I agree.
The weight of expectation can be heavy load to shoulder. It's foreign territory for most at the moment and a further test which will probably unearth a few surprises in terms of individuals buckling and others prevailing under the pressure.
Just part of the overall journey.

When a team gets the jump on us and kicks 3-4 goals before we trouble the scoreboard we struggle to get any momentum for the rest of the game.

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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

There was an article online recently which examined the past 3 or 4 years of matches and concluded that if you fall 30 points behind during a game you have about a 5% chance of winning and if you fall 40 points behind you only have a little over 1% chance of winning.

I think we have sorted it.

The Game nailed it with the hunter or the hunted.

Only really good, strong, experienced teams can consistently resist decent teams who are hell bent on a win, be it they have been blasted in the press, or the game is a season must win for them, or it is a 25 year celebration for their part in Friday night footy.

every few weeks we come up against good (but not great) teams, who have a reason to hunt us and give it 110%, and right now we are just not good enough to handle that sort of challenge.

But the relatively young Pies handle it better than us, as did the young Hawks in 2008, so I'm not sure it is all about age. Age plays a big part, but so does the mental toughness/make-up of the list.

Ratten & Co have to work on this and try and toughen up this team as soon as they can, and as one poster said, it will be a journey and some players might be found out as lacking the type of mental fortitude needed to make it at the highest level

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It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it

Agreed with this. We just can't keep blaming age. It is a factor, but not the sole reason. And I said this elsewhere but it's not so much that we lose as opposed to how we lose.

It's a little worrying for the rest of the season. Our game against the Lions will probably be a must win for them if they want to keep finals hopes alive, for example.

Perhaps complacency has set in given we're doing better than most expected. Maybe we need a couple of losses in a row to shake us up a bit? Haven't lost 2 in a row since round 2-3.

Yeah i liked Rexy's post about the journey. True words.

The Cats in 2006 were seen as softies that folded under the slightest pressure but with a bit of hard work and the list evolving that have turned into one of the tougher units you are likely to see so it is possible for us to turn this around.

Hard work will see us overcome any obstacle. Just have to have a list of commited people wanting it bad enough.

Agree with this. We need absolute commitment from everyone. Not the mentally and physically weak performances we dish up what seems like every third week.

Do we have what it takes? The reality is none of us know for sure.

My concern is this is not a new issue yet we appear to be slow learners and have made no improvement in this regard. It's a troubling trend that on present evidence suggests we are not dealing with any where near adequately enough.

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We are on our way back...

We have lost the balance between attack and defence there are to many in negative defencive roles and when it comes time to go they are to worried about their direct opponent

jamo negative
Russell has gone from attacking to negative
walker see Russell
armfield tagging
joseph tagging
Gibbs tagging
carrazo tagging
robbo given run with roles
garlett more defence than attack
Eddie spending half the game chasing down defenders
houlihan defencive forward role
ohalpin chasing tails
Hadley laying tackle after block after tackle
brown tagging


We need to swing the balance back the other way let them worry about us

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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

i disagree to a point. I remember we had 2 clear runs of momentum with 3-4 goals on the trot ourselves, closing the margin to 8. We have our turn and time in control of the game but when you fall 5-6 goals behind early it becomes very hard to obtain enough momentum to get back to even and continue on.

We have to be the side with the good start and early momentum every week

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i AM CARLTON

The upside of our win - loss pattern is that if it continues, we'll beat the Bummers in round 19..

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The turning of the tide, falling in behind
Pretending not to find, the questions in my mind
The shining of the day, the old familiar way
Follow the road where it leads
And all the way we will sing...

The only problem Scotland has is that he is underrated... I doubt many of you watch him closely, because as behindblueeyes said, he is the most consistent player for us and rarely stuffs up his disposal, reaching a target, with his brilliant spurt of pace and drilling kick.

AND all Walker has done since he returned from injury has given us supporters something positive to talk about . He has been amazingly good, considering.

Our biggest problem is not being able to step up as a team with each and every player contributing, when we play sides that 'we don't have to worry about'... hmm. When we are in this mind frame, we have no idea how to handle pressure, can't tackle, can't chase and can't seem to be able to effectively dispose of the ball.

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GO BLUE BOYS!!

Where do you get the imformationthat hampson is to be traded at years end when he has another year on his contract?