A few things we've learnt

[True_Blue_Navy_Blues]

Well i don't think anyone would dispute the fact that Friday Night was one of the darkest days of our season if not our entire history. The lack of effort put in by the boys was a disgrace to the jumper, the club, and the members who have stuck by this club through the darkest time in its history.

At the beginning of the year i can say with a fair amount of confidence that the majority of Carlton fans believed this team would be playing football in September, fast forward to Round 13 and only by a minor miracle do we find ourselves still in in the 8. As i recall the Essendon match i find myself thinking about the following:

1. Is Brett Ratten the right man to be coaching our club?
2. Do we sacrifice short-term gain for long-term gain by dropping Fevola?
3. How is it that young players who give their all for the club are being overlooked in favour of Stevens, Houlihan, Bannister etc. who couldn't seem to give a damn about the club?

To point #1, In my honest opinion, no. Whilst Ratten's passion for the club can't be questioned and i honestly can't help but respect how much the guy loves this club i think it's time we stop looking at him through rose coloured glasses and really put the microscope on him. Ratten's tactical knowledge is not up to scratch and it's beginning to cost us vital games. Sydney, Adelaide and now Essendon, all games that we lost that can be attributed to Rattens' inability to make changes to the gameplan during the game.

All coaches make mistakes with their game plans, whether it's a big mistake which needs a total overhaul, or just a few flaws that need minor tweaking all coaches do make mistakes. However the real sign of a great coach is their ability to make those tweaks that will get the side over the line, and unfortunately, Brett Ratten does not have the ability to do that.

Some real questions need to be asked about Ratten's coaching ability, and i think they need to be asked now as we prepare to make a charge towards bigger and better things.

To point #2, Fevola, to drop him or not to drop him? Again i think he has to be dropped, the man has now gone from not having any impact at all, to having a completely negative opinion on the team and the match. His attitude is a disgrace to the jumper, and as we saw on Friday Night his team mates are getting very sick of it. I don't know if it's a confidence issue from having a slow start to the season but Fevola needs to be made an example of and to be dropped down to the VFL for the rest of the season.

For the past three years Fev was the man you wanted with the ball in his hands when we needed a big lift, this year i feel we've come full circle and Fevola has become a liability in high pressure situations. I feel we can no longer rely upon Fev to deliver the goods and step up when the team needs him to.

IMO Fevola needs to be traded, trade him to Sydney or the Bulldogs and get some of their young talent (more so with the Bulldogs than the Swans) that we can develop and bring into the team to help us take the next step towards the finals.

Fev, you are a leader of this bloody club mate, it's time you damn well started acting like it!

That brings me to the third and final point, honestly, how are some of these veterans still getting a game? They do not give a shit! They are supposed to be the leaders of our club and all they are succeeding in doing is providing a negative example to the younger players to whom which they are supposed to be role-models and it's about time we took a stand and let these guys know that we can't tolerate that kind of crap.

The club is supposed to be renowned for the spirit of its seasoned veterans and the Carlton spirit which sets us apart from the rest of the competition. The current crop of senior players ATM have brought that spirit into disgrace, Nick Stevens, Ryan Houlihan and Brendan Fevola, i am talking about you boys!

Only when we solve the problems within our senior group will we become a top 4 side, we have the youngsters upon which we can build a future powerhouse, but only with the right blend of experience and youth will we reach our ultimate goal of premiership success.

To Ratten, the fans, and everyone involved in the Carlton Football Club, it is time to make some tough decisions! No more hoping things will get better, it's time to make things happen instead of waiting for them to fix themselves. It is crunch time, the decisions we make now will make or break our club for the next 10 years, Ratts, Kernahan, MC, for the good of the club, grow a set and make the decisions we all need you too!

 

[NAUGHT5]

We're soft and thats what hurts the most.
think of the every recent premiership team and they have one thing in common and thats they're tough and ruthless.
Hawthorn last year was the perfect example.
I think we're like St.Kilda in the Grant Thomas era.
We might be able to sneak into the finals, maybe win one.
Next year we might win a couple and be lucky enough to get into a prelim. But no chance we're going further unless something is done.
Keep Ratts cause i think he's good. But get either Laidely or Matthews i some sort of role to help Ratts out and give our team that hard edge.
Bring in Robinson as he wants to smash packs and be hard at it.
Bring in Hadley. We needed him the other night and if Watson didnt go down we would have had a 3 figure loss. Recruit a few speedsters.
Eddie Betts needs to take a leaf out of the Alwyn Davey book.
Everyone says how we should be better cause we've had 3 number 1 picks. Those 3 put in and are good every week. Judd puts in every week. AJ gives his all. But There's too many passengers and we'll never win a flag if we dont get that tough edge that good teams have. Please Lethal, Laidley, we need you. Give Ross Lyon a call and see what he did to make St.Kilda tougher.

 

[KR37]

You've learnt that Fevola, when needed, can be an effective tagger. In the second half Pears hardly had a touch after being on fire in the first half. Maybe Joseph can take a few tips off him when tagging.

 

[gbatman]

We are a lotlike St. Kilda in the Grant Thomas era. He was an absolute dud as a coach and he had a lot of talented yet soft players.

We can do withough these players:
Cloke, Wiggins, Hadley, Edwards, Russell, Bannister, Houlihan.

We can probably do without Fevola, Fisher and Stevens if we can get a trade for them.

We need to play the "kids" and all the players who are likely to be around and any good by the time we are up to winning a flag.

We need to play Garlett, Robinson, Yarran, Austin and all our young fringe players.

 

[daicos21]

It didn't hurt the Saints much dropping Milne and Dal Santo, so maybe dropping Fev is the way to go.

 

[thylacine60]

It didn't hurt the Saints much dropping Milne and Dal Santo, so maybe dropping Fev is the way to go.

That was an original thought 7 years ago.

 

[jj1978]

• We lack heart
• We're too arrogant for where we currently sit in the AFL... some humble pie won't go astray.
• We can't tackle for shyte... our boys bar Judd/Kreuzer/Joseph can't lay a tackle to save themselves.
• We are psychologically scarred by the following teams: Essendon, StKilda, North Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Hawthorn and slightly scarred by Freo, Adelaide

 

[Mr.X]

We ain't half as good as we thought we were.

There are still too many passengers wearing the carlton guernsey

 

[celtic_pride]

gbatman: I tip my hat to you (or to myself, if the truth be known )

That is exactly the way I see it.
The cattle is there. Now what to do with it.
Who do we play? Who do we put more time into developing?
Who needs more one to one coaching? Who needs to be assured and in need of self esteem lifted? Which players to we hone to what our envisioned end results are satisfied?

We are not addressing our needs in terms of a total package

Joey Anderson should get a lot more games IMHO.

 

[Mister Carlton]

We ain't half as good as we thought we were.

There are still too many passengers wearing the carlton guernsey

I disagree with one point and agree with the other. We have decent players on our list, but they need to apply themselves 100 percent every-time they put on their jumper. There are too many passengers on our list that wear the guernsey and should be weeded out.

 

[Shambolic]

Great post. good discussion. Footy forums aren't all bad.

I think we've learned that if anything Ratten is very defensive in his selections and team structure. We have some pretty potent weapons in Fev and Betts but we still only have half a forawrd line.

We actually have less than a forward line!

I think we've also learned that Ratten is searching for some mystical team set-up in his selections and we're failing:

- Why Cloke for 7 weeks?
- Why bentley for 1 week?
- Why no Anderson?
- Setanta in and out?

I think we're lacking a clealry defined leader on the MC.

Overall we're still 4-6 players short of a top 4 team.

 

[wavefall21]

i have learnt the following

- there are way too many passengers in this side and rely on too few
- we do not play team football
- we continue to be turnover specialists
- our disposal efficiency continues to be very poor
- we are selfishly unaccountable
- we are physically inept when it comes to pressure, too many missed tackles and get outmarked in a contested situation too often
- we have no heart at all
- we dont play with any spirit
- when the going gets tough we just give up and lack intensity
- robert walls was correct, our bottom 6 players are terrible
- ratten continually gets outcoached and is way too lenient in game day situtations

im still seething over last week's performance, im not basing this on one performance but it has been evident all year, a lot of fellow supporters will criticize me when i say this but i honestly think we have gone backwards from last year, at least we showed some spirit in the way we fought out games, its been such a frustrating and disappointing first half of the year, i'm a realist and didn't expect the blues to make top 4, but i expected us to progress a lot more than we have, i'm not sure if ratts is the right man for the job, i honestly feel we need a coach who would have a really hard-nosed approach and is more tactically astute, perhaps a laidley or possibly go for an assistant in waiting like a hardwick, who would have learnt plenty from clarkson and was a tough nut as a player, whilst all the players will say they have the respect for ratts and love him as a person, he comes across as being too friendly and needs to harden up

 

[celtic_pride]

BTW, I think 'Down Hill Skiers' is the new term for passengers in the footy lexicon these days

 

[HeziBarecket]

It ***IS*** the issue of our bottom 6 being terrible and that tips the balance of our performances. Our bottom 6 always do alright when the rest of the team do well.

HOULIHAN is the **PERFECT** example of a professional bottom 6'er. He disgusding set shot before the siren and then his soft handballs and fumbles in the second half are testament to that..

When you look at teams like Adelaide or Collingwood, their bottom 6'ers still work with better efficiency than our who seem to haven't learnt ANYTHING after being a highly paid professional footballer for over 5 years, really we keep up this rate we become Richmond, as they have perfected that sort of player 'development'.

It makes it incredibly tought for our young kids who buts their balls to have idiots downfield stuff things up like that. It must also bug them when Fev gets up to his idiocy and misses goals as well.

We probably do need to trade off some 'big names', thing is, who are we going to get?

 

[Blue Dawn]

i have learnt the following

- there are way too many passengers in this side and rely on too few
- we do not play team football
- we continue to be turnover specialists
- our disposal efficiency continues to be very poor
- we are selfishly unaccountable
- we are physically inept when it comes to pressure, too many missed tackles and get outmarked in a contested situation too often
- we have no heart at all
- we dont play with any spirit
- when the going gets tough we just give up and lack intensity
- robert walls was correct, our bottom 6 players are terrible
- ratten continually gets outcoached and is way too lenient in game day situtations

im still seething over last week's performance, im not basing this on one performance but it has been evident all year, a lot of fellow supporters will criticize me when i say this but i honestly think we have gone backwards from last year, at least we showed some spirit in the way we fought out games, its been such a frustrating and disappointing first half of the year, i'm a realist and didn't expect the blues to make top 4, but i expected us to progress a lot more than we have, i'm not sure if ratts is the right man for the job, i honestly feel we need a coach who would have a really hard-nosed approach and is more tactically astute, perhaps a laidley or possibly go for an assistant in waiting like a hardwick, who would have learnt plenty from clarkson and was a tough nut as a player, whilst all the players will say they have the respect for ratts and love him as a person, he comes across as being too friendly and needs to harden up

While i agree with most of these weaknesses it makes you wonder how the hell we're actually in the eight.


Maybe it ain't all that bad.

 

[Alice]

While it can be a bitter pill to swallow, I learnt a few things from watching the Carringbush play last night. Their ability to pressure their opponents across the ground, restrict the corridor, to gut run, selflessly provide space, STICK tackles, be creative, be physical, play tight defence, show commitment, protect teammates showed how to dismantle an opposition. I don't believe there is anything in their performance the could not be adopted by the Blues - against Freeo or any team from now. I don't believe Collingwood has any bigger NAMES than us, any greater ability, fitness or skill.

 

[wavefall21]

While i agree with most of these weaknesses it makes you wonder how the hell we're actually in the eight.


Maybe it ain't all that bad.

yeah mate but wee are in there by default, our situation has been helped by injuries to other teams and their inconsistencies, unfortunately we have been displaying this inconsistency for years now, its really disappointing, we've had numerous opportunities to get entrenched into the 8 but we haven't taken them, we are playing football unworthy of a top 8 position atm, i mean look at the pies......they don't have the best list going around but the thing that struck me last night was they play for each other, they shut down the bombers run because they are more accountable, they play as a team and with really good spirit, they are well coached as well, why can't take a leaf out of their book? we made the bombers look like a premiership contender last week but the pies showed just how bad we were last week, u shouldn't even be allowed to play footy if you don't try, and thats exactly what was the case in the second half last week