This is not a pot shot at the club.

From the moment Richard Pratt was announced president, from when Brett Ratten was appointed coach, the day Chris Judd walked through the Carlton doors the club changed.

Our club over the years has been absolutely smashed from pillar to post on and off field, a laughing stock, continually kicked to the ground by nearly everyone and anyone in the football world. We've had to endure some of the worst performances ever witnessed in the famous Navy blue jumper and boy did it hurt.

We got it all wrong. We're happy to shout out from the top of our lungs "hey look at us we're sipping champagne and eating caviar on Pratt Air". Our attitude seems to be one of 'its just going to happen' Chris Judd, 3 number 1 draft picks, Fev, Dick Pratt, his jet and his money (Don't get me wrong i appreciate how Richard Pratt saved our club) and marketing campaigns trying to convince the world we're on our way.

The Carlton football club has a short memory. I haven't forgot those pricks who continually took swipes at our club, laughed at us, kicked us while we were down. In my eyes Its payback time......... This should be our motivation, our line in the sand that we are never ever going to be easy push overs and demand to be treated with respect that this club deserves. Lets see who has the last laugh.

Behind closed doors the driving force behind our resurgence of this great club should be 'We as a club have a score to settle'. A heads down bums attitude and it should has to start with our coach. Ratts its time to drop the Mr nice guy play with the media and STICK UP FOR THIS CLUB, defend this club, defend your players and take no backwards steps. As the leader of men its time to take a few swings, show everyone thats it time to fight.

Forget about the old Carlton swagger and arrogance. Where has all the ruthlessness gone when we would absolutely maul teams to an inch of there life. This is what our club should stand for, fight to regain and then the arrogance will come when we've proved to everyone we are not to be messed with.

Its time to roll up the sleeves, everyone to step up, work harder and get our hands dirty. This club has a score to settle and from this day on we will not look back.......

GO THE BLUES!

Great post! Just got me very fired up haha
I agree with everything you said and if the players approached every game with that attitude I think we'd win more often than not.

Not just the players its everyone.

They should go a pre-sason with the Melbourne football club who have no base and train at 3 different grounds (one with no goal posts). North Melbourne have the worse facilities.

Its as if the club is being spoilt by the rich grand parents in Richard and Jeannie Pratt and enjoying the free ride. We haven't had to work hard for anything, we been given new equipment, money and the governments chipping in with a brand new facility

Trying to buy respect doesn't work. You got to earn it and this club needs to get cracking

Completely agree with you Melvey, we believed our own press after we won in the first couple of rounds. Been a massive downhill slide since then. We are starting to look like the tossers we were back in the 80's which got us into this mess in the first place.

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I stole Sheedy's Gatorade...

Spot on Melvey!
Pratt was a great man and I will forever be grateful for what he did for our club when it was seriously teetering on the precipice! But I think a by-product has been worrying signs of complacency and a sense that after the substantial progress made both on and off the field it was all just going to happen. This was never going to be the case and we appear to be a team not prepared to work hard or be ruthless and thorough with our approach.
I am not sure whether professional players necessarily feel the emotions that we do as passionate supporters and therefore may not necessarily feel the motivation we expect would drive fanatical determination to the task that could be sourced by our recent dark years and the scorn and ridicule we had to endure. That would be enough for me to rip shreds off anybody and anything to succeed but these guys get the big wages and have other motivations. I digress though.
I just look at other teams around us and see a desire which I dont see on the field with our team. I see disorganisation, laziness, complacency and stagnation. I thought we would be displaying different traits at this stage of our development. The motto of we’re coming would be appropriate if we were tracking the way we should be but something has gone awry.
Ratts and co. need to turn this around and quick smart! I want to see some dogged determination and ruthlessness and a “I don’t take shit" attitude starting to appear from Princes Park. I have had enough of mediocrity that we’ve endured since 2001. Let’s get our shit together!

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C'mon Blueboys!

Sort of agree with you Melvey. I think we had to do what we did though. We were coming from a strange place and we needed to get the Carlton feel back. We have done that and now we need to stick our heads down and work hard and quietly and get the job done.

Unrealistic expectations are the things most got wrong. We have a good base to work with now and by all accounts a good development program happening.

I see us up battle with the best by the end of 2011 or maybe a year later.

Looking forward to it but also looking forward to watching us develop and slowly climb the ladder making sure we dont miss any important lessons that could come back to bite us when we get our premiership window.

Go Blues ! I am fired up now Melvey.

Top post Melvey. We need to stop worrying about complacency or the "Fab-Four" or any of that cr@p, but worry about how to tear the opposition apart.
A bit of ruthlessness off the field re untouchable players would soon translate to ruthlessness on the field.

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Gaga and The Hoff party hard in London

I think it's a load of rubbish. I don't think anyone at the Club thinks success was going to happen, and they all know its going to be a hard slog.

That's very different to the euphoria and excitement that fans feel when their team wins a few games, particularly those that have been at the bottom of a ladder for so long. You see it every year with Richmond fans; excitement aplenty from a single win. if we don't watch it we'll be just like them - 10 years since our last Grand Final!

But the lofty expectations of fans aside, I think there is widespread recognition that we still have a long way to go.

See i dont agree with that cos i had spoken to a couple of people around the club... not talking tea chick.. or whatever and they had pretty lofty hopes as well.

Im booking my September ticket OS ... i was in 2 minds.. im gunna do it now!!.. and if we win the flag.. bad luck to me!!!

But seriously... they did believe....
There were lectures and schooling... lock out training and scratch matches.... and all kinds of stuff going on and people were genuinely excited....
.... its kinda deflating at the moment..

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

...you really wouldn't have a clue Melvey...

See thats just pointless if you not going to explain why i have no idea

It's pretty obvious mate I would have thought...behind closed doors - you're not part of the inner sanctum, therefore - no offense - but you would have 'next' to no idea.

rose coloured glasses work for me

but seriously folks, this is the year to enjoy the improvements not dream of filling up the 'no-chance' positions in the eight

yes we are coming (a great marketing gimmick) but please no premature jubilation

it's still a roller coaster ride but there is a lot to like

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NG
S M C , S F L

These forks in the road do happen, you have to remember Ratts had basically been making perfect progress till early on this season, he had taken us from the bottom of the ladder to respectibility last year, and it looked like everything was still moving up after 2 rounds. We have hit a snag, and things have gone awry, its times like now we have to re-evaluate what we are doing and make sure we leave no stone unturned. Its still a learning process for everyone at the club, and I believe things have come to a head now, and reality has set in, that nothing happens without hard work.

I'm with Molsey. It's the fans who are "expecting it to just happen", and we haven't had one single bit of that from the club.

As far as I'm aware, the message from the club is that we are coming, but it will happen in the right time, and at the end of when all the steps which need to have been put into place have been.

I think you're making massive assumptions about what's going on inside the club, Melvey.

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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.

They had "Lofty hopes" not "lofty expectations"

There is a massive difference.

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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.

This is not a pot shot at Melvey
but he should have said I instead of we.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Money can't buy respect. Working hard does.

There is a massive difference!

They had "loft expectations" not "lofty hopes" and youre right , there is a difference.....

The expectations were warranted mind you... under a good scheme.

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Congratulations on your choice of ghost writer.

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

Winston Churchill