no way should we be 69 points worse than Essendon*

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

You coach to the advantage you have.
Ratts was talking finals.. which means... he either is underperforming.. or he overestimated our list... which then leads to .. if he had been coaching them for 28 games( how would he not know where were at?

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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.

If the season was halted at 9pm tomorrow, we'd be playing finals.

YES!

Which then leads to him falling on his own sword at seasons end if we dont make the eight...

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

So when you hear me, darling can't you hear me S.O.S?
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me S.O.S
When your gone, how can i even try to go on?
When your gone, OOH i try how can i carry on!

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I see you watching me watching you.

he wont... he would be looking at an another uncontracted player...
(that would make the difference in his mind...)

Pagan would be thinking i could kill just as much talent as this bloke...

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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.

Pretty much sums it up. Won't happen though, its turned into a boys club. As if Stephen Kernahan will sack Brett Ratten

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

Is Sticks in a position of power? Shouldn't be up to him, more like something our President would decide on.

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"I had to eat"

Is it the president who picks and chooses the coach? Elliott always did, but is that what all the other clubs do too?

Nah, the really good presidents just write apology letters to the fans.

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"I had to eat"

Can we bring back Elliott just for one day so he can make the decision and then kick his sorry fat ar$e back to his own wild little wonderland.

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

Sticks should pay hush money to all the fans bagging Neck Stevens

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"I had to eat"

The problem with people trotting out the same old "developing kids, immature bodies, inconsistent games" lines is that we didn't just lose to a Geelong or a St Kilda or a Hawthorn with mature, seasoned hardened bodies (incidently, the same lines were used when we lost to St Kilda and Hawthorn too).

We got pumped by an Essendon* side roughly at the same stage of their development. In fact, we even thought we were ahead of them. Let the magnitude of that sink over you. We. LOST. By. TWELVE. Goals.

12 goals!!!! To Essendon*!!

Could not agree more...even in our darkest days we would still beat this rabble more often than not.

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

Yep - hard to defend this loss.

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

I am absolutely shattered like most. This was more or less the same side that came within a kick of beating St.Kilda by playing some quick, incisive football. How can we drop off that badly with a week off to refresh thrown in as well? Ratten said on the radio today no one is safe, is he's serious Fevola wont be playing next week, but given the result tonite and the likely result tomorrow with Geelong beating Pt what's the bet he plays? There's too much at stake not to play him.

Scotland, Stevens, and Houlihan have to be dropped. The game is just passing them by. I'd rather hungry players at the moment. Im geuninely unsure about Ratten. We were a bees willy away from being 8-5 and the talk of the town after our effort against St.Kilda. The deficiencies in his coaching that most have suggested here weren't highlighted that night.

Nothing is going to happen coaching wise til the end of the season anyway even if we dont win another game so we are just going to have to hope for the best. What else can we do except support the Club and vent our spleens on here? For what its worth I'm not sure about Montgomery or Lappin-there's more than enough old Carlton in the football dept, we should have brought in an outsider. If we dont make the finals the likely scenario is Ratten will still coach- unless he resigns- in 2010 but who know's for how long?

Im not sure how use comparisons are right now but Ratten has coached 41 games for 16 wins and Clarkson at a comparable level had 14 wins out of 44 games.

Mail from Jon Ralph (yeah I know) on the 5th quarter is that Ratts is fed up with Fev and the efforts of some players. Here's hoping it's true and he has the balls to do something about it.

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STURDYISM!!

The problem is we might drop 5 players but who comes in for them? Only Anderson looks likely at the moment and Robbo is suspended. Cloke, Wiggins, Russell, Edwards, Harlett???? Yarran has done nothing so far to deserve a call up...We have to play the heartless wonders at the moment cos we aint got anything else

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I stole Sheedy's Gatorade...

The players are playing like a team that doesn't have any confidence in there coach. I don't blame them

Ratten is all over the shop. First half of the year he was talking about making finals, then last week he admitted to overdoing the 'development' side of it and has switched to picking a mature side. Which is it?????

His obsession with playing a negative/defensive style of footy is so last year. Teams have worked out breaking the zone with running, linking up play through handball and take the game on. The Hawthorn model has passed its used by date just ask Neil Craig. This defensive and negative mindset does nothing more than make our players question there ability and them selves.

His plan in the first quarter against the crows was just woeful.

Playing Bentley against the Hawks.

Not moving Jammo onto Roughead.

Getting the balance completely wrong on friday night playing a slow lumbering forward line against a speed machine.

Bringing in players friday night to play stopping roles.

Dropping a player like Russell who gives 100% and not make examples of some others who are clearly passengers.

He is batting way out of his depth and should step aside so that he will be remembered as a great Carlton player and not the coach who failed.

Fair point. I guess it becomes a question of whether to play guys are talented but don't have the discipline to follow a gameplan or players who aren't as talented but do have the discipline to follow a gameplan. Of course if we don't have a gameplan and we just pick the best players available to run onto the park, hoping that they do the team things like blocking and creating space for each other, knowing that there won't be any consequences if they don't because they're still talented enough to get a game, then maybe we could stand to lose a few more games and pick up some more talented players in the draft and in a couple of years we'll no longer have to worry about a lack of team discipline because we'll be so chockers with talent.

I'm what, five posts in and I'm sounding like Synbad.

My point is Ratten needs to have Carlton playing a consistent style of football where we work together as a team to win games of football. And he needs to enforce it without compromise. I'm not sure that he's succeeding at either. But I think he's trying.

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STURDYISM!!