You sure about that?? Bolts' (roughly 7 yr old) son is playing footy with Clarkos' (roughly 11 yr old) son?? Impressive...

Was shocked to read last week that we had the lowest footy department spending in the entire league this year. Even lower than Gold Coast and Brisbane. Hard to develop players and keep them fit if you don't have the quality or resources.

positive. the kids play at the same club where a mate's kids are. he often sees them at the club together with a coffee talking.

this is mindblowing. you get what you pay for, huh? typical. when you get business people in charge they tend to run things like a business.


at a time when they should be pushing all their money into off field departments ... instead they're what? trying to run up a profit while cruise through the worst season in history?

All the more reason why Bolton should get some more time. Clarko may be an arse but he’s unfortunately a @#$%&! coaching genius. Much worse guys Bolton can be doing coffee with.

OK - I'll pay out post the Prelim Final.

What a surprise that someone who thinks we should just sack all the management, is offering even money on an 18-1 bet!

This year is a total disaster Duke and the only thing that I am trying to consider is maybe there is a hidden agenda or something to that ilk. That's how bad things look.
If things don’t change dramatically next year then we don’t have much to hang out hats on.

the more i really think about our mess and the league as a whole, the less convinced i am that there are any true coaching geniuses out there. all the coaches are following well worn tactical and strategic paths. no coach in the afl is reinventing anything right now.

rather than coaching geniuses making a club successful. it's the coming together of all footy departments within a club. development of players and culture, scouting, drafting, recruiting and medical.

hawthorn really did develop their squad list & culture into a beast, much the same way matthews did with the lions. they identified how they wanted to play, and got players to meet that criteria, but it wasn't so much for anything clarkson built or achieved on the paddock.

right now hawthorn aren't anything special list-wise, and clarkson isn't elevating them into something that's going to win a finals game.

No worries - if you want 'bookie' odds, hand your $100 over now and I'll pay out in 4-6 years should we make the Prelim .

Essendon** have 20,000 more members than Carlton - is this partly to do (go onto their website and there is no promotion of female football on the front page)

The club needs a complete overhaul, review - external review. Not just coaching- but marketing.

I rarely go on the Carlton website, but when I do I want a professional presentation that says - we are up there with the big international clubs of other sports, smart, sophisticated.


I went onto the website and saw a picture of a female footballer (no idea who she is) on one side and Cripps on the other side as the central marketing pictures for the club. If you go onto any US sports website you don't see pictures of female footballers, basketballers, baseballers. I get the idea of having women's football. It is great more women are playing it. 100% supportive...but is there a limit to the marketing potential of women's footy?



Essendon** have 20,000 more members than Carlton - is this partly to do (go onto their website and there is no promotion of female football on the front page) with them being a bit more ballsy with their promotion of their players? There are articles on their page on Zaharkhis, retro article on Johnson brothers etc, other features on players....Carlton doesn't have this.




I get that we live in a time when women's football is considered as important as men's football....but surely building up the brand of the men's team is more important now than ever before- where is the picture or feature article on Murphy?
What about an article on Curnow's greatest marks? Your value as a club is based on building up a brand on the players. Collingwood does that with that blonde bloke - DeGoey etc...brand building through player allegiance.


perhaps there are even other footballers? Fisher? Curnow? etc...or are they less important? only equally important? as the female team? Within 2-3 years time perhaps they will get bigger crowds to Carlton's womens football than mens- so maybe they are planning for the future? Not sure of what they are doing marketing wise here, but good luck to them I guess.

Just to reiterate- 100% supportive of female footy-just not surely of the marketing principles. That is all. Just saying. Apologies to all the offence I have caused in advance by not giving female footy equal attention to male football.

Spot on.

despite what you might think of me and where i get my info from ... i read every single one of your posts directed at me, and see alotta worth in many things you say.

i don't always agree with you, but that's what makes forum boards like this so interesting to be a part of. hearing different perspectives and going away and thinking about them.


the way i see it, we can all disagree as much as we want... but don't take any of my nonsense personally or become enemies over anything in here. we have a common interest - winning footy games. and a common love - this damned club.


and a common hate – Essendon**.


that's all we need in life

That's because Essendon** don't have an AFLW team and don't even plan on having one. Poor example.

That's because Essendon** don't have an AFLW team and don't even plan on having one. Poor example.