And the positives are we have a decent coach
The club looks to have started to recruit better
And knows it has made mistakes
We have hit the bottom of the j curve

Not Mick's fault Sticks thought Ratts had left us in Premiership mode.
Only took Mick 2 seconds to figure out or list was up the creek and Hughes had to go.
Landing Cripps and Menzell in the last two drafts is a start
Add Daisy, Everitt, Docherty, and we re slowly getting up off the canvas.

1999

In footy parlance - it's called 'cheating'. Bryce Gibbs has perfected it. It is laziness, lack of desperation, or myshitdontstinkitis - call it what you will, it's rife at the Carlton Football Club.

And there's stupidity as well. Mitch Robinson is so stupid that he has no right playing at this level. You can't trade Robinson. His flaws are so great. He'll be delisted. If the leadership group are listened to - Robinson won't play seniors for a looong time. Enough of the bullshit. This football department and its players must be the easiest to coach against.

This list of players can get us to 5th but it can also get us to 14th. You can't polish turds.

Not Mick's fault Sticks thought Ratts had left us in Premiership mode.
Only took Mick 2 seconds to figure out or list was up the creek and Hughes had to go.
Landing Cripps and Menzell in the last two drafts is a start
Add Daisy, Everitt, Docherty, and we re slowly getting up off the canvas.

the problem with that scenario, is the Mick would have known the quality of our list before he took the job on.

Not necessarily. He was commentating that year. He wasnt signed until after the season was finished. how would he have necessarily known all about our list. he would have only known the players that were presenting on game day. That is not the entire list . He would have had no real concept about our depth, except for what he was told by those trying to get him to the club. And what do you think those people said? They would hardly be saying that "the cupboard is bare" would they.


What did Mick do?

Preseason started on November 1 2012, and Mick was nowhere to be seen - he went on a book launching tour for 2 weeks.

This comment always irks me. The guy had previous commitments. Surely we can respect that? Surely we had someone else that could watch them trotting around Princess Park. Its hardly a crucial time.

Then when he returned he planned an Arizona trip (very original that one). So by Christmas, we had wasted half the pre season on introductions, book tours and trips to the USA.

The Arizona trips and others like it are not original because they have been seen to be successful and therefore repeated. Should he have gone to the Middle East? Hasnt been done before.

So without the EFC** banning from the finals we would have missed the finals.

Without the cheating Essendon* wouldnt have been there

second year in and the prize recruit was a 700k skinny Collingwood player who has a suspect ankle that could go any time now

Skinny? What a ridiculous statement. Suspect ankle- jury is out. Anyones ankle could go at any time



Docherty and Everritt are good gets but you cant build a team around them And we all know that Menzell is potential top 5 pick in any draft, but with a suspect knee and family history of knee recos, most teams didn't risk picking him.

Docherty hasnt fired a shot. Everritt seems to be starting well. Menzel hasnt broken down. No mention of the other recruits. Mick can only do so much in his first twelve months.

now having said that, in this year of weak opposition, we could still make the finals.

Most are saying this year is strong opposition/very even comp. We could finish 4-5 or 12

If you look at Port Power who changed their coach at the same time, and their president and a few board members, they were considered the weakest list in the AFL and were financially a basket case off field.

Clearly a coach who knows what he is doing can assess a list far better than the media or thousands of keyboard warriors. ratts didnt rate the list, ponder that for a moment

Hinkley took a different tact. The port power players returned from their break during the 2012 pre season and did a 5 km warm up run. Hinkley didn't like their attitude and intensity so told them it was not good enough and asked them to repeat the run. Set the tone for the rest of the pre season.

And you think that Hinkleys tactic with the 5km is original?

Port then opened up the 2013 season brilliantly with 5 straight wins, played some fantastic footy and almost beat the cats in Melbourne to make a preliminary final.

We don't have to follow what other clubs have done, but what we have done year after year leads to the same outcomes

I expect us to improve with every game and have a strong finish to the year - depending on how many games we drop early will determine whether we make the finals

we wont finish 4-5 padre.
Good to see you back.. you go missing for long periods of time.. and back to defend mick...
then we have michael jezz who is in here to defend the pratts.

are u blokes relatives???

the problem with that scenario, is the Mick would have known the quality of our list before he took the job on.

What did Mick do?

Preseason started on November 1 2012, and Mick was nowhere to be seen - he went on a book launching tour for 2 weeks.

Then when he returned he planned an Arizona trip (very original that one). So by Christmas, we had wasted half the pre season on introductions, book tours and trips to the USA.

So without the EFC** banning from the finals we would have missed the finals.

second year in and the prize recruit was a 700k skinny Collingwood player who has a suspect ankle that could go any time now.

Docherty and Everritt are good gets but you cant build a team around them And we all know that Menzell is potential top 5 pick in any draft, but with a suspect knee and family history of knee recos, most teams didn't risk picking him.

now having said that, in this year of weak opposition, we could still make the finals.

If you look at Port Power who changed their coach at the same time, and their president and a few board members, they were considered the weakest list in the AFL and were financially a basket case off field.

Hinkley took a different tact. The port power players returned from their break during the 2012 pre season and did a 5 km warm up run. Hinkley didn't like their attitude and intensity so told them it was not good enough and asked them to repeat the run. Set the tone for the rest of the pre season.

Port then opened up the 2013 season brilliantly with 5 straight wins, played some fantastic footy and almost beat the cats in Melbourne to make a preliminary final.

We don't have to follow what other clubs have done, but what we have done year after year leads to the same outcomes

I expect us to improve with every game and have a strong finish to the year - depending on how many games we drop early will determine whether we make the finals

@mj

the club has a $5.8 million debt
our finances are woeful