Did con itself BV.

Only because it didnt do things right.. and other clubs went past in a hurry.

Its how it is when you WASTE years of development and leave behind list debris

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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.

After 3 games in.

Yeah, Malthouse hasn't made the finals at Carlton. Useless prick

One more loss and its our worst start in 24 years.

Look we all used to laugh at Collingwood .. and tell their resident supporter at TC they were duds and how great we were.
In the meantime Ratts and Carlton won 1 eliminational final with all its glory.. and they won a flag made gfs and probaby in the last 4 more often than not.

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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.

I have to agree. Ratts had favourites that wouldn't be dropped in a pink fit, and other players who should've gotten games but didn't. Was very hesitant to give kids a game unless absolutely necessary, which is not great for building depth in the list.

They've only won 2 flags in 50 years though.

Yes but one in the last 3

We have won one in the last 18

Prelims?

Of course you cannot win a flag if you dont win a prelim.....

The last decade gives them a record we can only dream of

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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.

Rubbish

Patching over deficiencies conning ones-self , is NOT ridiculous, its a typical human trait, happens in every aspect of life, study, work, relationships, EVEN FOOTY. its doing that which is tension relieving rather than goal achieving, its what separates mediocrity from superiority. To suggest otherwise is whats ridiculous

The employee who lazily relies on a single or several natural talents rather than make structural changes necessary to improve qualifications and habits, is eventually outperformed by the one who takes genuine action to improve skills (often initially taking several steps back to gain countless ground forward ). The student who's results are always around the mark (top 8 so to speak) but never achieves 1st ranking because he isn't prepared make the structural changes to his/her lifestyle cons himself, even the cheating spouse who beds his/her lover, returns to his/her partner, performs at the margins but can never seem to get it totally together. No different to the footy club who cons itself , unwilling to make structural changes for fear of temporary discomfort, remains around the (8) mark but never more.

Wonder how handy Leon Davis would have been this year.

In all three games so far, reckon we've been a defender short/forced to play someone as there was no-one else available, usually with poor disposal in Davies and Joseph.

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

WTF are you on about?

Every club patches over their deficiencies. The draft, salary cap, priority picks, compensation picks, compromised drafts, they all restrict the ability of clubs to manufacture the perfect list.
Good coaches then assess those deficiencies and implement a program/style of play to minimise their deficiencies and cater to their strengths.
Every AFL club does it.

But to suggest we conned our way into 3 consecutive finals series is ridiculous. Perhaps in the opinion of some we underachieved but thats a different supposition all together.
The game is too hard to play at the elite level for the opposition to let you "con" your way to 5th on the ladder.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

temper temper..

Mate, I'm not saying we did everything right.
Theres plenty of areas I had strong concerns about. Yes we had development issues, yes we could have drafted a better balanced list but every club is guilty of that.

However, on the whole we are still in the frame for success IMO. We played competitively in finals with a relatively young and experienced list. Have a look at the teams who are older and more experienced than us now. apart from St Kilda, they're all contenders.
Their age profile is perfect for achieving success and ours is almost there as well.

Yet everyone wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
We're spending too much time reinventing the same wheel which is costing us wins.

Marcus Davies is a depth player at best. You know it and I do.
Aaron Joseph wont take us forward.
Brock McLean struggles to make an impact when he's the sub.
These things were all confirmed to us last year yet we're going over the same mistakes because Mick wants to find out for himself. well guess what? The outcome is exactly the same.

We have a strong list. Yes it has deficiencies but so does everyone else.
The key for us is to build on our strengths, learn from past mistakes and hopefully MM can improve our output. Suggestions we require a rebuild dont have any credible proof IMO.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Someone decided to give those two year contracts. I wonder who?

to use a phrase your well familiar with.....WTF are you on about

I wonder also

Its all there in brilliant clarity.

IMO, our main deficiency is that some of our highly rated players are unable to perform at a high level consistently during a game and over the season in general.

Should they be at a more consistent level of output by now ?
I think they should.

Are they capable of improving their consistency of high level output over the coming months and years ?
That's a question Mick has to answer and act on at seasons end.

I'm not inclined to rate finishing around 5th -8th as an 'achievement'. It's better than missing the top 8 but top 4/flag is what we should be about, nothing less.

Yep, I agree. Foolish decisions.
As I said, plenty of mistakes were made.
I just dont see the reason for repeating them over again.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Give me some examples Rexy.
IMO, every other team has similar issues.
Look at Geelong for example. They are far more experienced than us but they had periods where we scored multiple goals and controlled momentum throughout the match. The same with the Collingwood game and the same with Richmond.
No one can maintain momentum through a 4 quarter game anymore.

The reality is we were in all of those games up to our necks and if not for our willingness to maintain possession at crucial times, we could have won the games. That unwillingness comes from a philosophy of going down the line to a contest instead of hitting up a short option and controlling the play.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Plenty of musical chairs happening on field: Gibbs, Yarran, Walker, Rowe, Laidler, Garlett all playing entirey different positions at times than what they're accustomed too.

Almost certainly have different set ups with kick ins, stoppages, centre clearances, forward set ups, defensives zones and even general field play. Must be hard to tweak yourself to ignore 5 years worth of different instructions under the pressures of AFL.

Give it 10 more games. If by then we are still seeing this lack of stability and the same strugglers leaking goals, then I'll worry. Until then, I've seen enough subtle shifts in direction to tell me it's not all doom and gloom.