The culture at our club is clearly not great and it is well within rights to question Judd's off-field leadership as a result.
Confirming this, is the response of the players (eg. Houlihan) who think the reason they cannot get pissed and screw up is because there is a lot of scrutiny now with the media out there looking to catch them out. And others talking about the danger to sponsorship deals.
This line of thinking is the problem.

The reason not to drink & act like mugs is that it inhibits your best performance on & off the field. If we want to be the best club we can be, then we shouldn't be drinking to the point where we are so out of control of our actions. A few drinks, fine. Getting pissed occasionally, not the end of the world. But why the need to get so hammered that you find yourself half naked in a hotel lobby?

If we think the big problem is the media, or Caro or losing sponsors, we have it arse about and thiat's a culture problem.
Other clubs may have it too and worse but, frankly, I care more about our club and happy for a spotlight to be shone in our direction b/c unless something changes, we will never reach the heights that this group of talented players is capable of reaching.
If we think that reflexively bagging anyone who bags us is clever or funny or the right thing to do, well then we are closer to Collingwood than I thought.

Yesterdays news from a nobody.
This woman has been gossiping, rumour-mongering and lying for years. Why anyone pays any credence to what she says is a mystery.

_________________
T E A M

One snippet from the article i found interesting was the following:
"Brendan Fevola, fresh from an atrocious mad Monday which barely came to light".
From this I assume she means that Fev stuffed up, apart from the dildo, that no one has heard about.
Anyone know what she is talking about?
I find the timing of the article interesting, on the day of the family day.

Agree with Josh wholeheartedly

Having said that the reason we dont like her is that she hardly ever writes positive stories - dredges up old news .

Caro has been on holidays and next time she raises the misuse of alcohol -lets ring the radio station and ask her whether drinking alcohol on the beach with her mates in front of her beach box at Point King beach is against the law and sets a good example to the many children and families that use the beach

She doesn't lie....it's what she "believes to be true at the time"....

_________________
The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger

I'm afraid that there is officially no jorno left with any integrity at all.

The modern world and its ever diminishing standards in just about everything has left us with gutter journalism, selfish attitudes and a degenerating society.

Caro's point in that the abuse of alcohol by our players is worse than rape, assault and drug dealing is merely based on that she believes that drugs (illicit and alcohol) are the primary contributors to abuse, rape and assault, along with our downward spiralling society standards. Therefore in her mind if you stop the abuse of alcohol then you stop the rape, assault and other issues that go with it; a point lost with her mindless and self centred attack of Judds credibility.

Expecting footballers to change the attitudes of all Australians is a bit unfair, to say that it is totally inexcusable for players to get drunk at their Christmas party during the very few weeks a year that they are allowed to have a bit of a drink is going too far. You only have to got out to a club any night of the week to see this sort of behaviour from our young (and not so young) Australians to realise that the problem is not the CFC, but our ever expanding tolerance of behaviour standards in our society.

The ONLY fact to come out of the "booze cruise" is that a few players were very drunk, which is about par for the course of this country's attitude towards alcohol consumption and yet the bottom dwellers of our society (jorno's) find it their moral obligation to preach to the rest of us how unacceptable it is that our players conform to society's standards.

Now whilst I don't necessarily condone drunken behaviour, I also respect that being professional does not preclude you from being drunk at a party. To set the standard of an angel as the benchmark of being a professional sports person is unrealistic and incorrect.

To me being a professional would be to train and prepare their body to achieve the very best of themselves, limit alcohol during peak training & competition, to represent the club in a manner consistent with community expectations and play with a hunger that demands success.

She is a sad woman.... Her article is pretty late isn't it? I thought her rightous indignation would be blaring the next day. I wonder why she waited till now?

I particulary liked
"This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge"
Ah, yes Caroline it does a little.

It wasn't a high point for the club but really, haven't we all moved on from this or did Elliot pop her too?

Maybe because she is treated poorly sometimes ( read, Sam Newman's appalling actions), she learns poor behavior from her colleages in the media.

Look, I know she has very questionable standards and her 'my sources tell me' is comical.

But the issues she raises are pertinent and ones that we have discussed over beers with the lads.

That Juddy was at these events and doesn't seem to have been able to make an impression is a cause for concern. becuase if not Juddy, then who? Who is going to stand up and be the voice of reason?

I don't thin much of Caro, but lets not just shoot the messenger.

_________________
Everything before the word "but" is horseshit - J Snow

Its not so much whether there was an element of truth in any of her articles, its the fact that she is biased beyond belief and constantly uses the Carlton footy club as her muse.

If she wrote about every other club and there problems including her hopeless tigers she may get some more credence.

She makes us out to be the worst trouble making club in history, where clearly other clubs have had their incidents.

She did not write about Richmonds recruiting and Taylors issues did she ?

Funny how she hardly wrote about Richmond recruiting ice head Ben Cousins either.

_________________
Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

but it's so easy that way...

_________________
There's so much I could say...

So far not one person has raised a legitimate argument against any of Caroline's points in the article. Resorting to denigrating her appearance is the lowest form of a rebuttal, and in reality weakens the argument of the poster. Furthermore, simply contending that "other clubs have worse issues" and the fact that the time has passed on this issue is symptomatic of the "head in the sand-itis" that got this club in trouble in the first place.

I'm not for one minute saying that the club has no positive news to report as of late- of course it does and this should be applauded. We have a great young list, $1m a year plus sponsor, brand new facilities. This is all fantastic and Swann and the directors deserve due recognition. But how this excuses the embedded weaknesses of our leadership group leaves me quite perplexed. These good news stories cannot explain away a deplorable eight year off field culture, and it is up to us as Carlton supporters to ensure the football club is under continued pressure to strive for on and off field excellence. We are owed, at the very least, that much.

I know we shouldnt shoot the messenger but who should we shoot when this is pretty much her opinion?

Judd will do his best to lead us to a flag. He will work on the things he currently falls short on. Lets move on.

No issue with the points she raises, just the timing of it. If you feel that strongly about it Caro, drag your sorry arse in the office during your holidays, instead of taking the Eric Pearce approach.

Can't wait for next weeks article about the Shaw/Didak car fiasco.

_________________
"I had to eat"

I said the only real problem I have with the article is her claim that the booze cruise tarnished the image of the AFL more than a rape charge, the bashing of a taxi driver and drug trafficking. Do you seriously agree with her on this?

I'm sure that the Chief Football Writer at "The Age" would be afforded the workplace tools of a Laptop Computer with wireless internet access.

If she felt so strongly about this issue back in December it wouldnt have been too hard to take half an hour out of her holidays and hit the send button.

I may have missed something in the last 2 months Josh, but I can't remember anyone associated with Carlton putting a foot wrong since the Blues Booze Cruise.

The leadership issue was raised and discussed at length between 2 and 1 months ago.

Give the leadership group time to show you there has been improvement before you jump on the Caro bandwagon.

Please allow me to remind you that, if you don't hear a whisper of any wrong doings by the players or the leaders, or you don't hear about leadership courses being undertaken by the leadership group/ players etc that does not imply that nothing positive is happening with and within the leadership group behind the scenes.

Now tell me, has there been any improvement in behaviour/ culture with the players since the Blues Booze Cruise? Has there been an improvement in leadership qualities amongst the leadership group since the Blues Booze Cruise?

Credit where credit's due.

You and Caro, imo are just supporting the rehashing of old stories when the Carltonians in question do deserve an opportunity to prove there has been the improvements you expect of them.

I appreciate your concern and our responsibilities to keep them on their toes, but this behaviour of Caro's and some Carltonians to bring up all this old news from 2009 is wearing a bit thin imo. It's 2010.

Keep in mind on the negative front: No news is good news. That is not head in the sand stuff, because I know as do all Carltonians moving forward that if anyone trannsgresses to tarnish our brand in the future, whether they are on or off field Carlton personnel, they are out!

Capish?

Lets move forward and support the NEW CARLTON like MARS have.....not Caro FFS.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Amusing that the article has received only 1 comment in the Age and now the Comments area is shut down. Nice that the 1 comment was of support of the article.

Regards Cazzesman

_________________
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.”

Just goes to show how theose birdbrains at the Age define 'balanced reporting'.

I can imagine what the other 1000 comments not published suggested ...........about Caro.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I havent read the last couple of pages of this thread so if someone has already said that if Wilson has any moral fibre and claims to be a balanced journalist then a story about why Essendon* held onto Lovett for as long as they did will be in next Sundays paper, then I agree.