This era of the CFC's history, from approximately 2008-2013 will be viewed by future historians as the Ratten/Judd era. These two have been the captain and coach for the majority this period.

The success that this era promised is unlikely to be delivered. Our potential for greatness is unlikely to be realized.

As we stand, this era is likely to be viewed as a grand failure.

There is a long list of reasons for the calamitous situation in which we find ourselves, but the unifying theme is that the club's leadership has continuously misinterpreted its position, and accordingly made bad decisions in recruiting, appointments, player development, marketing and every other facet of the organisation.

The appointment process that gave Brett Ratten his job has been covered. Better coached teams are leaving us behind.

The recruiting decisions, both at the draft and trade table, have been poor and left us with an imbalanced list.

The membership marketing has been out of touch. The PR machine has made champions of players who don't yet deserve the tag and who read their own publicity.

Good players have gone backwards, others have not developed as would be expected.

The whole exercise of the last few years has been a gigantic waste, trotting out low expectations like 'win a final' or 'get a home final' to avoid embarrassment. Then when we met these lowly goals, for example by smashing a woeful Essendon* in last year's final, the major problems at the club were whitewashed because 'we met our goals'. It was all a mirage.

The club needs a major cleanout if any constructive legacy is to be salvaged from the Ratten/Judd era.

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

You need to replace Ratts' name in your last sentence....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Hard to disagree with much of this, but God I felt different after round 3.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

You could even argue that trading for Judd was the wrong move in the first place, for at least a couple of reasons.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

7 weeks is an eternity in football

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"Then joked and said he (Jack himself) probably wouldn't even need to play until round 2 against Collingwood."

Top thread. Would read again. More sack everyone crap.

You could even argue that you just love to pounce on anything that justifies your left field recruiting suggestions.

You were a Kennedy fan, right?

We could do with a few more reactionary rants about why we overlooked Cotchin and Dangerfield with picks one and three. I'd love to see how TC would treat Kreuzer, Gibbs and Palmer/ Masten after this sort of loss.

The fact we havent replaced kennedy or Fev says alot about our recruitment ...especially when we could of got darling instead of western star butter (watson) we have along way to go!!!

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#sayerscouldbetheman!!

Simon, give us some specifics on how we can be led to the promised 17th? Should Ratts fall on his footy now instead of being pushed at the end of the season?

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

The Judd/Ratten era. Hmmm from Stone motherless last to playing finals. Yep thats failure. FFS some people need to get a grip.

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

Playing finals ..... in 11 years... 3 spoons.. and 1 finals win.

Woopee!!!

Thats ambition!!!



She will be right mate!!!

Lets sign them all on extensions... ripper job !!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

That's the committed, go-getting attitude that has seen your beloved USSR thrive so well.

War is peace
Ignorance is strength
Freedom is slavery

Failure is success

Also sounds like USA TODAY!!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Should call it the Ratten wasted Judd era.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

Ratten the time thief!

Wasted everyones years.

Look he can still do the honourable thing......no way has he got a silver bullet for this.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

u guys ought to hear yourselves......

we're 7 men down injured, and gibbs/russel/warnock are terribly out of form. that makes it 10.

id be happy to beat GWS with 10 of my best men down or out

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

You people give the lie to the term "supporter". Im ashamed of us all.

Lets see we won a final last year under ratten, first time in a decade, we're 6-4 in 2012 (and with 8 or so first choice players out), and you're abandoning ship already? We're going to hit midseason at 6-5 at WORST - more wins than losses, and still a more than reasonable shot at the finals - and with all our injured dudes coming back in the second half.

Its not time to man the lifeboats or keelhaul the captain yet

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Navyblue95 -
my youtube channel tracking carlton news on television and paytv

HEAR YEH THERE WOOK
BUT IT AINT LOOKIN GOOD MATE
SOLDIER ON I SPOSE

I'm still gutted -- but Kernahan, Swan & McKay at the top is a good mix...Ratten is a good coach..say whatever one likes but Ratten needs some cattle on the park. Maybe we are not Collingwood..I can handle 2-3 key injuries but not 7-8.

First of all it aint I told you so .
I have lost interest with this club because I saw its failings long before now.

Whilst some of our recruitment has been excellent with some good rookie picks and the Fevola deal, we have recruited a very poor balanced list.
Couple that with a coach who was almost handed the job by his mate, we now have a badly balanced list who obviously dont play to the right structures and seem lost. So many players have dropped away with their efforts. We took the risk appointing a favourite son and are paying for it big time.

Then the club itself. For years I have wanted a president who was cutting edge. A smart man or woman for the now. Not a favourite son from the past.

The sugar coaters trott out the old line that these people know more about footy, what goes on in the inner circle etc. You know what. Sometimes you can stand back from afar and see things so much clearer than if you are inside the bubble.
From afar we are [REDACTED] well and truly and someone has to step in and shake the place up.

For years we have had
players not developing as fast as other clubs. Look at a guy like Lucas. Cant get a game with all our injuries
Players who should have been dropped for poor efforts. Bryce Gibbs. Being saying it for a couple of years. His efforts arnt up to AFL standard. A neat footballer.It isnt just this year. Its been happening since he arrived. Hasnt been dropped once so his standards stay the same. That's the accountability factor you have over a player if you are on the MC. He gets dropped if he doesnt put in. This doesnt happen to Gibbs because he is a number one draft pick whose father is a mate of sticks. It stinks

Then there is a couple of recruiting blunders. Now all clubs have them but the Blues have had some that were obviously bad from the start.
The McLean deal has been done to death on this site.

The Warnock deal was far worse.
He went after this spud and heaven knows why. Again a lack of hindsight here. All ruckman have to work hard around the ground. This guy doesnt and didnt at Freo. In the games I saw with Freo I thought he was useless lacked a footy brain and was soft as butter. But hey he is 206cm tall cant get a game because of Sandilands. Meanwhile back at the ranch we have this unfasionable ranga in the magoos. When I first saw Jacobs I saw potenial. Great footy brain and obviously a strong work effort.
We kept the number one draft pick, the athlete and the spud from the west whilst given up the possibilty of recruiting Beames, Reddon, Hannebery, Shiels and Broadbent all quality midfielders as they all went after pick 24. And now Jacobs is just about the best ruckman in the league
Whoever orchestrated this deal has no idea.

Why go to the Middle East. What benefit does that have over high altitude training. Might as well go to Mildura for 2 weeks in February.
As Synbad said we have too many light bodies . This has been due to our obsession with pace. So we get smashed in the clearences.
We have so many players who are shit kicks. Hampson, Joseph, Armfield.etc. You can only have so many in you team. How about none

Why sign Jarrod Waite to a three year deal when he
1 Is 29
2 Has lacked consistency his whole career
3 Has been injury prone icluding a total knee reconstruction
Answer favourite son thinking over practical sense

And with Murphy out and Judd looking buggered because he has had to shoulder too much we have put all our eggs in one basket and are paying for it.

Basically because we have too many dumb narrow minded people at the club who think the Carlton Way.
Its irrational thinking

I wont go on any further except for this

Someone has to come in now and right the ship. Sticks was only meant to be an interim President. Yet this has been swept under the carpet. I dont know who it can be but someone must come in and change the arrogant old Carlton culture. its been out of date for 15 years yet continues to exist. Its a boys club that only thinks " we are Carlton @#$%&! the rest" The rest for those moronic people's information are the 17 other AFL clubs who are fast moving ahead of us in the year 2012 and beyond

Ratten needs to go and replaced in the short term by someone there and we start the process of getting the best AFL coach available. The players should be disgusted with their efforts, but their heads arnt right And a thorough process to get the right man That person then recruits the right staff. assistants, conditioning coaches, recruiters. It will snowball from there, but the culture must change first which means certain people have to be replaced.

AND NOW

If this doesnt happen the time it takes to right the ship will be further extended.