Haha Robbo. If Champions Data had a stat for Rainmakers, he would be leading the pack by a country mile. Still though, we know he has no skill but his attack on the ball borders on madness.
I know it's off topic... sorry about that but I really appreciate the advice fellow CSCers. Our use is home business, not corporate. Mrs Baggers and I are about to update our computers (all 3 of them!!! - 2 laptops and 1 desktop). Question is do we make the leap to Apple!
Some absolutely embarrassing comments from Cotchin & Jackson especially.
Interesting that we were accused of being 'front runners'... used to be but I actually thought that last year we were often slow to get going and often ended up playing catch up.
Wish I knew why McAfee won't let me visit the NBs website. Tried to follow the link about to the article on the NBs website and I got the big red cross indicating the site is unsafe!!!
This Saturday at 2:00 PM (with the 2nds game on at 5:00 PM) will be the last practice match for the Northern Blues. Then, like the AFL, the VFL has a complex first round, where the Blues play Willi.
Alas, I haven't been able to find any teams yet. Hopefully that will be fixed before the start of the game, but I cannot guarantee that.
A little good news - the Blues' Development Team beat Box Hill easily last weekend.
NORTHERN BLUES 1.1 4.3 9.8 12. 12. (84) BOX HILL HAWKS 1.1 2.6 2.7 5. 8. (38)
I guess we have to put it all in perspective really. The fact that we seem to be light years away from a premiership is what is getting us down, and that is a by product of being a Carlton supporter and having high expectations based upon a history of attaining success on such a regular basis that it becomes almost taken as a given. As people we need to just take stock of things.... we have forgotten that success is earned and how hard is the work required. Yes the club is in a holding pattern but given the right choices we can start the road back to success. For the older members of this site I guess at the same time there is a nagging fear of slipping back down to where we were 10 years ago... the horror of fronting up to 25 goal floggings every week and wondering if the side will even get the ball forward of centre, let alone kick a score.... I doubt we are going to ever deteriorate into such depths again so I guess that is a positive.
Anyway I will give a positive as I see it. Kade Simpson. Reigning B&F. Haven't seen him mentioned this week. This bloke has been through everything and still throws himself in and keeps giving. For a mob that supposedly can't recruit and can't develop recruits Kade has done nothing but the right thing by this club. Late pick, nobody to learn from, chucked in the deep end. While we still have blokes like Kade running around we aren't going to become irrelevant.
Good post Prof
Agree. Good gear and on the money.
We are at a critical stage in the club's evolution. This must be the year we find out who the hackers and non-hackers are... players, Board and all management and support staff (except for marketing/PR, they're doing great). And at year's end we bite really big bullets and heave out anyone less than excellent. Any assistant coach who isn't achieving at a really high level can FO. (Barker becomes our defence line coach and our boys down back were made to look silly last Sunday ).
Love the comments re Simpson. Spot on. Should be Captain but is probably the 'spiritual' Skipper. Our first pick when we were banned from the first two rounds and we land Simmo at 45. If we'd gotten him at, say, pick 12 you'd still reckon he was a steal. Quality bloke and player in every respect. Well said, PROFMEISTER.
Amers we started very strongly in 3 of the 4 finals we played in under Ratts, finding the right intensity has never been our issue, maintaining it is the problem.
Still talking about Ratts is living somewhat in the past. Time to move on.
The only 'past' that is relevant is that part of our past where we were ruthless in getting the very best people into the positions of most influence at the club. Getting Swann, then Pratty into the place was consistent with that attitude, as was targetting MM or Roos as the replacement for Ratts. But gee it falls away rapidly after that...
There were plenty of us who were concerned at the signs during the NAB Challenge... and have bemoaning recruiting and development for some time (years).
I can assure you that no-one wants to be positive more than yours truly. But the concerning signs are too glaring to attempt any positive spin.
There is hope, though, when you look at Cripps. And maybe one or two of last year's draft picks will show something.
But no matter how you look at it, based on everything to this date, we are average/ordinary. If things go our way, we might snag 7th or 8th and from there anything is possible.
