My views on Ratten havent changed. One of his better games in the coaches box, helped immensely by an undermanned Geelong (If you want to turn a blind eye to that and believe that Ratten's matchups and gameplan would have worked just as effectively, then so be it). The result increases our chances of a home final which for me and my kids is the biggest plus. Very happy with the win and congratulations on your appointment as the decision facilitator and delegator on this site. Did you have to go through a process to to land the role or did your deep knowledge of all things Carlton secure you you the role?

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Mark Harvey outcoached John Worsfold
Knights has outcoached Roos
How many coaches have outcoached Clarkson this year?
Im prepared to go on a limb and say that the moment a premiership team get beaten in the following year, that team's coach has outcoached the premiership coach.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Stop the presses....

The biggest plus about the win on Friday night was the way we went about it...and the way we were set up to go about it. What is left now is to achieve this type of performance consistently until it becomes second nature....the expected thing to do.....reckon we can repeat it this week.

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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

If you think any of the Cats players missing from their lineup are as important as Waite is too us then you're delusional. Without Jamo, Jarryd, a fit and firing Walker and a fit Warnock (allowing Kreuzer to go forward) we're pretty undermanned ourselves......or do you choose to ignore this because it doesn't suit your argument?

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You want the flame? Give us the marbles!!

Good post HB

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Go BLues

Also Ratts manged to get the players over their Friday night jitters - this is VITAL for finals !
Being able to get the mindest right before the game, and rock up on finals night and blast away is so important.
They know what to do now, and how they can go about getting into that zone.

Very happy we had these string of Friday night games at a key point of the draw to test us.

I agree that downgrading our win because of who Geelong didn't have probably isn't that valid, especially considering what St Kilda were still able to do. The word of caution from our win for those suddenly talking about how far we can go in the finals (not necessarily those in this thread) is more about Geelongs intensity. A great deal of it was our own better intensity and tactic to deny them the ball, as we flagged during the week, but I don't think Geelong were as switched on defensively as they could have been. Despite missing a number of players St Kilda tackled the Hawks to death.

I do find it curious with the discontented as to why whenever we win or don't win well enough (in their view) or if they believe we shouldn't have lost, it is because the other team was missing x,y or z or were young, travelled the week before, a black cat had walked in front of their team bus etc etc. Yet this is never something factored into our performance

I really suggest that you begin to read what you are replying to. The views about the coaching were from Gary Lyon and Brian Taylor. They are well informed knowledgable football people with exstensive experience at all levels of football. I guess when you meet those criteria then people may begin to put credence to what you say. That was the point.

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Go BLues

Synbad, Melvey, Juddy and the Kruezers,99 prelim and few others have provided us all with a lot of entertainment over the last month or so. The silly duffers turned out to be wrong but now is a time to forgive and forget.

Lets put it behind us.

With the finals coming i think now is a good time to all get behind the Blues (Coaches, players, Board, president) give as much support as we can and see how far we can go this year as a tight unit.

Yes well good luck with that

If you have the patience to sift through the emotive rubbish that some of them have come up with at times, on occasion they have made some reasonable points.

Juddy to his credit has conceded a few points in Ratts favour, although I'm not sure how committed he was to the anti Ratts campaign. I think to a certain extent he made good use of our wooden spoons

I doubt that Friday night will change the minds of the others and our next loss will see them out in force again It's a bit like a game of tennis played on a merry-go-round

Scarlett, Chapman, Taylor, Kelly, Ottens and a fit Johnson and Selwood. mmmmmh if you say so.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

If it was all about Garry Lyon and brian Taylor, why the need for the second paragraph?????
BTW....it's lovely how we quote people in the media when they make positive comments about Carlton. Let's hope we value their opinion just as much when they make a negative comment

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

More than happy to listen to negative comment from experienced people who know what they are talking about

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Go BLues

Don't forget the black cat

Don't all teams have to cope with missing players and guys playing injured at this time of year?

As I said earlier......good win and happy with it but keep it in perspective. Look at what Collingwood did to us the second time round when they didn't field their reserves side.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I'm sorry, I just can't let this one go.

MATTHEW SCARLETT.

Please tell me you forgot that name before posting. Geelong would rather be without Ablett than Scarlett.

*yawn*

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

Ratten should be congratulated on a great win but lets get it into perspective....It is one great coaching performance. Can he do it consistently? The win proved how so many of his selections and tactics during the first 18 games of the years were misguided. Previous criticism was as warranted as this weeks compliments

Scarlett, Chapman, Taylor, Kelly, Ottens and a fit Johnson and Selwood. mmmmmh if you say so.[/quote]

.....and a 6 goal margin in a low scorer.