I'm no dannyboy but just sharing an email I sent to the club after the Syd game. Received a phone call from the 'lead of member communications' last week who, to be fair, was just doing his job and gatekeeping before "summarising" and sending to the executive. My firm instructions were to send my email, unedited, directly to Brian Cook & Luke Sayers.

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Dear Mr Brian Cook & Mr Luke Sayers

My name is Mat and I'm a lifelong supporter and member.

A more passionate Carlton person you will not find. My own personal happiness is directly aligned to the performance and success of our team and club. Just ask my wife, kids, family, friends and work colleagues.

To be a true power club again and have ongoing and sustainable ON FIELD success is my single biggest wish.

I have stood by the club throughout all our modern history since 2002, which for significant periods have been soul destroying to say the least.

My son is just short of 19 and was 'Born A Blue'. He is just as passionate as I am. See attached email I sent to the club last year for his 18th birthday. We literally bleed blue.

The club may be doing well off field but with its core business of football, it is failing spectacularly. I am absolutely disgusted and despondent with what the team has produced on field this year. It has hard to fathom and is completely unacceptable. What is being produced is so far removed from an elite high performance football program it simply isn’t funny. There is no evidence of a high performance culture or elite standards anywhere. This with the reigning Brownlow medallist, the last two Coleman medallists and multiple All Australians covering all parts of the ground.

How can this be? It defies logic. How many AFL sides would we currently beat playing the awful football that we are now? Very few at best.

I could provide pages and pages of stats and observations. Let me summarise by saying this. We can’t defend. We can’t score. We can’t execute basic modern football fundamentals.

It is hard not to have the grave thought that this rebuild has failed. We are year 8 in and what have we got to show for it? How many winning seasons? How many finals appearances?

Who is accountable for this? Will the Board publicly take responsibility for the strategies and decisions they have taken that have lead to the club being in this dire position again?

In your email to members last week Mr Sayers you said of our predicament “A challenge that is well and truly achievable, but it is on us to rise to it”. I put to you that on the available evidence, we are not even close to being capable of rising to the challenge of making and impacting finals. Not even close.

We were 8-3 at the bye last year. Since then? We have won only 8 games out of 22 and only 1 of our last 7. Is this the profile of a team making and impacting finals? I’d argue we are heading towards the bottom 4 rather than the top 8.

You also said Mr Sayers that “Our leaders, everyone at Carlton, are right now demanding better out of each other. We have not been afraid to have the tough conversations we need to”. If this is actually happening, I say to you that these actions have been ineffectual and tougher conversations are required. There is no more time for the club or this playing group.

Meaningful change and tangible evidence of improvement are required. In short, wins, wins and more wins playing football that will bring sustained success in the modern AFL environment.

Consider how many times the club has found itself in this position since the start of 2012. Forget the external narratives, are you hearing your membership and supporter base? Do you think the members and supporters are just going to stand for it time and time again? We've heard all the words from the players and MULTIPLE coaches about what's required but it's the actions on field that count. I strongly suggest to you both to not underestimate the anger and frustration of the members and supporters. There is very little, if any, patience or goodwill left. The club has exhausted all that through the various failed regimes we have had to endure.

I am heartbroken and gutted that the club is in this position, again. Frankly, the club doesn’t deserve its member and supporter base. Consider what you’ve had us endure over decades.

I have lost complete faith in all those at the club and sadly see very little hope for success in the immediate, short and medium terms.

I trust you'll recognise when you have core members and supporters feeling like this, the club has serious problems. I doubt I'm alone in my thoughts and feelings.

I thought long and hard about whether to compose and send this email. I know the likelihood is it will be ignored and make no difference to the club whatsoever. However I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something, no matter how small, because the sad reality is this once great club is dying on field, again.

I would welcome a response and look forward to hearing from you. It is only fair that I give you the opportunity to respond before I cancel my membership.

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We are on our way back...

I get your frustration MP but I prefer to look at it in a different way. Not all pieces of any plan always come together when you want. Geelong , Richmond and Melbourne all had difficult periods between showing improvement (ie creating expectations) and ultimate success. You blame Sayers but the board look at providing resources to create a successful club both on and off the field - and stability is part of that; that is how they influence results. The side is not playing well, so the board need to ask why and then what can be done to rectify the situation. They need to respond with facts, not emotions as the supporters like us do. And as long as they are working to identify the issues behind the drop in performance then I consider them to be doing what they should. So the constant questions to Cook, Lloyd etc is what are we doing now to address the sub par performance. It is up to Cook and Co. to then drive those actions within the footy department.

IMO

Good on you for sending this to the club MP
I’m sure it reflects the views of many in the Carlton community
I can’t think of a more disappointing season relative to expectation than this one over the last 10 years
Maybe 2012 comes close if we do back beyond 10 years

Yeah , good stuff MP .................... Good luck to the membership department . The straw that broke the Camels back . Never actually seen that but i reckon come the off season i will .

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All my dangerous friends

Take Cripps and Saad out of the game and it’s game over
Compared to other clubs our injury list ain’t significant.

It’s obvious that Voss has needed to change things up.
Saad needs a different role
Play him on the wing as a mid
Play Cripps in attack

So yes Voss and the coaching staff need to be held to account on their coaching

But it hasn’t been a rebuild
From 2015
Go over all the trades we have done
Numerous ones
Martin Williams Saad McGovern not worthy of the money time and collectively the draft picks in the first place

The club’s philosophy on success is outdated
You have to be patient
Not trade away picks spend 100 s of thousand of dollars on guys who don’t deserve it
If Saad can only play one role then no way does he deserve a 5 year deal close to 3.5 million
That’s a joke
And that isn’t Voss’s fault
The letter lacks much thought
Its like this year so far in regard to performance was unexpected
BS
The broom needs to go through the club
This rebuild is not going to ever work
It’s time the club owned up to an outdated philosophy trade players whilst they have currency and start again before Tassie comes in

Great letter and good on you for sending it.
You summed up my feelings exactly. I can't remember feeling so disappointed before. We have been through some terrible times but we could see there would be light at the end of the tunnel one day. I cannot see that now.
It is almost unimaginable to think that we would be in this situation again and you have to wonder how it happened.
I will continue to go to games but there is only so much disappointment you can take.

It happened because the club was too quick in making decisions without thinking deeper enough
And as the years tick on by and more failure occurs the more desperate the club needs success and more poor decisions are made
Like getting Blake Acres last year
Right across the board poor decisions are made
How many coaches assistants recruiting officers CEOs Head of football departments have we had over 20 years.
It’s because the people that make these calls arnt good at selecting the right people
It creates an unstable working environment
And one poor decision leads to another
Such as signing Harry Mc Kay to a 900000 a year contract till 2030 based on one year of 58 goals during COVID which now leads to signing list cloggers like Young and Pittonet to long term smaller payed deals to balance the salary cap
My view is the club has never really analyzed deeply enough why it has been unsuccessful for 2 decades despite equalization
It takes the right people at the top appointing the right people to the right jobs and being patient for success

I admire your loyalty and put a great value on that.

Carlton started as a small idea, then started an Association: a comp. They were a suburban club.
Some suburban or regional clubs never smell success, but they bring people together first and foremost.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Great post.
Appointing people to the right jobs does have its shortfalls.
It is dependent on those at the top making the right decisions.

Hopefully we have the right people in place; not all, but mostly the right people.

I think its a wake up call, and it is NOT too late, to make amends.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

round 12 2021 Carlton 4 wins percentage of 94.5% - Carlton /Sayers announce a full external review of the football department and the club ultimately leading to the removal of Teague

2 years later

Round 12 2023 4 wins 1 draw percentage 95.07 %

apart from sacking Teague what came out of the review did they expect 2 years on we would be half a win and 0.57% better

https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/10083 ... ard-update

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

You forgot to add IMO after the *

I accept that. But I still think Acres was a player we could fit in to do the job.
We've argued how Freo's salary cap was squeezed to get Jackson in.
We didnt pay a King's ransom.
But for where you say we are, Acres was cheap for a player in his form.
Acres is a hardened body who is in our top 5 players of late, when many others have let us down.
Whilst he's sprayed 4-5 kicks at the most inopportune times, he has accumulated and linked and run and hit bodies hard.

We have a lot of talent.
Salary Cap and soon to be Soft Cap will continuously increase. We will be OK with salary cap.

The way Carlton was skinned and gutted by Elliot and the AFL, and all the shit that followed, and Stephene Silvagni.
He decided that is what was needed: Nuke the place.
If we were still developing slowly year by year with draft picks, Cripps, Weiters Charlie and Jack would be the headline act.
But by taking away hope of a flag, these players may have gone elsewhere, and we start again, as a non desiny club.
You seem to dismiss the pressures this club was put under.

The Board get Carlton out of debt.
The Board build new elite facilities for the players to make it a destination club, and catch up with the world.
It isn't the Board that's failed, it's the Footy Dept which has let us down imo.

I don't know what it is they've done wrong, but do you?

I really believed Andrew Russell was the best at the time, and we are lucky to still have him.
But he needs more and we need more to help THE PLAYERS who put their best foot forward for the draft.

Building from Ground SOS skinning is a long way to get the chocolates if we dont trade in the best players we can: to help the High Draft Picks.
We have the nucleus of a great team. Its not all over, nor doom or gloom.
But, like you said, we do need good management decisions to be made moving forward.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

This post answers your question.

You're on fire Sydney.
Like you, I'm desperate to win a flag amongst the nest of Swans and a few Giants. Been waiting too long.
I can smell it...its not far, if we just....well, blokes like yo keep informing me of what our shortfall/ gap is, and I'll be happy.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Last 12 games 2022 4 wins
First 12 games 2023 4 wins
Forget about the draw
There was a summer in between to as Voss said add layers to the game
Our scoring has consistently gotten worse every week for the last 6 weeks (so a quarter of the sample of 24 games)
My point is there has been ZERO improvement.
If anything things are getting worse.
After 24 games and a summer in between.
IMO that is enough time to start sorting shit out
I don't know who is at fault
But clearly the club is a mess
AND THEY DONT APPEAR TO KNOW HOW TO FIX IT

Yes

And as Keogh points out being patient for success.

Half glass full, we have enough going our way

This is a build required not a re build

We’ll written MPH78, I’m in a similar position as you albeit a little older with two older children who I’ve cursed with Carlton support/membership - but we are all as passionate as you and your family but are completely deflated by this year and how we’ve performed.

To look at the what other clubs like Adelaide, Essendon*, Hawthorn and North Melbourne have achieved in their “rebuilds” in significantly less time as us is also particularly galling,

We’ve spent 20 years either

- covering over the cracks (2002 to 2007)
- rebuilding with Chris Judd (2008 to 2015)
- 66 game reset, rebuild whatever you want to call it (2016 to now)

And all we have to show for it is 5th place finish.

It’s deflating, soul destroying and hugely disappointing.

I’ll renew my membership till this club folds or I die (45 years and counting) but I really think unless we change our fortunes and soon that our upwards trending membership numbers of 90,000 will be trending downwards.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

There are a couple of rumours on BF today.
One poster suggesting that as many as 15 players may request to be traded.
Mentions that there are some big offers on the table for some players so hope they are still there comes season end.
Basically there is a big division in the group, some don't think Voss can coach and want him gone.
Anyway, there is clearly something wrong with the club at the moment, just hope we don't implode.

Very good Aggs .................. but thats where the trouble lies . Blokes like you and i will stump up our hard earnt no matter what . But i can tell you 100 % i have quite a few pals who have vowed and declared they have had enough . Its over . No more . Its gonna be a downward spiral and that Fitzroy scenario you mentioned is right on our doorstep . Good luck to the Membership Department coz they will need to come up with a major gimmick to arrest the slide .

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All my dangerous friends

I think the problems started mid last year when the club encouraged members to call out "Woof" when Saad kicked the ball. The club got ahead of itself. We were going all right to that point and have been bad ever since.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

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Silvagni

You're right. The noise we make as supporters has a profound impact on the performance of the players.

The "moo" has killed Cowan, too.

If we go to the game on Sunday and don't make a single sound, we beat * by 10 goals.

Think about it.