Possibly a good chance to look at where we are 10 rounds into 2008 which i am sure will be open to many opinions

Geelong in the end i just think that we played a team hell bent for making amends from the previous week and possibly escaped being pummeled by 100+ Points (last quarter even score with Cats + there poor early kicking)

Where i think the Blues have suffered has been lacking a settled backline. The best i have seen the backline in 2008 was against the Pies and believe if that back 6 where still playing together since round 4 we would be showing better improvement.

The Blues with injuries will be more critical than the more seasoned teams which can cover losses to key players better

Blues back six in Round fours win over Pies was

Jamison Thornton bower
Scotland Waite Banister
Only missing key is Walker who has been out most of the season

Last night against Geelong
Armfield Thornton Bower
Scotland Santanta Browne

* not any slant on Browne and Armfield i belive we have been lucky to find these 2 are more than capable of filling roles in Ideal place would be good if one of the 2 of either Armfield or Browne ... Phiefer could be used as a mobile forward role especially in tackling in the forward line. At moment this is not possible due to the constantly repairing the backline.

Apart from not being our ideal 6 also this issues has been happening over last 6 rounds where the backline is being refixed every week with Losses to Jamison Waite Thornton Banister - Now Bower.
Waite, will be back / Bainster maybe next week also but now looks like Bower will be gone.

The main issuse is it robs us of players from Midfield Roles and Forward options to fill holes in the backline.

We shuffle players who are forward and Midfield options to play back and this plays players better suited to other roles out of position
Injuries are part of AFL so we have just been unlucky but we dont have options or proper options to cover key players in our backline.

The only positive from the injuries is uncovering Phiefer, Armfield and Browne all who could be used in a mixture of roles.

Not only issues we have disposal and tackling ect all have been covered but a key to any settled team is a settled backline
If the backline six are able to work together and become more settled it gives greater confidence for the midfielders to be more attacking.

Players like Fisher being used on the wing can be used in forward line
When walker comes back may even mean we have the luxury of Waite being able to be used Forward or back depending on what team we are playing.

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CFC TAC Squad everyone over 25 must be traded sounds like Loguns Run

Jamison and Browne are ready made players. Even with less than 20 games in their portfolio they look polished.

Still, things can be derailed. There is a lot of work still needed.

Good observation -re round 4 - Bannister is an interesting one. I would prefer him in the team than people like Russell etc even if they do play different roles.

What I've learnt from the first 10 rounds is that I want the club to win more games in the next 10 rounds. Go Blues!

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

That I like it when we are competitive even if we're down.

But mostly... Winning IS!! better than losing or "dancing with your sister"

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Stay tuned We're in for a BUMPY ride

Cain Ackland will never play for Carlton again.

The Irish experiment is over.

Browne & Jammo are going to be good players (barring injury)

i've learnt that when ratts said everyone would begin with a clean slate what he really meant is that his appointment would predominantly give the serial offenders (aka supposed senior players) a chance to start afresh ... great news that ...

such largesse has seemingly not been extended to the the whole group judging by ratts' lack of enthusiasm for the irish boys but that's ok cos we've obviously got untold riches on the list ...

i've learnt that when we can't hit fev lace out we've added the fine art of holding the footy up high within our defence 50 and boldly announcing to the audience to turn away cos the next 5 mins are going to get ugly simply because we've got no friggin idea or plan B ... (the goal we got out of it was a gift 50m penalty and NOT the result of any tactical victory).

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... an eagle flew out of the night. he was something to observe, came in close i heard a voice, bending stretching every nerve, had to listen had no choice ...

Anderson and perhaps Ellard are the only players with rave enough reviews in the reserves to be pushing for a senior position, and only just at that.

Nobody else has warranted a spot based on their Bullants performances, not even Edwards.

Meanwhile Browne has notched up games, Armfield plays his first game, Bower hasn't missed, Grigg has played about 5 straight, O'hAilpin has played all but one game, Jamieson is an automatic selection, Hampson is in the ruck, Kreuzer has played every game once fit.

4 wins from 10 rounds is a good result. We do remember we won only 4 games the entire last yr right? We've already matched it. Not bad at all.

Plus we had 3 first yr players in the team on the weekend, Kreuzer, Browne, Armfield, against the reigning premiers, which is quite amazing.

Throw in relatively inexperienced players that have been playing in hampson, pfeiffer, grigg, jamison, bower...most inexperienced list in the league.


maxyblue i disagree with ya on the irish experiment. Ratts gave special praise to Setanta on his job on Pavlich, and he did well on Tom Hawkins this week too. We need his size, strength and aggression to take on the big boys, our other defenders are too skinny.

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Carlton Premiers '10

Obviously you havent learnt much then.

Tempo footy has never been about scoring goals against the opposition. Otherwise we'd be playing tempo footy ALL game (ie a considerably more grinding/slower game style than even the saints/swans).

What tempo footy does is kill momentum and allows flustered players some time to regain composure. In that respect it was has been very succesful/useful this season.

Against the cats we had 2 goals kicked in a minute, that quickly became 3 in 4 minutes. In previous seasons that would have snowballed to 6-7 goals over the next 10. What the tempo footy did was to allow a few of our players to touch the ball/keep it off the cats and a few minutes to settle nerves. Consequently we did reasonably well with the next few 1 on 1 contests and were more competitive (as opposed to just spending the next 10 minutes chasing cats jumpers).

If anything we probably should have tried to play a bit of tempo footy in the 3rd quarter to stem the obvious tide.

10 rounds into this season, and it's obvious that chicken little still posts here.

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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.

We were 4 wins by Round 11 last year. Hopefully we will improve in the second half of the year!

There are parallels with 2007.

2008 4 wins in 10 games, last year, 4 wins after 11 games.

Then we got belted by Hawthorn by 100 points. No further wins.
Against Geelong only poor kicking prevented 100 point thrashing.

It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be.

If we have really improved over last year, then we should beat Port next week.
Then Collingwood, Essendon*, Richmond and StKilda, all winnable, but 3 out 5 would be acceptable.

Anything less is not.

Despite injury, we have a backline on our list moving forward (albeit young, they're ours):

Gorilla Tall... Setanta
Talls.............Jamison Waite Bower Thornton, Saddington, Austin
Mids:............Walker, Bannister, Grigg, Anderson, Carrazzo, Russell, Jackson
Small:..........Scotland, Armfield, Browne

We have players to work with to build a very good backline. Furthermore, new players like Armfield, Browne, Grigg, Anderson enable us to release good midfield type players like Gibbs, Carrazzo, Walker and Scotland to stock up with talent into the midfield. Players like Setanta, Jamison and Bower into the backline may allow us to play Waite further downfoeld as well. They just need more experience playing together injury free.

Injury has really disrupted us (Walker,Setanta, Jamison, Thornton, Bannister, Anderson and now Bower). This is an unusually high number of injured talls for any team to contend with given our next level of players are doing their apprenticeship (Austin, Armfield, Browne, Anderson, Grigg and Russell).

We need some of the above to have their season cut early for operations with a view of getting a full preseason of strengthening into them (Jamison and Bower?).

The area which really disturbs me the most moving forward is still the ruck division.

Once injury hits Kruezer, Hampson and Cloke, we haven't had anyone else to fall back to.....we need to find out more about Jacobs and Aisake, or at least try and extract some positives from them at senior level. We need to gain enough information to make the right decision as to whether they will be our support rucks or whether we have to find some newbies in this forthcoming draft/ trade period; the last before it's open season for the CG team on all the talent in the country.

Cloke is not our long term future in the ruck.
Kreuzer may break down with a deterioration of his hip issue.
Hampson can't carry the ruck on his own as a 20yo or as a 23yo.

Find a CHF!!!!!!

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Going into the start of the season I thought our backline was our weakest link. After 10 rounds it is our forward line that is our weakest link. You need at least 3-4 avenues to goal and we have 1-2.
If you look at the ladder we are about were we should be but we have more upside than the teams around us. We have the nucleaus of a strong team which will naturally improve with time. The next two drafts should focus on adding depth to our list and addressing the remaining long term weaknesses.
- Key position player than can play back/forward
- More midfiled grunt
- 20 - 40 Goalkickers X 2

I've learned and been reminded constantly how hard it is to love and keep loving the Mighty Blues. But I will do it as it is in my blood. Go Blues.
BM

I have learnt that, Indiana Jones should not have made a comeback.

We have no forward line except Fev. We need to go shopping for CHF.

We have no kick in policy - player closest to the ball, kicks in - not good enough.

Not doing enough for each other, when we DON"T have the ball.

Our backline is our most improved part of the team.

We should have beaten Essendon* and Richmond and Adelaide.

We eliminated some monkeys off our backs in winning away [Subi] and beating a team that has had the wood on us for years [Freo].

Judd's a GUN.

My Smurph is still beautiful.

Cloke has a ticker. He lacks skill but he tries his guts out - other skilful players need to take note.

We will win 8 games this season.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

We have learnt this:

Midfield - will be primed and perfect and A grade in 3 years
Backline - will be primed and perfect and A grade in 3 years
Ruck - will be primed and perfect and A grade in 3 years

Forward line - we have major issues, may not even be C grade in 3 years.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

:melvey:

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

..that we're a younger, and more inexperienced side,, and are already better than last year..

..that the Krooze will be great, and if we play our cards right can have him ruck or CHF when our 'window' opens..

..drafting footballers has shown speedier success than previously drafted athletes..

..Juddy's inside game is improving.. ..a great sight, considering he already was an good inside player.. ..once he regains full fitness he'll be better yet..

..our new Coach shows promise, much like our 'new look' team.. ..they're growing together..

..young players improving dramatically - Murph, Betts..

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..if you can't be good, be good at it..

no matter how shit a senior player is going (favourites), they will always get a game.

scotland stevens fisher come to mind.

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"You're not gonna believe this. The guy killed 16 czechoslovakians. He was an interior decorator."

"His house looked like shit!"