.........Is deemed by media commentators and Journo's to be an "at full or near full strength" Carlton side - whilst 10 of the normally first picked players in the 22 arent playing and the entire rookie list is on the field.

Bomba is correct. There were round robins in 1897 and 1924. the team
with the most wins was premiers. No G/F

This page on my old website show all the finals 1897 to 2007. With Carlton highlighted.
Shows how the early finals were done. Also how the Grand final challenge
worked. 1897 - 1930. A few G/F's won and then lost.

Carlton is the only team to get into a G/F from 6th place. 1999
Previous best was 5th place.

Collingwood have never won a G/F other than finishing 1st or 2nd on the ladder.

http://footy.my100megs.com/carltonfinals1897-2006.html


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I don't think anyone is questioning the Scum's gifted premierships anymore - that's been made clear - we're just all wondering how Carlton has won 17 Grand Finals for 16 premierships??

1. We are the silver tails and have no affinity to the working class

This is crap, I grew up in Carlton in a working class family and most of mates lived in commsion housing or the high rise. We have the wealthy supporters like the Pratts, Elliotts, Smorgon family or the PM's like Menzies and Frasers etc and everyone thinks that our supporter base were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Anyone who grew up in Carlton 25 + years ago would know that it was not always the case. Look at our heartland from Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner etc and the suburbs around them stretching to Jacana or Lalor / Thomastown. A lot of influential people who follwo Carlton have also attributted thsi to the fact that tehy attended Melb. Uni and resides in cheap squats in the Carlton district and if they had no such follwoing to any other VFL team somes started following the Navy Blue and stayed loval to the CFC. This is a massive miss-conception that gives me teh sh*ts to no end.

2. most of our supporters are of an ethnic origin.

Again another miss-conception, whilst proud taht we do have a strong ethnic supporter base its not as much as people think. A bit of history on teh suburb of Carlton and at the turn of last century Carlton was a dumping ground for newly arrived immigrants who had docked at Station Pier. The suburb had some of the worst slums around and the suburb used to have a large Chinese population. The next biggest influx was teh Jewish population that resided in Carlton especially in Carlton South. Post war migration we received an influx from Europe particularily Greeks and Italians. This has given a vast ethnic supporter base that has always had teh ability to closely assocaite with the Barassi's, Silvagni's, Kekovich's, Catoggio, Kouta etc. Yes we do have a large ethnic base but other clubs whether its their redneck element seem to dwell on this more than what they should.

Did anyone watch the game on TV last night and hear LLoyd talking about the punch up between McVeigh and Melksham?

Apparently it was one of Melkshams first training sessions when he had an altercation with spike resulting in spike needing a few stiches.