Preview Ratten sets goals for Blues

[true_blue_69]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...-goals-for-blues/story-e6frf9jf-1225827478210

I really like Ratts...... the way he goes about things & his thinking... will be interesting to see how things go this year

IT HAPPENED to Brett Ratten again this week. Ratten was walking along the street when a well-meaning but worried Carlton supporter stopped to ask how the club was going to conjure up enough goals without Brendan Fevola. Suffice to say the female Blues supporter has not had a copyright on the question in the four months since the mercurial forward was traded north.
There have been a myriad of similar moments - not to mention a swag of letters and emails that have landed on the Carlton coach's desk.
Many have been less charitable and less polite than the supporter in the street.
Other questions have centred on the club's decision to draft three midfielders - all rated highly internally and impressing in their first pre-season - instead of chasing key-position players.
Or the last-quarter fade out against Brisbane Lions - Fevola's new club - in last year's elimination final.
Or the fall-out from the players' infamous "booze cruise" before Christmas, which saw three players banished for a month and brought a radical overhaul of the club's drinking code.

 

[Sin City]

Other questions have centred on the club's decision to draft three midfielders

Got to about here before I gave up on another stupid jouno. Lucas in a mid, Kerr is a forward and Davies a defender.

Some good answers by Ratts, he's handled it all pretty well. I liked this part best of all

Through it all, the coach has maintained a dignified silence, working assiduously behind the scenes to ensure the answers to those questions are in actions, not words.

 

[thylacine60]

Shame about the last line cause it will. It's how the club reacts that once again will be under scrutiny. Repetitive, boring crap this behaviour issue. Eventually we will have a club where players and admin alike are happy just to be Carlton. Great article. Go Ratts!

 

[goreds]

Just on the Sunday Herald Sun, anybody read the article on the draft rating system on page 6 of the sports section????

I especially likw the picture of Dale Thomas with the comment about him NOT being an elite player...

The rating ladder tells plenty!!!

Wonder if the Pie fans will pick up on this any time soon????

I would tell them but I'm banned!!!!

 

[Silvagnis]

You purchased the Hun?

 

[goreds]

You purchased the Hun?

Only Sundays...

TV guide!

 

[parrot]

Yet another joke effort by the HUN. Their "efforts" are sloppy, inaccurate, factually incorrect pieces of junk. Where do they get these "journo's" from? Embarrassing. Hard to get through 1/3 of them without laughing. We didn't' draft 3 midfielders - it was one midfielder, one defender and one forward. And we did in fact pick up 2 potential KP forwards (Casboult and Donadson), plus traded for another (Hendo). The HUN is just a proxy Collingwood/Essendon junk newsletter. It's best value is if you are in need of some scrap paper, in which case it's pretty good value for money.

 

[ESKIE]

It's a rag , a dead set rag, not only that it is incorrect...
Can;t believe a word of it..

Lets; sue em, d*ck heads.

Liking Ratts tho' cool not giving much away, I like the way a lot of people are under estimating Carlton, we are going to surprise this year...we're not unlike the Doggies IMO

 

[celtic_pride]

It's a rag , a dead set rag, not only that it is incorrect...
Can;t believe a word of it..

Lets; sue em, d*ck heads.

Liking Ratts tho' cool not giving much away, I like the way a lot of people are under estimating Carlton, we are going to surprise this year...we're not unlike the Doggies IMO

Yeah but the Dogs finally realised they couldn't win a flag with a tall key power foward, that's why they went out and recruited Baz Hall.

Anyhow I'm not sure the Wayne Schwass/Shannon Grant comparision to the Fev trade was the best analogy Ratten could have used, at the same age, I think Grant was a bit more accomplished as a player (I think he finished runner up in the rising star award in his first season)

But still, I am worried about playing him too soon in the deep in, as a foward, I'd like Hendo to cut his teeth for the first few months of the season playing down in the backline.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Anyhow I'm not sure the Wayne Schwass/Shannon Grant comparision to the Fev trade was the best analogy Ratten could have used, at the same age, I think Grant was a bit more accomplished as a player (I think he finished runner up in the rising star award in his first season)

His point is not to compare the skill level of the two but the fact that one while currently a bona fide star only has a limited time left in the game, injury notwithstanding, while the other is a potential star (given his draft position and two years development under his belt) would have 10 years left in the game, injury notwithstanding. It's a trade off situation. Our supporters have been asking for a few years to nab a key position player with a first round draft pick to play for the future. Well we got that player and someone has already prepared the ingredients before he got him so we don't have to wait as long for him to be useful to us.

But still, I am worried about playing him too soon in the deep in, as a foward, I'd like Hendo to cut his teeth for the first few months of the season playing down in the backline.

Why? Is there something about his defensive game you have seen that needs improvement? Do we need more defenders? Whose place would he take in the defence? He has already expressed a desire to play forward, why would you play him back unless you really needed to? Do you think he would be a better defender than a forward ... if so Why? Do you not consider playing the majority of his 15 games over two seasons in defence to be 'cutting his teeth'? How long do you cut your teeth for anyway? So many questions ... so little time. When it comes to stewed prunes, is two enough or three too many?

 

[Blue Ratts]

Why do you have to cut your teeth in defence anyways. With such a young list we,d be full of defenders. Hendo played back due to neccesity. We have very different needs and he needs game time forward to develop into a quality forward.
Still cant decide on two or three prunes.

 

[CUG81]

Geelong have won 2 flags, should have won 3, with two average KPFs. You do not need to have power forwards kicking 30 percent of your goals to win flags or be competitive.

Absolutely looking forward to seeing this team share it around and be less predictable.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

I'm guessing there is nothing negative to be said about this article so therefore no comments. I left a largely positive comment this morning but it wasn't published. Go figure.

 

[Malifice]

I'm guessing there is nothing negative to be said about this article so therefore no comments. I left a largely positive comment this morning but it wasn't published. Go figure.

Have we done something to piss off the HUN?

 

[zeeCFC]

Well after the "blues fans first to..." article...I'm sure many of us let them know how we feel

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Before anybody says that no positive comments being published means nothing, there are numerous reports of positive articulate comments not getting on while negative immature stuff does get on.

Let's look at the other HUN stories floating around today:

Hmm, Crawf thinks Ablett will go to the Gold Coast
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...lett-to-go-north/story-e6frf9jf-1225827438786

158 comments and a steady stream throughout today.

Big Bazza is back
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...e-match-for-club/story-e6frf9jf-1225827352438

... and he has brought 22 comments along with him so far ...

There are other stories without comments there of course so maybe someone has neglected to switch the comments on for all stories, but I have had my last half dozen or so comments on the HUN site not get through their censors, and I don't write abusive rubbish.

 

[BlueYoss]

The superior eloquence, accuracy and evidence obviously threaten to expose the HUN journos for the hacks they are.

 

[GoBlues!]

I'm guessing there is nothing negative to be said about this article so therefore no comments. I left a largely positive comment this morning but it wasn't published. Go figure.

Well actually there was one part of the article that sounded a bit odd to me:

"But when you look at it, I would say it is actually Henderson and (Brock) McLean versus Fevola. We gave up our pick 11 (to Melbourne for McLean) and got back pick 12 (for Fevola). And we would have taken (Kane) Lucas at 11 anyway."

Correct me if I'm wrong - but we gave up our first round pick (11) for McLean. At that point our next pick was 27. McLean had nothing to do with the Henderson/Fevola trade.

The trade deal was Fevola and pick 27 to BL for pick 12 (Lucas) and Henderson to Carlton, which is a fair trade imo. Lets not try and sugarcoat it unnecessarily.

 

[ESKIE]

Yeah but the Dogs finally realised they couldn't win a flag with a tall key power foward, that's why they went out and recruited Baz Hall.

Anyhow I'm not sure the Wayne Schwass/Shannon Grant comparision to the Fev trade was the best analogy Ratten could have used, at the same age, I think Grant was a bit more accomplished as a player (I think he finished runner up in the rising star award in his first season)

But still, I am worried about playing him too soon in the deep in, as a foward, I'd like Hendo to cut his teeth for the first few months of the season playing down in the backline.

Yeh but they were one kick from a GF berth, they had more than enough chances to win that prelim'

Not sure of the whole power forward thing TBH, Geelong have done alright, this whole perception that were gone because of Fev, is flawed....we now have options and plenty of them, can;t wait for 2010

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Correct me if I'm wrong - but we gave up our first round pick (11) for McLean. At that point our next pick was 27. McLean had nothing to do with the Henderson/Fevola trade.

The trade deal was Fevola and pick 27 to BL for pick 12 (Lucas) and Henderson to Carlton, which is a fair trade imo. Lets not try and sugarcoat it unnecessarily.

That is mentioned and he is not saying that McLean was part of the Fevola trade. What he is happening is that in terms of gain and loss, we lost Fevola, gained McLean and Henderson and still got the player we would have taken at #11, except at #12.

Of course we had already done the trade for McLean so if Fev didn't go, we would not have Lucas at all. Ratten is just mentioning another way of looking at the end result of it all. McLean and Henderson for Fevola in terms of net gain does give it a glass half full appearance.

 

[BluesInTheSky]

We have a shit culture and no leaders we are a joke.

 

[Bluebear]

Only Sundays...

TV guide!

Thursday Age - Greenguide
Sunday Age - Guide mag.

There are no excuses.

 

[Mr.X]

Gave up on the HUN a long time ago.

Better off reading the Truth newspaper

 

[Silvagnis]

Gave up on the HUN a long time ago.

Better off reading the Truth newspaper

That's rich coming from someone who trolled the Richmond board under an alias IIRC.

 

[Dramoth]

Yeah but the Dogs finally realised they couldn't win a flag with a tall key power foward, that's why they went out and recruited Baz Hall.

Anyhow I'm not sure the Wayne Schwass/Shannon Grant comparision to the Fev trade was the best analogy Ratten could have used, at the same age, I think Grant was a bit more accomplished as a player (I think he finished runner up in the rising star award in his first season)

But still, I am worried about playing him too soon in the deep in, as a foward, I'd like Hendo to cut his teeth for the first few months of the season playing down in the backline.

Is that you Denis?

There is no reason to be playing Hendo down back at all this year. Our defence wasnt our serious weak point last year... it was the defensive pressure from our midfield and the fact we were a one dimensional forward line.