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We at the Buzz are pleased to see that the Comeback Guide has created a bit of talk, a bit of mirth and a good deal of argument across a range of mediums, including Carlton sites, emails to the Club and general footy sites. The highlight for us was ol’ SurreyBlue taking up the challenge in BigFooty, raising the ire of St Kilda fans the world over.
Much of the talk has been centred on whether this sort of article should be allowed on a club website. We at the Buzz believe, rightly or wrongly, that such articles should be on the site to provide a bit of light entertainment in the face of ongoing attacks against the Club that we hold dear, which incidentally is the Club of each of you (most of you in any case). Further, a lot of these gibes are ridiculously poor in structure and fact. Take the commonly repeated line about the poor state of our young list. You can argue comparatives with other Clubs all you like, but the simple fact is that we have 4 exceptional draftees in 2005 in addition to 4 exceptional young draftees from the year before, even before we get to the Irish Experiment. The Club has finally seen the light and top talent is coming in, and will be given opportunities in 2006. These sorts of woeful lines espoused by opposition fans must be fought on fact and they must be held to task. The Blues are young and keen.
Put simply, we are sick to death of ceding defeat in footy banter. You are probably all as shocked as we are about our past 4 years of pain, although we would agree that the signs were there as far back as 1995. But this defeatism against our fellow footy fans has to stop. Carlton, as a football club, is arguably the most successful AFL club in the history of the game. We are unarguably one of the best two or three, with a Premiership record second to none. These are facts. Your club has a proud history that you must embrace. Consider the rotton histories of some Clubs, as indicated in the article, and accept that you – much like Collingwood and Essendon* fans – have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of great history to back you up in any footy argument. You are permitted to argue back on any wooden-spoon comment with a rendition of our history. You are permitted to talk about our future, as does any Club with a young list and a #1 draft pick. You are permitted to take up the case of your Club, in fact, we implore you to.
The comforting part of all this is that fans of opposition clubs are now realising that the events of 2002-2003 didn’t kill us. Think about it – what Clubs could have survived the mass exodus of players, huge salary cap penalties and the financial mess that the Club put itself in. It hasn’t killed us. Thankfully, it has made us stronger. We have finally learned the lessons of embracing the draft and have done so for two years now. And now, with our finances recovering (albeit slowly), and a younger list, the Club is coming back. Opposition fans know this, and know that their time in the sun for endless wooden spoon gags is coming to an end. That in a few years time talk of cap breaches and brown paper bags will be consigned to the dustbin of history. That some time, in the next few years, you will be back in the finals and the Blues will have recovered from the period of time where we had our heads stuck in the sand.
Until then it is up to you and all of your Carlton fan friends to uphold the name of the Club. It is up to you to fight back to the ridiculous and weak gibes of perennial cellar dweller clubs, and show the pluck that our history deserves. Show the spunk that won us 16 premierships. Bite back when you can. Who knows, perhaps 2006 the boys will show some more pluck, perhaps each opposition goal will be met with some bone jarring tackling in response as the young Blues come of age and take the fight to the opposition.
With this in mind, we prepared the Comeback Guide. In the minds of the Buzz, the Carlton website is a source of information for Carlton fans the world over. We acknowledge that some of you are embarrassed by articles such as these, but our intention was to make all fans see that you can fight back and take up the task of restoring the Carlton name. It will not happen on its own, it will not happen without you standing on the shores alongside the Mighty Blues and fighting back.
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