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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Ratten on observers having difficulty identifying a game plan - "It is there, insists Ratten, and it's based on quick ball movement and switches of angles. But it's a lot harder to pinpoint, he concedes, “when we don't kick the ball well”.

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Scott, things aren't as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness is no longer just for Philosophy majors - useful people are starting to feel the pinch.

You missed the sentence immediately after.....

"Which is another good indicator of Carlton's erratic ways. The Blues are No. 1 for kicking efficiency, up from fifth last year. But when they turn the ball over, they do so spectacularly, and is invariably punished for it."

It is funny that several don't like to hear Ratts talking about his Stats and many hang it on the players skills and development but this stat probably shocks a few knockers.

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.”

Sides that play a lot of the back half switch and have more low risk kicks are likely to have better kicking efficiency.

I don't think anyone would dare suggest we are the best kicking team in the league, so what does out high kicking efficiency stat actually tell us ?

Thornton is a case in point. King of the Par 3 game, he always has a high kicking efficiency.

Kicking efficiency is one of the more useless stats IMO.
You can kick 10 times out of ten to a team mate wide on the boundary and allow the opposition to set up a zone, and you recieve an efficient disposal stat for it.
Bret Thornton has a disposal efficiency of 84% yet he's playing in the Magoos. Compare that with Robert Murphy who has a disposal of 76%. Yet Murphys disposal cuts you up in the corridor like a hot knife through butter. If you gave the ball to most Geelong players and they played the gamestyle we did, they'd eat us alive for disposal efficiency.

The real stats that matter IMO are after 8 games we were 5 and 3 and were equal with Collingwood on the second most quarters won for the year. If it wasn't for the ineptitude of the other contenders, we'd be falling out of the 8 now. I dont agree with the rantings of feral supporters but I also dont believe in sticking your head in the sand and cocooning yourself from criticism like Swann and Ratten seem to do.

At the start of the year, Ratten was saying we had to win a final. Now I hear him saying he wants to make the 8 because "no one else expected us to make it". Thats bulltish to me. You dont re-evaluate half way through the year to take the heat off yourself. We will make the 8 and anything less than a finals win is a failure. The supporters stuck with the club through the bad days and they're within their rights to expect the players to give their best. At the moment, the players are well off that benchmark.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Absolutely. Flower. All.

Perhaps if the team didn't turn twice as quickly all the @#$%&! time this wouldn't be a problem.

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WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Kicking efficiency No.#1 is this under pressure or sideways across half back? You might as well include kicks during the warm up. The problem is we are pretty soft and the first hint of body pressure and ball goes anywhere. Nobody is willing to take a hit when they need to and hold the extra second to assess options and dispose of the ball properly, hence the outrageous turnovers. I leave Judd out as he is the only mature football talent we have.
We insist on recruiting choirboys, then get a Robinson and drop him for poor positioning at stoppages or team rules or some carp hmmm like he's the only one who makes a mistake. The main team rule should be to 'go when it's your turn', or find a new club..... or profession.

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Green Shooter

Yeah that created a furrow on my brow as well.
To me it suggests a bit of a 'victim mentality' and a sign of mounting pressure.
I think the next 3 weeks are the most crucial of Rattens tenure so far.

"When we win, we beat the opposition on turnovers by a margin of 34 points. When we lose, we're minus 41 and are rated 16th, and seven or eight points behind 15th. So when we have a stuff-up, it's an almighty stuff-up. Others have turnovers that can be defended or corrected. Ours are critical turnovers that create scores for the opposition.

This strongly suggests to me a weakness in the gameplan, not simply in skill execution or handling pressure.

at 7 and 4 with the run we had we should have been well entrenched in the 8 and knocking on the door of the top 4



I dont like this exceptence of under performance- Ratts and Swan should be expressing their disappointment that we didnt continue on from that we produced 6-7 weeks of total rubbish and as this being a product of youth I always thought youth was about energy and enthusiasm we were far from that they looked lifeless

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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

Our back 6 really lack a bit of class in linking up and running it out, or hitting tagets when being squeezed by a zone.

Lucas helped when he was there, but we could do with some more creativity and assuredness bringing it out.

Bower and MK go down, Waite gets suspended.....Ratts had to rely on Irish and a kid just learning the caper to hold up the fwd structure.

We could not afford 3 of our top 5 talls(probably 3 best) to go down.
Confidence was lost and intensity went down but there is no way given player availability we should be any higher than we are.
Expectations unfairly went through the roof after we beat last year's Grand Finalists.

At 7 - 4 was a good launching pad for a top4 assault. Losing Waite every couple of weeks and losing big K would have knocked the team around a bit. The games on end at the ice rink didnt seem to do us any favours either.

I agree with all the excuses Ratts and Swann have thrown up and have added a few myself.

However i dont think its a good look for the coach and ceo coming out with all this stuff mid season. Hopefully there is different messages being delivered to the players behind closed doors.

Carlton people do turn quick. The article has that correct.

I got a giggle out of the graphic accompanying the article, well its on the main footy page. http://www.theage.com.au/afl



I agree the next 3 weeks are pretty crucial - three in a row against traditional rivals. If we can't fire up for those games then what can we fire up for?

Is Juddy's head REALLY that pointy?

I agree that stats are the devil's work. You can always make them support any argument you like, so I take no notice whatsoever of them.

You can see with your own eyes whether a team is playing with purpose and cohesion, or whether they're playing like headless chooks. Don't need stats to confirm or deny comparative form I would've thought.

And Swanny, the only reason Carlton supporters seem to "turn" so quickly is that one week we're playing like champions, and the next like total chumps. I'd address the reasons behind this before worrying about supporter reaction to it.

Good article.

It's nice to read we have a game plan.

But I'm with Sydney Blue:



I spoke with an ex CFC player yesterday and these days he doesn't get into footy that much, but he still speaks with those close to the club and he said the problem was that we have a list of softies and the youth argument is a poorone. Good footy players at 16 years of age put their head over the ball playing against men in the seniors. He referred to the 16yo Jimmy Buckley playing in our seniors showing what sort of guts you need to play senior footy.

Another thing he said was that it seems our off field leaders seem to accept mediocrity, and that's not the Carlton thing to do, and I agree with him when he suggests that even the current list would know that their performances have been unacceptable and unCarlton.

@#$%&! kicking efficiency if it means we lose the game and the 4 points...or even the final we're destined to play in.

I for one expected a better result than what we've shown in 2010.

Good article. It's got us thinking.

Go Blues...lets turn this season around and encourage the footy journos to write about the maturity shown by this team at the business end of the season and not about our softness.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Brilliant post as usual BV.
It's great to read your stuff rather then sugarcoated rubbish you often read from Cazzesman

I gotta say, this article convinced me of nothing except confirming Rohan Connolly's dubious credentials as a journo. After his embarrassing piece of tripe yesterday where he wants to change to being a Collingwood supporter (Really, how much credibility does a supporter who changes allegiances have) he appears to have unquestionably swallowed the party line. It sounds like a press release. I am really getting sick of Stats Ratts stats. We are 12th in average games played - well that means we don't need to finish higher than 12th does it. Where did the Hawks come on that ladder in 2008?

When we have a lot of turnovers we lose. Crikey, what a revelation. Why do we have a lot of turnovers? None of it convinces me that Ratts can communicate real things to the players. Basically we lose when we lack intensity, not sure what the KPI for intensity reads like. One stat matters and that is points for and against at the end of a game. Stats may give a measure for certain activities but they don't tell you why. The measurement is not important it is the why. I don't want defeats explained I want them reversed. And Swann has the temerity to be surprised when the supporters get antsy after the first half last week against the bottom team! If I hear how inexperienced we are again, in the words of Terry Wallace, I think I'm going to spew.

Nice guy Ratts but he won't ever coach a flag side and our much vaunted list has holes we won't be able to fill in the near future. We have had a huge go at the draft and haven't assembled a list that will be the best in the comp. In a few years the Dees will be ahead of us (perhaps even next year_) and in 5 years GC and GWS, after several years of pain, will be looking like the Lions 01-03.

I've been a super lucky Carlton supporter and have seen us win 8 flags. I think we are in a 47-68 period at the moment.

Still my attitude may change remarkably by 5 this arvo.