oh i agree
shocking team to watch

but i know what we have at our disposal doesnt cut it

last year i said third worst midfield in the afl

this year its second worst.. stkildas gone past us

melbourne have a chance of showing us theyre a shot to go by us also

if u neglect your midfield youre neglecting any chance of being a serious footy team

who the @#$%&! is our list manager anyway?
anybody know???

oh thats right.. we dont have one.. we dont need one.. cant afford one

sticks u @#$%&! idiot!!!

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Finally some posters highlighting our game plan as the real issue.
Thank Goodness.

..not enough heart, and the few players we have that do play with real gusto, we over work nil they break down..

..and because we lack heart, the slightest drop off in those G&D intangibles that aren't measured in stats spread through the team and despair sets in.. ..ppl reckon I'm over the top in my praise for krooz, but I have said it plenty of times.. ..the ruck is more than just the tap, he sets the tone for the match with the first contest of the game.. ..everyone knows krooz will crack in right from the start through til the end.. ..never any doubt he will put his body on the line, never a doubt he will block, he will chase etc..

..there is a reason ling always speaks highly of him, it's attitude..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

To me the first step of the renovation is simple and must be done now and that is a review of our recruitment department.

The entire recruitment department and process MUST be reviewed immediately. It is not only about hiring or firing, we need to make sure that our recruitment department have vision and understand where the game is going. Is our recruitment team fully resourced in terms of people and finances? Do we have the skill set to identify talent? Do we have the best use of technology? Do we have a criteria on the type of player we are looking for? Do we have a plan that compliments our list management strategy? Have we learnt from past mistakes and applied this to our new recruitment methodology?

It may be already too late for 2014 however, We can't afford to flower up the 2014 draft.

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It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

So the REAL issue is the game plan?

Fix that and we're back on track Surrey?

People keep harping back to 2011!! Why ? We may have won 15 games that year, but we still didn't beat 1 Top 4 club....
And then we followed that up by recruiting crap like Bootsma and Rowe.... Greeeat stuff.

Clubs like Geelong, Sydney and Hawthorn don't take us seriously.... They ve been laughing at us for years...
And the smaller Clubs like North, the Dogs and St Kilda set themselves for games against us, as they know we re vulnerable...
We re both mentally and physically weak...
Every year we have a bunch of losses against lowly Clubs we should beat...
Last year it was against the Dogs and the Saints
The year before it was against Gold Coast and Port...
For how long have teams like Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong been beating us up ?
We re a joke...
The Judd era has been a waste.... a missed opportunity thanks to our terrible recruiting.
Ratts had FIVE YEARS and couldn't turn this attitude around. In fact, his game plan encouraged players to be unaccountable.
Mick, having the ego that comes with being a 3 time premiership coach, backed himself to be able to instill what is required into these players.
He is finding out that most on this list are beyond repair....
He knows we have to fix the list. He's told the Board we need to on many occasions, much to their chagrin.
Bringing in Menzell, Cripps, Thomas, Docherty and Everitt omn the last few years is a step forward, but there's a long long way to go.....

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

Won't a game plan fix it all up?

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

..effort, courage in all it's facets.. ..nothing will work without these..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

I don't know how anyone could really tell what our game plan is over the past 3 weeks.

Without EFFORT the rest doesn't matter. That has what's been more disappointing than anything else.

Players in Carlton jumpers that simply don't care. That cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

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#NewBlues beginning 25th August 2015

..gotta weed out the fakers..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

You know if Carlton is going to go down I would like to see them go down with battlers in the team. Take no prisoners on the field.


Bell is one I am intrigued by in terms of the midfield - he plays a murderball style of play out of the midfield in the final against Richmond last year.


I remember in that final where his 2nd quarter really lifted the morale of the team, he got to a contest, then another, tackle here, pressure act, smother, shephard, he gets to a 2nd and 3rd contest, handpasses well whilst being tackled, he does all the things I like to see of a footballer, but just before the bell for half time he is given the ball and didn't know a Richmond player was closing on him. Richmond player tackles from behind and gets the turnover.


He only had a split second to see what was down field and it looks like everyone was covered. Was there support for him? shepharding/talking? etc 80% of footballers in his position wouldn't have had time to react either, and then part of me thinks perhaps he should have changed direction, looked behind him etc but either way people get frustrated by that turnover. Even "good" midielders get tackled from behind.


There is no doubt he kicks too long to contests, and that effects his disposal efficiency record. He needs to kick shorter, but do you persevere with a player that gives 100% in terms of physical effort, or give his spot to a player that gives 75% in terms of effort, but is more polished. I am glad I am not making the decisions.

Either way, he has only played 19 games, is a player I enjoy watching for all the physical elements he brings to the game. It definitely isn't zoning off-style non-contact soccer. I would drop Ellard before I would drop Bell for example, but would like to see Bell take more marks. He is gifted in this area but doesn't seem to take many...but either way, yes I agree the midfield lacks depth.

Gibbs (compensation via FA), Judd (retire), Robinson (delist), McLean (delist), Waite (retire), Garlett (trade). Done!

One more

Malthouse (retire) for a coach

Imagine Curnow, Cachia, Robbo, McLean, Walker, Ellard, Lucas, Armfield, Garlett, Bell, Carazzo and Casbolt all playing for Essendon*. If they played the Esseondon Game plan, Carlton would have won by over 100 points.

Our game plan reflects the poor skills our players have.

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It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

Surrey in my view the real problem is not the game plan - although I think we should get with the more modern style and our structures need to be tweaked - the problem is the ineptitude of the players effecting it and the leaders on the field -ie if you cant hit a target to save yourself doesn't matter about the game plan you are in trouble - couple with the fact that we are incredibly lazy defensively - not just against Essendon* but last quarter against port clearly demonstrated this - factor in also that we are one of the slowest teams in the league - yes I know Mitchell is slow but disposal is fantastic and he has smith and hill burning interms of performance and pace
As suggested last week in a post where are our stars - we have many b graders and c graders on our list and in the VFL - frighteningly in an article today we hear that cachia may come in - hello how different is he to robinson mclean ellard - he isn't- disposal sloppy and slow as treacle - don't like doing this but really how many teams in the AFL would have sam rowe as one of their key defenders or forwards - more frightening is in my view wasn't our worst player by a long shot on sunday night

My hope for the rest of the season is that we get games into Docherty graham Holman Watson menzel buckley cripps - treat the rest of the season as almost pre-season for 2015 - work on kicking skills /defensive mechanisms game plan from now on - weed out who isn't going to take us forward - forget the bloody scoreboard and win and loss ration - the bloody season is completely gone understand that live with it and start building a professional skilled side - go into the draft and trade period with a well thought out plan - given we now have 9 months and effect it and give the supporters some hope for 2015

Well that's not going to happen - and neither it should. Not if we're looking to rebuild.

Dom7 is right, the recruitment of Judd was and should be viewed as a masterstroke, similar to Diesel and even Barassi before him. The issue was not Judd arriving it is the fact that we [REDACTED] up the chance to build a team around him and have a genuine crack at a flag. The only thing we displayed was a league worst recruiting and player development record. Year after year, we brought in the wrong talent and then had absolutely no idea how to develop the players and the list.

Now unfortunately we have a group of players not up to it, without the ingredients to even challenge for top 8, with many unable or unwilling to continue progressing as AFL players and improve sufficiently.

Hopefully the last two years has started to address this from a recruiting perspective but what is happening with player development??? From what I can see, SFA. So many examples of players not improving and developing. This is the thing that makes my blood boil!

Gibbs – should be elite by now
Yarran – should be on the verge of top 20-30 in the league
Casboult – NO @#$%&! IMPROVEMENT IN KICKING ACTION OR ABILITY IN FIVE @#$%&! YEARS!!! FFS! GAGF! EABOD!!!

I could go on but CBF

I just hope the new players dont have their progress undermined by these shortcomings and we are starting to put pieces in place to improve this disastrous lack of nous

The MM haters want us to play a high possession gamplan... we cant throw a 5 meter handpass without a team mate having to pick it up around their ankles... and don't get me started on our kicking... good luck with that.

Our list is suited to the Ratten downhill skiing, bruise free gameplan... which only gets us midtable, slightly better with a fit Judd... that is all. This style has seen us stack up on speedy mid sized players that lack good skills... and a rookie upgraded midfield... no quality talls... FAIL!!!

List needs a major overhaul... hard choices need to be made regardless of what gameplan we choose to apply.

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

i reckon the high possession keepings off footy is a ripper idea....
but lets wait till we get the suitable players on our list.....
one paced unskilled types .. and one dimensional hbfers dont cut it.. especially if they have little to no endurance and are unwilling to compete

thats why nobody else takes those kinds when they draft... they certainly dont make up a list of them

when we see them we say FAAAAAARKKKKK!!!.. how lucky are we ??? they slipped

and then they have to walk into our selfish club cuture devoid of any development and leadership

no chance!!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Downhill skiing bruise free gameplan is boring to watch. I might as well watch soccer it is that boring.

Quick movement, once a player marks it should be a handball to player running by for handball receive. I want to be entertained by Yarran, Tuohy, Bell, Murphy etc... I want bounces -forward movement & speed of movement. Where is the entertainment value?