BUCKLE UP FOR WILD RIDE MITCH
AFL: When a wildly talented yet unfulfilled talent from a powerhouse side wants to go to the worst team in the competition, they should never turn him down.
It’s why Carlton’s recruitment of former Adelaide star Mitch McGovern is a huge success for the Blues.
They ended up giving two mid-20s picks and a state league player (Shane McAdam) they only realised they had access to two weeks ago for a player with huge talent.
A forward line of Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and McGovern should be locked in for the next six to eight years.
The considerable caveat is that McGovern actually hasn’t done too much yet.
This year the 190cm marking forward kicked 15 goals from 12 games, with five of them coming against the Blues in Round 7 in an easy 55-point win.
Last year he kicked 20 in 13 games and in 2016 he kicked 32 goals from 23 games. In 2017 he kicked more than two goals on only three occasions despite the Crows being the highest-scoring team in the competition.
In 2016 he again kicked over two goals on only three occasions, the Crows again the highest-scoring team in the comp.
He is about to go to the lowest-scoring team in the competition, illustrating his challenges as a player and also why the Blues would want him.
Carlton just doesn’t kick 100 points as a rule, going back 55 games to mid 2016 since the last time they hit three figures.
“He’s got a great pair of hands and we’ve all seen how accurate he is in front of goal, so we’re excited to see what he can produce alongside our young forwards that we’ve drafted in Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay and Tom De Koning,” Blues list manager Steve Silvagni said.