What a bunch of weak, insipid, pathetic useless pricks out there tonight.... No heart....

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31-3-2015 - R.I.P AFL, corrupted lying pricks
12-5-2015 - Go WADA
18-8-2015 - Suffer Hird* u lying flower
12-1-2016 - CAS goes bang, happy new year.. Drugcheats forever..

Ratts on radio pre match......tried not to hype up this game too much.
was hoping for a game where both teams kicked under 100 points....didn't want a shoot out

Well those theories were worth jack shit

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I see you watching me watching you.

next time we play Essendon* we need to show our players a video of their post match celebrations the last 6 times we have played them ... then ask them one question ... ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF SEEING THIS.

this may sound silly, most likely actually, but from my experience in local grade football, when things are seriously going against us, the coach will always throw a crazy move, in carlton's case something like BT to FF, JR to FF, Gibbs in the guts, Betts in a setup off halfback role.

ANYTHING.

JUST FLOWERING TRY SOMETHING. ANYTHING AT ALL!!!!

IMO i would much rather see us go down with a fight, trying anything to win, than just leaving things as they are and watching the 4 points get pi$$ed up the wall

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i AM CARLTON

With no disrespect intended, that was one of the weaker, least credentialed sides I've seen Essendon* field in recent history - still far too good for us, however, so all credit to them, and their coaching staff. Knights certainly has his side playing to a plan, as predictable and seemingly simple as it is, and they as a group performed at a level that exceeded the apparent sum of its parts. Knights' high risk/high reward game plan is not always going to work, of course, but at least Essendon* supporters can tangibly sense there is a plan.

There was nothing new about how Essendon* went about their business tonight, and it was blatantly clear 10-15 minutes in that we again had no idea how to counter it. To once again have our pants pulled down by this mob without even vaguely presenting a 'Plan B' is unforgivable.

Yes, as you stated in your presser, Brett, it was most certainly embarrassing - for the players, and our coaches and match committee. At worst, tonight showed a distinct lack of planning, or at the very least, a lack of tactical and strategic nous.

Those calling for Ratten's head are (at this stage) kidding themselves, but for crying out loud, someone please get the man some tactical assistance - it's clearly not his thing.

In a way, the pressure will be off Ratten for the next month or so. We certainly won't be expected to win any upcoming fixtures, and being competitive underdogs should realistically be all we can expect. Questions must be asked, though, of our structures off-field if the output of the team is regularly lesser than the sum of its parts. We've probably overrated the value of some of our parts, perhaps.

Having said all that, footy is a pretty simple caper - we simply don't have enough blokes who can kick reliably, and that's what's costing us most dearly. It's not easy to turn that around in a hurry though, is it?

I don't know why, but we seem to have an incredibly lazy group of players. Lots of finger pointing going on out on the ground.....you pick him up, no you, type of thing. The Bummers had players free all night with our blokes standing around waitng for someone else to do the hard work.
It's an incredibly bad habit which needs to stop.

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I see you watching me watching you.

Disagree. That makes Ratten 0-6 against the Bombers. Each and every time we lose to them, we think he will learn how to counter their plan and we end up losing even worse than before. For mine he is on thin ice. Further, some type of redemption will be expected in the coming weeks, and gee, haven't the coaches and team picked a fine time to do that?

Right from the warm-up I noticed Essendon* were more up and about. It carried into the game- the boys just did not show enough intensity, hunger, and desire for the footy. Essendon* wanted it more; they played for each other tonight. They linked up and always had someone in support.

Nonetheless, I kept my cool throughout the match as I thought we would get up, otherwise Ratten will be under the blow torch. Now he's under more pressure than he has ever been.

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Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

I'm sick of Anderson, Armfield, Browne replacing each other......it's swapping crap for crap. I haven't quite written off Robinson but just purely 'trying hard' shouldn't get you a game of AFL football. I try hard but lack abililty and hence play amateur football, definitely 3 of the above mentioned should be doing the same.

I realise depth is the issue and this will take time through the draft system but it's just so frustrating. I read on here the hype about O'Keefe's skills and i hope he's given a chance as soon as he's fit.

We lost to a team which plays to the same game plan week in week out. Run and carry use the centre corridor and take risks. Which means you have to have players who can run and hit targets with the ball. Have players who put pressure on by chasing their opponents down and have enough runners in the team to keep that pressure up for 4 quarters.

Losing Mclean in the first quarter then Robinson getting injured playing on one leg and with Gibbs playing with one hand and Waite out of form did we take them to lightly? If they are not fit rest them and give someone fully fit a game. Can we afford to play Warnock Kreuzer O'Hailpin and Henderson against teams with a running game plan? May have been better to bring in another runner or two and go with one ruck or one tall forward. Perhaps for the game against the Dons bring in Garlett and Anderson and drop Warnock and/or Setanta and throw the team around.

We have a real mental problem playing Essendon*....not sure what the message is from the coach but we look tense and good players like Gibbs, Murphy etc get the fumbles.
We know their game plan, we know they think we are slow and can run us ragged but our players on mass cave in when they put the pressure on and start kicking short, wide, handpassing to players standing still etc.
Its the same everytime we play them.....even newbie kids like Melksham must be told, run hard make them work and they will crack and thats what happens.

They had the weakest Essendon* lineup I have seen for years yet we collapsed under their harassing and pressuring of the ball carrier....disposal fell away to shocking levels and we had zero leadership to force our way back into the game...

Kruezer was intimidated by Hille and Warnock was of little help...Jacobs vs the push and shove ruckman has to come into the team.

Scotland tried hard and Simpson fought it out but I couldnt find any other reasonable players.....
Lucas has some talent and sure he made some mistakes but he kept on trying and I wasnt displeased with his efforts...he isnt super quick and the pace of the game found him out at times but he needs persisting with.

The attack got rubbish entries and poor delivery but exerted zero pressure on the rebounding Essendon* defense who did the usual play on at all costs methods they employ everytime we play them....they continued to find open space where we struggled to get the ball away from their backline...

Leadership was nil.......
Players like Russell, Houlihan get found out by quicker moving more intense opponents.

Essendons game plan/list wont win them grand finals or get them far into the top eight but the type of players they recruit ie like Reimers are ideal for beating us, we need a couple of more mobile intense types who can match their desire and run.....and some leaders who can get some steel and pride into the team...our tackling was awful and we just give in to easily...where is the pride????

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

unfortunately our 'unpredictableness' is becoming predictable!! No forward structure at all. Pathetic, its going to be a long season!!

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

Well we know why we don't have a forward structure.

give it a rest FFS.

Kennedy is gone!

Deal with it and enjoy Judd.

Did I get that right?

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we rated Robbo top 10 and are still patting ourselves on the back for picking Browne @36

We need Army even he puts it on the full for from 35 out stright in front ( yes he did make some great defensive efforts but I kick better than he does)

WH and Sr and co are as good as any in the bizzzzzzzzz.

Wells just got lucky.....but our boys are better

I thought King on 3AW made some valid points. He was saying that we have targeted guys in our last few drafts that were just not good kicks. Obviously we are not talking about our 3 x #1 picks. Our kicking out of defense is our greatest weakness in his opinion....and I agree. We have to get Bower and Austin into the team asap......we need composure down back.

I had a feeling this would happen but now it has, and the way it happened I have come to a few conclusions.

The club is now no longer anything more than an average club in the overall scheme of things. This saddens me, that after growing up in the 80s and 90s when Carlton stood for excellence and not tolerating mediocrity, that we are living off past glories.

In 2010, we are nothing. Sure, St Kilda have not won anything yet, but we can't keep pretending we are better than them because we were winning flags when they were winning spoons 20-30 years ago.

As a club, internally and externally we are out of touch with reality. Thinking it will happen and we will be successful just because we are Carlton does not cut it.

So the pressing matters:

The Coach - Average at best, sometimes things go ok for him, but I think he is really going to be shown up for his lack of coaching ability this season. His game plan in 2008/09 was Judd and Fev, now half of that is gone.

The defence Sticks and Swann roll out of 'we have gone from 4 wins, to 10 to 13' really doesn't cut it at all. We will be lucky to win 10 this year, and still after 2 and a bit seasons, no one still has any idea what style of football we are trying to play, or what kind of side he is trying to build.

He will be no longer be in charge come the end of 2011, or perhaps earlier, at which time we will undertake a thorough process to find the right man.

As Blueman said in another thread a tough period may be needed to force a Geelong/Bulldogs style complete review of our off-field processes, because blind freddy can tell we certainly aren't maximising what we have.

The Players - The way we played tonight was what I was fearing prior to the season starting (predicting us 11th). We got it all, the no forward line, re-active slow play without run (because Ratts want's to slow the game down more), and generally no system or plan to speak of. Add to the mix no leadership, and well, we saw the result.

The forward line - Was always going to have nights like this one, and probably will have a fair few more. There is only one natural proven goalkicker up there in Eddie Betts. Yarran and Henderson are still too young to be relied upon consistently, Setanta is athletic but not the answer, and Waite is still finding his way back after a knee reconstruction.

Tonight was the first time we saw the full fallout of not having Fev. I know he stuffed up and had to go, and it goes down to building a whole side around a buffoon like him.

Kicking - We have way too many guys who are poor disposers of the footy. Do we recruit to a plan? Have we ever recruited to a plan? Does anyone at the club have any discernible idea of what kind of players they are recruiting other than the vague 'best available' line trotted out? Seems we still have some weeding out to do in that area. The fact that there are no real targets up forward could be adding to this problem.

Lack of intensity - This can happen, but why it keeps happening against Essendon* is beyond me. I could tell within 10 minutes we were up against it, we were the hunted, they sniffed blood and fear, and pounced.

Midfield - Apart from Simpson no one would be happy with their efforts. McLean's game was very concerning (even though he has had 2 previous good ones). Murph battled hard, Carrazzo was error prone, and Gibbs not used properly. Generally Essendon* got to do things on their terms.

Defence - Missed Bower, some strange match-ups. Predictable that Williams would turn it on against us. Waite should of gone to defence much earlier with how ineffective he was up forward. Either that, or played deeper to goal.

Thats it in a large nutshell.

Did King also say who we should have picked with our third round picks in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 drafts?

We haven't had a second round pick since 2006.

King would know a bit about coaching and skills after working at Richmond.

Out: Warnock, Robinson
In: Jacobs, Judd

Warnock was really disappointing tonight in the body-on-body stuff with Hille. He's not expected to consistently grind out boundary throw-ins against a bloke who probably has a few kilos on him, but he shouldn't be falling over like a deck of cards either. As for Mitch, he can do some great things when he gets within cooee of the ball (which you can't lambaste him for I suppose), but he does some equally stupid, low-percentage efforts as well.

It was (quite literally) unbelievable how often we lost our footing, how often we couldn't put a hand out to tackle them or get a hand on the football. It was like we were in a boggy oval and they were walking on water. That's a complete mental breakdown by the players and it's appalling to see.

I can go on, but just look back at my posts for the previous fixtures because we served it up again. Unbelievable that they could execute so poorly. How we can continue to pull a half-arsed approach to dropping back into a zone when we had a clear numbers advantage beggars belief. We have made positioning players in no-mans-land an art form; perhaps we should rename to the Cul-De-Sac Blues?

Walker needs to go forward and allowed to create and attack the game, and Waite needs to go back and learn how to work into the game instead of floating about around CHF. Shame on him for drifting wide instead of providing a focal point, and in part shame on Ratts for not instructing him to work more out of the square when Setanta wasn't getting great delivery.

Really don't understand the calls for more run and carry here, because we weren't shepherding to generate said run, and we were hanging onto the ball too long in many a situation, turning clear opportunities into 50/50 contests. If we did have clear leads, we couldn't get the ball to advantage because we either hesitated at a critical moment or simply couldn't execute.

What a bunch of marshmallows we have running around in navy blue. I want the club to fine the 22 their match payments and a week's pay, and put it into the Hyundai sponsored charity that was supposed to be receiving $9000 per Carlton goal. That should make up the shortfall.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Have read in-game, post-game and Pros and Cons threads and read a lot about Walker and, specificly, the bad match-up on Gumbleton.

Walker beat Gumbleton comfortably and Gumby had no influence on the game.

I concede Walker's kicking reverted to his normal standard but he had a lot of mates on that score.

He was far from our worst.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"