well yes, it does work.

you need depth, as we saw with previous cfc teams. our bottom 6 are perennially among the league's worst 6.


our problem is our quality does no longer exist - cripps on the decline and withering is off sulking again. walsh post back op, is no longer elite. and our bottom six depsite bringing in solid foot soldiers this offseason, is the league's worst bottom 6.



thats why modern afl requires a system. pies, cats, swans have a system. a player knows his role, knows where to be and what to do at all times. the system moves as one across the ground.

at carlton, we have a bunch of mediocre individuals, who weren't coached into any particular system, and run around autonomously doing their own thing. and in the case of 2nd halves - not running around, but standing still, hoping their mate will do the heavy lifting.


is a clusterfkk, it really is

Yes but we got nothing from Charlie last year and from memory only about half a dozen good performances from Jack (until he got injured) and TDK (until he checked out).
So we really should have at least shown some improvement this year however seem to be getting worse.

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'The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it'
H.L. Mencken

See where you and Braithy are coming from Humps . I reckon we have picked up in the bottom six myself . They are doing OK . Reckon our top six are letting us down this year in that when its time to step up they for some reason do the opposite and step down . We lack star power IMHO .

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All my dangerous friends

Agreed, Mick. I'm a broken record, but it's always whack-a-mole with this team. Improve our bottom six (note: Ainsworth Florent Hayward are not bottom six, they're middle six, but they push former middles down to the bottom) and now the top six go missing. Fix the transition smashing with a smaller, quicker team and we get smashed at centre clearance. [Try to] Fix centre clearance (vs Aints) smashing with two plodding rucks and we get smashed in transition.

Can't argue with that braithy. I do question our top 6 'stars'???

System bred into the players. Its generational.

At Sydney Roos morphed into Longmire who morphed into Cox. Same system, with a few tweaks to adapt to personnel
At Geelong Premiership coach Thompson morphed into Premiership coach Scott whose been there for 15 years

Yeah continuity helps. We have made bad decisions and then blown the place up and started again too many times since Pagan.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Whack a Mole

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

This is a very narrow minded post
Austin list management is below par

But Generally List Management is below par at most clubs
It lacks imagination and thinking outside the box

Geelong is the example of the opposite
I got shit canned here when we gave up a first and third rounder for Cerra
Who at the time was Freos 5 th best mid
All these dumb trades paying overs for crap lengthy contracts all add up
An interesting stat
If you look at the List in 2015 only two players remain at AFL level
Can you name them

Yes but whatever it is it is getting very hard to keep turning up and watching!

Which 2 players?

Especially when there isn't a legacy of success, system and a reliable core group built over the last 10 yyears. That can't be fixed in one summer, but Austin can show us the Aces up his sleeve at the end of the year, because if he fails to deliver the gap fillers he's neglected....it will be an even harder watch....I will add Austin's name to those I cant face again.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Interesting discussion on Almost Blues Brothers podcast this week about the parallels between our season and GW's first at Collingwood where they finished 17th under a "dead man walking" coach (Buckley) and lost 7 matches that they were leading at half time. Also noted that our VFL team is playing a consistently more modern brand of football and developing a winning culture, while the senior team seems to be more experimental in the way it prioritises ball movement one week and centre clearance the next. Might also explain selection decisions like promoting Saad over Wilson, giving the latter more time in the winning VFL than the PTSD AFL. And of course there's the clear tanking incentive the AFL has makey upped into the mix.

Obviously there are a LOT of unjoined dots in this theory, like how the putrid leadership and mental health issues fit any kind of plan, plus we don't have much track record of coherent thinking this century, but maybe... maybe?... this is the Wright blueprint?

Patrick Cripps
Nick Holman