Agree with pretty much everything that has been posted here tonight. Stayed to the end though.
for mine, the most disappointing thing was when Armfield and Thornton collided in the last Qrt and coughed up a goal, Thornton didnt go near Armfield to see if he was okay, he just had his hands on his knees and didnt go anywhere near him. Jamo came over to check on him.
INSIPID.
We dont deserve to make the 8 and i doubt we will now, where are another 3 wins going go come from?

Didn't see it, but not surprised. Players were slipping and sliding and falling over simply from running on that stupid bloody surface. Ridiculous. Please tell me next week is our last game at Etihad.

That was pretty uninspiring from Thornton, but Jamison is the one who coughed up the goal by turning it over cheaply on defensive wing.

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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.

Agree with keogh's post! I have had enough of Carlton accepting mediocrity! Nothing new tonight from our coaching staff...dogs all over us...but no inspiring moves! It makes me wonder what they do in that coaches box!

Let me pose the question does anyone believe that ratts can coach this team to a premiership?

I don't believe he's good enough!

If you can't organize a forward strategy in 14 weeks, time to sack the forwards coach.

Here's some stats below for you Brett Ratten and Matthew Lappin - hopefully they are clear enough to get the point across, I am always willing to come and explain them to you if it is not clear enough..

I think I am now as qualified as Matthew Lappin to create a forward strategy

http://tweetphoto.com/32061505

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I will miss you Kouta - thanks for the memories. ps. Kouta > * for ∞

Seems to me the boys have not bonded properly.
They don't want to play for each other..they want to argue and point fingers.(a few exceptions)
What is this about..and how do we fix it?
Maybe Jammo isn't joking when he goes on about the first round draft picks..they are not for each other.
This is a worry.
Don't think paintball or cruises will do the trick.
Leading teams?...How long does that process take?

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

Yes, getting the impression that players arent getting along with each other, maybe even not bonding with coach Ratten either ? ?

Whatever the issue, flower sort it out !!!!!

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BRING BACK PERFORMANCE BASE PAYMENTS !!!

Cant win them all, but the way we've lost - bar the Brisbane game in Rnd 2 - has been unacceptable.

As for Ratten, I think Paul Roos once said the key to being a successful coach is assembling together a group of players who dont need motivating. The gameplan and tactics are another story, but he cant be held fully accountable for a lack of effort.

How serious was this gastro that was apparently going around the place during the week?

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"They're [REDACTED]'

I've said it many times ....... we've got a bunch of nice guys ..... there's no mongrels (1 or 2 would be great) out there and totally agree about the list statement.

One other passing comment ..... Singing the club song after a win. There are teams out there who belt it out with gusto ..... our guys are fairly insipid (bit like some of their performances)

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

At last check it's on-going. They have a weekly meeting with the playing group.


I have to disagree with most of this. We definitely lacked mongrel in our recent performance, but I have seen the fire necessary from each and every one of the players that took part today at some point or another, so it's ridiculous to suggest it has not, nor ever will be.

We also have plenty of good users of the footy, I just did a basic grouping of the playing list with three categories of foot disposal: above AFL standard, below AFL standard and AFL standard. Came up as roughly a normal distribution if you're familiar with statistics. Factor in that most of the names I placed in the below average category are first year rookies, ruckmen and blokes on their way out, and I think that's a pretty healthy list.

It's actually disposal by hand that really concerns me, and that's endemic of the modern game, particularly at junior ranks. Despite that, I think we are around 4th to 6th in the competition in terms of current talent level, with the Bulldogs, Cats & Hawthorn as the clear leaders in that aspect. We need guys like Grigg, Austin, O'Keeffe, Browne & Johnson to step up a level in their output to close some of that gap.

Also, I put this in for the Armfield 'Your Say' spot on carltonfc.com.au:



With any luck it might get picked up.

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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.

I have been saying that now for 4 weeks, we will be embarrassed by them as they belt us to pay us back for the last couple season openers against them.

That will be the last straw, I will not be wanting phone calls to purchase $500 raffle tickets from this club if we don't man up and sack Matt Lappin and put Ratten on notice.

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I will miss you Kouta - thanks for the memories. ps. Kouta > * for ∞

Thornton's bullshit has been allowed to go on for far too long. Now other team mates are catching on and doing it too. Thornton should have been sent to the reserves after he sprayed simpson for not spoiling Sandilands. He should have been made an example of. But he wasn't and the team slips further into the mire.

We are going nowhere with Ratten at the helm. I don't give a shit if he is learning as he goes along. That's what you do as a @#$%&! assistant coach. Further to that from the outside looking in, he appears to be the least inspiring man to coach in the AFL since Peter Rhode. He certainly comes across as a man who is unsure in everything he does in his press conferences and clings hopelessly to stats to sound like he is across what is going on

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Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Its not Thorntons fault we lost when we carved up by their rebounding half backs.. we went in our forward 50 enough times.

There were signs over the last three weeks that only Betts was taking marks and that was always going to bite us on the ass...

Just saw the replay of the Thornton/Armfield clash again and really not good enough from Bret. Never looked like actually hitting the ball away, just recklessly ploughed through.

what really grinds my gears is that we have made what is a Top 6 side at best look good.

The doggies are fragile and have been constantly taken to task by teams who have pressured them. The fact that they have run amok and flogged us, is a sign of just how poor our pressure was.

As someone else mentioned, our last 2 months have been shicking glossed over by poor wins over crap sides.

Theres winning ugly for sure but nothing is worse than losing ugly

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Everything before the word "but" is horseshit - J Snow

Nothing Thornton does surprises me these days. mainly because he doesn't actually do anything.

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"I had to eat"

When does the fookin' delisting start?

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

We have no ( on field ) leaders at our club. There are no "generals" to reinforce the structures that the coaching staff try to set up. Add to this, we do not have the players to set up as the coaches would like. Add a buddy franklin into the mix and half our problems would go away.
Talkback last night was full of "the coach has no plan B" callers. This team cant even effectively play the plan A that they begin the game with, I dont think there would be much confidence in this team being able to switch to an alternative.
Without a doubt the match commitee should come under some criticism. Setanta obviously was completely without any confidence, and coming from such an enthusiastic and upbeat person, this is a worry. At this moment we desperately need the type of player who shows passion, fight and a bit of mongrel.What we would give for Mal Browns son at the moment. We only have a few, Dennis Armfield, the captain and even the somewhat insane mitch robinson, but definitely nowhere near enough. Dare I say that we could include Simon Wiggins into this group, and as he is one of our few players able to take a contested mark, might have proved a viable target.
Definitely the lack of leadership is our most worrying aspect. Leaders need to be bred within the club and cannot (generally) be bought or traded for, and right now , I cant see much in the list that we have.

I'm getting this impression too. We've all commented on it for a while but too many players playing for themselves. On field when the shit starts to hit the fan they all turn on each other. This is not a good sign. Most of the players have played together for a few years now, they should be past any silly issues they've had with each other by now.

We have the players, we know we have the players, yet the continual piss-poor efforts we put in are showing that there is something seriously amiss at the club, either with the playing group, or between the playing group and coaching staff.

Yesterday was not a one-off game, while it was probably our worst showing of the year we saw very similar things happen against Essendon*, Hawthorn and North.

Hate to say i told you so but under my many aliases i have reported such issues amongst the playing group and the coach. To hear Matty Maguire thought our club was soulless and our playing group was lifeless hence why he and his manager stitched us up knowing the Lions were gonna grab him late in the draft.

I'm gonna get in trouble for this one but i don't care anymore....... How can you be a 'team' when you have a former team mate p!ss!ng in a rookies bag and none of his team mates then do anything about it, especially when this player never own up to it but boasted about it.

When you hear current and former players have nothing positive to say about our coach and how his negative mindset has had an impact on the group.

When he have to resort to the president addressing the boys about his passion for Carlton time and time again.

You only hear great things about Brent Montogomery from who i speak to and if it weren't for him they think we would be in a much worse shape.

This is why we are seeing lack lustre performances coming from our boys.