If it wasn't clear to everyone before it should be clear to everyone now that we aren't going to be shooting up the ladder this year to challange for a final eight position, despite the high upside that our team possesses as the season wears on with Judd, Stevens, Cloke, Setanta and Hadley gradually regaining their matchfitness which was clearly lacking against the Tigers on Thursday.

Now I'm not calling for tanking or any of that stupid nonsense that abounded on these boards last year. What I'm calling for is for the club to make a decision that every player who's clearly not going to be part of our long term future, within reason, should be left in the twos and be never given another opportunity again. These players aren't just the obvious older fringe players like Wiggins, Saddington and Bannister but players who increasingly look like they won't make it at AFL level (such as Blackwell who sadly is too small and slow with poor disposal).

Despite what that idiot Libba thinks playing the kids, knowing that they'll be the ones who carry us into a brighter future, isn't tanking and is the most sensible thing for a club to do when they're in the situation we are in. Carlton isn't going to win the premership, or play finals, so lets work towards the future by giving opportunities to players like Pfeffier, Armfield, Browne, Aisake, and co. The question has to be asked, would Pfeffier have been any worse an option that Bannister against the Tigers, would Deledio have kicked more goals, and does Bannister have more of a future at the club than Darren? My answer to all three is no and sometimes I wonder why the club doesn't think the same way.

Of course that's all easy to say after we lost. Maybe Ratten believed that Pfeffier was slightly underdone, or that Bannister would do a much better job and that a guarenteed victory would be more beneficial to the other players than Pfeffier getting a game. Whatever his reasons, I'm sure he knows more about footy than myself, now that we've lost our opening match and are looking at a bleak month ahead prehaps we should finally start paying more than lipservice to the youth policy were meant to have and actually play the kids instead of letting them rot in the VFL. It's harsh on players like Wiggins and Bannister who are, by all reports, great clubman but we need to look to the future and they just aren't it.