Loved Holman's "spoil" attempt on Breust. Well done son.

That's good for us too

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

Winston Churchill

I think one thing we can all agree on is that it wasn't just the team, but the whole club, that lost by 23 goals last night...

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

i disagree

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Beams and Hanley late outs. Beams hurt his shoulder last week, and now there's some 'talk' of putting him away for the year especially if it will require minor surgery.

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"They're [REDACTED]'

If GC wins Q-clash & Brisbane beat us @ Gabba (and we don't win another game) - we get pick 1.

If either GC or Brisbane win another game this year and we don't - we are guaranteed pick 1 or 2.

At least he seems (from the albeit limited footage we've seen) to be a decent kick - which is a good starting point and already puts him ahead of many of his team-mates. We should persist with him for the rest of the season.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

Back to one's faith in a draft pick to deliver us from the bottom...weren't we here 5 years ago with this same faith in one single draft pick to make all the difference. It is an 18 player team not a five player team...and even if it was a basketball team you need more than one good pick to turn around a sinking ship.

It won't happen. Carlton is a basket case and the AFL made Carlton a basket case. They also conversely made Hawthorn a superhero killing machine.

They have everyone feeding from the "we just need one more good draft pick trough"... really? Do people still believe in the magic egg?

The FACTS are that the AFL has created a two-tiered competition at the exact time they are asking Carlton to assist financially in its "equalisation program". Doesn't anyone see the irony in all of this? If it wasn't all so sad to see the destruction of a football club with over 150 years of history I would laugh.

So what the AFL wants is for Carlton - a team 5 million in debt and effectively the worst team in the competition - to put money into an AFL fund to help other clubs that are already richer and with better player rosters.

No one is joining the dots on the big picture. The AFL treats Carlton as their play-thing. A thing to be manipulated and squeezed out, wringing it out for all it is worth, flog it to death and leave it as empty carcass. But they gave Carlton all those Friday night games...surely this is proof the AFL really is interested in Carlton...hahaha. Funny stuff.

Meanwhile back at the happy team of Hawthorn - 25 million the richer thanks to the AFL donating Tasmania to them - they have all the funds, all the riches, and were given financial compensation to play at the MCG many years ago. The AFL created this indestructable Hawthorn and yet people still go on about their cleverness at getting Buddy Franklin and Roughhead as if that was all that was needed to create this team. People are so naive (not you Agro, or any poster here...I am just talking about the general football public.)

I am sure - after much conditioning - people believe it is all due to Carlton's "poor recruiting" that Carlton is in this position. Finances, money matters...even in the AFL's socialistically selective utopia. The "rich" club of Carlton must pay for its past crimes of being successful.

I purposefully avoided posting for ~24 hours to collect my thoughts. After an afternoon nap, with a glass of Margaret River's finest now in hand and my weekly reggae show on PBS, here goes: "this is the recession we had to have".

I @#$%&! hate Hawthorn. Almost (but not quite) as much as I hate Essendon*. But I am actually glad it was them that did this to us. For a few reasons. Firstly, because no matter how deep our club administration wants to pretend "it's not that bad", it very clearly IS that bad and they cannot possibly claim otherwise from here on in. Secondly, because at the same time it is an example of how a club in the strife Hawthorn was in can turn things around with smart business decisions, astute appointments and PRIDE.

Did they get some free kicks along the way? Yes. Did we simultaneously flower up our own opportunities? Yes. But that is all in the past - we now need to learn both from their success and our own failings and then never to look back. With that said, I don't want to see, read or hear another reference to the '95 premiership, Jezza's mark or Harme's tap. Gut the list and start again. I want to see a new generation of young, hungry and hard kids backing each other up and pulling in the same direction. If Gibson belts a kid in the stomach behind play - GOOD GOD GIBSON DOESN'T FINISH THE FLOWER GAME STANDING. Respect isn't just given, nor is it even earned. Respect is COMMANDED, it WILL be given or the CONSEQUENCES will be SUFFERED. We've been too soft for too long. Gut the dead wood, draft kids on leadership, guts and fight first and skills second and get them under a coach they FEAR LOSING FOR. I can't @#$%&! stand Brian Lake but even when his team is up by almost 100 points he @#$%&! HATED Bell kicking that goal. Yes, he's a flower cauliflower but he has helped that mob to a flag off his own back. Likewise, we need to find some tattoo covered flower mongrels, rattle their cage and sing off key and SET THEM FLOWER LOOSE.

OK maybe I'm not as over it as I thought. I want FLOWER BLOOD.

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O say does that star spangled banner yet wave.

So we should go down the Beechworth path?

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

AGREE,
I went to the game...I know....but only went to watch a few kids.
I hope Johnson was injured...doubt we'll see him again otherwise.
Holman made space quite a few times and his leads were not honored...stupid, he was in perfect position.
He gets two or three passes last night and delivers into the forward 50 with that kick. ..he looks like a star. His teammates dont pass to him (when they CLEARLY should have) and you are left chasing your own kicks and looking barely AFL level.

Just saying...

hard to judge, but I think he's looking good

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

" Mark Maclure said the Blues had to trade Troy Menzel, Lachie Henderson and Chris Yarran.
Maclure said the club was “going to have to take some pain” and gaining three early draft picks"

Really? Ok so we get rid of the best players to hope to get three good players in the future... churn and repeat. That isn't going to achieve anything. Keep all three players and get the AFL to give Carlton priority picks in the draft.

The fact is if the AFL don't want a two-tiered competition with dead rubbers every second match when teams play Carlton, Melbourne, Brisbane etc. then they have to do more.

And that doesn't mean at the same time funnelling an extra 3 million dollars per year into North Melbourne and Port Adelaide.

Carlton, Melbourne and Brisbane should all get three draft picks in the first round and should be significantly compensated if they lose any player to free agency...(you know free agency, that's the thing where all the good players end up at Hawthorn).

One "priority pick" isn't going to turn it around...but you wait and see the AFL is "more concerned" with Brisbane and North Melbourne so will funnel money into those clubs and instead feed off the stinking carcass of Carlton. Once again selective socialism...and done in a very piecemeal ways. If you study the last ten years and follow the money trail you will see what is happening in the big picture.

You mean the "thing" which net result has seen them lose Tom Murphy, Xavier Ellis, Clint Young, Lance Franklin! and gain only James Frawley?

Before anyone posts one more "It's the system's fault that Carlton is shit" post try thinking it through....

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"They're [REDACTED]'

Early days. Give free agency a bit more time....you will see the chickens come home to roost....at Hawthorn and other rich clubs.
When Hawthorn lose players in free agency (eg Franklin) they get well compensated. They already hold all the aces whether they are losing or gaining players.

The big picture is that the competition is already two-tiered. Free agency will not help to bridge the gap, it will increase the gap.

Carlton has lost more games over the last 10 -20 years than anyone, haven't they? Shouldn't the AFL be concerned about this? Isn't socialism about helping the weakest? Or is socialism really about helping selectively those that you like/concerned about/mates etc?

Not likely the AFL will be concerned.., too busy funnelling 3-5 million per year into North Melbourne. Follow the money trail - it all makes sense when you follow the money trail.

Right.

West Coast have signed who?
Hasn't free agency just been fantastic for Collingwood also?

flower rich clubs..

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

Does Mark MacClure post here under a well known Alias???????? Suspense!!!

ok ya got me, well done

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Free agency is just a piece of the puzzle. It is really just a new piece of the pu zzle...so discussing free agency is like discussing 5% of the issue. The big picture is in what has been done already. And the big picture is Carlton is in deep do-do. The media want you to believe it is all due to poor draft selections and nothing else. Carlton's problems all stem from poor drafting (all of its own making)..nothing else apparently.

At a poor club poor decisions are made to try and break the cycle.

The only teams not to make the top 4 since 2004..
Carlton
Essendon*
Melbourne and
Richmond...

Why is that the case? Is it all due to poor recruiting?

p.s I really hope Richmond leap into the top4 this year, but either way they will be cannon fodder for the 30 million $$ Hawthorn.

Or maybe the arrogance of the clubs with a born to rule mentality is providing a little interest payback in the karma stakes?

If we hadn't made such a @#$%&! mess of the draft and trade periods over the last twenty years and we'd put in place processes and systems to build a resilient organisation and still failed to make any impact on the top four then I think you might have a point worth pursuing but until we can prove that we're worthy of being anything other than a laughing stock for any significant period of time then aiming your venom at outside sources is purely empowering those prolonging our period in the dark ages.

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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

All four teams were trying to build new lists 2005 - 2010. Coincidence. Essendon* and Richmond have not even won a final and the less said about Melbourne the better.

WC have done well. Home ground advantage and cash helps but they have done well to be where they are now.