I can't take a third

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

The thing that burns inside is that this year we would have played the dogs who are gone.......... then played the saints whom we beat during the year and the players confidence would have been sky high and we could possibly have made a GF against the pies.
In life you must take your chances when they come because next year who knows what might happen.............
This year we had a huge opportunity to maybe just maybe make something happen.

This will hurt for a while BUT after the 15min of the first quarter i could not be anymore prouder of the way the side fought so hard to get back the lead and keep fighting right till the last minute of play..........

Well done to all and fingers crossed we keep healthy next season and look out coz 1 thing i know for sure is that THE MIGHTY NAVY BLUES ARE BACK.

But f##k i'm shattered

If you had of seen them at sydney airport at 8.00 pm tonight plus the coaches the match committe everyone you would have no doubt they will learn from that -they were devastated as were the plethora of carlton supporters at the airport coming back to Melbourne

Spoke to Bomber Riley at the airport who lamented the first quarter and in particular inside 50 s by the Swans - the coaches arent happy with the performance they intend to push this group harder

They will learn - Hendo will pluck his marks he will go back and nail the goal from 50 - Army will kick rather than bounce when backman too close etc etc - I dont single them out to necessarily be critical those boys are 2 of my favourites but there is a lot of upside in both

Sorry but I thought they were very brave today -could easily been blown away a couple of times -really difficult conditions really squirling wind -second trip on the road in the last 2 weeks

We lost today because of a problem that's been there all season- sides score too easily against us. Looking at the ladder we're ranked 9th for points conceded- that's not going to win you lots of finals. Now it's either a too offensive gameplan or we have deficiencies in the personnel down back. I believe it's a combination of the two. I can only compare us to one of the better sides atm- pies: cannot kick a goal to save themselves but still win most of the games cos they can defend. Geelong have been able to combine offence and defence really well in the last 3-4 years. We need to change it up! Does anyone agree?

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If you compare the teams from this year and last year's elimination final there is a vast difference in the team and the experience of the players - last year we had Fev, Stevens, Thornton, Houlihan, Wiggins who were all absent this year for various reasons. (and of course Kreuze).

If we had of fielded a similar team then yes, I think you could ponder whether or not we learnt anything from last year.

But we didn't, and 2010 was always going to be a transition year for Carlton.

I'm still as bummed out as I was last night about yesterday's game and trying really hard not to replay bits of the last quarter in my mind. But what I am most pleased about was that we didn't throw in the towel after half time like we've done so often this year.

I love the fact that Armfield kept taking them on and running hard after he got caught in the back pocket.

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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

+1
It was the most inspiring thing any Carlton player did this year. Plenty of guts, determination and character to do what he did at that moment.

And the Bummers lost 2 eliminations before playing off in 3 GF's. That was an awful long time ago I suppose

I agree with this.

Sydney dominated the first 10 minutes of the game. We dominated for about 40 minutes of the game. The rest of the game was fairly even. They were able to score goals even when not in control. We found it a lot harder even when we were in control. And that is the story of where we're at this year. Real scoring improvement and sharing of the forward load (in the absence of Fev). But little or marginal improvement in being able to lock down and prevent the opposition from scoring. We're going to struggle to take the next step until we get considerably better at this. I thought we played one defensive short for a fair bit of the year. Currently we have 2 genuinely proven defenders in Russell and Gibbs. And it'd be nice to have the luxury of playing Gibbs elsewhere if we could.

Our forward line looked much more crowded than theirs over the course of the game.
They were able to score too many easy goals from forward line stoppages.

Yes, all of that...PLUS.....perhaps the work ethic and defensive skills of the midfield

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"I had to eat"

Bower played poorly, should of done a whole lot better on Dennis-Lane. B.Thorton who would of done a much better job on him!
Overall Blues played an awesome game!! Unfortunate to not of made it through to the next round!!
Looking forward to season 2011!!
GO BLUES!!!