Mosquito Fleet wrote:
There are 4 things that have killed or is killing Carlton:
1 THE DRAFT
2. THE SALARY CAP
3. THE LOSS OF HOME GROUND
4. CONSTITUTION
Points 1 is directed to our poor recruitment, development and list management
Point 2 is directed to our poor Executive, administration and Board. We cannot buy Premierships any more.
Point 3 has two (2) Parts:
Part 1 - Loss of connection of the Membership with the Board and Administration - the Board and Administration are not properly advised or informed by its Members
Part 2 - Football home ground advantages where teams like Geelong now benefit
Point 4 - the Constitution provides for 13 Directors. Too large.
I hope you aren't suggesting that carlton cannot be successful when a even playing ground is in place by the AFL? Points 1 and 2 apply to all clubs (except of course for teams such as sydney which have been given almost 1 million dollars extra in the salary cap due to cost of living - a joke)
The loss of Princes Park as a home ground (point 3) was unfortunate and there is no doubt that the AFL used our weakness after the 2002/3 sanctions to purchase home game arrangement at Princes park which extended out to 2037. The AFL wanted another big club at Etihad. We negotiated a split between Etihad and the MCG with Collo at the helm. But the club isn't just the ground we play on.
Point 4 on the constitution is an interesting one. Not many know that in the late 1990s the Elliot board snuck through an amendment to the carlton constitution where the maximum number of board directors was increased to 20. This was to accommodate e north melbourne directors. There was a serious proposal for a merger between the kangaroos and the blues. Almost got up, with the blues owning almost 1/4 of the shares in the kangaroos.
If the blues were to move its home games away from princes park, then the MCG was the place to go.
The state of the club is the culmination of all the people involved and that includes we supporters.
What you have seen over the past decade or more is not due to anything external to the club.
We all [REDACTED] the club
It will take all of us to lift it up again.