Honestly, after yesterdays effort Nick Stevens must be wondering why he left Port Adelaide, and an eventual flag, for Carlton.

The guy tries his guts out week after week yet doesn't get the same input from his team mates who are more than capable of playing at his level.

When he first arrived at Carlton things were slowly, but surely, turning around. Sure we were still an average side and it would take time for Denis to add the Foreign Legion to the list and create something that resembled a side, but overall we were addressing our deficiencys as best we could.

At the end of 2004, I reckon Stevo probably couldn't wait for season 2005. The last 4 games of 2004 provided the team with the necessary confidence that they needed to propel them into 2005.
And the Wizard Cup...well, that must have made him cream his dacks.
A sign of things to come? Well obviously that hasn't happened.

I actually feel sorry for Nick.
He busts a guy every week to give us the best chance of winning, yet is let down time and time again by team mates who aren't prepared to put in an effort at all.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

I don't think it's a lack of effort from his teammates, pj.

I think it's more that Nick is clearly one of the best players in the comp and the players around him simply aren't at his level. It's not that the guys aren't trying as hard as they can it's more to do with the quality around him.

He had better players around him at Port so he didn't always stand out. At Carlton he stands out more because he's clearly our best midfielder.

Who are these players who aren't trying as hard as they can? I take it that one of them you're referring to is Campo. Name other names. At the end of the day the others don't play at his level because they aren't as good as he is.

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Formerly Blues-Back2003.

PJ, your statement:

"He busts a guy every week to give us the best chance of winning, yet is let down time and time again by team mates who aren't prepared to put in an effort at all"

Refer the coach's contrary view of his team mates:

"I think we were intense, I thought we were hard, I thought we had a crack but probably just didn't have enough good players on the day to use it properly when we needed it,"

Perhaps, you meant to say "some" team mates

Koutoufides has been a leader in clearances, yet for a player that is on the highest wage he has avoided the criticism Camporeale, Fevola and Whitnall have copped. It's now been a long time since his reconstruction and I don't think he is performing to the level that should be expected from the captain. I know I'll cop it for this but if others are criticised for their performance so should Kouta who is fit once he crosses the line. I know he's being used to patch holes in defence but has he had the same influence on the games?

Kouta looked very tired on t.v.

Campo had the week off, so he was fresh and Lappin started to slightly fatigue towards the end. Travelling and training with differing time zones etc would have an effect on players, even a slight one.
It was our fortnight of hell. We played the reigning premiers and a top 8 side and came out of it unscathed.

Could have been much worse for Stevens, he could've ended up at Collingwood.

I think he is very happy right now, for $400,000 a year i would loose every game. Although i dont think he is a greedy person, and i dont think he thinks like that.

Plus its not always about winning, its about improving, and we are.

Italian Styles wrote: "Plus its not always about winning, its about improving, and we are."

Well said Italian styles.
Now although its not a bad thing for us to be unhappy with losing(to keep that winning culture attitude)-aren't we getting a bit ahead of ourselves? I think there is a lot of frustration and disappointment with our team because we performed better than expected in the Wizard. And we should get things in perspective.

We are just not ready as a team to get the consistent results. Some of our players are young and need to bulk up further-they try hard to put tackles, get a hold of their man,and then get shrugged off because they just haven't got enough body strength.
We need to remember it was only 1 & 2 seasons ago that Geeong and Melbourne picked up high draft picks because they had poor years, and now we see then performing with most of the players they had the year before.
We need to give our boys time. I think we still need to recruit-such as defenders, some talls etc and it looks like we will have higher draft picks than we would like. So we are on the journey. We HAVE NOT been thrashed this year. We ARE competitive. We could have won every game we have played. Not bad for a team that is still on the rebuild.

I am not having a go at constructive crticism. I hate losing. But let's be realistic. I get the feeling Pagan is with his after match comments.

Could have ended up at the dogs too. He obviously would have won a premiership had he not left but chose to for family reasons, ended up in the PSD and we got him because we had finished 2nd last.

An absolute load of Shit PJ.
Arent we above Port ATM? Isnt stevo extremely well played ($500 000+).
If theirs one thing i cant fault ATM its the effort. The boys have been busting their gut but unfortunately weve lacked some polish.
No need to feel sorry for Stevo. But i bet he would feel sorry for you. Dont you Have anything better to do with your time than to write this crapola.

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Too Legit to quit.

Yep.
Good on ya, mate.

Money has nothing to do with it.
My point was that he must get a tad frustrated with some of his team mates efforts.
He works so hard to set up a play here or there only to have messed up by a bad turn over or a silly mistake and have the ball come back down where it began.
All his work unravelled.

Have a go at my post by all means, but I won't put up with people having a go at me personally.

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Writer for SuperCoach Paige www.scpaige.com.au
Twitter - @johnfeeney24

I'd say Nick would be thinking he knew he was comming to a club on it's knee's and that he probably wrote off years 2004 and 2005 as being rebuilding years..... also knowing the club he left was a hot chance for a flag.

At the moment he would probably be thinking the club is turning itself around. Ten wins last year was a bonus and we won the wizard cup this year.

If we had kicked a little straighter this year and the whole team including himself had kept the intensity up for four quaters in each game we may have been 5 - 0 and equall first.....


Not sure of the point of this post..... Stevens isnt the only one busting his guts at the moment.

Exactly

No doubting Stevo's work ethic. However he was as guilty as the rest of them when lining up shots on goal yesterday. One area Pagan has challenged him to improve in his game is his goal kicking. I think he means average aroung one a game. He doesn't. He is a good mid fielder but not yet elite himself.

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The tide is turning

Pj you must be getting rope burns from your worry beads, fair dinkum!
Winning against Freo at home was always going to be a hard task especially when part of a two week road show and especially after playing the reigning premiers who were stung into action.
I think the team performed admirably given the draw.
Fevola was dissappointing but i was personally not surprised -he is being overrated so will bound to dissapoint. Most of the others tried their guts out but were just beaten by a better (top team. Stevens had an average match the week before.

Stevens would not only be happy with the money he is getting I can assure you he is a professional and would want to be winning games of football.
I doubt stevens knew he would have to be the best player at Carlton every week to give us any chance at all.
I doubt stevens would have thought he would have to act like the most senior footballer at the club.
Stevens could have also gone to Melbourne for the same money. There was a last minute o0ffer for Brock McLeans draft pick that he knocked back.
Sticks and Denis did a massive job selling him the club. He wasnt too keen originally on coming to Carlton.

Yes we are not a million miles away.. but we are a million miles away this year.
We need a complete overhaul on where the money is going and who is at the club IMO. We need 3 players / positions injected.
A Maloney would have been perfect for us.., Id love to see a Micth Hahn doing Stevens bullocking work as he is too valuable a commodity to have doing that kind of work. We will work him into the ground if we cant get a player like Hahn next year. That kind of player is vital for us...

Someone said Kouta has avoided criticism well I don't know what website they have been on he cops a shitload yet why is it that Stevens doesn't get any form of criticism at all? Are the blinkers on?
Downhill skier. Yes a bloody good one but only runs one way. He looked great hiting our forwards on the chest during the wizard cup but can't remember him doing it much in the last 5 games? Spends most of the game hanging around the HBF getting handball receive's. He continues to hang out of a pack waiting for a handball and will put in the short steps when he knows he won't get to a contest by himself. Does he chase tackle or sheppard? Yes he's tackle stat is alright so far this year but for a so-called elite onballer he has the same count as FEV! Why has his opponent or opponents had more of the ball in 4 of the 5 games can't remember who played on him during the North game. Any accountability? Why did Pagan go off at him at 3/4 time during the Bombers game? Nobody says anything about his effort against his old side 5 disposals to 1/2 time for a permanent onballer is terrible basically he went missing when the heat was on. I'll soon hear about he's no.1 for clearance's yes he has done well but Barnaby would have hit him on the tit 20+ times this year which is fairly easy when that happens. 1 goal 3 in 5 games? A Grade midfielder? Why hasn't he been an All Australian or a regular in the Ireland series for an ELITE player?
Busts a gut every week? maybe he should watch Kouta to see what a hard ball get is! Bah humbug

- good to see someone else notices that only certain 'favourites' get criticised

shhhh,

you are ruining it.

you could stuff up the campaign of those ( ) that are trying to save the club several hundred thousand dollars in player negotiations at the end of the year by lowering the value as much as possible of certain players.

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It's not like we are getting smashed...........

We have only lost by 20 points tops. And drew with last years premiers. We are yet to play 4 quarters of consistant footy

WE ARE GETTING THERE!!