Poor kid, I just about teared up reading that.

I'm 71yo. Growing up Carlton were pretty ordinary (we did make the GF once) everyone seemed to barrack for Melbourne or Collingwood, I only knew one other kid who supported Carlton. I well remember being laughed at because I supported such a crap club. Ah, how sweet it was when the wheel turned!

Those late primary school, early secondary school years footy was so important in my life, as with most other kids. I feel so much for this kid going through yet another year of heartbreak, as you say he's known nothing but misery, same as my grandkids. My older grandson (14yo) coped by turning away from Carlton and footy in general, he played Ozkick then shifted to soccer. I still remember the time this club broke him. At a match he turned to me and his father and said "can we leave now before they're a hundred points down?"

Gee, we place so much store in, put so much pressure on a group of young men to lift our spirits, to make the world a happier place for us by winning games of footy. I remember some years ago sitting in the stands before the start of the first game of the season, my fists clenched, feeling so tense, and thinking "I wish this game didn't mean so much to me".

But we are stuck. Stuck with this club for life, nothing can be done about it. It's hard to fathom the support this club still has considering the shambles of the last twenty years. Gee, this club owes its young supporters, at least I can reminisce about the good times.

I'm 40 soon and I can barely remember 1995.

40!

We're still alive in the VFL, people!

I'm 65 and seen 8 flags, including 3 over Collingwood each time coming from a mile behind, so luckier than most. Saw some of the greatest sides and players seen at the club.

Like to see it again though.

If we were stronger mentally in those last 2 weeks we could have made the 3rd week. I would have been confident against Brisbane, who are very ordinary come September, and rolled the Pies in week 2. 2 wins against that opposition would have had us rocking and rolling into the finals. Those last 2 losses weren't normal losses. We played some really great footy against two particularly good sides but couldn't hold ourselves together and choked when it mattered. That 3rd qtr though was really something.

So there's some frustration there. Feel we were better than the Dogs.

Not a bad article by Ralph ... (hope people can read it)

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 8af519b66d

On Charlie .... Curnow had eight shots at goal for 2.5 and one snapped set shot that didn’t make the distance from 30 metres.
That 30m bullshit kick (to Noble) keeps playing back in my head

A question that I've asked as well ...... Here is the question for Carlton — did they know a draw was good enough to play finals and if they didn’t, why not?

He spoke about our injuries etc ... Weiters not being the same after he got injured

Ranked 11th for goals by small forwards .... Gives Voss something to work on in 2023

Lots of other bits and pieces which are to the point,

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"IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE, YOU'RE PREPARED TO FAIL" - Mark Spitz

we still got a crap game plan ,long bomb from full back kick ins to a pack ,long bomb into F50 ,slow ball movement everything i have mentioned i saw in 2021 .difference this year we won some close games in first half of season and saints tigers,footscray kept losing kept us in the 8. We have to do a sydney change game style and hopefully have some luck in recruiting.

Fair questions, but a couple things spring to mind.

Firstly, anyone running through the banner with a draw on their mind may as well keep running, all the way out of the stadium. Similarly, four goals up after an eight goal quarter, let’s just say that chess-boxers aren’t much chop at either sport.

Secondly, how many teams ranked higher than us played half the season with a pair of teenagers as their primary smalls? We’re good here.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

If we'd managed to level the scores late, Collingwood only need a quick point to win and I can't say I'd rely on our defenders to stop that happening... It'd probably falcon off one of them.

Even if Charlie put us 30 points up at the start of the last we would've found a way to lose.

A reasonable run with injuries and a decent winger ....

Premiers 2023.


YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

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

I think all the positives have already been posted and, overall I agree with them.

We can and should be Top 4 next Season.

Now, 2 of the biggest Issues for me are:

1. Others have mentioned it, but the mental fragility, mindset, not having a winning culture or whatever way you want to say it has been and continues to be our main issue. Get a professional or two on the payroll and get them to enable our players with the tools to get mentally tough ALL of the time (or at least most of it).

2. Injury management - Yes I know a bunch were out of our control, BUT the number of recurring soft tissue injuries paints a bad picture on our supposed Head of Player performance (or whatever the title is). He is supposed to be the best in the business isn't he? On exposed form he is flowering incompetent overall.

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Cripps is the man

In summary,

While disappointed that we didn't make finals, I enjoyed going to the footy this year and not just hoping we would have a good game but expecting that we would win. My higher expectations means losing hurts more. But I am OK with that. GO BLUES!

Far more positives than negatives.
We definitely need to work on our composure, even when we’ll ahead. We let big leads slip against Hawthorn, Port, and Collingwood last qtr. I feel like if we had nailed one of those first 2 or 3 attempts in the last, we would have kept going and won by 5 or 6 goals. Once it got close, we choked.
And we need to improve the soft tissue injuries.

Also, we may have been only 4th or 5th worst for injuries BUT we lost our whole backline at one time, and then virtually our whole midfield at one crucial time of the season. Most other clubs had more of a spread.

Also, we played more games against top 8 teams than any other club i believe. And we beat 4 of them, and should have beaten two others. (We didn’t look like beating Geelong or Brisbane…)

Clear areas to work on but I think we are well placed incl having Voss in charge. He will use this and will not let us slip but rather make sure we grab on tight and pull ourselves higher up the ladder next year!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just went and had a look because I had wondered this.

Melbourne, along with St Kilda and Essendon*, played the most top 8 teams twice (4).
We had had 3 double ups along with Port, WBD, WCE, GWS.
Brisbane, Fremantle, Sydney, Collingwood, Geelong all had 1 repeat fixture against top 8 sides!
Richmond did not play a single top 8 team twice!

Interesting how it panned out after our supposedly soft fixture at the start of the season.

My washup..........

3 AA plus Weiters and an unlucky Doc
Charlie - Coleman
Cera, Hewitt, Kennedy, Walsh, Crippa and now probably Doc make a good core onball group.
Cottrell, Fisher, Owies and Corey Durdin stood up in plenty of games - Now for the consistency.
Blooded Jesse who shows he has what it takes.
Lewis continued to improve. Atleast his projection was upwards from game 1 to 22.
Jagged Sam Durdin. I'm pretty excited what he can bring with a full preseason. Might be our Sam Collins with some luck.
I think it is obvious we are a better team with a fit McGovern, Martin, Williams and Marchbank playing. Can they stay on the park?
Jack Silvagni was a huge success story in 2022. A herculean physical effort.
TDK's efforts in the first half of the year, carrying the load was terrific. Huge 2023 ahead and the future is his to write. Fitting TDK and Pitto into the same team will be the challenge.
Boyd and Hayes showed they are no slouches and have the skill set.

Where to for....

Dow, Kemp, Stocker, O'Brien, Setterfield, Carroll and Honey.

Carroll won't push into that midfield for a few years so the Wing must be his go to spot. If he can't push past LOB for that spot I will be amazed. Stocker won't get into that midfield either so he might be fighting Williams and Kemp for Doc's spot, if Doc gravitates into the midfield. I'd like to see Doc move up to the wing at times.

I think Harry let himself down at times in the 2nd half of the season. Even when Charlie was being well covered he never stopped working and presenting. Harry dropped the lip a few times. He just needs to get stronger, fitter and more aggressive. He needs to bowl a few defenders over ala Hawkins and Lynch. If a defender stands in the hole they know they will get hurt.

I think we can do better than Nic Newman. He has been solid but he is not the future.

I have the following barometer for 2023. If Newnes, LOB, Newman and Setterfield are playing consistently, we have plateaued. And as much as it pains me, but to get in before Deano, Plowman needs to have Marchbank, Lewis, Kemp and Stocker pushing him out of the team.

When does Round 1 start?????

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

I'm just glad I got to watch us for fun again, rather than having that pit of dread in my stomach, knowing we are going to get torched but feeling obligated to watch because I'm a 'true supporter' that I've had for the last 20 odd years. This year I've looked forward to every game and even had confidence for a lot of them. My kids (well one of them anyway) has actually started taking an interest and watches big chunks of the games with me.

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

Apart from West Coast who was hit harder than us?

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#DonTheStash

Don’t think anyone really. We played the equal most players (37) along with West Coast I believe. GWS ended up with a pretty bad injury list but absolutely no team that was remotely good had an injury list that compares to ours.

Agree. Even West Coast's was an inflated list due to covid

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#DonTheStash