Did you like the play on words...thirst instead of first.
Learned that from a poster who sprayed the sign, I mean sayed the sign.

All predictions are inspired by the thoughts and discussions with passionate Carlton people, including TC.
There's a few here at TC who with their suggestions provoke thought. Food for thought. braithy doesnt realise I do accept what he has heard, but doesn't understand that its just one viewpoint from a club with a cast of hundreds, and broadly, thousands, and should be questioned and not dogmatised.

The people I love talking Carlton to are the ones who are around the club, who attend training, are involved in coteries, in business, who sponsor players, or work at the club. Anyone with any info. I'm like you and the rest of us in TC. We love our club. Couldn't divorce it even if we tried. Want to see us successful again. And want to know how we will or could make that happen.

Its a tight ship off field, in that there's really no leaks these days, but its those with good player relations seem to get a good feel for things around the club....from the players or their siblings

Heard nothing of note about leadership, but will say we at TC are a microcosm of all thoughts discussed outside. We are not alone with our disappointment in our leadership. We are not the only people who think Charlie is too immature to inspire or lead with anything that looks like leadership. We certainly dont want the rest of our forwards not having a set routine to hit 85% of set shots at goal. Charlie shits me, and if he was shipped out for 2 first rounders we could use to get us 2 very good players I would do it.

Having said that, I don't know if he's the problem, and KPF's are too hard and expensive to get to your team, when in need. have a look at how many years we have not had a CHB whilst we aited for Marchbank to have a clean bill of health, or find a replacement for Jones.....nothing to do with salary cap constraints. We are just not looking because Austin overrates the list or feels, Gov in the backline will fix things, all 190cm of him.

WE need leaders who tense up before a game, as they ready themselves to get to the point of frenzied aggression, which sets the tone for the rest, and is infectious ... before the players step on the field for WAR. Its war, not just a game of footy, IF you want to win flags. Watch Maynard go nuts before the ball was bounced when we played them. His colleagues reflected the same spirit. then look at our guys, smiling, high fiving, like its a training drill, or they know they wont be beaten and switch on the minute the siren sounds.

Weitering...........he is up himself and doesn't seem to infect his team mates with the desire to kill....but looks like he could and should.
Curnow..............he is unprofessional and a clown
Cripps................he's everyone's best mate ensuring we have a good environment at the club.
Walsh................he's the only leader. Seems serious and speaks like a leader. Certainly not a clown.

We need more than what these guys are giving.

I want someone who will tell players before a game to pull their head in and focus on their role, and want to killl their opponent.
Weiters could do it, but doesn't, Walsh can, and should be captain.

I'd like to see Haynes play on and be leader for his last year. Ditto Newman. They call a spade a spade. Finally, Silvagni because he bleeds Blue.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I recall a post BV made recently. He reflected on 2023 and 2024 seasons when we proved we could execute the game plan. The question is why it hasn't translated to improvement?

End of 2023, we let go list cloggers Plowman, Dow, Fisher, Philp, OBrien and Ed retired
End of 2024 we let go list cloggers Carroll, Akuei, Durdin, and Mirkov, and delisted injury prone Marchbank, Martin, Cuningham and traded Kennedy and Owies, and even considered trading Young and Kemp.

We have not missed any of the abovementioned 13 players which proves we really didn't draft the mindset to win a Flag after 2015....imo,

But we did keep all the best players on our list and to cover the loss of 14 mature players we bought in experience of Fantasia, Boyd in 2023, and Haynes and Evans in 2024. The rest of our additions were 13 kids

Read the last 2 sentences again and there lies our problem with the list. Austin didnt relenish with mature players to give us cover for injury. let alone improvoing our best 25 players.

We have a good body of players under 28yo to build from and contest for a flag.

Like McCrae said, as will our next Coach say to the next List Manager, "I want players, not picks!"

Get that right this and next year, and we are back in business.

We also have 23 kids under 23yo, too many in fact, but plenty to pick the best 10 to bolster our future, and next year we will add Smith, Dean and Ison and the year after Walker who will be ready to hit the ground running....you can see we are not that far off.

Despite the fact I don't think Voss is the problem, change will happen, for the better. I have no doubt about that.

I think this was the kick in the bum all the club needed because its time to stop the tail wagging the dog, and Austin overrating the list by assuming our injury woes were behind us.

We are going into tonight's game with 10 best 23 players missing: Walsh, McKay, Silvagni, Newman, Saad, Cottrell, Smith, Hollands, Kemp and Young, and people wonder why we can't compete.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue