A few years ago I might have said the pre season gf was just a practise game, but results suggest differently. From 1998 to now only two of the pre season grand finalists have missed the 8 (Tigers in 2002 and Hawks in 99). In 4 of the last 7 years one of the pre season grand finalists have been in the big one and 9 of the 14 grand finalists over that time have finished top four after the home and away.

Doesn't guarantee us anything except that in the recent past it has been a good indication of a successful season.

Go Blues!!!!!

It means $220,000 into the coffers……
It means a trophy in that cabinet……….
It means more members and rewards to our sponsors…
It means winning 7 of our last 8 competitive matches…
It means hope to the supporters……..
It means working on successful gameplans….
It means confidence in each other………

But more than anything else………..







………. ………….








………………….IT MEANS WE ARE BACK!!!!!

the thing that i think people are missing is one thing and one thing only

winning form is good form

as for all this crap about saving your players until round 1

bollocks to that - the minute you put them in cotton wool is the minute they will get injured.

I look forward to Essendon* playing their first round and they get several long term injuries - and those are the guys they where hoping to protect during the wizzer cup

As for the cup - while its not the real GF - its success and its also $220k in the bank to the winner, an amount only $30k short of the real deal.

Let people talk it down, but going into the season having beaten Essendon*, Melbourne, Bulldogs and hopefully West Coast will give the side heaps of confidence for the first few games.

Indeed a winning run of several games is not beyond us, with a little confidence we could do anything.

On current fom i can see us with After 9 rounds i can see us with 7 wins (Roos, Buumber, Filth, Hawks, Tigers, Dees and Cats) and 2 loses (Port & Freo away) and that would be a bloody awesome start for our season.

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Got to love the stare Down by Setanta on Llyod

Well put Laguna.

A win would also be priceless to posters such as Carlton Clem, DiS etc. If memory serves, they've only been following Carlton for the past few years and yet have become genuine Blues supporters despite the recent Dark Times. Will be their first taste of a Carlton Grand Final victory!!

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

What it means is positivity.

Positive players.
Positive supporters.
Positive press.
Positive sponsors.
Positive outlook.

That can't be a bad thing.

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NOW YOU'RE JUST SOME CLUB THAT I USED TO KNOW.

Confidence amounts for so much when lists are so even... as we've had no (or not much!) confidence in the last 3 years... so yes, from that perspective, it would certainly be nice!

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If meat is murder then yoghurt must be burglary
GO YOU BIG RED FIRE ENGINE
Move aside Kouta, Lance etc - you're holding us back... from entering the under 18s

it means a lot!

more than 4 premership points too me.

i can still remember jumping up and down on the couch when ricey slotted the goal that sunk the saints and put us into the GF the following week back in 97.

I was also equally stoked cause i knew that i was going to the GF because i was playing rep footy in melborune the next week.

damn that was a good night.

any trophy is a good one IMO.

More than anything at the moment its a major FU to the AFL Commission.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

YOOHOO…………Andrew………….

Good excuse to get drunk with a bunch of Carlton supporters.

I reckon it'd mean more if we were playing Collingwood

I don't reckon it means a lot, besides $$$.... every bit helps. We've seen enough so far to think we won't suck as hard this year. That's a plus.

I care more about the real stuff though... but its good momentum and good $$$.

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Love Cricket? Love me

According to the 14 clubs that are not in it, it means bugger all - no worries Kevin Sheedy.



For me it is going to be a dress rehearsal for what I do to Demetrispew when we win the AFL Premiership.

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

Winston Churchill

and in addition to what Laguna so eloquently said it means a week of watching the GF replayed on Fox Footy day and night.

"Honey, is there anything else on?"
"Nope!"

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In Bolts we trust.......Until we don't anymore

Well said but 1 edit is warranted:
It means ANOTHER trophy in the cabinet, and quite possibly
It means ANOTHER cabinet, as we have so many of the darn things

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The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Ronald Reagan

confidence that will spread throughout the whole club and the fans will come out of the closets

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Setanta Ó hAilpín 64 AFL Games 45 Goals

Up the Rebels All-Ireland Hurling Champions 2004/2005

It would be a good reward for Collo, Denis, Sticks and all the others that have worked so hard to steer us back in the right direction again!

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When Dick became President, it was as if everyone at Carlton came out of the hailstorm and into the sunshine - Stephen Kernahan

YARRAN!!





.

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"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

People say the money is good, and I certainly won't knock it back, but does anyone else reckon it's a bit piss poor? $220K is only a touch more than the average wage for a senior AFL player ($180K).

But success on the field isn't all about the money. So, a win tonight will mean people will begin to take notice. And we, the fans, will go into the season proper with some genuine expectation about our team performing better than the opposition week in week out. And that's bloody good I reckon!

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