I have been reading your posts with interest. The Fev trade was always going to be a no win situation (damned if you do and damned if you don't). The Club is bigger than any individual and hopefully we will see less press about off field matters and more about onfield performance in 2010. The Club has made giant strides from a lowly position in the last few years and a committed team approach will see our Club enjoy the success it deserves.

It's a massive win already because the club and a majority of supporters and sponsors no longer spend a lot of time and energy thinking about how to deal with the problems of Fevola.

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Bawditawaba

I thought we were going to get absolutely reamed in the trade, so to come out of it with 12 & Henderson is already a big win for mine

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#DonTheStash

I rate it as we did pretty well given the circumstances. Not one to look back, so what's done is done and it's time to move on.

Firstly I'd measure what we lose with Fev gone.

A Multiple Coleman medalist and All Australian
A Natural goalkicker capable of winning a game off his own boot.
A Forward whose stats reflect his success in applying forward pressure
A marketing dynamo - the old addage all publicity is good publicity, don't kid yourself the guy sold memberships
A Grade entertainment each and every week I saw him play

In return we have got an earlish draft pick and a young guy I think will be a great player.

I don't subscribe to the "Good Fev, Bad Fev" line of thought. His body language that others have written about, imo reflected the games our young midfield were having. Balls sailing 10 feet over your head has gotta be frustrating for a lead up forward. This year I saw this understanding on the field grow. Delivery into the forward line definetly much better. Also Fevs leading dragged opposition defenders away from the ball providing pathways into the forward line for these young guys reflected in the goal returns of the like of Murphy, Betts etc. Now it's back to the drawing board.

Success will come, but only with patience now.

IMO Fev moving on can be chalked up as another success for the cookie cutters out there. Yes, we are all the same and yes, we have got a leadership group and we all attend our meetings and yes, we now have a great club culture blah blah blah!!!! I go to the footy to watch footy and this guy did it well.

I understand Fev polarised but it dismays the lack of respect the guy gets out here in forum land!! Celebrate what he's done cos he's gonna be on out honor boards for a long time yet.

In all I thinks we sold our golden "goose" in the hope of a prolonged, stable and successful future. I love Carlton and look forward to next year and beyond but in the same breath I will miss watching Fev each week. Good Luck to Fev at his new club and Go Blues 2010.

Great post

Love your monikor, and see where you are coming from but I can't agree re Good Fev/Bad Fev. What about the Fev who played ag Fremantle in 2007 and was suspended by the club the next week because he sooked the entire game and just didn't try. It was the most petulant, childish and disgraceful display I have ever seen from a Carlton player. How many times was he put into the leadership group only to be removed when he got pissed and stuffed up, only to be reinstated when he said he had learnt his lesson, only to be removed again when he proved he hadn't. He was a phenomenally talented Carlton player but he never achieved greatness because he was too selfish and immature. He played solely on talent. I am not sure what his tackle stats are but that is what could have lifted him to greatness because when he wanted to be, he was about the best tackler in the business. Yet he only chased seriously when he thought he could get the ball. For every chase he did there was another occasion where he stood with his hands on his hips watching an opponent run down field. How many times this season did he stop playing to whinge to the umpire?

Basically it appears the Brownlow was just the last of many incidents. Swan said Fev was disrespectful to the coaches and team mates etc. He was on the last of his last chances and clearly the only way he was going to genuinely put the club ahead of himself was to go to another club. Given that it was always a buyers market we did very well. Fev will star for Brissy next year and may pull his head in, but over ten years at Carlton he didn't ever become the player he should have.

We will take a step or several back next year and it will be totally Fev's fault. It is a team game and Fev too often proved he wasn't a team player on or off the field. He has let everyone down and should be ashamed of himself. Maybe he will finally realise that at 35 he will be unemployable, but he was never going to realise that at Carlton.

#12 and Hendo, I'll take it, and always be disappointed that Fev didn't have enough respect for the club and our supporters to make the most of his talent.

Yeah, love that bit! Genuine Marketing alternatives like what!!!! Is Captain Carlton getting a makeover? Get set for the fortnightly fluff piece featuring the usual suspects. 4 paragraph article in the HUN about how they are excited after the best pre-season ever, feeling fitter, cant wait for the games to start, going through the process etc etc On the Fev trade there will be: footy's a tough game, anybody can get traded, dont know all the details, was on holiday at the time etc etc There will be big wraps on Henderson/McLean, quality person, great pre-season, raring to go, point to prove etc etc

For those of us without a network of insiders feeding out goss, it will be a tough year in the media I think. Footy will have to do the talking for the club I guess. Unless spending time in Hospital or a Northern Suburbs primary school I wouldnt expect to see too much of our players in the media this year, some will think this is a good thing I just hope it doesnt affect memberships.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

It's interesting, isn't it, that people tend to get the levels of respect they deserve. Time and time again, Fevola displayed a lack of respect for the club in a myriad of ways... from his onfield sooks (he's not the only forward not to get perfect lace-out delivery every time you know) to his continual undermining of the club's leaders in team meetings, to his numerous alcohol-fueled episodes.

Sure he's a huge talent. But only a fool respects talent. Far better to respect a person for their character, and for how they apply themselves.

A guy like Peter Dean, for example, has my utmost respect for his attitude whilst at the club. Had a tenth of the talent of Fevola, but unlike Fevola he always put the club first.

If Fevola isn't respected by supporters, I hardly think you can blame them. IMO, the guy barely respects himself.

Summed up beautifully!

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"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

And thats the way it should be.

I don't want to hear anything about our players, unless it is footy related and in particular winning. No distractions, no loss of focus, everything should be about getting the 'job' done, nothing else matters.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

That's yesterdays thinking.

Modern day AFL is about Marketing/Promotion/Sponsorship.

2ndeffort is correct in alluding to the fact that when it comes to media, our club is totally shitscared and petrified of it and has no clue!.

Swann I think is the only one with a bit of media nous, the rest are buffoons without a clue!!

With young marketable types like Murph Carrotts Hammer Gibbsy etc... we should be out there!! ...but we like to keep it all 'inhouse' ..coz it's a secret...

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There's so much I could say...

I must say im very suprised to read most of these posts are saying we have done well out of the trade. I really really hope you guys are all right...

From my personal view....NO ONE... and i mean NO ONE on our list can create the excitement and strike fear in opposition backmen like Fev. Thats what we have lost....do we seriously think that opposition coaches/players will be worried about our forward line now???

i just hope that some how some way we can play more like a team ( eg: see Collingwood, as much as i hate them, they have a rubbish list yet consistently make finals )

I understand the club is bigger than him, and that he had to go... but we will go through more pain ( losses ) before we go anywhere, thats what i expect and thats why im hurt... ill be very very suprised if we make finals next season. I love the Blues and trust they have made the right call

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Matty Kruzer you star!

Well, which team ever won a flag with a forward line that consisted of one guy and a bunch of 5th-stringers anyway?

We've been crap when fev's been good, and getting better when fev's still been good. So all up, I really don't think he's the barometer of our success. fev's been good for four years now, but it's really only been 2009 that we've won games. Where did the improvement come from? Not from fev.

Anyway. I'm not all that fussed about 2010. This team was always going to be about challenging consistently from 2011-2015 anyway, given the age of the vast majority of our better players.

You're right though. the coaches will have to develop a forward structure that works for us. But they needed to do that anyway, if we were going to get any better than the MOR side we were in 2009.

According to your theory, Collingwood should have about 10 flags in the last 20 years.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

I think we would have been better off on the field with him but with a more varied gameplan.
I am sure we will be better off the field without him if we can get team morale to a peak and develop a more varied gameplan. Replacing, "kick it long to Fev" with "kick it long to Waite" is not the amswer IMO.
He will be a great success for the Lions. He has already given them lots of press and will kick lots of goals and good on him.
He will have to play us twice a year for the foreseeable future and those occasions ae the only ones we have to worry about. We couldn't contain Brown/Bradshaw in the finals and they almost overran us in the home and away by changing their plan in the last. We won't have Judd in the mids for round two so the ball might be going down back more than usual. I'm tipping we will have a tough time of it and Fev will kick a big bag.
We will recover as a team as we always have when players we could never replace, like Big Nick, Jezza, Diesel and Kerna left and were replaced by new heroes.
Now Fev has gone their way and it's up to Ratts to find 90 goals from somewhere. Some from defence and the rest from attack.
Get on with it, Ratts. There's only 4 months to go.

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

Understood. Sort of the same reason why Wiggins has had a tough time up forward with Fevola / Wiggins playing over the same years.

According to your theory, sponsorship and merch will grow because we keep everything 'inhouse'..

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There's so much I could say...

West Coast allowed ordinary behavior and justified it against success. They may have won a flag but their team was damaged and Judd came to us. I am all for personalities and was a fan of Brendan however he had caused too many problems at the club and a split was the only possible outcome. Pity he couldn't control himself but ultimately, he had more chances than you could poke a stick at and wore out his welcome. Very sorry to see him go but the club had no choice and it was Fev alone who precipitated the trade. Time to move on

I thought the club did well out of the Fev trade and it had to happen so I wont be judging them. But I think the man in the street especially the Fev fans will be keen to let the club know they did wrong should Fev really fire up for Brisbane and we dont go so well and Brett Ratten will be the one taking the heat.
The club were keen to get Bradsahw to take some heat of the situation but that didnt work out and I just feel for Brett Ratten a bit and I reckon he would be hoping that Fev doesnt kick too many this season and Brisbane dont kick on....

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen