Good point..while Essendon* for example have faired about the same as us onfield in recent times they have maintained their membership and income by reaching out to their members and looking after them ..unlike us...its easier for them to rebuild onfield without having off field problems like we do and having to battle for finances...you reap what you sow and we along with clubs like Melbourne didnt embrace the membership at all levels and have paid the price by not being the best in the business anymore..

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

I think you make a valid point Elwood. I think that CFC has looked after its sponsors at the expense of its members, I don't think the two should be mutually exclusive.

If sponsors sponsor on the basis of success then it is only logical that they will jump ship when we are no longer successful. Unfortunately for most of us at Carlton we could not imagine a time when that was ever going to happen. I think us never winning a wooden spoon gave us an inflated sense of invulnarability.

Members are what get you through the hard times. I only have to look at my parents. They would never miss a game, but over the years they thought that they got less and less from the club (in terms of stuff that they can identify with) and saw the club as just been money hungry.

We have made our bed and we are lying in it, but that has to change and it can only change when we stop being over protective of our crumbling empire.

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"our guest is dressed by hand-me-downs, hair designed by pillow"

you've been drinking your own bathwater[/sarcasm]

i get the feeling that dennis has one training session per week where he sits in bed with his wife, ugh, brainstorming cliches for the coming game.