If Ratts can't get his message through to the most productive 22 players available for selection on the list and get them to play a productive brand of football, he should go.
In my book, he's got 12 months...

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There's so much I could say...

After seeing the last 2 Ants games, I would only punt on Yarran, & at this stage of his development, it would be a huge punt.

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Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Ratts should look at all aspects of what hes getting out of this team.
Not just Fev,

Coaching is a major worry.
Every other club seems to find space in their forward lines.. Except us.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Teams are bringing in players and they are looking good almost immediately.
One reason is theyre playing to a system of sustainability.
I dont want to believe our recruiters are recruiting hacks.
I dont want to believe our list is just crapola.
I believe and it is my opinion we have a coach who just doesnt understand AFL 2009.Hes more in tune to what was happening in Circa 2006.
He has no clue... and yes it is a dogs breakfast!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

A bit of deflecting ...
We went in top heavy.... and he wants to bring in T Bird
We have little run.
We fiddle with the ball.
The midfield is unaccountable including Judd.

Naming Fev... is laughable...

Were splitting pen at the seems all over the ground.. not just inside 50..ut getting it inside 50

Ratts should do the right thing and begin to examine whatever it is hes been doing with this team for 41 games.
The lock out sessions...

.... its just laughable now..

We dont zone and we dont play man on man.

Thats why Army is struggling... cos everybody else is also.

We dont have shape.

Players have undefined roles.... well undefined to me trying to watch...

Back to the drawingboard Ratts and get it right with something that works.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

On the one hand I want to give him more time because its a young team ... blah, blah, blah

On the other hand I want to strangle hime because we seem to be making the same mistakes over and over again and I still cannot work out a gameplan or an effective kick in strategy.

But the thing that upsets me the most is that he cannot get the team to fire up!

The players should have been tearing the walls down coming out of the rooms Friday, instead I was surprised they made it though the banner!

To me it just seems the team has taken Ratts' laid back attitude to heart.

I do not know but flowering fix it! Like I have said many times I do not mind when we lose if we play with passion and pride for the jumper A.K.A Hawthorne, St. Kilda ,,, but when we lose with heaps of passengers and a listful performance ... geez it makes my blood boil.

In the end nothing will happen for a while in regards to Ratts so lets wait and see ... lust hope he grows some balls and swings the axe good and proper this week.

He has to learn u have no mates as a coach!

Once the honeymoon period is over... teams will only fire up if they believe in his tactics.

His... "we have the ball so they dont... and therefore cant score" tactics are a web that will catch US often enough...

The amount of times we try and keep possesion in a very mechanical undrilled sense... only to turn it over with one handball too many... or when we try and slow it down.. and then get caught having to move it forwrd into a huge zone.. and then hoof it forward in hope is remarkable...

Thats just bad coaching and poor drilling right there...

When you come across opposition coaches who are prepared and have prepared their teams for your one dimmensional bullshit...youre going to get strangled and then spanked...
That will zap a team of any confidence....AND they wont believe in the "We have to beat them cos we hate them" tactics if 1/4 in your tactics and everything you have been taught to do are not happening for you...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Perfectly stated. If you are running out on the field wearing the navy blue, you give it your all. It does not always guarantee a win, but it should buffer against what we saw Friday night.
PS. I'll tell you why we are even more flowered than some posters want you to believe. WE HAVE NO DEPTH. PERIOD. Anderson, Russell, Cloke, Wiggins, Edwards, Fisher are not the answer. Armfield, Bannnister, (maybe Browne) are VFL standard. Garlett is exciting, but needs 3-5 years of muscle developoment. Robinson looks alright (very natural kicking style) Hampson has a lot of upside, jury is still out on Grigg, Yarran, I have no idea about, Daniel Rich's non selection is getting harder and harder to digest. The 3 W's will be handy in 2010..........AND in my opinion, Stevo, Houla, maybe Scotland and Fev will be gone in two years time. And again, Judd's body can only take so much. Get some animals in there to knock out his taggers
Our list is pretty ordinary. We have yobbo, boozing acting prez whose only retort when the media criticise Carlton is "we're carlton.....the rest of you go forth", we have a coach who was once a great club champion player whose stocks are diving by the week and by the press conference.
God help us if Greg Swann starts to see the writing on the wall and looks for greener pastures.....God help us
I know I've stuck my neck out and provided fodder some on this site telling me I'm overreacting and negative. Put this post in time capsule and talk to me at the end of 2010

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Am listening to 3AW and a caller rang through and made this point.........

Essendon* got rid of Bannister cause he was no good and 5 years on he is still getting a game for Carlton.

I don't know about you but i find it absolutely embarrassing when i see Fisher, Bannister and Houlihan named in our squad. Just proves that we lack depth when i see these names and until its decided to not play them and rid the club of these passengers we will be going nowhere

I heard that caller, he had lots of questions and Walls didnt hold back with his answers. Ratten has been copping lots of flak from talk back radio since Friday night, so has Fev. Walls doesnt think we can win a premiership with Fev and says that Carlton has created the mess by not doing anything about him over the years and they are now stuck with the problem.
A Richmond supporter just rang through and said how good it was listening to Carlton supporters especially after what happened in round one.

Essendon* did to us what we did to Richmond in round and it ruined there season. The test now is to see if we are strong enough to deal with it, put it behind us and move forward?

Oh dear....

Some of the tripe that has appeared on the forum since the loss is just

Patience is the key here. Anything on our list drafted before 2002 excluding Fev Judd Waite and possibly scotland and thornton are just taking up space. They are the ones that over the next few years will be replaced with better modern players.
the core of our group drafted between 2005 -2009 need time to grow and evolve together. 80+ games. These blokes have years ahead of them. Expecting consistant week in week out performances is expecting a miracle with our list.

I am upset we cant handle Essendon* and confused by it. Confused how we can have it over Collingwood and the Dogs. They both can have it over the Swans. Its strange but with maturity our team is going to be a gun team.

Look at the age of the best players in the league. Look at the average age and onball fleets of each of the best teams. Ours are still kids in comparison.

Now sure we got beaten by a young team in Essendon* but thats footy. They were just better than us and won more contests. Contested ball winning has been good for us this year. On friday night it was crap. We lost. Lets knuckle down and get it right and bounce back.

We may have botched our season with some stupid losses but it isnt the end of the world. Relax and enjoy watching this team go through the ups and downs of a growing team.

I was surprised they dropped Garlett with his fierce tackling and pace......the traits Essendon* had in spades over us.

I think he and Yarran should be in the side to gain experience and confidence.....they are our Lovett and Brad Dick.....play them!

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

Our coach seems to have obvious deficiencies with the tactical aspect of the game and needs asistance in this area, and I just think that Ratts' senior assistant 'Bomber' Riley hasnt got enough senior coaching experience to be a valuable help to Ratts in this area.....
Furthermore, if we dont make the finals with the tallent we;ve got, then be powers that be might be tempted to see if maybe there are better coaching options out there to take us forward the next step...

Some answers I want from Ratten are:
Why did he choose to flood when we were kicking with the wind against Adelaide ? You dont need to be a rocket scientist to see that this was a stupid decision.
Why did he pick a slow side when we have obvious issues handling Essendon*'s speed ?
Why do we always fall for the same trick against Essendon* (speed and not blocking their run through the corridor) ?
Why are the skills/tackling abilities of the players so sh*t ?
Why doesnt he instruct any of the players to block for Judd the way Geelong blocks for Ablett ?
Why doesnt he make the hard calls at the selection table ?
Why havent we fixed our kicking in problem which was so obvious last year ?



Exactly... we could all see that speed has always been our problem against Essendon*... So what did Ratten do ? Drop a speedster to bring in a tall slow forward... Well done 'Einstein'...

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

Loving your work lately, 29.

Knights isn't under pressure to win neither is Craig Worsfold Harvey Bailey Voss
results don't matter they can develop throw caution to the wind
Ratts Wallace Williams Roos Eade Malthouse Thompson Lyon are all under pressure to win all of these coaches are constantly watching their backs and under severe scrutiny from fans
Ratts unlike the others hasn't been afforded the grace of two to three years to develop he has one year then an expectation that we play finals because we have Judd Fev and the three No 1s
with out Judd the expectations on the team would be much lower
I hope Ratts goes back to development and not chase wins
development took a back seat when we dropped robbo Garlett and Russel and brought in Carrazo houla and co
do win want to win games now or develop players for the future
unfortunately for Ratts he is stuck in between
we should call this the Wallace Syndrome

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Some points:

Ratts has been given 41 games virtually 2 seasons. Some people started to see the cracks after the Fremantle game that means we gave him a season and a half before anyone squeeled on here. Look it at it any way you like 2 seasons grace is a fair honeymoon period. Furthermore, the problem is more than win loss ratio, a lot of supporters are critical of tactics, selection, game style

- It is true we may not win a premiership with Fev due to his individualism/age but don't confuse his performance as the main reason for our loss. I would rank 1. tactical coaching 2. defensive pressure 3. selection which produced 6 inside 50s in the 3rd qtr before Fevola's deficincies.

Ratts first 6 games were a tank
his next 22 was about development
his last 13 have been about wins and making the 8
knights has been in charge the same amount of time no one at the bombers cares if they make the 8 it is just go out and have a crack
Carlton it's make the 8 or consider it a failure
Why is there two different approaches

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws