A fair article and journalist who's saying the mongrels hit us too hard with the penalties so you're wrong to bag this article.

I remember Tony Shaw backing us, and have loved him ever since for having the balls to say it.

I don't remember Healy saying it though - I must have missed that.

_________________
Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Healy has always said that he was worried that the penalties were too tough.

What the club need to do now is get few young guys resigned up like Blackwell, Simpson, Hartlett, and Russell, and openly talk up the prospect of hitting the national and pre season drafts hard and turning the list over in the next few months..

A few of us could wear it more if they took this approach sooner rather than later.

We need "feel good" stories, and those signatures too start would be a small piece of the puzzle.

_________________
Supporting the Blues No Matter What

Healy wrote an article published in the Herald Sun on the 14th of June 2003 titled "The Blue Bears - ACT NOW, AFL, OR THIS IS CARLTON'S DESTINY"

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

I'm not question his accuracy, just coming from someone who's supposed to know about football who suddenly wakes up three and a half seasons later and says 'shit, ya know maybe it was a little tough on them'

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!

Had it come from Shaw or Healy I'd say fair enough, but he's hardly breaking a scoop here.

As long as these articles get published, and people keep putting it on the agenda, and that includes the Pagan issue, it won't be left alone. Those who argue the penalties were too tough didn't write this article, just responded to it.

I don't start threads stating the penalties were too tough, but I'll give you reasons (you call them excuses) for the woes we're in when people on this site attack those at the club for issues beyond their control.

That's a fair debate!!

_________________
end of message

I mean in all seriousness, you didn't need to be Nostradamus to predict the long-term, if not permanent, damage those heavy-handed penalties was going to achieve! We are talking about denying access to the most important avenue for player recruitment in the competition and at a time when our club was at the lowest point in its history. It was sheer madness!

But I would prefer if the focus is not on the penalties but on the absolute injustice that denying access to a pre-1st round PP is to a struggling club when the changes are done mid-stream. To prohibit our club from accessing this PP is denying what the spirit of the rule is for long term strugglers. 4.5 and 2.5 wins over two years is compelling reason to offer a club draft assistance. I wouldn't object if it was another club. That's 28 points out of a possible 176! 15% win rate!!! The club needs to stand up on this occasion and fight. Unlike in 2002...

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

Do I smell an e-mail campaign to the media/club about this issue? Messer Dardew, do you read me?

Maybe a supporters petition at Saturday's game, and the rest of the home games of the season?

_________________
For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

Yes, absolutely. I mean, why would you seek clarification during the early parts of the season for eligibility or reconsideration of the PP rule, when there's 2/3rds of a season remaining? What your saying is if you change it to consider our situation, we will tank so that we qualify for it.

In other words, we shot ourselves in the foot!!! Good one, Smorgon

_________________
For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

I'd give back money for a Priority Pick in the first round.

The AFL have stiffed us again big time - we would have got the money anyway, as "The Spew" hasn't got the guts to tell the Free to Air network he will only be providing them 7 games on a weekend for their $780million.

Moving the Priority Pick till after the first round in our situation is as another draft penalty not as big as Black Friday 2002 but in our current situation its crucifixition.

Our Board has rolled over like little lambs - we need talent and the AFL have screwed us.

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

Winston Churchill

Not the 1st time the AFL has stuffed us around.
The final system was changed after we made the GF in 99 after coming 6th even though Adelaide did it twice previously from positions 5th and 6th.

I'll put good money on it that they will change the F/S just in time for us.

had a chance to get PP in 2004, but we preferred to pick up hacks from other clubs as short term fix and got russell instead of griffen and franklin...we have traded picks for chambers, longmuir, saddington and drafted mott, bannister, bower instead of picking upkids in the draft. Yeh the penalty was harsh, maybe we should have had an extra pick or two in 2003, but we have brought most of our misery on ourselves.

remember in 2001 (the best draft ever), Brittain traded Porter plus picks 1, 2 & 3 for Murphy and Mckernan. Our earliest pick that year was 39. Old ground gone over, but don't blame the AFL for everything.

_________________
Go Blues

yep true sticksaftersiren87, the 2000 draft with bad selections and 2001 with no good picks shows up right now. The AFL should look at positions as well if a team comes last 2 years in a row you would think that should make them qualify

Old ground certainly - but we are talking about Priority Picks - the reason for giving them is that you have a shit list. I believe we have a shit list - whether we had a hand in creating a shit list is not the point - the point is the AFL have changed the PP rules so instead of being able to access 2 pics in the top 5 or 6 we only get 1 - the change in PP rules is a disgrace and its further penalties by stealth that the AFL have inflicted on us.

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

Winston Churchill

Oui Monsier Wangers!

I haven’t sent many emails/letters to the club over time because they usually don’t get handled with the same serious approach I intended them to but nonetheless, I shall persist!

As RW pointed out however, Smorgon’s inexperience cost us a bit with his premature approach on the topic. May cost us in the end. I still think we should persist.

_________________
C'mon Blueboys!

Which we used on Davies. We also were convinced that our 3 1st round picks from the previous year were on their way to becoming long term players- Sporn, Livingston & Wiggins. And we had a premiership player join us in Eccles. And we had high hopes in 3 rookies- Plunkett, Prendergast & Pickering. And then at the end of that year we got busted by the AFL.

Well when you put it that way......................

But those days are (hopefully) a thing of the past!

_________________
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle