Some great thoughts there Camel. Losing to win is a bitter pill to swallow no doubt. But as I said a couple of months back the DILEMMA that we Carlton supporters face is:
A battle between the HEAD and the HEART.
Your post clearly illustrates this dilemma.
Those in the Pro-Spoon Camp aren't anti-Carlton (not suggesting you implied this BTW)...it's just that for most of us in the "Black Plague" bandwagon:
...ultimately we want to see the Blues win... and we see our way as the quickest, most efficient way to go about achieving this - in a meaningful and sustained way...we're not claiming it is the ONLY way, only that it is the BEST way.
Personally, for me there is an additional reason why I want us to bottom out. And for that I'll just include a post I made in TBV last year:
The thing that really gets me is that we finished with less than 5 and a half wins for EACH of the past 2 years and instead of reaping the benefits at the draft,as other teams have enjoyed, all we have to show for it is one PP (Walker) and one PSD pick (Stevens). How F%$Ked is that!!!
And this after having the worst 2 years in our history!!!- FFS, that hurts like you wouldn't believe... the AFL really F#$*d us and kicked us while we were down.
At the moment we are at best a side rated 10-15. I'm trying to look at this realistically--> We have won four games BUT:
1) We played Geelong when they had a whole heap of senior players out.
2) Same goes for Collingwood. And even with a depleted side they almost beat us.
3) We were lucky to beat Adelaide- let's not kid ourselves, they lost this game through bad kicking more than anything and should have had us on toast by quarter time.
That leaves the WC game as our one "true" victory IMHO... and the Weagles haven't exactly set the world on fire when playing in Melbourne.
I'm worried that we are getting a false sense of security about our list just because we have won four games so far (3 of which were "lucky") and are likely to win the next two (against clubs that are going worse than we are). Don't get me wrong, I love it when we win... which supporter doesn't? But where I agree with Synbad is that we need to look at it longer term instead of short term. There are a lot of holes in our list. The most obvious are a Ruckman, a quick skilled midfielder, a KPP backman (and Fwd?), and perhaps an In-and-under (mind you I have only mentioned the most obvious, glaring deficiencies in our side).
Now, how will we improve the list with all these holes in our structure:
Option 1) we can finish anywhere between say 8-14 with more than 5 and a half wins:- if we do this then we can the draft young kids and they will take time to develop, a ruckman will take even longer. Are people willing to wait that long? Under this scenario, we are more unlikely to get an experienced player either.
Option 2) Finish in the bottom two. In which case, we are more likely to pick up a young gun that is more likely to have a quicker impact at Senior Level PLUS we are more likely to get access to a top experienced player via the PSD. BTW this is the ONLY way I believe we can get a good experienced player (if anyone can see an alternative, without trading a 1st rnd DP, I'd love to hear it!) as we don't have any players of any real currency apart from Lance... and we might not get a lot for him.
Having said all of the above though, it doesn't look like we'll end up with option 2 this year... and it hurts me to say this... but I wouldn't have minded if we were Option 2 this year... and the only reason I say this is because of the SHITE we are in!!... I'm not saying this because I don't love Carlton... I'm saying it because I DO love Carlton... I want my TEAM to be up there again and this is one of our best ways to get there!... this is the way the AFL has designed the SYSTEM!!
... hell, even if we just finish near-bottom for 1 year to make up for no draft picks in 2002, then I will take it!
BTW, we will never ever be a St Kilda... not in a hundred years!!
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