As a proud Carlton member and supporter I take great interest in reading our Forums.

My positive outlook moves up and down like a yo yo depending on what I hear , read and or see.

Over my years Carlton has given me more good times than bad, and I plan on hanging in there for the long haul.

The way I must look at things now is we have a fairly average team, whose deficiencies are magnified through lack of confidence.

The reasons for the Blackwells, the Russells, the Hartetts etc not playing yet is the club believes the latter part of this year will allow them enough time too find their feet and get a small taste of senior football as we move forward next year.

From the Wizard cup how much has injuries too Thornton early on, Livingston, and Chambers really dented us, a fragile confidence shot after soooo much promise.

I was at the Wizard Cup, and no matter what, a good brand of football still needed too be played to beat Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, and West Coast.

I take Richmond has a player transformation over us summer model for us. And look what we can take out of it.

They were up and rolling, yet at the start of last nights game look at the gaps in the crowd, massive. Look at our crowds versus Hawthorn etc on Friday nights.

Take away a Nathan Brown for the season and watch the slide.

At the end of last season they had a priority pick, and first round pick.

Ottens who had done little for them was so sought after by a Geelong who had surplus players, that they picked up their first round pick, and Melbourne's who got Moloney.

Then add in - Simmonds who had more currency than Fiora who went too Richmond as Black went too Fremantle, Knobel (PSD), who was snatched after a dodgy allowance and severence off Zantucks contract, and and Graham from Hawthorn and wham..... A massive change.

It frustrates me that I hear reports of players who have chips on both shoulders, and training at times is a farce, but I don't know, I can't get there too watch. However, today I get to see the Bullants on TV and see where our young guys are at.

Summer can really turn our fortunes around. Massive contracts are finished.

We have a potentially potent forward line - Fevola, Waite, Fisher, Lappin, Betts, Whitnall, Morrell.

Our backline can be transformed - Livingston, Thornton, Teague, Carrazzo, Hartlett plus ..... Norman??

Our midfield which is really our achillies can be fixed and or modified for the better.

Stevens, Houlihan, Walker, Simpson, Bentick, Chambers, Koutoufides, Scotland, Blackwell, Johnson, Davies, Camporeale.

Our ruck options - French, De Luca, Bryan

Remove from list potentially (rightly or wrongly)

Bowyer, Clarke, Sporn, Wiggins, Longmuir, Prendergast, Bannister, McGrath.

We have room too add 1 -3 current players, and draft up to 5 new players if we want.

I will stay positive.

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Supporting the Blues No Matter What

I agree Barnesy that Richmond (and also Hawthorn) are good examples of how quickly sides can turn around if the club can recruit wisely. Let's hope our recruitment guys do a good job this year. I don't know about getting rid of Longmuir. He's shown that he has a great overhead mark, but needs a bit more time to get his kicking right and fine tune his game.

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You can just smell that fresh Carlton arrogance coming back into the air

I tend to agree, and believe we are really only one Draft from being finals football contenders, from there on anything can happen. Its about looking forward not back.

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I know a little secret. And i'm not sharing.

MESSAGE TO CARLTON RECRUITERS: FIND TOUGH HARD PLAYERS WHO CAN BREAK PACKS, AND GO IN HARD.

I'm sick of our blokes being too soft towards opposition players when going for the ball or legitimately having the opportunity to hip and shoulder an opposition player!!!

Longmuir is irrelevant once Fisher is back. Along with Waite they're very similar players.

Also Justin has re-signed with Freo now.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

It will be seen at the end of round 22 whether they have turned it round. In my experience, teams which have been "invigorated" by new talent like they have jump out of the blocks, but the length of the footy season takes it's toll and the young bodies can't take the punishment over that length of time, and they inevitably fall down the ladder sharply as the season goes on.

I'm still confident that we'll end up higher on the ladder than both those teams, and be playing much better footy at the end of the season once our game clicks into place.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.