I agree with the instigator of this thread.......leadership at the club is rubbish, Swann and Icke excepted.
From the president down to the captain and player leadership group we are a rabble.
After showing some balls and starting to clean up the culture by removing Fev we have actually gone backwards....the penalties to the players do nothing IMHO to change the behaviour and are more about appeasing media and sponsors while not hurting the clubs onfield chances.
If we were fair dinkum we would have adopted the Geelong approach they took with Steve Johnson and banished the players including that clown who started that drinking game with Casboult for 6 senior AFL matches and then made them come back through the ressies...as it is the players were dealt with lightly.

When you have a president who has encouraged the drinking culture and the ways of the past its hard to change a " pisshead" mentality......Sticks has been great for the club in many ways but he should never have been allowed to prosper after the Ellliott regime was toppled.
The fact that he is showing some consideration to bringing Elliot back to the club is enough to show he isnt up to the job and never has been......

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Where has it been stated that he is showing consideration to bringing JE back apart from having lunch with him?

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

Wasnt stated directly thats true but I think you could draw some conclusions that the relationship between JE and the club is thawing and that Sticks is a big part of that and its a path we shouldnt be going down if it happens.

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

With Sticks, Elliott and 5 former CFC directors all having lunch together, common sense would suggest that Carlton was most likely a major topic of conversation at the time.
To suggest differently would be silly.

Now doesn't it seem a little shoddy that the current President who publicly banished Elliott from the club not so long ago would be dining and discussing Carlton with that same man??
Was the banishment merely an act? Seems so...

Whether you care to admit it or not, Elliott quite obviously still has some sort of influence in current proceedings via his association with Sticks.

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There's so much I could say...

I dunno, I have lunch with my ex-bosses and ex-old fogies from my workplace all of the time. Those that have left have left for various reasons and what they say about my current workplace (their old workplace) is either general inquiry or a bit of scorn. All of it disregarded.

On the basis outlined here any 1995 reunion would be seen to be a hotbed of political intrigue.

Do those ex-bosses and ex-old fogies have any dirt on you?

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There's so much I could say...

..case by case basis dude.. ..personally, i don't think Stick's is capable of 100% making up his own mind, and his own decisions.. ..i think he's too easily manipulated, it wouldn't be too hard to persuade/connive, and Stick's leave that lunch with all their talk bouncing around inside his noggin, only for him to wind up thinking it was all his own ideas.. ..i just don't have confidence in him, or in his ability to have lunch with said ppl, and still be 'his own man'..

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

Elwood I gave you far more credit than falling for a BS piece about a group people having a Christmas lunch catchup. I had drinks with some ex bosses pre Christmas but it doesn't mean I'm going back to work for them.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

Budsy just because you seem to be able to add 2 and 2 and come up with 5 time and again in your own mind doesn't make it fact in real life.

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

You could've saved time by just typing 'shit post' ..

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There's so much I could say...

The AFL is unique and different to what we face in our own professional lives.

We cannot understand the amount of scrutiny anyone involved at the top end of an AFL club are subjected too. It may not be fair but its a fact of life.

If any of us are seen out with our ex-employer or workmates no one will blink an eye at it. When the President of our football club is seen out with a disgraced former President and a group of ex board members, who were voted out at the lowest point of our clubs history...its news and will be a big story. Why take the chance on it getting out? By all means have lunch with them but do it in a private place. We talk about the players having a responsibility to do the right thing and not draw negative attention to the club, that applies to everyone involved.

Now the timing may be unfortunate, given it happened before, and may not have come out if not for the 'booze crooze', but it looks awful and given Sticks loyalty and friendship to Elliott...it looks a thousand times worse.

We simply cannot afford to have this kind of attention and speculation.

If you look back over time, Im a Sticks supporter and generally a supporter of the club as a whole...I still support Ratts...but things like this make even me wonder.

I dont think for a moment that Sticks is trying to get Elliott involved with the club in an official capacity, but why take the chance on it getting into the media?

The most disappointing thing is Sticks response when asked about it.

"Its none of your business, but yes I did have lunch with them".

You're talking to a media group that is all over us at the moment and we throw that out to them, a great way to get them on-side.

The way this club handles media relations is stuck in the 80's where you give them nothing. Well, as much as we may dislike the notion that the media have much, much more to give to us than we to them, thats the way it is, and we need to start co-operating with them rather than fighting against them.

I still believe we have some good people at the club, but unless they change some worrying aspects of their behaviour and attitude...I would support change.

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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

Cazz, Not falling for anything, just curious why our president would lunch with a disgraced former president who attracts the media for all the wrong reasons.....ex workmates/bosses is a bit different to disgraced former president who ruined the business and sent it to the wall and a man who continues to hurt the club with his media outbursts.
I would prefer our president to distance himself from Elliott....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Got to agree with Sticks on this one . No-one elses business who he has lunch with .

I've had a couple of lunches with JE myself . Very interesting bloke , and good company .

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Get the facts first.
Then you can distort them at your leisure.

My mum is a mad Scum supporter and she spent a lovely tram ride with him and said he was delightful.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

THE END.

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

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There's so much I could say...

the leadership i want to see atm is for someone at the club to come out and tell the AFL, demetriou, and the herald sun to go FU%& THEMSELVES...

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"Then joked and said he (Jack himself) probably wouldn't even need to play until round 2 against Collingwood."

getting a bit sick of the sticks bashing , the guy has done more for this club than practically anyone! he may make the odd error in judgement (who doesn't)!! but im sure he would give his left nut to see this club reach the top once again! where we belong... it's not neccessarily always a bad thing for the president to have a close relationship with the playing group, sticks is a hell of smarter than most people give him credit for! my bet is we will all be lauding him in 3 years time for helping create another carlton dynasty.. I can smell what were cooking and its a 2012 premiership!!!

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"Then joked and said he (Jack himself) probably wouldn't even need to play until round 2 against Collingwood."