I was just looking at the predictions of the AFL Guide for Carlton prior to Season 2004.....it's eye opening.

Bloody hell!.....we finished 15th in 2003 under Pagan after wooden spooning the year before.

Our Club Personnel going into Season 2004 was:

President: Ian Collins.

CEO: Michael Malouf.

Football Operations: Grant Williams.

Commercial Operations: Judy Cain.

Recruiting Manager: To be advised............

Coaching Staff: Denis Pagan
Tony Elshaug
Tony Liberatore
Barry Mitchell.

Selection Committee: Stephen Kernahan
Denis Pagan
Tony Elshaug
Tony Liberatore
Barry Mitchell.

Arrivals:

Jordan Bannister
Glen Bowyer
David Clarke
Adrian De Luca
Daniel Harford
Brett Johnson
Stephen Kenna
Jon McCormick
Cory McGrath
Digby Morell
Ricky Mott
Heath Scotland....................HOORAY!
Nick Stevens.................DITTO.
David Teague...............DITTO.
Andrew Walker.................DRAFT....................ANOTHER HOORAY!

Departures:

Matty Allen
Simon Beaumont
Andrew Eccles
Simon Fletcher
Scott Free born
Adrian Hickmott
Glenn Manton
Mick Martyn
Adam Mathews
Andrew McKay
Corey McKernan
Andrew Merrington
Justin Murphy
Sean O'Keefe
Jim Plunkett
Brett Ratten.

We've already come a loooooong way..................

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

When you look at those guys, all leaving at the same time.
there is a fair bit of talent in there, sure beaumont, murphy and manton are honest toilers, but handy in a good side.
the others were all A grade to Elite players at some point atleast.

thats an awful lot of talent and experience leaving your team in one season. no wonder we struggled, replacing half the side with borderline AFL/VFL standard players like mott, de luca, kenna etc

The most disappointing year in our history IMO.

Short sighted decisions and pig headed egos ruled the day.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Absolutely agree, 2004 was the year we were permitted back in the first 2 rounds of the Draft - we could have had a go at Deledio, Franklin, Roughead - probably set us back a year or two finishing 11th.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Just long enough to get Murphy GIBBS and Kreuzer.

Genius!

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

And Judd!

2004 may well have been a blessing in disguise (assuming we wouldn't have picked up Franklin).

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There is no footy god

..ppl like to piss on 2004, but ppl are stupid.. ..if we played with the same guts as we did that year, we'd be twice as good now, and would have only ever been half as bad..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

Not with that list.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Yeah, but we finished 16th and 15th the 2 years prior WITH all those players.....

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And if memory serves we finished 16th and 16th to 2 years AFTER.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill