FWIW (this is all from today's Footy 2011 liftout in The Age if anyone was wondering) Walls has us finishing 8th and Monga Lloyd 7th. Monga makes some good points as much as I hate to admit it - our foot skills outta defence and lack of hardness esp in defence have consistently burnt us.

I readily admit our year last year was a little average when you look at it based on W-L and especially when you consider the second half of the year. However it was a year of adjustment without Fev and to a lesser extent Stevens and we also lost one of our most valued players mid season. This year we have a more settled forward line and have strengthened our defence personnel so by all means we should be improving. The ONLY CARLTON WON'T IMPROVE line of thought so popular this preseason is really shitting me.

Interestingly Walls has Adelaide in 5th and Sydney in 10th spots whereas I haven't seen any other commentators rank those teams in those positions.

For me its rather simple, I was there for the 09 final at the gabba... and we just dropped off and gave up... the same thing happened last year against the swans and only a week ago against the cats... maybe its a confidence thing, realising that they will win and dropping the ball.

Whatever it is they need to fix it because for me going to a final and seeing them 'give up' is not acceptable!

That article needs to be taken with a grain of sand. After all it contains these gems:

Gibbs: "Took a another step up going from rebounding defender to dominant mid"

um. ok, quite the opposite really

Robinson: "Enigmatic forward"

of Yarran and Garlett "Had their most consistant season" true, but they were both in their second season

Joseph: "Expect another stellar year"

I mean it must be hard as hell to write these long guides but some of the captions are just funny

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#23: Lachlan Henderson

It's OK.
At least if we finish 8th again and the media come after him, Ratts can again say "none of you experts picked us to finish in the 8 anyway"

(Apparently thats some sort of achievement)

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

"Player profiles" usually contain some very suspect entries, but Juzzy is right - the ones in today's Age lift-out are worse than usual...

eg.

Walker - "Silky-skilled on-baller..." Hmmm, I'm a fan of Tex but I think most Carlton supporters would describe his skills as "inconsistent" rather than "silky". Hasn't spent a great deal of his career on-ball either.
Robbo - "plenty of dash..." Yeah nah, I wouldn't say that Robbo's has a ton of "dash". Hardness at the ball/man is his best attribute. Not a quick player and I don't think we'll see him carrying the ball much. More of a "see ball, get ball, boot ball" type.
Yarran - "Building up for another big one". He had such a "big one" last year that he was dropped for our only final.
Laidler - "This midfielder has bulked up...". Not a midfielder. A medium/tall defender who can also push up onto the wing if required.
O'hAilpin - "Uncanny forward..." I'm not sure what uncanny even means in this context.
Betts - "....consistent and blistering when it mattered most". We all love Eddie but a criticisim of him is that he goes "missing" in big games and kicks a lot of goals in junk time.
McInnes - "...known for efficiency at Dandenong Stingrays". This tells us nothing.
Davies - "Speedy midfielder...". Nup.
Kerr - "Tough in the clinches...". More of an outside player known for his skill and footy smarts than or his toughness, IMO.
Joseph - "Expect another stellar year". Arguably not even in our top 30 at the moment.
Curnow - "Silky skilled...". Hardly. From what I've seen of him, he looks like a hard runner who can win his own ball - but his disposal, particularly by foot, is what may hold him back from making the grade.

I know these "Player Profiles" are meant to be short-hand summaries, but some of these descriptions are down-right misleading, IMO...

The sad thing is that there will be knuckle-heads in offices and work-sites (and TV studios and radio stations..) all over Melbourne on Monday who will think they are experts on our list simply because they read this crap.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

^ THAT

What do you expect? They're only journos!

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All good points and I think you are right we have addressed some of our defensive issues with these players - the only problem is that the three players you have mentioned are very inexperienced game wise between them have played less than 30 games and Duigan (although I think will be a player) adds zero games to that group of players.

I think it will be a big risk banking on reliability in defence with such an inexperienced group of defenders - they will probably gel into a great unit but there are going to be some bumps in the road.

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

Winston Churchill

What do you expect from Gary Lyon? He hates Carlton along with Terry Wallace. These guys have an emotional conflict of interest. Any opportunity to slag the Blues, they'll take it. I think there was a thread on this website on people who hated the Blues and I'd put them on the top. It's jealousy, I don't know but some people have issues on our club and it comes through and it looks like journalism.

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

Apart from all the obvious stuff what makes Gary hate Terry so much...?

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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

Not sure if you're having a laugh or not here. I think he meant both hate Carlton.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

I agree, poor use of grammar.

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

You know what, looking back I actually think I've used the correct grammar. If I had said as well as instead of alongside then I may have been grammatically incorrect. I'm a smartass, aren't I? Go Blues.

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

Laugh.

Double now...

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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

Don't know why people waste their energy trying to argue against such predictions.

They are justified when you sit back and consider our second half of last season. If it were another club we'd be making similar claims.

It's up to us to prove everyone wrong, and we should be a top 6 team this year at the very least.

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

Lots of good points made by many in this thread.
It seemed to me Walls hasn't seen Carlton train or play this year and his comments in The Age are based solely on last year. I would expect better from him.
So much development in the list and players on the list; much greater depth = more intensity and improvement. And a big improvement in the coaching panel (poor coaching cost us maybe 4 games last year eg North, Freo at home).
Competition very even this year but we are developing well and these low expectations outside the club should further stoke the expectations within the club.
It should be an exciting ride.

You guys just love these threads so you can turn them into a pissing contests.

I ask again WHO CARES?

Check out the predictions from previoues' years. These guys have NFI, TW even thinks we have an aging list when it's still one of the youngest. These guys are just sooo wrong every year. Lyon is one of the worst.

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TC suffers from the social media illness - the death of respect and constructive discourse by keyboard.