cale supporter to this point... In relation to my training report, Cale was getting quite a bit of the ball deep in defence (I suggest the coaches wanted it this way) and he had a few bloopers with short kicks. Nothing critical, mind you, but reminiscent of a few in games we remember. FACT: Cale is unreliable when kicking from 15 to 40 metres... He needs to improve in that facet of his game and we supporters want to see the improvement now!

My opinion = FACT.

He's a kid who made a handful of mistakes in a training drill, when it sounds like he was made the main person responsible for delivering the ball out the backline.

There's a reason he was chosen for this role, and being "piggy in the middle" gives him more opportunities to make mistakes than anyone else. In this situation, I can forgive him for making a few errors.

That's the whole point of training, really.

Yes Lutz that's what I said!

My opinion = FACT.

He's a kid who made a handful of mistakes in a training drill, when it sounds like he was made the main person responsible for delivering the ball out the backline.

There's a reason he was chosen for this role, and being "piggy in the middle" gives him more opportunities to make mistakes than anyone else. In this situation, I can forgive him for making a few errors.

That's the whole point of training, really.

My comment on the training report was purely on his actions at training yesterday, and based on how he performed he didn't demonstrate to me that he's been working on his deficiencies hard enough. However, I will admit it was only one session that I am basing my view and maybe he just had a bad day...

It should also be noted that he wasn't really the 'main' person reponsible for delivering the ball out of the backline, it was just that he received the footy on the half back flank a handful of times in a short period and almost stuffed up every disposal. It was really noticeable. It was also quite noticeable that once the regular playmakers i.e. Garland, Chip etc were given the task of moving the ball out, there were much less errors and plenty of fluid movement up the ground.

He's had plenty of time to work on his deficiencies and so far he's shown little improvement. I'll give him this season to prove me wrong.

Folks I hope nobody minds but this thread has degenerated into a whinge session on a player that transcends its original intention and has become repetitious and boring.

I think everyone gets the message that some people have decided, fairly or unfairly (unfairly IMO) that we now have a new whipping boy despite the first NAB CUp game being almost a month away.

I believe there's another training session tomorrow but for the time being, I'm applying the Morton button on this subject and closing the thread.