The times have changed that's for sure. Players change teams all time now and they don't feel bad about it. Footy is such a business these days it's all about getting the best players to win flags. There is no such thing anymore where the club is loyal to the player and the player is loyal to the club. Cloke could come to us and yes it would be big news but not like it would have been if it were 15-20 years ago. The kids growing up these days don't understand the rivalries, there are no big rivalries anymore.

Sure the Carlton and Collingwood rivalry was huge and still is talked as being big but when I go to watch us play it feels like a normal game but in the early 2000's it almost felt like a GF. So much passion and hatred, which was great for the game.

I also agree with the poster that said, it changed from when you could bet on it. Betting has ruined sport.

Rubbish. You've always been allowed to bet on sport. There's government legislation on gambling going back to 1900. And although betting on sport was illegal until the 1980's, this did not stop many Australians from betting on cricket, football, boxing and other sports. Perhaps what you're referring to is mass saturation of gambling advertising and televised odds? Even then - it's something you can largely ignore.

What's changed the game more than anything is club identity. We're lucky...we can still go to Princes Park and breathe some Carlton goodness. But it's training..and it's not the same. Where I sat during halcyon days is gone, and with it a spirit of success that oozed through the wooden seats and creaky stands. There are two grounds in Melbourne where games are played. One is indoor and feels like a hybrid game of basketball and footy is being played. I now refuse to go to that one. There are few games played on a Saturday afternoon. Some games are played late in a Sunday afternoon. We can now watch all games live on tv. When I was growing up we could watch one. And we had to race home from the footy to watch it. At some games there weren't any tv cameras...even as late as the 1980's. But getting back to identity. Clubs have lost their soul...not on purpose - it just happened. It's now little more than a song and a jumper, that sometimes also doesn't feel the same. So the times they are a changin'...but the times..alas... they have already changed.

I scoff at the thought of somebody playing for a club knowing they are going elsewhere next year! Especially if he was a CFC player.
Carlton player.

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Essendon-Only team to have ever been found guilty of salary cap breaches in a premiership year!

Nice post Doc.
I thought for a sec dannyboy was being his eloquent self.

Really enjoyed that, albeit with abit of sadness.

Maybe Carlton can change a bit and lean towards the past. They can learn a bit from its old foe Collingwood with regards to embracing their supporters and members.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Can't stand the manufactured "singing the song after a win".

Some crap every match. It's the moment I realise it's time to turn the box off.

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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

So Victorian clubs should've kept playing suburban footy when the competition expanded?....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Only by agreement, Synbad. Just like the tribunal. If either of these gets challenged in court by a consortium for the big clubs or the AFLPA, they will not hold ,water. Some time in the future, if Eddie (or his replacement) can round up support for a (say) eight, ten or twelve team comp, the landscape could change overnight.

We saw it with World Series Cricket.

I think that scenario is highly improbable BTW but the cap, I believe will be challenged one day by the clubs who see themselves propping up the struggling clubs for the sake of the AFL.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)