Be prepared to lose this week and don’t panic

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Thread starter Moderator #1
This time of year is notorious for high hope, great expectations but more pertinently, big disappointments.

There’s quite a good chance we’ll lose this week. We have quite a few KPP’s out (King, Ottens, Harley, Playfair and Carlton will field a near full-strength line-up. Carlton have more incentive to win matches at this time of year than we do (membership, confidence, blooding young players who will play through season proper). They also have a record of performing well in this competition even when they’re not going well (hello 2005).

My point is, if we lose this week, DON’T PANIC. It’s all too easy to say how bad we did this or that but in reality, it counts for naught. The club is focussed on round 1 and rightly so. Think back to this time last year in the lead up to the Kangaroos game at Manuka. There were high hopes and many people came away thinking, oh dear, didn’t Ottens play poorly, we’re not as good as we thought we were, etc.
 

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Unwritten_Law

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#3
Be prepared to lose this week.....

Was what appeared in the board preview, I was ready to get stuck into a Carlton troll :p

We are missing the KPP but I'd still expect a decent showing. We missed King, Ottens and Harley for most of last year and Carlton's rucks aren't exactly game breaking. I'd back Egan in against Whitnall also.

I'd hope to win personally however I won't be running around with a sky is falling attitude if we do lose to a team now notrious for peaking in the wizard cup.
 
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#5
I am just looking for small things, such as improvment from youngsters such as Prismall , N Ablett and Blake. I am looking at players who have an oppurtunity to stake a place in the team such Callan, Mackie, Lonergan, Byrnes Gardiner, Spencer and Tenace. They are the ones i will be looking closely at.

Also the game plan and how we play will be important.

If we win, bonus if we dont it is the performance of the above i will be looking at. If these guys stand up a bit all goes well.
 

thehoff

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#6
The Hulkster said:
I am just looking for small things, such as improvment from youngsters such as Prismall , N Ablett and Blake. I am looking at players who have an oppurtunity to stake a place in the team such Callan, Mackie, Lonergan, Byrnes Gardiner, Spencer and Tenace. They are the ones i will be looking closely at.

Also the game plan and how we play will be important.

If we win, bonus if we dont it is the performance of the above i will be looking at. If these guys stand up a bit all goes well.
Perfectly put.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but Josh Hunt reckons that Nathan is flying (witnessed this at first practice match), Batchelor are Prismall also primed and ready for the big time. It will be good to watch Nathan's progress and Prissies and Batch's first crack at the big time.

I am really looking forward to see the cats blood some youngsters. If we win, big deal, If we lose, we lose. The positive of a loss would be seeing Carlton supporters quickly jump aboard the band wagon (TOOT TOOT!), subsequently will be wonderful to see the navy blue army fall flat on their face come Round 7 when they are sitting a game clear on at the bottom of the ladder.

At the same time, the cats faitful will be queitly purring after a 6-1 start to the 2006 premiership season.
 

della

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#7
Yeah i am not interested in seeing ling have 30 touches, Kelly showing his typical class and Ablett kicking freakish goals, i am more intrested in the players that can make us improve this year like Mackie, Tenace, nathan etc as without there continued improvement we won't win the flag this year.

Also i won't be getting carried away at any stage during the season regardless of our win loss ratio, yes we need to win as many games as possible to get a top 4 spot but it's finals footy that means the most and utiul we reach the grand final and are 10 goals up at the 30min mark of the last qtr i won't be getting to carried away or praising to many players.

Been thru to much pain over the years and seeing that result in Sydney first hand still hurts me badly, hopefully the jinx will be gone on the last Sat in september.

della!
 

MeeSo

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#8
Even though you're missing a few players you should still beat us easily. We'll be missing Fev and a couple of other important players are underdone.
 

Sammy D

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#9
MeeSo said:
Even though you're missing a few players you should still beat us easily. We'll be missing Fev and a couple of other important players are underdone.
I don't think anyone should beat anyone. It is pre-season football for crying out loud. All bets are off
 

GeeCat

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#10
It may very well count for nothing, but that's no excuse for the 24 players (26 if Sat heats up and you want to get technical) who get on the field to slack off, and the thousands of supporters to come away anything but disappointed should we lose.

It's not as though we're sending in a junior league team out there; we've got the arsenal to beat Carlton. Some may say "as long as we play well". Without sounding cocky enough, if we play "well" enough, we'll beat them. If we lose, we obviously didn't play well enough, and that in my books is disappointing. Not the end of the world, but certainly not satisfactory.
 

Sean Sheep

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#11
I don't want us to lose... I've waited too long.. I just want us to win so I can see more footy!! (with us playing!).

I also think that we should have a crack at the NAB Cup. We need to experience as many of the big games (NAB Final) as we can!
 

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Sammy D

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#12
Sean Sheep said:
I don't want us to lose... I've waited too long.. I just want us to win so I can see more footy!! (with us playing!).

I also think that we should have a crack at the NAB Cup. We need to experience as many of the big games (NAB Final) as we can!
I'm not too fussed whatever happens. I thought our pre-season was pretty ordinary last year, but we came out firing once the real deal started.

I did however today did get that lovely football feeling this afternoon for the first time since September. You know that mixed feeling of nerves, excitement, passion & anticipation. The feeling that has me going over match ups in my head numerous times while pretending to read the footy record or travelling up on the train. Footy is close, I can smell it :)
 

Turbocat

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#13
As some have said the result means little to GFC. Win the lot or be knocked out after the first game means liitle come April1.
However, the games this time of year might be very important to some guys who will struggle for game time later on. It would be nice to see Nathan and Prismall doa bit of the biz but for guys like Batchelor, Spencer, Mackie , Lonergan and Gardiner it might a big say in how their year or even future will go.
The single man has the chance to let people see what he can do at TD. The type of run that the Dogs beat us with could be negated a bit if he is up to it and it never hurts to show your wears at the zenth level
MLG, these boys should be looking to step up and by years end one could be trade bait unless they do. VI year them , and playing well now starts the ball rolling.
Spencer is all of this plus more. The guy has watched Egan go past him into the side, seen the club put Sam Hunt on the Rookie list, he knows that our Backline is a strong unit to crack, cause even in a B&F year he could not crack it for a game. Show some stuff now and he just puts a little reminder in the selectors ear, show nothing now and....
 
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#14
catempire said:
This time of year is notorious for high hope, great expectations but more pertinently, big disappointments.

There’s quite a good chance we’ll lose this week. We have quite a few KPP’s out (King, Ottens, Harley, Playfair and Carlton will field a near full-strength line-up. Carlton have more incentive to win matches at this time of year than we do (membership, confidence, blooding young players who will play through season proper). They also have a record of performing well in this competition even when they’re not going well (hello 2005).

My point is, if we lose this week, DON’T PANIC. It’s all too easy to say how bad we did this or that but in reality, it counts for naught. The club is focussed on round 1 and rightly so. Think back to this time last year in the lead up to the Kangaroos game at Manuka. There were high hopes and many people came away thinking, oh dear, didn’t Ottens play poorly, we’re not as good as we thought we were, etc.

I went to the game at Manuka last year and even tho it poured rain for the first half I came away extremely dissapointed.
Thankfully it did'nt indicate how the rest of the year would go.
I really need the catters to win this week; my brother is a Carlton supporter.
 
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