Sorry but that's about the most delusional thing I've read for some time.

As depressing as our club is and has been over the last few years are you seriously saying you'd swap their current position for ours?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Hope is everything for a supporter.

"They know we're coming" was an inspirational if not arrogant slogan of belief, and we believed it with certainty. Judd, Stevo, Fev, a new mobile giant ruck in Warnock, some other rising talent, and the about to explode number ones, we were convinced it was about to happen. Ratts was a dud but we were rising, we had hope. In 2011 we had hope, it must happen in 2012, oh well, but hope in 2013 with the new master coach. Reality struck by mid 2013. That sinking feeling. It's not going to happen. Not now, maybe never. Footscray 1954, Melbourne 1964, StKilda 1966. We are kidding ourselves if we think the window has closed, time for a rebuild, and another shot at a flag in 5 or 6 years? It might be 50 years. We had a glimmer of hope and we've blown it. For all the reasons above.

Their list shits all over ours
Daniher on his own has a more potential than our entire forward line
Ryder and BellChambera have it all over Warnock and Kruezer
We'll see who's delusional in late August

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

I think we are all struggling with an identity crisis. I grew up in an era where we bought the best players and had one of the best fortresses in the competition in Princes Park. It was a recipe for success that duly delivered.

We have struggled to adapt to changes in both. We haven't got our drafting or trading right and we held onto the dream of Princes Park for way too long while clubs like Collingwood went about making the MCG their own and the Hawks created the fortress that is Launceston. Meanwhile we built the anchor that was 'The Legends Stand' and we were forced into playing half our games in the hell hole that is Ethiad (thanks Collo).

I've got no doubt that Sticks, Swanny and successive Boards have wanted success, but we haven't gone about it in a ruthless and intelligent fashion. We're a business model that has failed and is continuing to fail.

That is not to say it can't be turned around, but we are going to need some serious vision. At this point I'd almost be up for us building a base in Ballarat, Bendigo or Hobart to play 8 or 9 games a year. Give us an advantage that most of the other top teams have which I think will become increasingly important going forward.

We need to build a smart, client focused organisation. I'm a senior exec in a financial services business, but the club wouldn't have a clue who I am or how to market to me and get me more involved. They do not know their clients. Yeah sure perhaps the onus is on me to put my foot forward, but I'm too busy to think about how I can make a difference. Paid people at the club are the ones who should be planning how to best engage with me (I have been a member for 23 years). They need to focus on building goodwill with me and not selling me $200 raffle tickets.

The club also needs to be more ruthless with its players. Betts is the first guy we've lost in ages, whereas Hawhorn lost guys like McPharlin and Kennedy and still became great. Surely we should recognise earlier when we've made mistakes with drafting and trade while players have currency. Throw $700k a year at an Ollie Wines rather than a Dale Thomas (I think Dale can be a great player for us, but we are at 3 o'clock, not 11 o'clock Mick). We simply have to play the kids this year. We have to find out sooner whether they have a seniors football brain, not wait for 3 years for some miracle a la Mitchell and McCarthy.

I love the Blues, but we've got to move into the modern age as an organisation. I know the on-field success won't always be there because its a bloody tough competition, but I want us to be first in line when Gold Coast and GWS have finished having their time in the sun, and significant changes need to happen now if that is going to come to fruition. Sell me a vision and I'll happily come along for the ride in trying to make us great again.

Good post Blueslife
I agree I don't think they know how to connect with their supporter base in general and particularly those who could actually help them in the areas they are particularly deficient
It would seem anyone with corporate financial business legal or corporate governance skills are seen as a threat to the existing ruling clique
Certainly my experience with the club bears this out
I know this sounds ridiculous but we really should think about backing someone from here with appropriate qualifications experience and skill set to challenge for a board seat
Surely there is someone with the requisite skills in here we can back to represent the views in here of the long suffering supporters

With you all the way Frank. Up until 5 years ago I lived and breathed Carlton, but now, I am still a member and go to a bit, but it doesn't hurt that much when we lose and the blind arrogant ignorant decision making of our board infuriates me.

The only bit I disagree with is you are too kind to our drafting. You can't get them all right, but when have we ever picked up a diamond in the rough in the ND? Where is our Andrew Swallow, or Dan Hanneberry. Why have most of our picks beyond #1 turned out to be average? What we need is for a fresh talented board to challenge at season' send, to get in, play the long game, make excellent appointments.

We are a long way away but I just want to see regular improvement from the top right through. Forget shopping for high priced recruits from other clubs, how about we recruit and develop our own. Look at Geelong. You wonder whether the board gets it at all. We are a dying club, failing to win young supporters. I am lucky, I have been at the MCG to see 8 flags. And in 2019 we will all be able to say we have lived through the longest flag drought in our history. I am confident we will get that record!

Seriously considering not renewing this season. There's nothing compelling about being a member.

The club feels a lot like the print media in today's world. They have little idea his to engage with their audience and prefer to stick with "tried and tested" models instead of embracing change and moving with the times.

The "We're Carlton....." attitude has an air of entitlement that just doesn't hold true any more. You're not going to get new fans simply by being. Membership numbers aren't going to grow when you offer nothing different than you did 5, 10 years ago.

What image does the Carlton Football Club invoke?

A boy's club that is exclusive, not inclusive, a domain for the well heeled and well connected. If it feels like that to someone like myself who loves the club then how does if feel to those who aren't as invested?

I can't think of anything that the Carlton Football Club has done in the last decade that other clubs would've wished they'd thought of first. Stagnant.

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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

i dunno about essendons future.. but they certainly have more faith in the club than we do.
we have lost the connection.. the conduite between club and supporters is not there .
the elite mentality means have not included us in their building they own the club and have a kind of 'mechitza' set up for the rest of us.
but they do want your money... and they dont understand why people wont sign up
actually we get called "lazy and apathetic".. on the times they come in here you often get the feel of people who are out of touch but are pretending they want to reach out to us.
They dont understand the issues of the modern competition .. drafting, development ,list management etc ... and nor do they understand the club itself and its supporter base as a living breathing being.
So if they dont understand the club how would they understand the competition they are bound to and must play and compete under.
They have no idea.
There is a very sick culture at this club.. something that wasnt what this clubs culture used to be.
Sticks and co.. congratulations for strangling the life and soul out of this club. What a fantastic job you have done. You will be forever etched in Carlton folklore as the people who drove this club into the ground.Lest we forget !!!
Im sure one day you wwill all be out of the way.. and im sure one day this club will find the right people to direct it forwards.. and it will go forwards no thanks to you lot... you will have made it difficult .. we will have a lot of catching up to do.
Will we ever be the King Kong of the competition again?I doubt it...but before we can find that out.. we need to get away from you lot and the competition pygmy you have created us into.
Yes i know you tried hard.. yes i know youre trying to fix it..... my advice os you should all @#$%&! off... move aside ... and let someone else have a crack
youre not gunna fix it!!!.. you dont understand the fundamental underlying problems of this club.. its because you dont understand the club.... you only understand what you understand...
thats not much....!!
Out of touch... no ideas... and yes we know.. youre gunna fix it!!!.. give it time...

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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.

Jeez, not to be a sad sack, but I think I support this forum more than CFC nowadays. Pretty sure I get more pleasure from here, anyway.

Also noticed that people at work don't talk footy anymore. Super coach, perhaps, but not footy.

Although my Essendon-supporting Facebook chums are pretty staunch still.

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"In better news for Blues fans, Jarrad Waite was not named on the club's injury list."

When the going gets tough...

Stay tough.

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THEY LIKE TO SEND UP!!!!!!!!

Until each team plays each other the same number of times, the AFL, as a fair dinkum competition, cannot be taken seriously.

He (Mr Swann) said the honour and pride associated with the club's traditional navy blue jumper was priceless.

Why hasn't someone come forward as president or put together a board challenge?
Anything in the constitution that makes that difficult?

Last week's crowd should give them an idea. Or will they simply write it off as the 'timeslot'?

two of the richest families and sticks...shored up nicely.

nobody wants a shit fight

we handed the club over to these people... you wont get it back

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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.

Has there ever been a clear and strong conduit between the supporter base and the carlton power structures?

I agree with you that its poor at the moment but I would add that the discontent is between supporters and players. That's why supporters join clubs in the first place. Most supporters don't even know who is on their board and what they are doing?

Have you been to a carlton AGM? Barely 100 members turn up.

There is bubble around the players which even insulates them from the supporters. I understand the security and privacy aspects of players, but it is dam hard to get a photo with the players and the children

And young members and children are the future members of the club.

I recall heading back to Princes park after the 87 grand final and having a few beers until 5 Or 6am. Almost all the players present, mixing with fans etc., it was like you just walked into a local pub.

We did the same thing after the 95 grand final and players were put onto a bus and vanished.

Times have changed.

If you want a more friendly conduit between the members and the club, then it starts with the players being able to interact with the fans, and not just at pre organized family days once a year, or training days during school holidays.

Although I must admit when Big Jack was at the club he was accessible to supporters if you wanted to speak to him and sticks is still like that to some extent.

What I see now are players leaving training to get to their cars always with head phones on or with their mobiles to their ears. Why?? An old trick used to avoid interacting with fans outside the ground, that may want an autograph or photo.....

Our image of the club and players is almost entirely generated via the media these days....

Its plastic,

Its inorganic and corporately contrived.

It's about profit now, and perceptions

Ask the Essendon* faithful, they still think Hird is coming back, nobody did anything wrong, and the players are victims and will not be issued infractions....

Imagine the shock when the truth hits the fan very soon?

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

not allowed to even get to training any more.

when is the last time u went to training?

the world is changing .... so each time u take a pillar of tradition away you mist replace it with something

so no princes park .... no training... no social club.....no player interaction

what measures has the club taken to introduce something in their place???

nada


one day these things wont have mattered because nobody would know that players oce signed autographs
that there was a drink after a game with supporters
that supporters could get in close with players...at training
that we and everybody else had a suburban ground

but today people feel that loss of connection
!
take it away.... put back something you idiots!!!

people wont keep giving u their money becausse they are carlton...and the players and club dont have a connect

another thing... the players dont have a connect with the club... they dont with the jumper.
there is no pride of greatness... or great resistance to failure.

i hear alot about investments gone bad though....

there is a serious problem when players are upset about their investments with their board partners but not in their performances for the club.

why are they here at this club???

id begin the cull and change of player culture with marc murphy this year... gibbs can go if he doesnt sign immediately also.
im not waiting on this lot anymore... too many bad habits for sport

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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.

A lot of sentiment in this thread i agree with particularly about the disconnect of supporters and the club etc.

I have bought my membership yet for this year. I probably will but it wont mean anything really.

Is a cultural change we need at the club or just simply a change of board and vision?

What elements of our club from our history are relevant in these modern times? Buying the best players from interstate isn't....

Cultural change is hard...really really hard. Melbourne is a good example of that and so too Richmond.

On the flip side.....

Sydney (Up until this year because i think they've killed themselves with the Buddy Deal) did it......

Hawthorn..

Geelong....

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Make Carlton Football Club your sponsored World Vision Child today

This thread is ripe for that clown from the board who was on here half a dozen times when he was trying to get elected and was big on supporter engagement and open lines of communication. Then disappeared. Moulton or Harrison?

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end

I concur with most of what has been said thus far; I'd like to relate a story about my diminishing passion for the Blues. This morning, my 7yo son climbed into the marital bed (and I copped a stray knee in the nether regions for the trouble!) and confidently proclaimed, "I'm not going for the Blues anymore!!! I'm with Port Power!" My first response was, "Fair enough- they do have a new and exciting list" I made a lame effort to persuade to stick with the Blues but as my partner said, CFC don't have any chutzpah- and she's right. I haven't bought a membership yet- still undecided.

I feel, as Synners say, why keep throwing good money after bad? To the same people who, on the outside looking in, clearly don't give a toss what the majority of fans thinks....

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Be positive to all those @ TC- the wait is almost over!

It's great after we get torched by Port, the club thinks it's a great idea to ask on twitter and facebook who our best performer was.

What was even better, a few days later they offer everyone a cigar box and mug for $40.00.

The icing however, was them telling us on facebook, how they could make our grand final day special. With a luncheon or some such rubbish (not sure what it was, I 've since stopped following them, they are that unbearable).

Here's a clue Carlton PR people. After we lose, stay silent. Don't offer shit things for $40 when loyal members should have been given it as a gift ... and if you really want to make my grand final special, get in the the freaking thing and play hard.

The club is about making money. Like someone said (Synners) they hire Malthouse and fool the 25% of supporters into thinking they're doing something bold and brash.

Then they surround Malthouse with bargain bin items like Barker, Capuano, etc etc ... Don't even get me started on recruiting & developing staff. If I'd failed miserable year after year in my job like they have, I'd have been fired, tarred and feathered and never allowed to work in that industry again.

While there are 13 self serving fat cats on our board nothing will ever change. While they are more obsessed with business and money making than football and winning, and while the culture of mediocrity is fed and watered by all of the above, we will be where we have ever since the salary cap was invented.

I'm past depressed about CFC. That was all during the Brittain and Ratten years. Now I'm angry. Usually what follows anger, is acceptance and then finally moving on and away from the toxic relationship we're in.

Sounds like we're all at different stages in our grief cycle with CFC, but one thing we have in common is, there is all tunnel in front of us. No light.