A lot of us have been worried about the boys over using the ball in recent times.

Ratten has come out and said that we missed a lot of our initial handballs on Saturday night, which forced us into over handballing to get out of trouble. While I think this is somewhat true, I believe there may be another reason why we have been playing a game style that over uses that ball.

I have a feeling that Ratts is trying to get as much "football Saturation" into the boys in order to fast track them. The fact that we are doing 5 times the amount of ball work at training since Pagan galvanizes these thoughts.


So I believe we may be overusing the ball somewhat on purpose due to this new game plan.
This game plan ensures that the young guys learning will get the ball in their hands more times under match conditions, and the end result is they get to also feel included, even forced to get into the game, and their confidence should blossom quicker.
We also get to see who can handle the pace of the game sooner rather than later.

Naturally this gameplan will be changed when the time is is right.

The player still needs to do all the hard work to involve himself, but he won't get a better opportunity than playing under Coach Brett Ratten.

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

The more you do something, the better you get at it. So naturally if Ratts perseveres in grinding the players with endless handballing and running drills, it will become second nature to them.

He'll probably get them to start sleeping with their footies, name their footies, talk to their footies.

This is my football
There are many like it but this one is mine
My football is my best friend

It is my life
I must master it
As I must master my life.

Without me my football is useless
Without my football, I am useless
I kick and handpass my football true
I must kick straighter than my enemy who is trying to tackle me
I must dodge him before he tackles me.
I will

Before God I swear this creed
My football and myself are defenders of the Carlton Football Club
We are the masters of our enemy
We are the saviours of the football masses

So be it
Until there is no enemy
But Premierships
Amen...

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

that's just a convoluted excuse for the fact that we played like crap on saturday night. You can't justify the way we played by saying it was intentional - that's deluded. We got a footy lesson from a team that is much better than ours.

Everyone should stop trying to rationalise our defeat, and take it for what it was - A NAB cup thumping. May be insignificant, may be significant, time will tell. Enough with the excuses.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

The way I see it, if you look at the bombers - running in waves, drawing players, using forward handpasses etc. By the time round 1 rolls around, everyone will have them completely sussed and they'll probably be looking at a spoon. With our boys, none of the opposition forward scouts will be able to pick our patterns. We could fumble, u-turn, switch to a contest in corridoor or handpass behind a bloke at any moment. It's all part of a greater plan

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I AM DISENFRANCHISED