At the start of the year the aim was clearly 8 wins.
Whilst we all got ahead of ourselves and dreamed of finals we are yet to achieve this minimum criterion.
If we don't win another game will this have been a successful year?

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

There will be lots of questions if we dont win another game, this is possible. Port is the only game I am confident of winning.
The kids will tire now and the season could go like last year.

A fixed number of wins is a pretty arbitrary measure. Sunday's game was a better performance than some of our wins this year. How do you measure that?

At the start of the year I just wanted to see some serious development of the kids and that's exactly what we're getting. If the pace of development continues at the rate it has over the last four months we'll be challenging sooner rather than later.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

They might do or they might get fired up after getting so close to a top 4 team. I think the season is working well for us and many of the next 6 games are now winnable as other teams get injuries or drop off. Port, Adelaide, North and Brisbane are all winnable if we keep the fitness and interest up. I'd like to see more runners in to at least try to take the back pocket position.

The boys won't be tiring like past seasons as per our fitness program put in place by Cordy, so I expect to finish strongly with another 2 more wins as a minimum - 4 more wins is achieveable IMHO.

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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.

just practice for next year

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NG
S M C , S F L

We should be able to win two more, involving two of Crows, Power and Norf

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world

I think we’ll win the flag – but only just

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#DonTheStash

I measure it as a loss.

If we take heart from honorable losses we are entering St Kilda territory

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

No its not St. Kilda territory its AFL territory.

Its the cycle of success system and its what the AFL wants.

People reckon the EPL is boring - with the usual pre-season bookmakers market of:

- Manchester United
- Arsenal
- Chelsea
- Liverpool

As the permanent top four in the betting.

But once the AFL season starts there is only 1 team that can win it this year with maybe 1 or 2 challenging (if lucky) - nearly as boring.

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

Winston Churchill

if we end up on 7 (my initial prediction) then i dont think it would be a successful season. obviously a improvement tho. we wont make finals and would only have won 3 more games than last year. i think at this stage 8 wins is looking likely (vs port).

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"You don’t get much more Navy Blue than Stephen Kernahan" - Marc Murphy

But the EPL is part of several leagues, English Club Championship, F.A. Cup, the European competitions. So it's not the be all and end all to alot of the midrange teams.

Besides, nobody picked Geelong to win the '07 flag at the beginning of last year and most grand final sides fall back to the pack after a few years. Combine that with a four week finals system and it's hardly boring.

Carlton is a young team and they're not there yet, hopefully they can focus on:

+ Building a less Fevola-centric forward line,
+ Settling a close-knit back six,
+ Developing the ruck options of Kruezer, Hampson and Cloke
+ Getting younger players to step up to the mantle on more established opponents
+ And scaring and hunting a few of the finals-bound teams along the way!

The first four points are more important than winning a few cheap games.

You can now go every single week, confident.

We have been in a position of strength in all but 2 out of 16 games. this year, (Cats and Brisbane) Biggest loss against the best side. But 100 point losses are gone. Defense has improved and we have injuries. Mids are exceptional and will get better. Fev is still the main target, but things will change there too.

It is all about development.

Look at the bottom end of the list and there lies the problem.

It is about the weakness more than the strength.

Cast your mind back to 1995 and who could not get a game in the premiership side?

Who is in and out of the side for the Cats? Prismall, Taylor, Varcoe. Ready made replacements. They do not miss a beat. It is all about depth. Nathan Ablett. has he been missed? Tom Hawkins, can not get a game! We would love him!

10 wins is very gettable - we will finish the season strongly. a great base for 2009...

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My Blue Heaven

Hopefully there is no Round 22 debacle this year...

this is clearly a break through season but that list needs alot of improvement..

I prefer to look at our season from a viewpoint of a few key areas...

Have we been belted by 10+ goals....? nope (except for the Geelong game, 56 pts... but not over 10 goals - 60 pts - though!)

Managed to come back into the game being 3-5 goals down...? yep! past years we would have had our heads down and got belted

Percentage - much healthier this year, sure it is not over 100, but it's not down in the 70's either...

Couldn't care less how many games we have won and will win this year - the improvement I have seen from a few basic stats has made me realise we are on our way up!

Regards, Shaun (sticks1977)

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37°47'1.59"S - 144°57'43.30"E - Home

I agree, in the last round against Sydney I was sitting there thinking all I want is for us to put on a serious show against a dead set top 6 side. It didnt matter that we lost, I was expecting as much, but there were small moments here and there that told me that our team will be a force to be reckoned with in a few seasons.

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Blues Forever!

The big improvers so far this year;
JR (he's starting to position himself much better, the only problem is his foot skills)
Gibbo (has taken off at the speed of light)
Bentick (Is back in the game)
Grigg (comenting his spot in the team)
Bower (same as Grigg)
Hammer (coming on in leaps and bounds )
Army (had some fantastic games for a 1st year player)
Jamo (Settling nicely at FB)

Add to the list if you think anyone else deserves to be in there.

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Blues Forever!

who will we beat. port and.....

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"You don’t get much more Navy Blue than Stephen Kernahan" - Marc Murphy