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"I had to eat"

To be taken seriously... Sticks must bring in a total independant review of the footy club.
A group of trstees should be set up chaired by Fahour.. to make sure reccommendations are followed...

Ratts is the least of our probs now... hes gone...

However, some of the other positions must be looked at carefully.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Two words for me that sum up the season.......F***ing Disgrace !

Fahour, fahour, fahour. The guy has done nothing for our club. I'll walk away from this club if he walks in as president.

We need change but not him.

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The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time
A garden to nurture and protect

#DopeThenStash

Half Full:

We unearthed some really talented kids with big futures, although perhaps the brightest of them all, McInnes looks like he might be gone for 12 months at a critical time in his career.

But, Levi proves we don't need to spend big on Cloke. That's a good thing. A whole offseason of Kicking, weights and running shoud see him have a big 2013. Maclean and Bell have been excellent and should have big 2013's too.

Half empty:

Disappointing. And with the build up of top four talk, perhaps more disappointing than the dark years when Adam Bentick was our best player.

Gibbs. This season was touted as his for the taking. After Essendon*, I thought, yeah maybe he's arrived. Then last night he does that?

He epitomises this club. Jeckyl and Hyde. Pretty boy, avoids getting his hands dirty against the lesser light teams. Promises much, on a whole delivers heartache.

Kreuzer is close behind. Shows glimpses, but most nights, he looks pretty flower far from a number one pick.

Our board. Time to aggressively trim the fat and get in line with the rest of the successful clubs in the league. 13 on the board is about 8 too many. Forget this shit of slowly phasing out the numbers. Do it in one clean decisive blow. The shakeup this club needs starts at the top, runs through the coaching departments and follows through to making some tough choices about the list.

... hopefully we're active in trading & drafting.

Players have to be developed Braithy. You cant sit around waiting for players to improve. Its the role of the football department to implement strong development programs that accelerate development.
Levi is in his 3rd year at the club yet he still kicks like an under 10.
Kruez, Gibbs and co dont automatically develop because they're champion juniors. Its up to the club to recognise their deficiencies, put remedial measures in place and accelerate their development.

My main concern is our development seems to be all about physical development. What about kicking? Game sense? decision making?

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Four.

Developing, is the least of our worries, tbh. Tom Hawkins has been on the geelong list for 6 years and couldn't kick until recently -- ie 3 weeks ago!. We, as fans, need patience with the developing.

Far more pressing is upper management, coaching, line coaches, and recruiting to compliment a gameplan and style of play that we are going use. And this structure needs to be mimicked at the Ants, so players coming into the AFL know their role and perform. If we establish that, suddenly development is taking care of itself.

The current strategy of a running plan and drafting runners, probably isn't working and hasn't worked for the last 3 years we've used it. With all these rule interpretations turning the game into a rolling maul, we need more Bell types, and less finesse running types, imo.

At least that's the way I see it. In saying that, I'm open to anything which breeds success. Sick. Of. Losing.



This comes down to drafting. You can't teach football IQ ... You can't teach someone to read and take the game on like Judd does.

Another year of wasted opportunity....

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Have to disagree on most counts.
Firstly, addressing your drafting etc is pointless until you have a strong development program to bring them into.
Suggesting "development takes care of itself" is either mischievious or plain ignorant to how successful clubs operate.
As for not being able to teach football IQ, thats nonsense.
75% of football development is about improving game knowledge for players. Nearly all training drills are game sense based. the majority of theory is based on structures, set ups etc.

Suggesting we go and get "Bell types" is farcical. Football changes from year to year.
You cant just go out and recruit a certain type of player because he suits this months style of game.
You need players who can adapt and evolve with the game. That comes down to good development and creating well rounded, versatile players.
We need to draft a well balanced list with depth in most positions. Its then the job of the coaching group to improve the players.

You're not Denis Pagan, are you?

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I really wish people would stop using Geelong as some kind of predictor as to our future.

"Geelong stuck by Thompson... we should stick by Ratten" "Tom Hawkins took a few years to come on, so will Levi"

Seriously, we're nowhere near Geelong. Nowhere near them.

It's not just going to click over summer, and we'll wake up one day and win our 2 flags in 3 years as per Sticks' mandate.

We haven't won more than 3 games in a row since my teenage kids were infants. We have guys on the list for 3 years who don't get good enough to warrant a senior AFL game. Our president is hapless. His vice-president is the wife of a guy who was once a great businessman but who is now dead, and her thing is being an arts patron. Our coach is dead in the water. We sacked our head recruiter but for some bizarre reason, kept him at the club as second in charge of recruiting.

The club isn't the next Geelong. We're a bees-dick away from being the next Richmond (at least Richmond as they were 1980-2010... thirty years of middling performances, poor club culture, infighting, politics, and frustrated fans remembering the good old days and trying to figure out how it all went so horribly wrong).

Sticks, though. HE thinks we're the next Geelong, and it'll just happen. No sane President would publicly announce 2 flags in 4 years (just like Geelong) if he didn't think so. Our senior coach was even in on the act: "We'll follow the 'Geelong model' and rest up players for finals".

To paraphrase a certain MLB manager:

There's Geelong

Then there's Hawthorn and Collingwood and West Coast and Sydney

Then there's 50 feet of shit

Then there's us.

Our development is rubbish, and it's never clearer to see than when we get a guy into the system from a good club like Geelong. Day 1 of Jeremy Laidler... he's been at Carlton for 5 minutes (and couldn't even get a game at Geelong) and he already looks like he knows how to play the game... and guys who've been in OUR system still look like Auskickers in comparison.

My kids won't see a Carlton premiership unless this club has a very bloody serious and very hard look at itself. Which, by definition, ISN'T a suburban financial planner by the name of Adrian Gleeson giving the football operations his annual once-over.

Carlton is run like a suburban club with a lot of money. Season 2012 was just another reminder of that.

Shit
Just when you thought the embarrassment of being a blues supporter may have been over for the year, this bunch of chokers finds a new way to make wonder why you bother

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Beating Essendon* who are now playing the worst football of any side in the competion again gave us an abberation Carlton would play finals football that reflects the storey of a disastrous 2012 we were promised a top four finsh and didn't make the top eight. The Man of Illussion has led us nowhere we must have a significant coach who is innovative courageous and inspiringly honest

Ruthlessness at the top is not always the answer. It worked once in a bygone era when the list was loaded with talent and times were different.
We are still struggling to get out of the mess that was left behind by the last ruthless President.

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Bawditawaba

Pretty much sums up Carlton, and not just this season...

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

I stand by what I said. How can kids develop to the gameplan and structure with a part time coach? What ever the 1st grade coach is structuring up and teaching, needs to be mimicked at the Ant's level. There is the foundation to your development. Kids coming up have to worry about doing one job, which they've already been doing and practising. Therefore they have confidence in it. Collingwood, Hawthorn and Geelong practice this, and imo they're the yardstick we need to be looking at.




Out of curiosity have you played footy? I spent all my time down back, so this is what I know.

You can't teach a defender to read the play like Harry Taylor or even Laidler. You can teach skills, and you can drill a side to be positionally responsible. What you can't teach is when to leave your man, help out your mate. Where to anticipate where the ball is going to enter. How to cut off your opponent effectively etc ...

In today's footy, what separates the good players from the great?

Their physical stature -- Buddy and Hawkins
Ability to read play, ie be a ball magnet -- Ablett, Murphy, Judd, Jobe etc
Be tough & be a ball magnet-- Selwood, Swan

All these guys have elements you just can't teach no matter how good your development staff are.


[/quote]

All I meant by the bell comparison is, Bell has an afl ready body, Meanwhile Bootsma and Buckley types are years off developing an AFL body. The game has changed from the 90's.

The better teams, Pies, Hawks, cats ... look at how much bigger than us, they are. Tight finals games are won in the trenches at the contested ball.

Essendon* had the right idea to get bigger. The problem was they needed to do this as a 3 to 4-year plan, draft bigger bodies while slowly bringing along their current list. You can't hit the gym and grow overnight without side-effects, as they are learning.

Another good example that modern AFL needs patience to build something, there aren't any quick fixes.

Hopefully if malthouse is the guy to take us up, he proves me wrong and takes this list into contention immediately. He would be the exception to the rule.

By all the Synbad, Moshe, BV etc way of thinking, our sole problem is ratts & the board. It may well be. If that's the case bring in MM with this list and we should be in contention from the first bounce in 2013. Hey?

Excellent post!

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i don't wanna spend my life explaining myself. Either you get it, or you don't- Frank Zappa

Yeah that is well summed up and impossible to argue with.

I'd add how detrimental it was to think we could have a part time Ants coach, and develop anyone to a structure or senior gameplan.

Whoever made that decision should get fired before Ratten.

Flogged by Port

Embarrassed by Gold Coast

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Cheats never prosper (except in the AFL)

Another ignorant generalisation. At least you're proving to be consistent I suppose.
Go back and read my posts.
Where have I blamed Ratts or Kernahan?
Or where have I stated I want Malthouse?

Go away, get informed and stop making foolish statements.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.