Nicely put. And in the next 7 games we might all know where he sits with the group. The intensity levels are the barometer.

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 know from that effort on Sunday that we are in serious trouble.
Couldnt give a shit I aint in the inner sanctom.

Perhaps its an advantage not to be and your not brainwashed but here is an argument even some posters on here would find hard to not disagree with

Ryan Houlihan
Yep my mate

Watched one of those flashback games a few weeks ago .
When Dickson kicked the winning goal after the siren for Hawthorn
Would have been 2001 I reckon

Guess who was the only Carlton player out there who is on our list now

Yep Houlihan

Here is a kid 19 years old
70kg in a wet tux

Great skills great touch good overhead mark for his size incredible skills on both sides of his body

I am sure you thought like I did at the time
How good is this kid going to be when he puts on the pounds and gets a bigger tank

Now fast forward to 2010. The body is there.The tank is there but Houlihan now plays a role in the team to take the defensive playmaker away from the contest. Its a job he normally does well but is that a 9 year development from what we saw in 2001.If he creates or kicks goals its a bonus.


Clearly not

And on top of this his sole contribution to the leadership of the club was to organise a pissup which lead to an embarrasment to the club.What Houlihan did was far worse than Steve Johnson too IMO

He organised it
He clearly manipulated Walker who is clearly not the brightest bloke going around
he embarrased the club in a very public place
Johnson's crime was to be passed out in a Wangaratta gutter . Didnt harm anyone but himself

Johnson doesnt come back into the team until round 6 07

Houlihan along with Betts and Walker's punishment is to be sent to a boxing gym to learn some 'hard lessons' about life.

Think about the last bit.

Whats a boxing gym got specifically to do with playing with the Carlton footy club playing for it giving your best

SFA really

Houlihan should have been suspended for at least the first 6 rounds this year
Thats the only punishment that works long term if you want to change a players' behaviour

Houlihan's development and the way he has been handled offield sums up what this club does wrong



So we come tomorrow

If Hendo is out I assume Warnock will play

That means we dont have anyone who can take a mark in the forward 50 except Waitey unless he doesnt snot somebody and little Eddie Betts


Roos and Horse have had 15 rounds to work out how to beat us

What does Ratten do if as they will put Kennelly Malceski Mattner behind the ball.

Put Hampson in attack. I guy who after 4 years at the club cant seem to take an overhead mark.



Proof is in the pudding tomorrow.

Last week we had 1 tackle in the back half after half time

anyone want to bet we get more than that this week


Yes thats right 1 tackle in our defensive 50 - and it was Garlett who laid the tackle


thats not good doesnt matter how you look at it

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

CRanium has hit the nail on the cranium. I really like Ratts he is a sincere passionate bloke but I don't think he is consistently able to get the best out of the side. The players seem to be confused and unsure and you wonder how well Ratts communicates what he wants, and how much respect he has from all players when we get efforts like last week / Essendon* / Hawthorn / North. We had a great and better than expected start which has made the last 5 weeks even more disappointing.

The way we went about appointing the coach was ludicrous and while that doesn't mean Ratts wouldn't have got it anyway, why not actually amke a genuine assessment of who is around. Apparently the job was there for Voss if he wanted it. Why! Who would make such a ludicrous decision? And Ratts presumably had a strong say in recruiting Warnock, Johnson and McLean. We got Johnson for nothing but we gave up way too much for the other two.

I also don't think our list will be good enough for a flag. We have had a dream run with draft choices and have done okay but not brilliantly. The #1s were always going to be stars. But are Murphy and Giobbs intesne enough, do they have enough of the Joel Selwoods about them to be great rather than very good? Our drafting when things get hard has been okay. 2004 JR is the only player we got. The next year our 3 in the top 20 were good as you would expect. But 2006 Hammo (who I am a Fan of) seems to have stagnated and you wonder how much confidence the MC have in him when they moved heaven and earth to get Warnock, and Grigg has been a real disappointment and has gone backwards. Be good to get some gold occasionally late in the draft. Apart from Army not sure if that has happened. We have really snagged very little from 20-40 with Bower the only tsandout at this stage. We have done well with the rookies (as have most clubs). At the end we have had our big go at the draft and may not have got enough talent to get us out of 7-10th. We have a very inexperienced coach who has surrounded himself with inexperience. We haven't looked far or hard enough for the most important jobs in the footy dept - The coach and his assistants.

Ratts should see out his contract. I am sick of us extending contracts then breaking them. Then though there is the issue of whether we have the amount of talent. A new better coach would do better, but Bulldogs better or HAwks better?

Who are you trying to kid. Even if we win it will have absolutely zero effect on your beliefs.

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.”

yep go on and attack me again.

Dont think you will change your views either

As I said proof is in the pud baby
You and I know enough about footy to know how Sydney will come out and play us tomorrow

What has Ratten come up with to counter it
And what is plan B, C........

and lets hope the players dont pull a heartstring because about 12 were torn last week

Don't act the martyr. You give as good as you get.

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T E A M

It's just an observation and not backed up empirical data, but have you noticed the growth of the Crows and Tigers since their coaches have decided to sit on the boundary and teach and engender some enthusiasm in their young players?

For too long I have had an issue with the coaches perception of aloofness sitting up in the box.

I think for Ratten's sake it would be worth a try. Some of these young blokes need explanations. I am serious, the young men of today are different from past eras.

There is said to be a double meaning in the 'Y' generation. Let them know 'why' they have mucked up, or done really well. Praise gets you a long way.

Have a look at Neil Craig last night with arms over the shoulders of the guys on the bench. It might have been contrived, but it looked united.

I think those blokes would have felt a million bucks at the point in time.

Houla has been suspended from playing in the ones a number of times. Even going back to the Brittain days. I am sure his name has come up in trades a number of times too. The problem with him is when he plays well so do we and he comes across as important. When we lose he looks terrible. I agree it is time we phase him out and leave his position in open to develop someone else. This will result in us taking a small step backwards which will clearly be impossible for some here to take. Showing some faith in a young tall like Hampson is also something i believe the club has to do. He can take the marks when he is confident. Time to let him settle a bit.

That boxing punishment suited the crime and got the result the club were after.

sounds good - who do we leave in the box?

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

That's where it gets tricky doesn't it.

However, the shots are still called by Ratten from the boundary. I think it needs to be the people who can adequately articulate what is going on within the scope of the game. They must have game sense and understand football but they must also have a good handle on the stats etc.

I know one of the guys in the box for the Crows. He is sports science Professor who played at SANFL level for a number of years. A really astute bloke with a good sense of the game, a real feel, but he knows his numbers, GPS stuff, heart rates etc. A good confidant for Craig. Whether we have that person in the box, I'm not sure. But we need someone like it.

Football has become a lot sophisticated, and yet it is still intuitive. You need someone who can reflect that.

Just my take.

Lappo of course! That would have the other coaches running for cover

I like this post.
The truth is, when the Houlihan type players stop being automatic selections then we are on the way. He is part of the Wallsy bottom six. The Wallsy bottom six probably has gone to bottom 4 this year with players like Cloke and Wiggins no longer being automatic selections.

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Delulio is a member of TISM

Yes, see this is what I am talking about. Good footballer but arguably not overly astute in other aspect of the game such as sport science.

Interestingly Brett Burton has just completed in his honours degree in sport science. I am not saying that he is the one, but someone like him could be good.

I did teach Brett Montgomery in his undergrad Human Movement degree, so he is certainly one who could make the next step you would think

some of the posters on this site are seriously flower incredible.

Its one thing to have a difference of opinion
Its another to deflect the real issues at hand by attacking the poster

Fact is we play the Swans tomorrow
Fact is we will see what happens
Fact is that there are problems which I believe are stopping this club from developing into a premiership team
Fact is we have 2 clubs coming into the AFL who the AFL want to be successful and if you cant see that you are a flower moron which means that

IF the problems are fixed with action the we will be in the abyss for another decade

To the poster who responded to my post by saying I am a martyr and quoting me

Why dont you show yourself in a better light and say what you think of Hoops and back it up with some knowledge about the game.

perhaps was in there

and it is true that sometimes being outside an organisation gives you better perspective of that organisation than actually being part of it

Look no further than the ALP and coalition at Federal level


IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

A long time ago i realised you and i have a different way of supporting the blues. Not sure who is right and who is wrong but lately i dont even know what you are on about.

Lighten up. I can't see anything to get worked up about in this thread (unless you are Ratts!)

I like this post.

It's strange, on the one hand, there are the posters who think that there is some indiscriminate gutless virus that has come from nowhere and gone rampant. There is no such thing as cause and effect with this mob. Others seem to think that time will one day suddenly stand still just for Carlton - the "we are not 'there' yet but will be" brigade - why will we? The moral of the story is that something (plus some other things) is/are not quite right and have to change. We can't escape that. Just because we might think our list is good does not mean it will be good enough, and just because we have come to the realisation that we are a bunch of girlie-men does not mean that we have the means at our disposal to suddenly change that around.

This part's not important because I never was a details type person and are it's words at the moment but we need a change of attitude and to become proactive instead of reactive. I like Ratten too, we was a champion player and seems a decent bloke as far as ex-footballers go but I have my doubts about an introverted coach leading a bunch of introverts. And, at the risk of setting kouta off, there needs to be a change in this 'utilitarian' outlook towards list management. Just admit it folks, it's very 1980s and it has been found wanting. We are not Geelong, and they are more subtle at it than us anyway.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Spot on, We should be educating the recruiting staff in transcendental idealism