The Right Stuff

dannyboy · **Posted:** Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:47 am

It was thought to make it as a test pilot (and into the space race) you needed the 'RIGHT STUFF'. So a book & film and other 'stuff' was made about the right stuff. And Chuck Yeager, a hero for the tragically hip, was made. Yeager was into speed, not the nose bleeding variety, but the breaking the sound barrier, free falling, 'pull up! Pull up!' sort that eventually saw him hit and break the sound barrier, then hit and break himself into tiny little fragments.

So now in this day and age of football drafts and what nots, all players need to have 'the right stuff' for there is no time to learn anything, You get drafted, get a short lease to show the 'right stuff' and then you're either in or your stuffed!

All the teams need to have the 'right stuff' if they wish to compete with the other teams. This game is not just about stars, it is about game plans and team work. I think more than ever before the old adage 'a champion team will beat....' is spot on because talent is spread so evenly and (except for the intestaters) thinly.

All supporters have to have 'the right stuff' because they must endure the dreaded cycles that the AFL have comissioned as the right of all teams. All this because patience is an AFL virtue in the new millenium. 'Be patient your team will rise', (which really means 'be patient we'll drag your team down!'

Gone are cheque books and keen eyed door knockers signing up kids, smudging street addresses and hording special interests like the fabled Golden Square.

Now we have the level playing field (that definietly tilts towards the interstaters but lets not go there - I know, I know I already did) and patience for all and sundry.

It took Carlton a while to understand about patience.

It still hasn't taken hold in me. It's a battleground in my football testicles. 'Go Blues' .... 'no settle, give 'em time' .... 'Yeah kiddies, I love to watch 'em develop'...'Smash the bastards!'.... and so on. I want success now and I temper myself to wait for a few years. Football has become a state of flux rather than the crescendo from one season's glories to the next. I hate it but I really do love watching the kids develop.

The point of all this, yes it has one, is that even in this new age patience is a virtue crap regime, Carlton has somehow managed to accelerate the process.

How?

By getting people on board who have 'the right stuff' (see I got back to it!)

The players brought in, the coach (oh especially the coach) and the board have all displayed the right stuff. The point of the right stuff is not about courage or endevour or commitment or desire; it's about being able to hold on to all of these things under the pressure of immediacy.

The jet plane would have broken the sound barrier eventually but because of the right stuff, Yeager did it in a 10th of the time thanks to the pressures of expectations and cold wars and all that G.I. crap..

Carlton would win a flag eventually (though Dimi might hope long after his twins have twunned) but thanks to the Right Stuff we are fast tracking that time frame down to a matter of three years.

Yep I say within three we'll be holding it aloft! Put me on record, hold me to it, come back soon and I'll still be here confident in this call. We have a coach who oozes the right stuff. A board determined to do the right stuff and a playing list quickly filling with kids who all have the right stuff!

3 years maximum!

Go Blues! Stick it right up 'em!

Oh and how I wait for the article from Fat Pat on that day!!!!

we are the navy blues we are the old dark navy blues.............

molsey · **Posted:** Wed Mar 16, 2005 10:07 am

You got the right stuff... baby
You know how to turn me on

doo0-doo-do doo do

DB, didn't know you were such a NKOTB fan. You rock.

dannyboy · **Posted:** Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:50 am

I am many things Molsey, but that IS NOT one of them

dannyboy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:10 am

obviously inspiring stuff :oops:

molsey · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:12 am

oh... did you write something?

dannyboy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:13 am

TruBlueBrad · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:37 am

I wonder sometimes if we'd have still done the things we did without the draft penalties.

Would he be taking the punt on the Irish lads?

Would we have drafted Bannister/Bowyer?

Would we have traded for Scotland/Chambers/Teague/Morrel?

All for the sake of losing Goddard/Wells, would we have still taken the same chances we have?

Its interesting.

If we win the flag in 2008

Will we still put a speedy, ex-All Black, Powerhouse on the Rookie list?

Will we take a chance on the the Rugby convert Tom Williams when the Bulldogs give up on him?

The AFL may have inadvertantly shaped our philosophy on recruiting for the better forever

strangeblue · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:41 pm

dannyboy wrote:

obviously inspiring stuff :oops:

If i'd been allowed to read it I would have posted some mindless praise for your "work"... :wink:

Bluebernz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:14 pm

dannyboy wrote:

obviously inspiring stuff :oops:

It's the title dannyboy... it's all wrong....

oh-oh-owoho, oh-oh-ohwow, oh-oh-owoho.... the raaayyt stuff!.... NKOTB...not very inspiring at all

Blue Bird · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:26 pm

Great book (even though I'm not normally a Tom Wolfe fan) and a fabulous movie. Sam Shepard

camel · **Posted:** Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:23 pm

The right stuff comes down to three men, as mentioned earlier on TC by someone else (?).

God bless Carlton, in the name of the coach, the favourite son and the president.

Amen.

The Right Stuff

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