Look the AFL has done it's all to inflict doom and gloom on this mighty club but failed to put the final nail in the coffin.
Whilst Evans was alive, the AFL penalised Carlton with drfat picks and a million dollars; unprecedented. They also changed the rules last year so that we couldn't get a PP. Why?
The AFL realised that despite the fact that our list was the youngest in the competition, it has the most upside. They thought that teams like StKilda with 4 #1 picks, 3 #2 picks and 9 top 10 draftees are probably the only team that could flower up that sort of opportunity (the AFL gave them), but with Carlton they saw something different; Carlton.
The AFL knew that just the addition of Gibbs to that young list, followed by picks 17 and 19 in the superdraft to sort out the missing link (the ruck issue), that Carlton would once again be an indelible force; and sooner than anyone else had believed. The AFL knew we couldn't win as few as 4 games in 2007; they could see the upside, the potential, the quality.
I don't think we should worry about tanking; it's a lost cause. We have once again become the most attactive club to join in Victoria. We are a superpower, with an awesome history, a great redevelopment of player facilties, a very very good list, albeit young, and a very cagey President, with a lot of influence. We will snag a big name or 2 in the near future, maybe 2008, as well as a couple more good draftees in 2008.
But instead of thinking tanking, I'm thinking of finals in 2007.
This year, with only 11 games required for 8th place in a very even year, I can't see anyone beating us for the remainder of the year, and we have the luxury of dropping 4 games, maybe 3 to play it safe.
We don't play WCE or the Cats again. We play 3 games at home (Dome), 3 games at our spiritual home (MCG) and 4 interstate games against Freo, Swans, Lions and Port.
I can't see us losing more than.....???...um...well I can't see us losing. We might drop 3 or 4; that's what I see. Might! Highly likely we'll lose a couple though....umpires are out there.
They're only kids are they are winning one on one footy and have learned to win shoot outs. There is a new belief and relief with our belief.
We don't 'need' to tank, we need to have a good look at the list we have, believe in it, and watch it improve at every outing. We have a very very good, deep list, albeit young. We just need a ruckman and another 2 midfielders to keep the pressure on Grigg, Anderson, Benji and Jackson to perform.
We are also already guaranteed the recruitment of a 27 yo elite midfielder next year called Nick Stevens.
Baby Blues are heading for finals and flags.
seriously, i have enjoyed this year alot, even our loses (despite geelong) we have played some good footy, and even could consider our position on the ladder as unlucky.
we should have beaten both North and Brisbane and you could argue Crows and Collingwood (if we played four quaters)
so we could very easily have been sitting with 7 wins or so already then i may say we are a chance for finals.
but we are going along nicely, its just a matter of time, get a few more pre-seasons into the kids, more game time, we are heading in the right direction, and the right direction with a bullet.