1. It takes our boys having a red hot go everytime they play. Our players where doing ballet for most of 2005 not football. Did we actually lay a tackle or look like we wanted too?
2. It takes our coach to get them motivated and show some fight. Read 2nd game vs Essendon* here. Debacle we are used too, but Sheedy embarrassed him. Not the first time last year and it seemed like he didn't want to win. I know, I know ...
3. It takes our "president" to shut up about how bad our list or finances are and start being positive. Show he is actually getting us out of this mess and there are blues skies. Not all doom and gloom and running to AFL for assistance after 3 years of pain.

Just some quick points of every aspect of our footy club that has got us feeling like we are.

Seems that you have plenty of ideas Surrey but you miss the purchase of Membership tickets.Perhaps you could start the ball rollling?

My reading of it is that you are not a ticket holder..

The club are rebuilding and it does take time....young blokes always give it a go and I reckon Denis Pagan doesnt like losing either especially to a bloke like Sheedy...2005 was treading water and getting pleasure out of seeing young blokes like Bentick, Simpson, Walker develop not so much about winning games...
re: The president....had a heart attack probably in part due to the stress of running the club and trying his hardest to deal with everything. I'd rather a president tell me the facts than hide them like Jack did..I think we can can cut him some slack...blues skies are with Murphy, Kennedy and all the other young blokes....you gotta believe and visualise young Marc Murphy with a premiership cup in his hand...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

This stuff really pisses me off.
If the club needed the CBF, they should have put their hand out 3 years ago.
If not, shut up and get on with it. I'm sick of Caro getting theses leaks whenever our membership is slowing down.
If Collo needs the members to jump quicker, he should say so instead of threatening us with becoming one of the AFL's "kept clubs" every year.

Make a decision here and now and cut the bullshit.
All the positive stuff that gets fed to the sponsors gets eroded whenever this crap transpires.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Well Said.

How does that work Blue Vain?

Mr. Demetrispew: Mr. Collins your club has been found guilty of systemic salary cap breaches and is fined $930,000.

Mr. Collins: Thats very harsh Mr. Demetrispew, but okay whatever you say. Oh by the way here is our application for $1,000,000 from the AFL Competitive Balance Fund.

Mr. Demetrispew: No worries Ian, we'll call it quits then.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

BLUES CONSIDER SEEKING AFL ASSISTANCE

that has been the same membership slogan since black Friday. Enough already.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

I was also hoping that we might have experienced a tigers type enthusiasm after having utilised selections 1 & 4 in the draft. The ferals generated huge excitement and publicity with their top draft picks and experienced a huge surge in membership towards 2005 on the back of that. Us on the other hand, have gone the opposite way! Not trying to apportion any blame here on the club, but given similar circumstances, the levels of excitement are in stark contrast and the build up to the respective years poles apart!

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C'mon Blueboys!

Good point marci. Carlton has 5 top 10 pickso n the list plus 5 other high value kids that we should be pushing big time. We have had a great run in the press this pre-season thanks to this, great effort by the Club, but people seem down. Maybe setanta and Murphy kicking 3 each this weekend would help to overcome it but it does feel 'heavier' than normal. Much heavier. Unbearable for some friends.

I think Surrey's point, as sad as it is to hear from a fan so passionate about Carlton, about Collo is right, but its bigger than that. The Club itself does not have a marketing arm or budget it can use to push its name into the market. I think we've been able to live off our name and our brand for so long that we're not prepared for the malaise so many fans feel. We're not used to having 4 years out of the finals. We're not used to being losers. We think at times, end of 2004, start of 2005, that we're coming out of it but the truth is that our recruiting, salary cap breaches and pissing money up to build a series of walls in Carlton have cost us a short to medium term future. As we're going to be crap we have to focus on the kids and do it over & over again to pump up support. We have to snap our fans out of their unhappiness and focus them on these kids coming theough, dont know how, but we have to.

Its this problem plus my own ego that is behind each of my articles. Dan from M&D feels the same. I know the Buzz, and the Ghost, feel the same. And we offer to do more but the CLub has limited resources. Question is - is this an OK answer or is it a cop-out? Will this feeling that the next good team is 5 years away cost us 5000 members and the chance to be cashflow positive by 2007? If so, we better ramp up tha marketing big time.

People gather round and listen.

Does anyone find it interesting how last night we all recieve a message from the carlton football club about the family day just another way to support the club by getting down there and spending our hard earn...... Then the very next day we read that we are expecting to go to the AFL for hand outs something all Carlton supporters dont want to happen so what do we do, We get down to the princess park feb 26 (family day) donate some money buy a membership so this doesnt happen...... same story every year.

Clever if you ask me, id rather sell my liver donate the proceeds to the club than having my club the Carlton Football Club going to the AFL for assistance. So why cant they just come out and say we need help and call for us cause im sure every Carlton supporter will help out in any way they can

Anyone know where i can locate the form to sign as a voting member or has this changed so it is all automatic when you buy/renew your membership this year?

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Thats the point I'm making Agro.
Do you think it's any different now?
How could we possibly go to the AFL asking for money when we are paying a coach about 2mill over 3 years?

We made a decision to go it alone.
Well dont cry wolf.
Dont use it as a scare tactic every 12 months.
The supporters deserve better than that bullshit.

_________________
Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Can I ask why the board have decided to leak this information to Caro, on the eve of our first pre-season cup match?

To my way of thinking, there are three reasons that seem the most likely:

(a) scare us all into buying memberships at the game

(b) dissuade any potential challengers from taking on the board (poison chalice and all that)

(c) gauge supporter reactions if we went ahead and did this

All of which are pretty pissweak reasons to leak this, if you ask me (not that anyone is)

People buy into POSITIVE messages. Messages of hope, of a future that can be. Scaring people is just a crock of shit.

As Molsey says - for f***s sake, sell us Murph and Kennedy and AW and Waitey and Fish and the Irish boys... not this crap.

CARLTON FOOTBALL CLUB BOARD'S MARKETING SMARTS = NIL. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA. ZIP

Exactly right.

(conveyed with a bit more eloquence than my post )

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

all a bit over the top and short sighted suggesting that wealthy supporters are not putting in.

Who could tell me how much individuals like Dick Pratt or Bruce Mathieson have put into the CFC over their lifetime?

As JM highlighted, why would anyone put their money into an organisation now that was incapable of making it work effectively?

Is a one time cash donation going to address the issue? or do we have more the fundamental issue of balancing our business expenses with our ability to generate sufficient revenues?

It appears that perhaps an over reliance on wealthy supporters in the past has for too long disguised the more fundamental business issues we have had. 25,000 members and some sponsorship $ in the 90's was never going to cover our player payments (plus 100%).

No doubt tough and very smart decisions lay ahead, but get out of the past and stop relying on too few to maintain the dream.

I thought the money was gonna roll in once we left Optus.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

I suggest people read "A letter to the members" in the last edition of Inside Carlton.

Nothing in Caro's article is news except that the Tax debt is not an issue.

The club has a financial plan in place and until the outcome for 2006 and 2007 is determined the board are doing a fine job.

IMO Caro is playing on the fact we are having a board meeting which would obviously be discussing the progress of the financial plan and maybe applying to the AFL for assitance. What board doesn't discuss financial matters?

In realation to membership it is a bit suspect that no counter exists this year

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

All points well made mjonc - with respect to member numbers -the jungle drums don't sound to promising on that front, do they??

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

I thought you'd be up for 'hitting' the AFL for the cash

Look membership is down.... its that time of the year again..and collo is going through Caroline Wilson to get the message out there that we need money...(using his usual imagination and flair)

i doubt very much that we will go for that 1 mill... but i would have.
Id lock our payments down to the bare minimum.. kick out the overpaid useless senior players.. spend the next couple of years working with our kids and adding to them and start again.
Let the sponsors know what were doing.. the supporters the same.. and not live day to day.

Yes surrey we know what you think... you think we should be playing in front of an average of 22k per week.

Can you be our leader???

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