"Don't bring me a problem, bring me a solution!"

Who in the current market is better than Ratts?

I'm all for ratts personally, but even if we were looking elsewhere who is better and how much time and effort will be lost if we change coaches?

So Gold Coast was a win. Yes.

Next year we will have Gold Coast and GWS. Hopefully twice.

Then thats 4 wins. Top 4 should be a breeze if thats the case.

Keep this years form and improve at the same rate we have over the last 3 years.
So then we make top 4. We will have improved again. But according to you, we won't have deserved it because those are gimme games?

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"He was found guilty in June 2008 of assault with intent to cause bodily harm, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail."
And people are making his return to footy somewhat of a fairytale?

I haven't heard Eade's name thrown up as much as I thought it would be...

Is he firming for the Adelaide job?

why is that we have won one more game than we did in 2009 - thats not much of an improvement in my eyes - 2010 we went backwards

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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

No Fev. New gameplan forward of centre.

Bit simplistic looking at just wins and losses. Go and watch the games. You can see we have improved out of site this year.
Need to brush up on converting and capitalising more on our momentum and making sure we win the big moments.
We are not far off.

Get the head shrinks working overtime on those that freeze up.

Lots of statistics being thrown about.
Here's a question about them:

For those in the "get Malthouse at any cost" camp, name the last coach to lead three different clubs to premierships. Has it ever been done? (I can't think of anyone).

Malthouse and Matthews have done it at two clubs, but that's pretty rare. If you look further at that Matthews got the merger boost and Malthouse got the longest time ever for a coach at a club before winning a flag.

As for the argument that Ratten has taken us this far but hasn't got what it takes to takes us any further .... so who do you want to replace him with? Eade? Where're all his premierships? Roos? He doesn't even want to coach.

I reckon most current coaches would be very happy to have Rattens record of team improvement.

IMO we'd be crazy not to sign him.

You do realise that Carlton weren't the only team to play Gold Coast?
Hell, the Hawks were gifted two wins.

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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

and thats how they ended up with 18 wins - has their year been that good ?????

The wins column is inflated accross the board some like Hawthorn got 2

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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

SB your logic is a bit dodgy...
you say if we didn't play the GC we would have one less win...
news flash...
if we didn't play the GC we would have played another team.

(and may have actually won that. In fact given we won 2/3rds of our games this year the odds are that we would have.)

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Number 17 - come on down!

Yes Teddy and if that other team had of been Hawthorn - Geelong West Coast or even the bulldogs

how many would it be then

What am saying is that everyone has an extra win in their column some have 2

we won 13 games in 2009 we have won 14 games this year and as one was a gift from the AFL our win loss ratio has not improved in 2 years - we might have got lucky and played Port twice instead of the Gold coast but chances are it would have been one of the better sides

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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

The Gold Coast argument is ridiculous. We played them once. EVERYONE has to play everyone else once. You can't not play a team.

If you want to see where we have improved look at our losses. We got belted more times than I care to remember last year. This year our worst lost was around 5 goals.

I think the big thing that needs to be pointed out from the last two games is that we still have no answer to challenge teams who are prepared to sit back and counter attack us, prepared to work harder for the ball and harder to make leads.

We pride ourselves on our fitness and our contested work, but when asked to play it at the highest level we falter. We seem to think we're so much better than everyone else with this that we panic when the oppositions lifts their game.

As for how we play the counter, the answer is we do and we don't. We do play exactly the same, so we don't achieve anything when the game plan isn't working. I'm not saying we're one-dimensional, but we simply have no way of fluently working past the zone until the opposition make a mistake, or we are working on the counter ourselves from a turnover.

The setup for the hotspot is average, the kicks to it sometimes shift the whole thing to close to goal, leading to a rushed behind and the line set up by our defenders to encourage the zone press is simply too high when you consider the foot speed of guys like Duigan, Russell, Henderson & Laidler.

We need to have them sit a few metres deeper, even if it's without an opponent, and encourage 2 or 3 midfield players to be similarly patient in the middle of the park. By all means run up for a receive if you can see something opening up, but otherwise do not crowd an already crowded space.

The last part to all of this is being prepared to try and open up space 45-55 from goal to run and take the shot. We have more than enough players who can peg it from there, we just don't have smart enough players to create that buffer. Lead, double back and you've got a gap. One person can do that, whether it be forward or midfielder, and we have an opportunity on goal. If you can't make the distance, you can certainly fire in a much better pass to a team mate inside 50. A more favourable contest will be created through mismatches, missed assignments and a shorter time frame of ball to boot to receiving player.

If we can implement these strategies and manipulations into our play, and ramp them up and wind them down depending on how the opposition are coping/we are coping, our tactics will be good enough to take on any team in the competition. It's just about our coaches, if needed, to conceive of these problems, and the players receiving the message on how to execute it. So far this has been our Achilles heel all season and yet despite all the video reviews, 1-on-1 chats, skills sessions and team meetings, we're still getting [REDACTED] on by the same tactics, and it saps us of all confidence and run when they are used.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Actually now that I think more about it, they were at least clearing out the 50 on Saturday night, which is the first step. The problem was there were then about 11 players occupying the space from 50 - 90 m out from goal, most of them around the 50 m arc.

If you're not prepared to open up space to run in for the shot at that point, and you've allowed the defence to get 10 players back, then you're going to make life difficult for your forward, particularly if you pop the ball up hoping for a mark. And if you've still got those chunks of players hanging around the arc, the ball is going to go sailing over their heads as they start getting sucked into the immediate play, or fail in closing the space to the next kick.

Suddenly all the space they had between their opponents and the opposition goal has disappeared, and it's a foot race where you don't have the numerical advantage to do much more than steer the play to a flank.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

I think there's no doubt we should at least attempt to have a crack at getting Malthouse.
If he is not available, I think the ideal scenario is to only give Ratts a one year extension. Nothing long term yet. I would like to see how much he can improve the team for one more year.

Firstly, that's not our job. It's the job of the Carlton coaching staff, and they haven't been able to sort it out for nthe last few weeks. Gibson took way too many marks as the loose man against Hawthorn, and we made Raph Clarke look like a footballer with the amount of footy we pumped to him on Saturday night.

Our forward line doesn't really have marking targets, we need to bring the ball to ground and have the small guys weave their magic. Loose defenders taking marks has destroyed us against top 8 sides this year.

I'm not a professional coach, but I'd give 2 suggestions:

1) Firstly, man the loose guy up. If its 7 on 7 in our forward line and 5 on 5 in theirs, fine. Back our midfield to win the clearance and back 7 forwards to bring the ball to ground and keep it there.

If the opposition are crazy enough to send an 8th man back, that suits us even better. 7 v 8 in our forward line, but 5 v 4 in our backline, gives our loose defender an easier job than theirs and gives us the better chance of keeping the ball in our forward half.

2) Simple, I know, but - Prevent out players from bombing it into outnumbered contests FFS! I know the coaches probably instruct the players not to do this, but the message ain't getting through - which is their failing.

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They will know that they've been playing against the famous old dark blues

Gerard Healy mentioned tonight that we have pinched Melbourne`s fitness director.

I thought our Justin Cordy was right up there with the best as a fitness guru.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Long time since I felt the need to post but just read Ratts' weekly email which may have just tipped my into the anti ratts camp! Specifically, the bit where he says "It is worth noting that Mark Austin and Paul bower aside, we didn't have another 187cm plus player available.".

Why Austin and bower aside, or why, at least, bower aside? Broken leg, mumps, chicken-pox? Or is bower that far out of our plans that he can be cast "aside" without need for any explanation. I'm not saying Bower should have been brought in but I don't understand that comment at all. I hope Bower doesn't read it or he may conclude, if he hasn't already, that his papers have been stamped.

"Sorry Paul, I know you are 187cm but you're just not worth counting as a serious 187cm plus player so I won't". Great for the relationship!

Interesting you read that and fell into the rack Satten camp... I read it and wondered.... Where are the Mc's, Watson and Hammer...?

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Stay tuned We're in for a BUMPY ride

Mike Sheahan mentioned OTC that he was at a function at Raheen last Thursday night (Gee, he can get a gig there fairly regularly) and said that Sticks went out of his way to give Ratts a big wrap for his performance this season.

Mike seemed to think he was safe no matter what happens on Sunday

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Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)