Not sure exactly where to post this but interesting Herald/Sun article
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 20675802b7
where Andrew Russell comments about our blown chance in 2023

"... shocked that a self-satisfied playing group did not fight hard enough in the second half of the loss to Brisbane ...."
"... These guys learnt how to lose ..."

Scary shit which is apparent as we finish off 2025

There's also a bit of a dig there at the board and coterie groups

“I walked into Carlton and it was a different environment. Completely different. The club looked like it was being well run and they had their finances in order. But you walk into a club with high talent that is losing and that had an impact on them. These guys learnt how to lose."

"I don’t understand that culture. You lose a lot, you get used to losing, you feel comfortable with losing. And that’s how the mind works. You become very comfortable in that space and it’s almost like you expect it. My first day was a Saturday morning training session and six or seven players rocked up late. Is this the starting point?”

He is not just a strength coach, he is a mind coach, he is an agitator when needed and a figure who thrives when he has his fingers in every pie that affects a player’s performance.

Recovery, performance, psychology, diet, attitude.

He told Sacked that as the injuries mounted up his influence waned until it was time for him to move on.

For the first time in his final season he did not have autonomy to fulfil his program across the entire club.

If players were injured they went into a rehab group which he did not control.

The (2021) review didn’t do good things for lots of people at the football club. Lots of people went to ‘self’ after that review. Self preservation. So any time we were challenged people went to self from that point of time.

“In the end the responsibility was diffused across many different voices. I did an internal review on everything we were doing (with the injury concerns).

“I was robust on myself, I was robust on everything. I tapped into everything. So I would challenge people around what, ‘What are we doing with recruiting? What are we doing with how we are playing? This is what I am seeing’. And some people didn’t like that.

“The program had the least amount of ‘me’ in it than ever in the last year. You are told to stay in your lane.

Adam Cerra’s repeat hamstring concerns were an outrider given he had done a mostly full pre-season.

The club limped into September with six changes in the elimination final against Brisbane as the Blues rolled the dice by playing Tom De Koning as the sub off a fractured foot and Sam Docherty off an early-season ACL tear.

“Even with all those challenges, I still believe we could win it last year. But too many guys had missed out on too much connection and lack of belief. The issue with (Docherty) was a performance issue. Could he do what he needed to under the bright lights? It was a risk but the player was very robust. He is an extraordinary character and with his ability to perform in the past, we went back and said could he perform?

“Physically we knew he was in great shape. We were happier for him to do the job than someone else, otherwise we don’t play him. We were all on board together. Everyone was on the same page. We outlined the risk and reward four months earlier and basically we just kept ticking those boxes. That’s what we do.”

Similar here.
I usually only know who's won games by Daniel Gorringe's updates.

Round 19 Carlton v Melbourne respect round
Players hear stories about death due to domestic violence
And yet the club continues to receive revenue from poker machines
And what is one of the leading causes of domestic violence
You guessed it
Problem gambling

Yup gambling needs to be restrained, not promoted, it continues to destroy our social fabric.
It’s an insatiable monster.
Obviously revenue is very attractive, so business will exploit it to the maximum, it’s a dire situation once it gets hold of a family.

The Blues have had to deal with a myriad of issues this season, including only seven wins so far ahead of this week’s clash with Fremantle as well as mounting pressure on coach Michael Voss, an injury crisis which affected the club, and some rumblings of player discontent.

Carlton’s season from hell has been further compounded with spearhead Charlie Curnow set to undergo more knee surgery which will bring a premature end to his 2025 campaign.

It’s a bitter blow for the Blues who had been keen to finish off another frustrating season.... Curnow, 28, will have “a necessary clean-up” of his knee after experiencing ...

IF ...
incoming CEO Graham Wright is just beginning to fire up the blowtorch he is about to unleash on this embattled club ...

THEN ...
while the coaches and footy department staff may cop the initial burst of flame, the players deserve most of it. For an unknown reason, complacency and even entitlement has descended on this playing group, and it is the area most in need of the nasty heat.

I've been forecasting that the media will eventually turn its attention from the Sack Voss headline, blaming his game plan for a dismal season to what they have failed to report since round 1, as the biggest reason for another disrupted season, injury.



This is just the start.

Now they call it for what it has been since we started the season in round 1 with 13 out injured, "a crisis".

Now we are hearing that Curnow has been playing on one leg all season, yet hasn't been on the injured list, nor managed, when he should have been.



https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/knee-surgery-to-end-charlie-curnows-2025-season/news-story/2f7030829e47968408bc8828230910fc

This week we go into the game with 14 missing. Good luck Vossy. I hope the kids can apply execute the game plan.

I hope some posters can see that injury has been an obvious problem for us like it was last year, if not worse this year.

I also think there's a problem with the fitness and strength of our players this year, more than Andrew Russell days.
So much for Stength and Power condidtioning we were all conditioned to believe.