verbs wrote:
The fact that the outcome of football, like horse racing, is pure chance, will never change.
Bit of a silly for-the-sake-of-an-arguement statement there Verbs. While on any given day upsets may happen, over time the more talented, better coached sides will win - that's why we have form, favourites and long shots. Under your "pure chance" view, every horse or team would start at equal odds. Yes, Swans did experience an element of good luck last year, but they were superbly coached to take advantage of it.
After 3 years of talking mostly pure shit, Synbad is finally starting to see the light. While I was quite happy to have Pagan as coach, I was not religious enough to see him as the second coming (the first coming for many posters here). Back then Sinners was all for the glory of Pagan and advocated we dump our Carlton-ness and become Shinboners - he may have got his wish - I only hope it doesn't take the Blues as long to win their next premiership as it took the Shinners to win their first.
If people had have kept their eyes and minds open, the question marks over Pagan should have started appearing in his very first game at the helm. That was the Allstars game - a pre-pre-season game played in Darwin's stiffling humidity against a speedy combo with at least some experience playing under those conditions. The AllStars made 9 or 10 interchanges in the first quarter, we made 0 or 1. Pagan is to this day still thinking First-18 and his inability to fully utilise the interchange has meant Carlton play most of their games virtually 4 players down.
Roll on to pre-season 2003 vs Collingwood. Now love or hate Lance, most would agree that his his big advantage out on the paddock is his footy brain. By having Lance run to a hot spot - with about 4 or 5 opponents in tow - trying to mark telegraphed made-for-Carey bombs, meant Pagan not only completely nulified Lance's greatest strength but forced him to play to his weaknesses. Pagan's blind adherence to his game plan over and above our ability to execute it, has been one of the main reasons for our abissmal form. Consequently, we lost Lance for a few seasons and the player group lost confidence in the straightjacket game plan and the planner.
Pagan's plan can be summed up by 2 players - David King and Wayne Carey - tuck the ball under you arm, run and bounce it as far as you can and then boof it forward to a contest and hope someone can take a hanger. The individual and individual effort take precedence over the team working together as a unit. Yes, it is a simple plan but its not simple because it makes it easier for the players - it is simple (or more accurately simplistic) because Pagan himself cannot function with anything more complex. It is a cover to his poor tactical understanding of the game.
And then there's Pagan's in-your-face, Barassi-era autocratic approach ...really, you could write a book about his shortcomings re the modern game.
The 99 pt defeat last weekend can be put down to just-a-prac-game/shit happens but in the context of the previous 3 years, it's not good sign. We do seem to have some young potential at the club and we have to ask ourselves whether we can afford to leave them under Pagan's "direction". He won't leave of his own free will - he still beleives he's right and everyone else is wrong - so he will have to be pushed. Carlton's economic situation isn't great but look at it this way - we're paying someone 800 big ones to look after 7 million dollars worth of assets. If he was my mechanic and he was doing to my car what he's doing to our list, I'd go deeper into hock to get rid of him.
Bottomline - Sinners is starting to talk some sense. Nows the time to listen to him.
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Adelaide finals 3 of the last four years and two top four finishes, Port finals 3 of the past four years and three top four finishes.
come the last day in September.
