Spot on.

It sucks, but I'm okay with the results of the last two weeks. We gave everything and just didn't have the fitness to execute under pressure .. that's okay ..

The games earlier I. The year when we where 10 goals up to only win by 5 goals etc .. that's the killer and why we aren't playing finals .. the poet game especially

We fix that and we are play finals

bluehammer hit the nail on the head

_________________
#DonTheStash

_________________
░L░I░N░K░I░N░B░I░O ░

100%.
Whilst I'm frustrated about the last two rounds, I'm ropable about the losses to StK and Adel (& Gold Coast earlier in the year). And about us letting the Power and Hawks back into the game.

Opposition kicks 10 less points for the season and we are in. 10pts! Brisbane game, got back to within 15pts with 2 minutes to go and we give up 3 goals to lose by 33. Give up just one and we are in finals. Simple stuff like that. Not give up big leads for one kick wins would help too.

Most sides will lose the odd shit game, i accept that happens during a season. Gold Coast up there , round 4, understandable. Losing to Adelaide late in a season when the finals were on line though should never happen.

At the start of the year I said win more than we lose and i would take it but we did that but still very disappointed with the back half of the year .
It is mental with these guys so I can understand the one week at a time its all about the process talk .
Take the focus away from the goal but it must be on the back of their minds all the time
Until we lose that and develop an attitude of we can beat anyone at anytime we will go nowhere .

I will be very interested with what happens with JSOS next year - they must get games into TDK so where does Jack fit in
We need McGovern to be fit and firing all year he came back and was good but can be so much better
We need Walsh in the starting midfield not on the half forward flank he polled 30 votes playing midfield last year I dont think he will every be a dusty type.
Cunningham is a better small forward than Owies Durdin and Motlop but he may not survive the cull due to injuries
We need to look at players in the VFL and assess if they are ever going to make it and if not move them on
Voss game style is going to result in injuries I am not sure if we can afford the luxury of project players like Mircov and Akuei and Philp
We are badly lacking the Half forward midsized player - Martin does this well when he plays but need another and I dont think Walsh is the answer there and JSOS is not quick enough
I think the player for this role is Kennedy he is good overhead and not a bad kick can they develop him in the off season
We have Weitering controlling and organising the backs
Cripps doing the same in middle
We have no one doing that up forward and as a result you have 20 inside 50's for 0.6 -its chaos up there . Charlie is some ways reminds me of Capper but I can assure you Capper wouldn't have kick one goal if it wasn't for Healy , Wright and others directing him. Some one needs just to say Settle Charlie.
those late games we got into Marchbank will be a bonus next year I expect the Curnow affect with him
Fisher had a purple patch when moved on ball but struggles up forward - does he have tank to play that desire need for a wingman
We need to nail that mid season draft we seem to always pick players that have zero impact - getting this right can provide momentum in back half of the year

We started the year with Marchbank and Cunners on the injury list then they started dropping like flies after that and in the end we went from losing our entire defence to losing 60% of the midfield - No team is going to threaten anyone with what we had this year in the way of injuries

Next year I hope we use 30 players tops and have a settled list - this year was supposed to be about developing a new games style and getting players used to playing with one another but every week there were 3-4 outs and 3-4 ins - this is not good - we had 3 players that played all 22 games and 8 total that played 20 - collingwood had 8 play every game and 15 player 20 plus - this makes a huge difference - Even Dads army who have been resting players have had 14 players play 20 plus games

Get the injuries right - get their headspace right - get another year into them and they will come good - people forget that most weeks we fielded one of the youngest sides

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Agree with everyone who has pretty much covered everything. It's a tick overall.

- What was great about this year was that we went to or watched pretty much every game knowing we were a decent chance to win. We haven't had that in a long time.

- What was also great about this year was seeing the Carlton crowds up and about. I am 99% sure we had the largest attendance or average attendance (or both) out of the AFL. I think this is the first year I really enjoyed games at Marvel with a large crowd of predominantly Blues supporters at every game.

- We could/should have made finals but it takes some sting out knowing we'd be going interstate without our home crowd behind us, at least for me. Previous posters have touched on this but if we'd fallen into the 8 then been soundly beaten (as often happens to the bottom 2 teams), it may have papered over a few things. Not many teams are going to play against 88K in a do-or-die at the MCG this year either.

- Surely, SURELY we have had our run of bad luck and the Footy Gods frowning upon us come to an end.
Injuries. The top teams all have minimal.
Long term injuries.
The "10 minutes into the first qtr" injuries.
The freak-ish injuries (Marchbank after 1 game, Newman's cut knee).
The "surprise injury in the midweek update" injury.
The "was a bit tight on game day and misses 5 weeks" injuries.
The Richmond goal review.
The Melbourne game.
The Collingwood game.
The Gold Coast/gastro (was this proven?) game.
The fact we played nearly EVERY team at their strongest; usually when we had at least 4 players out, and got no freebies at teams smacked by COVID.

Pros:

- Improved from the past few years. More wins. Better percentage. Remained relevant in the season for much longer.
- The off season recruiting of Cerra, Hewett and Young has been a success so far.
- We finally got a taste of playing in big and important games.
- Finally beating Richmond in Rd 1.
- Looks like we’ve got a coach that knows what he’s doing and brings a harder edge than previous coaches.
- The return of Doc from his health battles.
- The return of Charlie. Plays all 22 games and wins the Coleman medal.
- The emergence of a few younger guys. Motlop shows a bit. Durdin does too on the whole but tired as the season went on. Cameos from Carroll and Kemp.
- Strong bounce back season from the captain.
- Walsh still playing at a very high level.
- Return of Marchbank after a few years out.
- While I was initially sceptical, Boyd looks like he shows a bit.
- Saad an outstanding AA quality season.
- Small steps forward from LOB and Cottrell.

Cons:

- The end of the season, especially the last 4 games.
- The never ending injury list. Players going down week after week. At one point we had no backline. At another we had half a midfield.
- Mentality of the playing group. The loser mentality reared it’s ugly head late in the season and it is clear we have not been able to kick our mental demons. Found different ways to lose all of the last 4 games.
- The usual suspects continue to miss games due to injury. McDonald, Cunningham, Marchbank, McGovern, Williams, Martin, Philp.
- Father Time catching up with Ed Curnow.
- Dow not showing enough. Same deficiencies from 5 years ago.

What needs to be fixed:

- The injury situation needs addressing. Not sure what the answer is but we can’t roll out the same methods (head of high performance, injury prone players, training and recovery methods etc) and expect a different outcome.
- The mentality of this playing group needs to be addressed. Again, no idea how we kick the ingrained losing culture but it needs to happen. Hopefully the end of this season can spur on a new resolve.
- Some list changes will be necessary. Think the list is in reasonable shape but there are some players who need to be moved on. Nothing too drastic though.

Good post.
I think we have a lot to look forward to next year and have more upside than the other teams in the top 8 except for maybe Freo. This loss still really hurts however I'm hoping the pain will go away when/if Collingwood get eliminated from the finals.

_________________
There is no footy god

https://twitter.com/CarltonFCBlues/status/1561489235340771328

Me last night... this morning and right now

Spare me the 'we'll learn from this blah, blah, blah'... next year is unknown... this is going to burn for a long time...

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

When do the 2023 Memberships go on sale ? signing up for next year can't come quick enough for me .

_________________
All my dangerous friends

That’s the spirit Mick!

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

I have had several people message me today asking if I was ok.
It is really nice of them to do so as they know how much I love footy.
I will get over it, as we all will.
Just feeling a bit fragile at the moment.

Mine just rolls over each year.

So does my footy team.

Sorry. Just having a sook

_________________
#DonTheStash

It’s interesting you mention the need for a forward general. Did anyone else see Martin give Charlie a spray at the end? Lordy.

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

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