I reckon we'll beat the WC in Perth. Remember, they'll be coming off a big QF game against Collingwood at the G. Hopefully we'll be coming off an easy home game at the G. We love open spaces. The reason they shut us down in Melbourne was because it was at the dome. We lost to the Dogs and nearly to the Crows and Norf at the dome Subi - completely different story.

Of course it all comes down to team selection and positioning. Let's hope we play our forwards forward and our backs back - that'd be a good place to start .

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end of message

Things change. We improved so much across the board that making such a judgement on one game would be folly and unfair. Finals losses often have little to do with coaching, as Choco found with Port, and more to do with players themselves coping with the pressure. If we lost i'd be asking questions of the sport psychologist. Even Woosha lost his first 3 EF as coach of the Eagles. Good thing their club's didn't get rid of Choco and Woosha based on finals performances.

That's a very interesting view Jim. So we don't take finals performances into account, or make the coach accountable for them. I reckon with his KPIs Ratts will be their until he qualifies for the old age pension.

Either the coach takes responsibility for the team performance to get to the finals and in the finals or we ask ourselves why we have a coach.

Ratts will get an extension because we have a great chance to get to the GF. Losing to the Dons is inconceivable, but if we did, the coach would have to go. Losing to better teams is okay, losing to worse teams must be the coaches responsibility.

Go after Ross Lyon IMHO.....Has had a go at Carlton before, is good mates with SOS so maybe can convince SOS to come back at some point as a senior assistant...and most importantly, strikes me (just from what I see on TV that is....which I know isn't much) as someone who is quite reflective about any deficiencies in current game plan, and would tweak it for success. Remember that he took the Saints to 3 GF's which is not bad when you look at the calibre of his bottom 8 players.
PS. We MUST beat Essendon* (that would be par for 2011, not an improvement IMHO)
We MUST beat WC (that would be an improvement on last year)
Anything else after that is a bonus.

Like a few others, I'm nervous about this EF against the Scum but it's the first of two non-negotiables for Carlton to have genuinely improved in 2011. Come on BLues, the stage is set to announce yourselves on the footy world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

By all reports, Malthouse can't be at any other club next year.

Meaning due to his contract he has to sit out the year but can be released from his last two years...

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

Give me a break.
The past couple of months have only confirmed one thing to me. Malthouse is a self absorbed egomaniac who puts his own agenda ahead of the clubs interests.
If he was so good, he wouldn't be getting the arse from Collingwood.

I'm not Rattens biggest fan but he deserves a couple of year extension.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Spot on BV, that's exactly what he is. Apparently Mick read a book once and now the illiterate media reckon he's an intellectual and Mick agrees. He is a bitter nasty man, and the only pleasure that will come from the Pies getting a second flag will be that Mister Sookie might rain on their parade. He is also not that smart. Not to say he has not been a pretty good coach, but his depth of knowledge on any topic he turns his tiny mind to appears to go almost to the end of the relevant Wikipedia article and no further.

On the other hand, that Rodney Eade is a capable guy......

Still can't agree on Ratts getting an extension beyond one year if we only get as far as the second week. Beating up on sides that are inferior to us is easy, bridging the gap is hard. Ratts has a golden opportunity to get himself three years if he gets us to the GF.....the opportunity is there. Will he and his team grab it or not? Reward when rewards are due, they are not due yet and won't be until we are leading that prelim ag the Hawks deep in the last.

Malthouses all too public spray at one of his players last week was pathetic. It was an embarrassing pose which reeked of FIGJAM. flower Malthouse.

So if Ratten fails as a coach in his 3rd straight elimination final he deserves to be re-signed for another 2 years. That's a reward for mediocrity.

Eddie didn't want Buckley elsewhere and the only way to keep him was to get Malthouse to agree in the transition plan. Malthouse didn't get the arse..




Contracts don't mean anything these days. How many coaches have been sacked and players moved out who still had a contract. Anyone can walk away from a contract these days.

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31-3-2015 - R.I.P AFL, corrupted lying pricks
12-5-2015 - Go WADA
18-8-2015 - Suffer Hird* u lying flower
12-1-2016 - CAS goes bang, happy new year.. Drugcheats forever..

You posters who support ratten as coach if he loses a third straight elimination final on the basis that we have improved across the board are deluded. If you lose at the same point 3 years in a row, you haven't improved and as for whoever asked who would you replace him with? Firstly the board should have thought that through by pursuing alternatives after they very clearly said "he has to win a final" & secondly haven't you heard of Ross Lyon, Ken Hinkley or Alan Richardson? The whole thing stinks of a job for mates saga supported by Gleeson & Kernahan, where there is always an out clause to Rattens tenure based being based on performance.

There is no bigger Ratten fan than me, but beating Essendon* is a minimum requirement for him keeping his job.
I'd say its the performance in Wk 2 that'll seal the deal either way for me.
If we lose week 1, he won't be coach next year and no-one can really argue with that. We didn't finish top 4, so we have to rely on results in finals.

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T E A M

You really have no clue do you. Never seen one good post ever from you.

Losses is an improvement across the board. Just have to look at the football anyway, that'd be enough to tell even the blind. Losing finals is not necessarily a coaching thing, that could be a player pressure problem and hence you sack the sports psychologist. Good thing West Coast never sacked Woosha after losing 3 EF in a row. Good thing Port didn't sack Choco after a million finals chokes. Both went on to win flags. As I said, other things can cause problems in finals other than coaching. What dill would base one game in a season, final or not, on the future of a coach. That's just simple thinking in the extreme.

On field performance aside, the last thing Swan, Kernahan etc would want is to put themselves in the same position and predicament that Adelaide, Dogs, Melbourne (and probably Port) are all now in. There's already 3-4 clubs fighting over slim pickings of inexperienced coaches, recently fired coaches, or thinking theyve got a chance of coaxing a big name coach under contract (to break a contract) when the chances of this happening are so ridiculously low it's just a waste of boardroom catered meetings.
And that's why Ratts is safe regardless of what happens in 2 weeks time.

Just one thing ... Get Fev.

But seriously ... anything can happen in one game ... there are so many factors ... to base the improvement in our side purely on that one game is nonsense. Its been a great year ... Carlton have been well coached and have improved in so many areas. The future is bright ... foundations have been laid ... and congratulations must go to Ratten and his coaching staff.

- 2 year extension ... enough said.

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

I am starting to agree BlueRob. Sign him now and get the monkey off the back.

If we have a really good proven coach on the hook waiting to take his place then wait but i doubt that is the case.

Plenty of successful coaches coached teams that failed in their first few finals series but then went on to win flags.

We are not that far off.

I'm all ears.
What's Alan Richardsons role at Carlton? What areas of our program is he responsible for?
How are we performing in those areas?
I ask you the same questions of Hinkley.
It's easy to sit back and throw up names. I'm tipping you're pulling them out of your ring and have never met any of them and have no idea what areas they specialise in and what they actually do.

Looking forward to your information filled response.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Regards Cazzesman

PS. What if Carlton win the EF? What should Sticks and Co do then about Ratts?

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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.”

Win the elimination final and he keeps his job. But honestly, I still think it's a concern that we at this point of the season and it's still up in the air.

It would be nice to sign him now but the above result is the minimum the board should expect. They set the bar and Ratt's is aware of it. If we had made top 4 I think he'd have been signed now or , at a minimum, the noises from the bosses would be very positive.

We've improved but not enough to beat any of the real contenders, yet. The finals could make a dif, I'm certain we'd beat both Hawks, Cats and WCE.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

If we follow that with a loss to last years wooden spooners then I reckon they should give him a grumpy one year extension. In a way the contract is irrelevant. No-one else is after him as senior coach and the team's improvement / success will ensure his contract is extended beyond that. But just beating up on the Dons in final when they have fallen into the finals is hardly a stellar achievement. Remember wat the Crows did to them in the 09 EF. In fact it would be the least we would expect. A small extension for the small improvement we have shown. We still have fallen off in the second half of the year, failed in really big games against comparable opposition - WCE, Hawks, and still seem to be trying to emulate what other sides do rather than coming up with new strategies that give us an advantage on the others.

I can't imagine that anyone associated with the club would find it satisfactory if our season ended in the second week. We have an incredible opportunity to get to the GF. If we are satisfied with a only a soft win in the EF then we are not the club we used to be and may not become that club again. There is only one team clearly superior to us and that is the Pies. We can and should beat any of the other contenders - no passengers and no excuses. We used up every excuse before, we have no more excuses. At some point a team has to deliver, we are at that point.

Anyway, as far as I see it the finals train is at the station and and Ratts can drive that train till the first Saturday of October... and then he can have 3 years.

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#DonTheStash