No 1 I understand you're 20 and Kouta's been your hero since when...six, seven years old maybe?

I understand also that you loved watching him soar over packs, charge through the middle and do all the things that made him such a great player. I did too. There wasn't much better than to watch Kouta ripping sides apart back in 2000. Every football supporter in the country wanted him in their side.

Unfortunately that has nothing to do with this decision.

Our club is a mess at the moment and it's crying out for renewal. Allowing the most broken down and oldest player on the list to go around one more time is yet another example of the lack of vision being shown by the Carlton Football Club. And from the player's perspective it's a selfish decision made for financial reasons. His manager said exactly that on Sunday.

Unfortunately whether you like it or not Kouta has become something of an emblem of the self-interest that permeated the club post 1995. He's the last link to a time when the playing group was given their heads and told to go for it. That worked for a while because of the strength of character of the senior players at the time. Guys like Kernahan, Williams, Silvagni, Dean etc etc etc kept everybody in line.

Unfortunately as the years wore on and those guys retired the mantle was taken over by the younger players such as Kouta, Allan, Camporeale, Ratten and co and the results are evident for all. Unfortunately for us they weren't up to it. Whilst happy to take the big wages they weren't able to get the list to knuckle down in the way that had happened earlier. Sadly for us our playing group became more interested in what they were earning and less interested in what they were doing.

And then it all fell apart.

Kouta is a symbol of that decline and for the Carlton Football Club to re-sign him for one more year simply prolongs the agony for those who want to move on from that period and allow the club to return to building its greatness once again. To me Kouta and his mates lost their perspective on what's important in the game.


I recently spoke to a former board member of the club who told me a story about the way contract negotiations used to be handled back in the 70s and 80s with a player whom I consider to be one of the greatest of all Carlton players.

When the end of his contract came up Bruce Doull would be presented with a standard club contract. He would sign it.

The club official would then say "Bruce you haven't even looked at the figure!" and Bruce would reply "It's okay, I'm happy with whatever you think I'm worth".

I'm not suggesting that everyone should deal with their contract negotiations in the way that Bruce Doull did but I don't expect players to allow their agents to trash our club the way Kouta allows David Allison.

That's why when people ask about "club greats" I think of people like Bruce Doull not Anthony Koutoufides.

Tell me club29 - how exactly does Kouta prepare for games?

Kouta is just unfortunate to have Allison as such a loudmouth for a manager...

i refuse to be blinded by this sentimental but narrow minded drivel...

Braddles was still in our top 3 when he retired. Kouta is around No 17 at the moment.

OK. Here's an exercise. Who would I rank in the club before Kouta?

Lance, Fev, Stevo, Scotland, Murph, Simmo, Walker, Thornton, Houlihan, Lappin, Carrazzo and Fisher are definites. Bentick, Wiggo, Waitey and McGrath are arguably better value than Kouta too.

So there you have it. Based on my estimates Kouta is ranked No 17 at the moment. Last year he was ranked No 1 (according to our B&F).

So let's look towards next year. We need two rucks. Let's say they are Bananaby and Bryan. Bannister may continue to be there-abouts. Eddie and Setanta should continue their improvement and Blackers, Russell, Kennedy, Bower, Hartlett and Gibbs/Hansen should be pushing for regular spots.

Suddenly we have 28 players fighting for 22 spots.

The MC want Kouta to play on despite him dropping from No 1 to No 17. If he drops to No 23 next year then he shouldn't play for the Navy Blue. Kouta has a chance to prove the negative posters that they are wrong.

We will always have injuries and so Kouta may still get a chance. I feel if his form is not up to it he will be rested. He won't do the road trips and will be an impact player - perhaps even coming on from the bench. He won't play for the Bullants.

If Kouta gets back to No 10 or No 12 then great. We will be a better team.

Mallee - to put him at no 17 is disgraceful, Kouta is still (unfortuantely) in our top 7 players.

BV top 7 in ability - not potential, I am not a Kouta fan either, doesn't tackle or put pressure on enough but we are not exactly burdened with a talented list. Bower and Hartlett haven't even played yet - but they are better then Kouta though?

Did you even watch the game yesterday.. Kouta was the catalyst in giving us a slight sniff in the 3rd quarter and was very good..

17th best

It's clear you dont have a clue!..

No1B you obviously haven't had a look at the MVP part of this site. I actually placed Kouta in our top 5 players for the day and you can see that if you look at the voting thread. Kouta did help us come back late in the 3rd quarter, but the truth is he also caused us to be so far behind in the first place. Who played in the centre at the start of the 3rd quarter? Why it was French, Kouta, Stevens and Scotland. We got hammered in the clearances for the most part of the game. Kouta played a good amount of time in the middle.

Actually, I would advise you to look a bit closer at the MVP part of this forum. In the MVP leaderboard thread you will find that the collective minds of this site currently has Kouta running 19th. I have him running 16th. Where do you have him?

If you had listened to Kouta's interviews when he re-signed he even admitted himself that this year had been disappointing. As I have said before he has only had 4-5 good games this year. The rest have been quite poor.

So No1B, who does not have a clue now?

Interesting to see Adelaide's decision not to offer Ben Hart a contract for next year

Running an AFL club is a piece of cake these days, you just do the opposite of everything the Blues do. It's a fool proof strategy.