....last week after the loss to the tigers my 10 year old son said to me "would you be angry if I barracked for another team?"

(what can I say but "you don't have to barrack for anyone, you can support whichever team you like")

The other day, my son found a Carlton T-shirt in his clothes drawer and was happy to put it on. We then went to the shops and when we returned I noticed that he still had his T-shirt on but it was inside out. I mentioned to him, why do you have your T-shirt on inside-out? He just looked at me and blushed.

I asked him, don't you want to go out in public with a Carlton T-shirt on? He said, no I don't, I am ashamed, they keep losing.

I just said to him, every team loses sometimes, and when you support someone you will have ups and downs etc etc etc... (you know the usual moral lecture about loyalty and persistence)

I was so surprised (actually stunned would be a better word) that my son would hide his carlton T-shirt in public, that I took a photo of it....(was bothering me all day long - had to get this off my chest)

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

maybe we should turn the team inside out

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NG
S M C , S F L

I had the same issues with my two boys who couldn't see the appeal of Carlton in their current version.

In desperation, I took them to the MCG for that fantastic match against Hawthorn where Fev missed the goal on the last kick of the match a few years ago. They were standing on their seats screaming (like everybody else...) and they have been seriously locked into the Blues ever since.

The problem I see at the moment is we are lacking real star power to market to the new generation...

Fev and Eddie have gone, but Juddy hopefully will get back soon. But there is fresh air under him for kids to focus on.

My boys are over Gibbs and Garlett...and Brave Sir Robyn (Murphy) being chested by a first year Bombers player didn't help.

Can we poach Dangerfield??

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"...that's the thing about opinion - you don't have to know anything to have one..." Andre Agassi commenting on Pat Cash 2004
"...the less you know - the more you believe..." - Bono 2006

I'm finding it really disturbing the number of TCers lately saying they won't try to stop their kids supporting other teams...

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#DonTheStash

the players can lie to themselves if they wish, so can the board or the coaches for all I care. I cant do anything about that anyway...

But there aren't too many more immoral things that you can subject your children to than to lie to them.

My children were baby blues and then captain carlton members (think that's what they called the memberships) until recently

As they grow older they make more and more decisions for themselves.....

The game is different today anyway - pretty much a visual spectacle on the TV.

those smells from Princes park on a Saturday afternoon are gone now... additive. I lived right around the corner from the ground, I could hear the crowd and as I walked to the ground I could even hear the umpires whistle blowing.

i value those times and remember them as if they were yesterday....

But I cant live in the seas of the past - it rots the soul....we are alive now, this moment is all that counts...

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

Go to any school on footy day and look at the jumpers. Carlton is outstripped by EVERY other club. Even Melbourne, GWS and GC are more popular FFS.

I've always made it a point to let the kids decide their own team (gently promoting Carlton admittedly) but it's hard to for Carlton to get a look in when kids learn from their friends at school that the club is "not cool" and that "they always lose".

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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

Mate of mine had a theory that the team a kid supports at age 7 is the team they will support for life.

Seemed sound enough. Certainly after the richmond final when my 7 year old couldn't get enough of it.

She's asked to go a couple of times this year but 'luckily' each game has been poorly timed. So she made do with saying gday to Marc Murphy & Nick Graham up at Doncaster Hyundai the other night and getting some photos.

Time will tell if the '7yo theory' stands up.

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Congratulations CK95

I can sort of relate to this......

My daughter is 5 years old. My wife follows Essendon*. I think I have done well to bring her to the Navy Blue side. I overheard her saying to her mother on Monday that she is giving the blues one more chance. She told her if they lose this week then she will start following the Gold Coast. If there was a team to choose out of the 18 sides and it was not Carlton then I would be happy with this.

BUT, we are losing this generation of young kids when we had the opportunity to bring a new generation on a new successful journey with us.

I think us adults need to encourage the kids. When you are there this Saturday and you see a little kid dressed in our colours, make them feel proud and special and give them the thumbs up.

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It is not as bad as you are lead to believe.......it is %$#^& worse!!!

I've tried everything to keep my boy at Carlton. Memberships, games, merchandise even took him again to show him his name on the wall at Visy Park recently . Year after year of trotting him out to family days where the longest conversation he was able to get with a player may have been 30 seconds tops.

We went for a holiday at QLD just after the Swans won the premiership and I took my son out for a day at Wet n Wild water park. Adam Goodes was there with a few friends and as we walked past he noticed my boy wearing a Carlton rash top and started having what ended up being around a 15 minute chat with him about Carlton and footy in general. He was absolutely brilliant. He's been Sydney ever since and there is just no way I can turn him around.

Whats worse is he's poisoning the mind of son number 2 also.

Is this the failed parenting thread?

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dane's trolling again

Dunno, have your folks posted in here yet

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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

Zing!

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dane's trolling again

I was pretty hard-core about making sure the kids followed Carlton, which wasn't easy when their first proper memories and experiences were when we really started to be shit (2002)

But when I realised that our underperformance wasn't just a cyclical thing, but endemic and the direct result of a terrible culture and exceptionally poor leadership through the entire club starting at the very top, I just stopped pushing it. Buggered if I'm going to go out of my way to visit misery upon my kids. When you stop liking the club you grew up to love, it's pretty hard to push the club onto the people you actually, genuinely, properly love.

Fortunately enough, they've just lost interest in football rather than jump on board another team.

It would never happen in my household, but it doesn't mean that they don't feel the pain of losing. Yes, the problem is that we have no charismatic stars and a lack of the younger variety to boot. What can we do to look appealing to kids?? Maybe find younger celebrities who barrack for the Blues, I've given up on dullards/introverts like Murphy/Gibbs/Juddy helping with the cause.

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#DonTheStash

Posted this not long ago.


A good friend of mine has a very large family, all of which have been Carlton obsessed since the day I met them 10+ years ago. Whether it be cousins, aunties, uncles, grandparents, second cousins, extended family..you name it.. And it's all Carlton. As the new generation of kids starts to come through, I'd say there would be between 15-20, all various ages up until 14.

Four years ago, the kids all had memberships. There was no greater joy for these kids when their membership packs arrived, it was like a second Christmas. Four years on, not one of these kids is the slightest bit interested in AFL, least of all the Carlton football club. They have taken up new sports, new hobbies etc. The Carlton obsessed family have tried all they possibly could to re-connect these kids to the football club. Last night the father of three of the kids turned to me and said "You know what mate, it's not my job to re-connect these kids to Carlton, it's Carltons job and at the moment, these kids deserve better." Unbelievable.. Never seen a father look so defeated.

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Lawrence Lawrence, The man who knows all the rackets and all the racketeers!

Maybe we need a player at the club who is a bit of a showman and is great with the kids?

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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.

God I miss Fevola

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Lawrence Lawrence, The man who knows all the rackets and all the racketeers!

Good one Kouta.

Need to lighten up a bit because I need a laugh.

MY eldest son said he doesnt want to watch the Melbourne game because its boring to watch so many mistakes and lose.
He's sick of going to school and kids shit stirring him about Carlton losing. He thought we'd be better this year, and that the Sydney final was something we would fix.

It gave me a good opportunity to discuss losing and winning and how all teams in all sports experience such things. He responded that will always barrack for Carlton and looks forward to going to the Dome for the first time. Good kid.

I think he knows I'm hurting because its been 12 years of hurt, but he doesnt know I'm actually hurting because the kids are hurting.

There's no way I'm showing the kids the Message from the Coach this week. Its embarrassing. Micks a blubbering idiot. He's embarrassing.

We are losing our passion me thinks.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

could be right on the charismatic player point

My eldest son loved Fev when he was there

Then he loved watching Betts...

when he was there

(my youngest is basically Machivellian Prince type, only interested in the final score. And also whether the tigers lost so he can stir his best friend at school)

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)