Deano, I am with you but also I am not.
I have hated this system for a long time, even before our draconian penalties in 2002. I have hated the equalisation measures that the AFL put in place to artificially improve poor clubs and severely hinder great clubs such as ours. And whilst we bucked and resisted succumbing to the system for as long as we could it finally caught up with us in 2002.
I dislike the fact the only avenue to recruit young talent to our club is through the drip-fed draft. I despise that a football club cannot have autonomous control over identifying, recruiting and training young footballers. The salary cap irks me as well but nowhere near as much as the draft. How can any sporting competition justify having a club like Carlton languishing for 4 years without any unfettered possibly to improve our greatest resource - our players. We have had to sit by and wait for our penalties to expire and then take our turn in a lottery system that means you have little control over what you select. It is absurd! Yeah I know the USA use it for their codes but a lot of other leagues around the world don't use it and they are just as successful. I don't like it and if it wasn't for my sheer love of the Carlton Football club I would piss the AFL off!
The purpose of this preamble Deano is to highlight that whilst some of us hate the system and disagree with what it has done to supporters such as me who half-wish for our team to lose with a few rounds to go, we also realise what rewards we are bound to receive if we fail. It is simply too precious and too rewarding to ignore. Having 1st access to the best available talent in the land. Being in the box seat for trade week with pick 1 in the PSD. It is a position we have never had the pleasure to exploit. It is the best place to be in the off-season for a club like ours who has major talent deficiencies with our list. And that is a fact.
Clubs like the aints, weagles, even the dogs now are showing what can be achieved by having great draft picks and building a quality list. Yes, they haven't achieved anything but even blind Freddy will tell you that we are poles apart from these clubs in terms of player talent. If you can't beat them Deano, join them! I want to see the club I love, the Carlton Football Club, back fighting for a flag in as little time as possible and if swallowing my pride for a couple more weeks and finishing last is what it takes to help achieve this then give me a wooden spoon right away (besides, notice how they are referring to the spoon as the "Golden" spoon nowadays. The rewards are too great!).
Deano, the footballing landscape has changed (and for the worse) since the great days when football really was FOOTBALL. I want to be singing our great song at 5pm on the last day in September sooner rather than later. And I am happy for the club to do whatever it takes to get us all there again. Even if it means finishing last!
