If this list finishes with 4 wins only I would be disgusted. Surely anyone with any sort of smarts knows this list is alot better than that. Bloody useless coach!

This is what was said last year, but it isn't happening!

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1945 - End of round 3 Carlton was last.

Last round Carlton made the final four for the first time.

Eventual premiers.

That's what I'm talking about!

Another decade of priority picks and we'll be unstoppable!

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

There we go... 5 posts from the start of the thread. Has to be a Pagan bashing comment somewhere.

I'm surprised it didn't come earlier.

Simply we would be better with a younger smarter better people skills coach than Pagan. So we had another honourable loss yesterday. Yep but when the game needed to be won we [REDACTED] it up again.

The Crows forwards led up and allowed Welsh space to move . Why didnt Denis instruct Ackland to drop back into the hole. Every week we see it. Time and time again. Face it the coaching staff are ordinary and the buck stops with Pagan.

Whitnall bashing . Yep I think many of us are sick of Sailor man but yesterdays effort was typical and too frequent. We were too top heavy up forward. In the end the Crows were able to run it out of defence too easily. Whitnall should be let go at the end of the year and Hartlett or kennedy should be given more time up forward.

Make Murphy captain next year. Just do it. Yep honourable losses are better than getting thrashed but all this talk about priority picks shits me. Heaps of high draftees have been ordinary or average whilst players taken around 30 or higher have exceeded expectations. Kennedy is a prime example. He may turn out similar to a player of Earl Spaldings calibre but no better and he was pick 4. Tambling is another who wont reach the dizzy heights of super stardom.

I am more interested in the development of the team and it isnt happening overall. last year we had 8 losses by 20 points or less. This is the year that we should be seeing some improvement and it is not happening IMO. We are attacking more which is good but some players havent improved. Our oldest player was along with Waite the main reason we got back into the game. I have done a fair share of Kouta bashing so credit where credits due he silenced a few critics but only briefly. He wont be there much longer.
So unlike others who are optomistic I am disappointed with how the team has gone so far this year.
In my view we havent improved overall rather we have stagnated.

IMO a new coach and captain would be a benefit.

There we go... 5 posts from the start of the thread. Has to be a Pagan bashing comment somewhere.

I'm surprised it didn't come earlier.



The problem with me is my supreme optimism... not only in football in general - so thinking like this (and I'd say a lot of Carlton supporter would, due to our strong history) you are setting yourself up for a fall.

I was at the match yesterday, and you know what? The first quarter came to a close, we we playing very good football IMO - Pagan's moves (which eerily enough I predicted before the game) - chucking Waite up forward, Murphy on the wing etc were paying off.

I turned to No1.Blue and said to him - 'Geez, if we play 4 quarters like this, nobody on Talking Carlton will have anything to whinge about!'

There is still definite improvement since last year, we have the capacity to play 10 mins of amazing football this year that we didn't have last year, and the continuing development of Carrazzo, Fisher and Simpson along with the emergence of blokes like Gibbs, Blackwell (and even glimpses from Kennedy & Harlett yesterday) makes us an exciting side to watch. Whilst the cringe factor is still there, at least you can see we are moving upwards (especially when you think we don't have Nick Stevens). And don't forget the MESSIAH

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Cheerio to my friends KN, BC, TT, GP, DK, AE, MS, SC, TC, JL, MO & LF

Improvement is occurring even though we might win 4 or so games this year.

But the improvement wont be seen as winning a reasonable proportion of our games until next season.

Actually, I look at the external circumstances which I believe will be in the world at the time of Carlton's emergence from more than 6 years at the bottom part of the ladder.

Watch The Iran/Iraq situation carefully.

This has little to do with our fortunes other than being what is in the world at the time - but I believe that Carlton comes good during a time of war.

A major war could occur in the middle East, or specifically, Iraq / Iran (Persia) at any time, especially if Iran gets hold of a nuclear weapon and/ or Iraq collapses into irreconcilable ethnic fragments.

Right now, the US is positioned in a way in which it would be possible to wage war on Iran from the Strait of Hormuz at a time of their choosing.

Israel, would also like to attack Iran. They would be happy to bomb them.

It is also a possiblity that the US and/or Isael might choose to attack this year - This would cause a very frightening war - which unfortunately, would also be a major strategic error that leads to wider and even wider conflict later on.

Such a conflict would definately be of the size and a conflict which touches everyone (by way of incredibly high fuel prices) that I saw in the world at the time when Carlton re emerged as a football power.

Carlton re emerges at a time when everyone is affected by a very bad war. (not that I have ever heard of a good war at all)

When Carlton comes good, that particular season is unusual, because there is only a game or two and percentage separating the top to the bottom four.

We start to win games with a very attacking game of football. We have a strong midfield and also score by attacking from defence - this is actually a significant feature of our game at that time.

However for every glorious victory, there is a defeat. We came good and show flashes of brilliance one week, but lose the next...

However, this is also true for many clubs at this time.

It will be a very even season indeed.

Carlton wins 11 or maybe 12 matches and we scrape into the final eight.

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My Blue Heaven

wtf....

so anyway back to the footy....

There is no doubt that there has been some improvement. Facts are we don't have the depth yet to cover the losses of Stevens and Cloke. Our ruck division is weak, our mids lack finishing touches and depth. Call it inexperience and underdevelopment. Both of which will be fixed with time. Change of coach (to a more strategic modern thinker), add a few mids and time to our youngsters and we are on our way boys and girls. That's a promise.

The keys for us are the development of Hampo and Sake. Without a good ruckman you can't be a top 4 team. Second key is a strong KP backmen to support Setanta. If Hartlett or Austin can fill that role, we are on our way to great things. The mids will come (Stevens back and development of Grigg, Beji, etc.)