The word for the month is "Leader"

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Love Cricket? Love me

I love the leader!

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

How is daylight playing Tyrant? I haven't heard him mentioned for a while??

what about:

Prendergast - expected return round 6: [url=http://www.injuryupdate.com.au/injuries.php?sport=AFL]AFL - Rnd 6
[/url]; and

Fisher - apparantly training the house down, and out of the injured group.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

I wonder where rate Richmond...

Melbourne will thrash them by 10+ goals this week...

Let's hope not. Last thing we need is to play another side coming off an insipid performance!

Can we please just pick someone who's prepared to go & get the ball!!!!

My changes are:
In: Betts, Simpson
Out: Sporn, Bowyer

Think Davies needs to stay in as another forward option in case the news is bad re Fev.

Hope Karl stays in as we need him for Franklin or Williams.

Isn't it amazing how the supporters can get so fired up and angry yet our players just DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

out - Fev (susp), bowyer, sporn, chambers, de luca,
in - betts, simpson, scotland, prendergast, bentick

if prendergast isnt ready then deluca gets another week.

and no I'm not overreacting

Tyrant: Re: Bannister...dont undertand the negatives towards him...is very fit can play on smalls and talls and has some decent scalps like Pavlich to his credit. He has done very little wrong apart from one ordinary game v The Bulldogs where Brad Johnson cut him up .

I like Cory McGrath for his grunt and tackling but I dont think he gives you the options that Bannister does....
Bannister like Simpson gets a raw deal IMHO and is the first dropped after any loss and I think there a few others who should be looked at before he is......ie Justin Davies...

I think bannister's problem is what he doesnt offer us - the way I view footy (which I'm sure many disagree with) is that every player must be able to offer something positive to the team in order for them to be successful - THats probably why I dont like pure taggers that cant perform offensively in the midfield. I see bannister as a purely defensive midfielder - he offers nothing going the other way (compared to other players that he would be compared against - mcgrath, sporn, wiggins).

4th chicken, I think Bannister has shown glimpses of something extra in that he 'marks tall'. He has long arms and good hands and when matched up against a medium he can take a good overhead grab. Did it a number of times last year, especially against Bucks in final round.
The big disappointemnt is Sporn. I really thought when he got injury free he might be a classy unit, but he seems down on confidence and maybe ability. Gee, I like Shane O as a great Carlton man but he never really got it right with high picks in the draft right. 2000 draft is looming as a disaster. 3 first rounders and none of them looking more than battlers, and the other three we picked already delisted. Our poor drafting is coming back to bite us big time.

The other disappointment is Norman, who looked to have a bit of class last year but looks out of form and self belief. Another year of rebuilding, but we desperately need some supertalent. I hope our picks this year turn up trumps. Otherwise we might have a few more long cold winters ahead....

Some would say a lack of LEADERSHIP in these years might have had a negative influence on the young blokes.

think u have to cut sporn some slack - he has missed 50+ games with injury so far (played approx 40 out of a possible 95 or so). I had big expectations from him this year though and he has been disappointing with respect to that. However, it was only a couple of weeks ago that several 'respected' posters stated that sporn was playing injured and wouldnt be playing if we had someone else. That seems to be forgotten/overlooked in the recent round of player bashing

Bannister - the thing is he doesnt actually do as much as you might expect. Though admittedly I see very few games live (telly/radio most games though), Bannister has never 'performed' relative to the others I listed. I put up a comparison between sporn/mcgrath/bannister based on 2004 season stats averages a while back and basically it was bannister was the weakest of the trio (marks, tackles, possessions, goals) and sporn the strongest (by a reasonable margin as well, particularly if u consider none of these players are first choice midfield options)

I guess we view Bannister in a different light Chicky..I would back him to outmark all three players you mentioned and has taken several good grabs up forward and kicked some important goals in his short career with us..in fact I see him more of an allrounder than Sporn, Wiggins or McGrath.
Wiggo plays his best footy on the ball with freedom to create rather than picking up a man down back where he gets the shakes and can be a liablity....
I dont know what to make of Trent Sporn to be honest..warmed to his play during the wizzer cup but then did little in the home and away games until he recieved that bad knock and kicked that nice goal...but I do know he hasnt set the football world on fire as a forward ..not yet anyway.

Cory McGrath..capable allround type of player who can kick goals and I wouldnt argue his allround capabilities but I dont see him offering anymore than Bannister....

My opinion if its counts for anything.

We have a group of players who are very even in terms of skill and game experience.

We have the most inexperienced and youngest team in the competition.

We have a group of players who have suffered multiple injuries over the past two to three years.

Bannister, Sporn, Wiggins, Simpson, Norman, Davies, Carrazzo, McGrath, Waite and Walker and whoever else i have left off have yet to play 70 games which equates to three seasons approx. These guys given a full game over fix or six weeks will develop further and help the team develop.

We lost to Fremantle in Perth coming off a trip to Port Adelaide. Last season we were flogged by 7 goals plus, this season we lost by 19 with a late goal to Freo who have added Carr and Black to a midfield that was already very good.

We lost to Kangaroos who I basically beleive we are the equivalent of.

We lost to Port who absolutely gave us a flogging for the past 3 years.

We lost to the filth who somehow kicked as accurately as Johnny Holmes at his best.

The improvement in this team is evolving. We are not St Kilda, Geelong with its stock took 5 years to rebuild with its chore group, expect the same with Carlton. We are no longer a laughing stock who the good teams can treat with disrespect, we are respected and a team who will match it with any team in this competition.

We are half a game out of the eight and have three games in the next four weeks that are winnable. My advice to all you player bashes is to hold back and release in round 15 when we have a greater indication of what is happening.

Note: Cory McGrath did not even play the first half of last season, yet became a valuable contributor in the second half of the season when we started to win games consecutively.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Surely we do in McGrath, Bannister. If he's injured why not give him a rest to get over it?

u tell me - twas not me suggesting he was injured initially