Although I mightn't agree with his choices.

His comments tonight about Carlton being an improving team and those who werent found out in a poor side being found out now rings true when you think about some of the silly disposal errors yesterday.

He mentioned Wiggins, Bentick and Fisher. Carrots and a few others might also not be able to take the next HUGE step up into being selected in a great team.

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Stay tuned We're in for a BUMPY ride

Yep hes spot on

1991

I agree.

The wannabes will be found wanting in what will become our next great Carlton & p/ship winning side.

The question is who are those players & will some of those named step up & make it or not? Time will tell.

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"You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take"- Michael Jordan

Not part of our next flag:

Wiggins
Hartlett
Russell
O'Hailpin
Blackwell

On thin ice:

Fisher
Bentick
Cloke

Edited, misleading text

I think Wiggins, Bentick and Fisher are delivering what they're capable of, and until someone replaces them in the team then they own their spot. The greater point of contention lies with some quality players like Carrazzo, Scotland and Stevens who are not adapting to their new roles effectively.

Edited for accuracy

He also said St Kilda were a pathetic club with a disgraceful culture and history.

Hard to argue with that!

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Wallsy is absolutely correct.

At the moment Fisher, Carrazzo and even Waite's poor skills are standing out like dogs balls in a young and upcoming side

Andrew Carrazzo is our version of the Bombers Brent Stanton. Both players rack up the possessions but both are not respected by rival clubs and are let to do as they will simply cause there not damaging do not hurt opposition teams. Carrazzo is not damaging, the damage he causes is to his team mates.

Harsh i know and honestly, just shows how far behind we are when we have this guy like Carrazzo and Waite trying to set up play off half back.

There kicking will never come good and its not all there fault. I blame the club and past coaches for not acknowledging how critical disposal by foot has become in the modern game.

The hawks, bulldogs, pies, eagles, freo and the lions have all invested in this department and have high tech machinery and experts working on each and every players kicking action.

From the first time i watched Waite play his kicking action was horrible. He used to let go of the ball to high, was very loose and never followed through with his action.

I'd look at trading Carrazzo if the right deal can be done. Same goes with Fisher though im not sure there would be an takers for Fish.

If you cant kick the ball you should not be playing for the blues in 2009 and beyond. Simple as that

The skills are our next great hurdle.

We easily outplayed Sydney for most of the game on the weekend. They were however good enough to take advantage of our mistakes.

The shots on goal in the first quarter were embarrasing. I like Fisher's marking ability, but as I've said before what's the use if your shot on goal is that poor. He's played enough games to be over nervous tension!

I hope the ball skills are given a thrashing over the remainder of the year at training and in the pre season.

I personally dont think we are that far away from not just playing finals but winning them if we can shake up our skills level.

Carrots, Fisher, Russell, Bentick all with poor kicking skills Murpy (love him) only slightly better.

Steven's, who cops a fair bit on this site, has good skills and we need to use them more. Same with Judd, he needs to do less ball winning and more finishing.

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I support the Navy Blues whatever happens!

So true. In some passages of play you could see the swans waiting for the turn over

You are right of course but how many of the first three can you imagine being in our nest premiership side? We've probably got different opinions as to who it might be.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

We can't give up on all of them. They just have to work constantly on their skills and we need to find a set-up where their poor skills can be minimised.

If we had an attack every time we discovered a player with substandard skills then we would probably run five times in a circle and drop-dead. We will just have to learn some clever ways to manage and utilise them. We can't trade them all.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

I'd like em all to step up Blueboy.

Fish just needs to kick for goal better. His field kicking has been OK. He will be fine.

I think Wiggo can step up & make it- Has the right intensity & skills required - marks well, both out on a lead & he's quick enough, get's plenty of h/balls off after marking, to running players, alot of the time under duress. OK kick can be better.

Still not made my mind up on JR. Not sure why either. Struggling with him. Sometims he shows us what he can do (ie) side-step & kick on the left, but the kick will go astray. All in traffic too. I sometimes agree with others that he is frightened to be out there (eg doesn't belong) & consequently he only gets about 75% of his full actions done. Maybe he just needs to be lined up & crunched by someone, get up, shake it off & say "Hey, that aint so bad" & away he goes.

Anyway, time will tell all.

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"You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take"- Michael Jordan

Wallsy been reading TC I take it. We've been going about this for months.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

I love Fish, but I think we won't be a successful side until he can't break into it.

Hope I'm wrong.

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

More like Big Footy then Talking Carlton.

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Bang Bang.

So who will be a part of our next flag???

My thoughts

Definites - The Nucleus - 12 players

Kreuzer
Gibbs
Murphy
Simpson
Judd
Fevvy
Stevens
Grigg
Jamieson
Walker
Waite
Betts

Probable but need to be in best form - 3 players

Russell
Thorton
Scotland



Havent seen enough but could push for permanent spots - 5 players

Hampson
Armfield
Bower
Anderson
Hadley


Good triers who give their all but may be overtaken by newbies

Cloke
Wiggins
Fisher
Carrazzo
Bentick
Houlihan

Dunno

Austin
Benjamin
Browne
Edwards
Hartlet
Jackson
Pfeifer

Nope

Blackwell
OHailpin
OHailipin
Saddington

I'd rather have a root canal without anaesthetic

Ackland


So there are probably 6-8 spots up for grabs in a permanent lineup. With some astute recruiting and natural improvement we need to reduce that to about 4-6 places where the bottom 6 are constantly challenged to hold their spots.

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

Well there'll be about 10-15 on our list that won't make it to the next flag given we'll be looking at a flag in 2-3 years .

Look what happens to the Eagles when you remove Judd, Cousins, Chic - they fall apart at the seams. How many of those premiership players that are currently playing at the WCE will be part of their next flag? I'd say a lot of those blokes who actually played in a flag would struggle to make it at another club such as Dogs, Hawks, Cats, Swans.

Truth is, you only need 6 top line players to make it to the top. The rest can be made of 'good tryers'.

We were 1 kick from knocking off a top 4 side, and one with an average of 3 years and 60 odd games experience. Let's change the line-up for the Swans from last weekend to one that is on par with ours for experience and see what the scores would be.

We're okay, we just need to select a side that is competetive across the board.

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end of message

Bit tough on Ryan - will reserve my decision once he is back from injury. Am ambivalent about Fish and Carrazzo - still think they have something to offer the side.

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"Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about puppies." - Gene Hill