Love your stuff, Bondi.

Can you send me some?

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Tenth to twelth. Young guys to improve but surely Simmo can't have another blinder.
Honest, accountable, team football peppered with respect for team mates.
CJ to either find his feet with the other gws boys or disappear. Charlie to excite us.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, beat Essendon* at least once. Home or away. I don't care but please let us find the hardness and determination to beat them once. Just can't stomach losing to them twice in a season.

Jacob to grow in stature. Back line to settle. Forwards to start to hell and a few more "sprouts " to appear.

Hope Barker really excels in what could well be his final year with us.

Good luck to the boys for this season and happy barracking to the Carlton family

6-8 wins max ... with no losses to the Brisbane Lions please

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In WADA we trust

8-10 wins
Backline settled
Some progress in forward structure
Sprouts - McKay, CC, Pickett, No.5, No.25,
Growth - Marchbank, SOJ, Weiters, Cunningham, Plowman, Sumner
A-Grade: Murphy, Gibbs, Cripps, Docherty, Weitering
Cripps Brownlow

playing hard at it & consistent footy.

... anything less than 10 wins would have to be a disappointment.

If all that happens then I expect 10-12 wins.

We could t 13-15 wins if...

Charlil exceeds expectations. Because he's already shown us he can stand up in this caper.
Ditto Cuningham and SOJ.

Rowe to displace Casboult as the 2nd ruck.
If that happens, then only 1 ruck Philips or Kreuzer.
We would be more mobile, but I doubt Bolton will go that way.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Those who think we can win 10-15 games next year with what was the second worst forward line in the comp last year? Yep some really good second year forwards in Silvagni and Curnow a couple of journey men in Wright and Palmer. Liam Sumner who kicked the amazing total of 8 goals and Levi Casboult who averages 1 goal a game. How does this equate to being finals contenders??
Personally think we will have 5-7 wins but hope Curnow, Silvagni, Cunningham and pick 5 can really start impacting games added to Weitering natural improvement!

We all know the player additions to date. Further back line cohesion; mid field improvement; will give the improved 2nd year forwards and journey men the greater opportunities needed to kick winning scores. 7 - 11 barring injuries. IMHO.

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"Get ready, Teddy - you're on": Ron Barassi half time 1970 Grand Final

alot of the bottom teams get some good players back ,this is why i am concerned that our young,rebuilding team might finish in the bottom 3( hope i am wrong)

Lets not kid ourselves... when people are selecting pick 5 in their best 22 you just know we're in trouble.

At this point we are a bottom 4 team and the scary part is that all those teams that finished below us have more upshot than we do, imo.

We live in hope, more so that any other club... Hope to find a functional fwd line, hope for no key injuries, hope for significant improvements from our kids, hope that our senior players (that supposedly love the club) aren't distracted with house hunting in other states, hope that another coach doesn't 'lose the players', etc.

As much as some people around here love them, I just don't want the spoon... I want to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel regardless of how many we win.

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

Hoping for overall improvement with some semblance of a forward line. SOS is building from the back which seems a sound, if not somewhat outmoded, strategy. 8-10 wins with no huge blowout losses the best we can realistically achieve.

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Audere est Facere

Cripps missing the preseason at least will have an effect.

Just feels impossible to get everyone on the park at the same time for an extended period.

MAKE CARLTON GREAT AGAIN!

and being a stress rection in his back, means it could already have fractures. he'll be cotton-woolled and i wouldn't be surprise if cripps has the kind of season harry mckay had last year.

started with lost fitness base after long lay off, then tried to fast track everything and never got out of 2nd gear thanks to the interruptions.


cripps is the one injury on our list which screams "if he's not right, lets not risk him, yay for tanking! oh hello number 1 pick, 2018"...

McKay injured his back in March or April though, not November. Sure it will impact Cripps'
2017 season, but not like it did to McKay this year.

After the trade and draft periods, nothing less than top four will suffice.
As for Carlton....
Somewhere around 12th would be a good result, especially if Cripps is out.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

We'll end up 12th to 14 th pending on injuries and the usual variables.
Our team is taking shape and its exhilarating to be part of the rebirth development, strong foundations have been put into place another list clean up and couple more good trading & drafts and we'll be ready to go.

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Go Blue Boys

I am throwing out some of my old footy newspapers etc...and came across the season's prediction for season 1999.

Only 2 of the 12 football "experts" from The Age predicted Carlton would make the top 8. The two that got it right - Rohan Connolly and Greg Baum - predicted Carlton would come 8th...just squeezing into the top 8.

Of course all these commentators would be massively wrong, as the Blues charged to the grand final after coming 6th.

They changed the finals system as a result of Carlton doing too well in 1999, yet they will keep the finals system this year with what seems to be a 25-30 day wait between games for the winners of the qualifying finals. It would be hilarious if Carlton spoiled the AFL's party again by squeezing into the finals.

My expectations - a strong, committed team that fight out every game. If they do that I will be happy.

I made a lot of money against sour Carlton supporters in 1999.

The fact we have got on board Silvagni can be read as insurance to be comprtitive incase the plethora of kids aren't ready to get us over the line.

At this early stage my expectation is for Carlton to finish between 7th and 10th in 2017.
Any higher and I wont be surprised. The list looks healthy.
Plenty of up and coming players replacing the dead wood.
2015 draftees to shine: Weitering McKay Curnow Cuningham Silvagni
2015-16 trades to strut their stuff: Plowman Marchbank Philips Pickett Smedts Sumner Lamb Kerridge
2016 Drafts to make their mark: Petrovski-Seton, Fisher, Macreadie

Led by Murphy Simpson Cripps Gibbs Docherty Kreuzer....

8th

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Bugger the silver I'm going for gold.

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

Winston Churchill