I hope whatever we do results in a premiership and before they make it even more difficult with the 23rd team or 18th team or 17th team or whatever it is joining the comp. The Alice Springs Antelopes - when do they join the comp?


Kerr seems a bit old to me - has he had too many injuries to still be effective?


I would consider a trade for him but he isn't worth two good players, such as a first rounder and Walker.


Or they could have Cloke, Russell, Fisher and Wiggins -(all are players who try a lot but are exposed) but I can't see that happening as a fair and equitable trade. We would be giving too much away with that trade too.

Mick...heady...synbad...verbs...DUC....whoever else wants to join the list...

Enough of the potshots at each other please...while you might be amusing yourselves you are not doing your arguments any favours.

What did I say Mrs C?

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

Huh?

Just trying to dampen a fire before it gets out of control DUC....

Like who?

That's a couple of times you've mentioned and smokescreens without any name...

I can't see any bigger names than Kerr that have been mooted as possible trade options except Brown. Don't underestimate how damn good he is on his day.

Who are we using him as a smokescreen for?

Totally agree.

Fremantle and St Kilda have gone down this path of 'topping up' in recent years and look how well it has served them.

Build from the bottom up with a maestro in Judd leading the way, keep adding good kids and there's your base for sustained success many years going forward. Not just one tilt (would be even more horrendous if it doesn't come off) and then back to the time down the cellar.

Sorry if I have offended you.

My comment still stands that we should have beaten both Sydney and Adelaide, but butchered the ball when we had the momentum. Is the coach responsible for that? well in my opinion yes, but not this coach. Our poor skills have been an issue for the last 5+ years and Pagan didn't rate the development of precise kicking as important of putting your head over the ball. Ratts is trying to fix this, but I will not judge his success or failure untill this time next year.

I still don't understand how people state that we can't overcome the flood, when we are the sixth highest team for shots at goal, to me that shows that we are getting it past the wall/zone.

To me where Ratts needs to focus and improve is our forward structure. We don't seem to have a set play to counter players who double and triple team Fev. Still to often we bomb it to Fev knowing full well that he has 2 on him rather than look at who is in best position to take the shot on goal. Part of the reason is that we don't have to many players in the forward line that are dangerous, guys that run to the right areas, can take a contested mark, small crumbing accurate kicks at goal. Only Fev and Betts fits that role. Wiggons is a great mark, but plays to far from goal, Fisher cant kick over a bottle cap and russell needs a shot of testosterone.

10 premiership points separates these teams from 4th to 12th:

Sydney, Kangaroos, Adelaide, StKilda, Collingwood, Brisbane, Richmond, Carlton and Essendon*.

Which one of those clubs going into next season has the biggest scope for improvement going into next year as the playing lists are now?

You might think it is drastic but I think it is realistic. The pressure will be well and truly on Ratts and no amount of Go Blues in the coaches box will save him. He must make finals next year otherwise he has failed.

Please let me know which one of those clubs has the scope to improve the most?

Interesting comment by Greard Healy last night on OTC.

When discussing the teams on the up and down, Walls stated that Blues, Tigers and Bumbers supporters have a lot to look forward to in 2009.

GH stated that Tigers and Bumbers are playing really good footy and have showed tremendous improvement in the last 2 months; exciting footy.

I don't know if that was deliberate or a slip up, that he did not mention the Blues as an improver or playing good footy.

I respect GH, so I considered his comment on face value. I was wondering apart from the last Q efforts which have been a revelation and worthy of praise as a huge turnaround from the fade out Blues of the past and ceratinly is an area of improvement worthy of mention. What is it that he sees as Carlton's achilles heel in their quest for finals next year?

I'll guess.

Ruck is an obvious area needing attention, with Cloke at #1. That can only be fixed by recruitment, but the fact that we have young rucks secured on our list bodes well for the future. Having said that, we will need huge improvement in Hampson, Kreuzer, Jacobs (and my man Aisake) if we are going to step up our pressure in the ruck in 2009.

What else?

Having a backman to stand the resting rucks of the opposition? Well we have Setanta, and we may have Aisake (???) so at least there's something there to work with.

What else?

I'm sure the clanger count at 79 last week would have alarm bells ringing. There is and has been a skill issue with the Blues for a long long time. The only obvious improvement in that area which is tangible would be the inclusion of Houlihan; but that's only 1 change.

Cordy has done and can make huge improvement in our fitness and stamina, but he isn't the skills coach. So how can this be improved? Preseason? Geez it would have to be intense coaching for 4 months to get it right and execute under pressure.

The list looks great and promising, but the skill of execution needs.......?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I would guess that Sydney, Colonwood, Adelaide, St Kilda are on the way down due to aging, ruck weakness (aging), slow midfield or weak attack(unless something drastic happens over thetrade period), so the opportunity to improve should come from Blues, Tigers and Bumbers. I have a feeling that the Bumbers will do better in 2009, but with retirement and age catching up with Lucas, Lloyd, Fletcher, Peverill and even McPhee they may just stall for a while.

I also believe NM are in a precarious position too.

Walls suggeted on OTC that he believe WCR will rise as quickly as they fell; I can't see that, unless something drastic happens post season, such as new coach

Can't take anything for granted though. Who would have guessed WCE, Freo and Port to have the season they had? Not me.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I wouldn't get too carried away with Essendon* as they still seem to rely heavily on the "old firm" of Hille, Lloyd, Lucas, Peverill and Fletcher. McPhee, Stanton, Welsh and Monfries have also been significant contributors however you wouldn't classifiy them as "young emerging" types. A lot probably comes down to how the likes of Gumbleton and Myers progress over the next few years.

Richmond probably have more upside than Essendon* IMO but Richo and Nathan Brown are still important players to them and are in the twighlight of their carreers.

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There is no footy god

In the first Q against the Crows there were some really pleasing signs in the forwardline. Options opening up, the corridor opening up, multiple players with opportunities to kick goals on the run and from set shots...then they closed us down, and we lacked options....maybe it's because we're a young and inexperienced team and an area Ratts would be well aware to fix with relevant drills post season. 4 months training should fix that. I hope

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Nick, I have a feeling that Swann/Icke won't be targetting a 'character' like Kerr to bring to the club.

They know how important a ruckman is to our structure at the moment and I believe that will be their focus. They won't try and dampen the Kerr rumour as it will enable them to target who they are after, whilst the media feed on Kerr to Carlton.

This is a feeling that I have, that is all, but it does grow stronger by the day. Please note that the feeling is not the same as Libba's.

I think Icke will be the playmaker in what comes to Carlton by way of a ruckman.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

Point taken Mrs.C.................all of a sudden ive got cold feet.I'm outta here.

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All my dangerous friends

A couplke of other things that perplexed me on the weekend:

1. we brought Armfield straight back in after missing the previous 5 games and if I recall correctly he only had 7 possessions in his previous game (when he was injured) so I can't understand why he wasn't made to find some touch with the Bullants first? Just thought it was a strange selection under those circumstances.

2. then when he did come on we played him as a negating forward on McLeod when we already had Wiggins and Russell playing similar roles.........I didn't think Mcleod was setting the world on fire so I'm not sure why we felt we needed to negate Mcleod at that stage of the game............so in effect we ended up with a very ineffective trio of Russell (2 goals in 18 games mostly at half forward), Armfield (who has never really played there), Wiggo (who apart from the doggies game has struggled to kick more than 1 goal a game) in support to Fev?

Obviously the injury to Eddie hurt us deeply in that respect but the Crows had similar concerns in their forward structure but managed to improvise.

On another note, can someone tell me what Simmo's accuracy is in front of goal over the past few years? I may be wrong but I suspect his return is not great especially on the run from 40 or so metres.............likewise Scotland - does anyone have his conversion stats? Both seem to miss a lot more than what they actually convert from that distance on the run. Both seem to avoid any real scrutiny regarding their poor conversion rates especially Simmo.

He nailed a pretty crucial goal in the last quarter of the Port Adelaide game - it may not have been 40 metres but it was a clutch goal at a clutch time.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Wasn't a slip up because we haven't gone on a winning run or set the world on fire unlike Essendon* and Richmond.

Our wins this year have been evenly spaced out through the year whereas the other two teams went through a real bad patch mid-season and have now gone on winning runs with Essendon* winning 5 of their last 6 and Richmond 5 of their last 7 (I think), whereas we've won 2 of our last 5.

We've gone win,loss,win,loss pattern throughout the year and haven't strung together a long winning run like them two hence why Healy didn't mention us in the same breath.

That's what I think too...and at times I have felt their (Ess & Ric) surge has been quite impressive. We have been up and down and lost games from our disposal issues; something which has been a problem for years and may continue in 2009 (as our achilles heel).

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

GO BLUES..............!


kindest regards tommi

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!