We were flying our flags so high and with so much pride during the weeks of the Wizard Cup yet today I struggle to find the passion to promote my involvement with the club.

Let's cross a few names off before I continue....

Nick Stevens was fantastic. He gave 100% at every contest and into every run. To put it simply, it was Nick vs. The Pies, and he almost won that battle!!! Nick thank you for setting the example of how a footballer should go about his business.

French, WOW! The last month or so French has been so impressive. He has poise, skill and the passion that so many of our players lack. His approach to any ruck contest is 100% and his efforts to drop back and provide a tall option are second to none. A good example of how good work pays off!

Waite, Whitts, Deluca and Lapps, whilst they don't deserve the credit that French and Stevo do, they deserve to be complimented for trying all day.Pretty happy with their efforts but still not playing at their peak.

As for the rest... I have never seen such a pitiful and heartless approach to an all-important last quater. There was a lack of intencity, thought and togetherness. I pose the question... If a heart surgeon -who evidently earns as much as a professional footballer- desides to give up when the going gets tough I can assure you he won't be assigned to the next patient and he'll have a lineup of lawsuits to answer to.

So why don't our footballers get the same treatment? A bad game in the 1sts then play 2nds next week! That's how it works in the amateurs, and it works really well!

So playing in the 2s next week...
S. Wiggins, B. Johnson, R. Houlihan, C. McGrath,T. Sporn and one other I'll mention in a moment!

Now I'm not calling for blood, or delist or trade, I simply think players who are not up for standard should not feel they're guaranteed a game the following week. Make these players fight for a spot and consequently have to put in their best efforts. It's the only way it'll work.

The man who remained nameless earlier is B. FEVOLA. He is way too comfortable in his role as 'The face of Carlton,' 'The star full forward' and the 'Coleman Medalist.' He is yet to earn the right to any of the aforementioned. Brendan, pull your head out of your ass and play like the star you are! Quit whinging!!!

We have potential... we've seen it in very short glimpses so far this season and it was certainly evident during the Wiz Cup.

Our season looks in disarray but round 4 is as good a time as any for Dennis to start making some hard decisions.

Let's hope we can pull ourselves towards ourselves and overcome this hurdle that we've cemented in front of ourselves!!! (ourselves! )

Afterall, true character is revealed in times of adversity!!!

You CANNOT blame Fevola. He can't do a thing when the opposition have flooded back.

What do you expect him to do when the opposition have flooded?

I think our forward line gets flooded because we push numbers back due to a lack of key defenders. When Livo and T-Bird are back, we wont need to push numbers back. The opposition defenders who dont have an opponent will have an opponent as we wont be pushing everyone back as much.

Fevola's attitude is just not good enough!

what did Houla and Mcgrath do deserve to be dropped, dude thats a joke players like Davies, Wiggos, Carrazzo, Prenda and Scottland should be dropped Scottland does f*** all defensively is lazy and only plays for himself. Prenda what use is it having him on the bench he is a n athlete playing football he has no footy smarts.
Houla has composure and skill unlike Carrazzo who constantly puts us under pressure and i dont care how many posis he gets its what you do with them that counts and he does shit all with them.

In Pagan's press conference Houla was one of only four blokes to be mentioned as having played a four quarter effort, along with Barney, Lappin and Stevens.

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Been a harsh critic of Houlihan but he wasnt our worst today and at least hit some targets.....
Fev was well held by an ordinary player in Presti...not good enough.
Whitnall tried but Wakelin is no mug and not easy to push around....hate saying it but Malthosue got his matchups right and out coached Denis..

I don't know if I rate Dennis on game day!!!

Don't get me wrong.... he's as good as they come in every other area of his coaching role!!!

Sometimes wonder whether the role of a coach on gameday is somewhat redundant!

Lawyers dont need their lecturers to brief them before a trial!

Houla did OK today.

I think we're over-stressing. Let Denis work things out.


We were flat 75% of the match, and it cost us. I don't think Denis will let that sort of thing happen too much.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

I think T Longmuir would need to be considered. There needs to be another Plan B target when Fev and Whits are being double teamed.

Deluca has been working well as an alternative target but we need another strong marking player who can also work at ground level.

The positive to come from Fevola's game and in some respect, his attitude, is that his next contract won't be that much of a burden to the club.

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This might sound extreme in the context of alleged sexual assault, drunken violence and a drug trafficking charge...

I'm starting to wonder if this is the Carlton Football Club or the Richmond Football Club.

I'm pretty disappointed at the way we've responded here.

Maybe winning the Wizard Cup was the worst thing we could have done.

We haven't set the world on fire so far, but we're 1-2, we've been beaten by 20 points twice.

Perhaps some of us would like a 108 point reality check like we got last year?

At the moment we're playing without our 2 key defenders and one of our most important link players is playing with a bad wheel. I'm dumbstuck that some are suggesting we drop Houla...rest him, yes maybe...I think the reason he's still playing is that Houla at 60% is probably better than most players at 95%

There will definitely be a few changes I think. I'm disappointed we're not 3-0, but I think our expectations were too high. We need to be realistic and stop having a crack at the majority of our players.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Agreed, wild overeactions fed by unrealistic expectations.

Let the naysayers, nay for a while.

Then it will be time for the glass-half-fullers to shine.

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Thanks Jarusa!! Any prediction which Round the sugar-coaters can fight back?

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I agree it's good we're competitive even when we're playing poorly. But the issue isn't so much that we've lost, but that we've lost to average/poor sides.

Besides if there isn't significant improvement, the kind of reality check you're talking about may well be still on the way!

in 3 games of footy we have played 1 decent quarter.

We have also played three games where the opposition seem to find it harder to miss than actually score goals.

I mean, shit, 17.4 in Rd 2 and 15.1 in the second half yesterday.

thats 32 goals and 5 points

that is un heard of.

Now ever, with all that, we have lost 2 games and won 1 and we have played like crap.

I didnt think that T-Bird would make such a difference, but it appears he does.

Its a two fold effect, with both T-Bird and Livo out our defence is no where as good as it is with them in it.

Morell is handy, but not on the no 1 forward.

Norman is handy, but not on the no 2 forward.

you bring in t-bird and livo and suddenly they go from 1 and 2 to picking up the 3rd and 4th best forward on which they are better.

All is not lost.

But give credit where credit is due - i thought Collingwood's defence played the perfect game yesterday. Clement was outstanding, Wakelin again and could almost be considered the most consitent backmen in the league, Presti also had a day our as well

Having said all that, i think our biggest problem is, we are a reactive team at the moment. We will play football dependent on the team which we play. Meaning the better the opposition the better we will play.

We saw it against Melbourne, we saw it against West Coast.

North are a crap team
Essendon* are a crap team
Collingwood are a crap team

We should be 3 - 0, but we arent, we are 1-2, with 2 interstate games coming up and i reckon we are a fair chance to win one if not both of those games and then we play the dawks, so we could possible 4-2 and all this self doubt will have been for nothing.

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

Can I have what you're having? I sure hope you're right, but I'm not sure where you see enough improvement coming from, for us to beat sides that are about twice as good as those we've been playing (and who are playing at home).

its just a belief i have about the way we play.

alot of our "quality of play" is dependent on the team we play.

Unless the wizzer cup was an illusion against Melbourne & West Coast who i rate as far better teams than the likes of North and Collingwood, we played for better football.

Thus far we have played 3 average games, won 1 lost 2, and through all 3 games we have been crap. I was actually bored yesterday at the footy we where playing that bad.

I was bored in the First Game against the roos
I was bored in the Second Game agsaint the Buumers - exception being the last quarter
I was bored yesterday

We have played 1 quarter of football the way we can.

Add to that, the incredible accuracy that we have seen kicked against us, and the fact we have only lost both games by 20 points when we have played like muppets, whilst im not happy with the loses im reasonable happy that the improvment we have made is that we have lost games, but even though we have lost these games, we have played bad yet still had a reasonable chance of snatching the victory, instead of last year where we may have got flogged by 100 points

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

I agree that we'll play much better footy at certain stages this year. I also agree that opposition sides won't continue to 'never miss' with their goalkicking. It's just that we've got injuries at the moment to some important players, and we're about to play 2 of the better sides in the competition at their interstate home grounds. (And besides the Adelaide game, I don't think we've won interstate in the last 4 years.)

It was not so much the improvement, as the 4-2 scoreline that surprised me.