Wishful thinking mate.

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My Monday morning after a long weekend in Sydney is being made alot easier by the performance of the lads on Friday night. My first ever visit to Sydney and the SCG and did i time that trip to perfection or what! Even if I did get soaked on my long walk to the SCG it was well worth the trip up.

Impressing me most at the minute is the teams collective resolve to fight to the death which was lacking IMO in previous seasons. Will go along way in us winning those close games up for grab like Friday nights one.

On a side not, Sydney really is a beautiful city and to cap off the weekend ran into Michael 'pup' Clarke at the pub on Saturday night and managed to have a few words with him as well.

Now back to reality of a full working week.....YUK!

Considering the conditions and who we were playing it was an enormous result. Heard Longmire say that they trained in those conditions all week and had similar conditions in the Geelong game.
It was a game of stoppages which Sydney love, we beat them out there own game in there own backyard. All credit to Ratts, the coaches and players on the result a great team effort.

Football departments are sheep. If Mick Malthouse coached last year with a broom up his arse, the other 15 would we walking around sweeping the floor.
They look at the previous premiership team and follow their lead. Hence the mindless pursuit of left footers after Hawthorn won the flag and the press from Collingwood.
One day someone will come up with an idea of their own. (Just the give the others something to mimic)

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I was at the SCG too. I'm not sure if the TV conveys how tough the conditions were.
We weren't brilliant in the first half, made some costly mistakes but the players were putting in a high effort. Sydney were playing the conditions very well and had some good fortune.
The 2nd half was as good a performance as I have witnessed. To be 3 goals down at the SCG in the slop against a smart, well-drilled team that thrives on stoppages and then win easily (their last 2 goals were the result of us loosening our grip) is a monumental effort.
I walked away believing this was one of those "line in the sand" moments.
Not to discount Judd's amazing performance but if you wanted to show a total team committment, this was the game. People who say Judd won the game on his own know nothing about footy.
I hope the players use this game as the standard they set for themselves and know that this is the committment level required week after week, quarter after quarter, play after play. Rather than saying "we should beat this mob", they should know if they give what they gave on Friday night, the results will come.

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T E A M

Not really, there is a big hill in the middle. Made me think that hitting fours on the Scg would be easier than other grounds as the ball would just run down to the boundary on it's own!!..lol

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Circumstance has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value. All true meaning resides in the personal relationship to a phenomenon, what it means to you.

THIS !

My first time to the SCG. It's a funny sort of ground. We had good seats under cover luckily seating behind Sydney reserved seat members.
I believe that with the centre wicket area and the generally high rainfall in Sydney, it isnt up to AFL standard. Its a problem the AFL needs to address.
The Sydney fans are very polite. They cheer the goals and not much else. There are a lot of parents and grandparents bringing their kids. The focus is definitely on Sydney FC not AFL. Its red and white everywhere, they give free red and white clappers to make the cheering louder for TV (listen after a Sydney goal and you can make them out). After a Carlton goal, the scoreboard would have a pro Sydney comment immediately followed by a replay 10sec later.
The Blues had a lot of support at the ground though.

Adam Goodes, as good a player as he is, is a big sook. He throws his arms up constantly for frees and is relentlessly berating the umps for not paying him a free whenever he doesnt mark. The time when he got a free for holding against ?White, he actually stopped running and threw his arms up while the ball was still alive. I don't know whether he is bigger than the team but his behaviour is unacceptable IMO.

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T E A M

I've been saying for a long long time that this is the case, and while it's a galvanising force while Sydney are up and successful, it's a negative when they aren't performing too well. The AFL really need to invest more in developing overall interest in the game now that the Swans have a large core of rusted-on support.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

That was close to the best win since the 99 prelim. A first step to playing top 4 football. The first ray of light that shows that if we double our efforts, improve our recruiting and coaching ---- we could win a premiership in the next 5 years.

Caz as a critic of Ratten's coaching, I just don't see how the criticism wasn't justified when all his assistants were replaced and he was removed from the box because he is not the best match day coach. There were plenty of posters who said he had to change or at least be surrounded by top level assistants. That has happened and is a compliment to the board. Whether Ratten remains as coach if someone like Roos is available is a question for a later date.

The one question that came to mind after the game was can we do it on dry day when the tall KPP players come into their own? Mumford towelled us in the ruck and forward. How far we go will depend on Hendersen, Kreuzer and O'hailpin.

( I still think Watson is better than White & if we don't want to fall off the perch like St Kilda get games into Lucas, Thouey and a few others. We play one or two guys every week who are not better than these talented youngsters)

I think they have, it's called GWS.

Yes and no. Two-team support is only going to go so far. The game needs supporters of other clubs in Sydney, like Carlton does with a big contingent which turned up the other night, to thrive properly. That means that no matter how well the Swans or GWS are doing in any season, the attendances to the matches will still be good, and the atmosphere at matches will still be vibrant. As CK said, the roar when Walks kicked that last goal to put us 4 goals up was huge.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

I think GWS and the new media deal will go a long way. It's a long haul. NRL is still the big dog in town probably but the AFL only has to support 2 teams in Sydney. From my observation Fri night, Sydney FC have their supporters and a lot of kids. Haveing 2 teams will help with a local rivalry and a game every week not every fortnight.

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T E A M

In Gerard Whately`s highs and lows (ABC 774), his low was the ground announcer interrupting the Carlton theme song straight after the game for some trivial matter. He quite rightly said it was pretty poor form seeing that there has been a lot of footy played there now and they should show some respect to opposition supporters at the ground.

Its not a strong footy culture. It's a theatre crowd there to see the Swannies.
Honestly the Swans fans near us were nice, too nice. I almost felt bad abusing Goodes and hollering after the 3rd and last quarter goals, almost.

There was a sausage stand near us and a cafe. Given the weather and the royal wedding, the cafe was full of women watching the TV and drinking coffee including our wives. They kicked everyone out at half time. The hot dog stand closed before the 3rd 1/4 started.

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T E A M

Swans fans are a funny lot.

I had to catch a packed train into town after the final at Homebush last year. I dreaded it.

However there was not one ounce of talk/backslapping about the match.

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#DonTheStash

Still better than the 80's and early 90s song after each goal.... remember it. 'Show it to them Sydeny, Show em your the swans'.... yadda yadda yadda. I hated that song.

Friday night was one of the best days ever.... I flew up to Sydney with 3 of my pals, went to the Carlton function where the one and only Syd Jackson was on our table (still can't believe it!), met BondiBlue (great bloke!). Rocked up to the SCG around 7pm in pouring rain and we were asked by the leader of the cheer squad to help lift up the banner - I swear us 40 year olds were like 10 year old kids jumping out of our scins. Cheered the boys on as they ran through the banner and then watched our boys fight and fight like no Carlton team I've seen over the past few years!!

What a day! Thankyou Carlton Football Club....

The crape paper didn't hold up that well. The rain was the heaviest it was for the night as we were standing there to put up the banner.

It was a memorable night for many reasons. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 18 years

I enjoyed yr Sydney experience. It's funny what you say about Goodes. Mark Fine on SEN says Goodes spends too much time trying to umpire the game. I think the umps are a bit tired of him and maybe Liegh Matthew's comment that 'he is a protected spieces' was a bit closer to the mark than people care to admit. I take that comment as not a racist comment ( and hope that it wasn't) but one that indicates that he is/was protected by the umpires becasue of his star quality. The game is littered with players who had that influence. Now that gloss has worn off him because he has abused the privelege. Just some thoughts anyway.

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!