Having gone through primary and most of secondary school being mercilessly picked on because I barracked for Carlton, this period of lack of success is disappointing but not debilitating.
It must be tough for supporters who were born in the 1960s and are were used to regular success. I think that may be harder than for supporters born in or after the 1990s ...
It's even tougher for supporters born in the late 1930s. I missed the 1947 Grand Final because I was away on school holidays and then had to endure twenty one unsuccessful years before our 1968 premiership. When that time is added to our lack of success this century and where the club stands today, I do find it getting harder to maintain enthusiasm for the football club.
I am fast approaching Prof E's position. With so many years of promises producing, at best, mediocrity, and with no end in sight, I have lost my passion for the game.
I now record the match. In the unlikely event we win I can sit back and enjoy watching it. If we lose I rely upon comments in the post game thread to let me know what happened.
The one positive I get from doing things this way is that I can keep my blood pressure under control.
At the start of the last quarter I could see, and so could the Carlton supporters around me, that the players were down mentally.
Skill levels dropped below what we had witnessed in the third quarter and we got the feeling that a number of the players had lost the belief that they could win. Real physical effort dropped off, as did teamwork, and some players, for whatever reason, appeared to be going through the motions.
It seems to me that all an opposition coach has to do is have his backline play one on one and we have no answer.
I'm reminded of Jack Dyer's saying "You can't pull your socks up if you're not wearing any." Maybe Voss feels that he is in that position. The skill levels and decision making on Friday were so bad that we ran the Swans into form in the third and final quarters, so it's hard to know what part their coach played.
I have just got home after flying to Sydney on Friday to watch the game. After reading the comments on this thread I thought I might add a few of my own.
The playing surface was in very good condition. There was no rain, humidity or wind during the game.
In the first quarter the Swans began hesitantly and we would have been goals ahead by the end of the quarter except for the fact we have such a dysfunctional forward line. The Swans backline played one on one and our mids and half forwards did not know what to do. When our mids went forward with the ball, rarely did our forwards lead up but seemed content to remain static. More often than not, when they did lead it was to the pockets.Consequently, we fell back into kicking the ball long onto the heads of the forwards.
The second quarter was a repeat of the first, and we could sense the Swan's confidence and teamwork growing. In this quarter Motlop seemed to find new ways of stuffing up. He dropped simple marks and seemed incapable of picking up the ball, just fumbling all the time.
The third quarter reopened old wounds for supporters. The team was dreadful. I think it took until the eighteen minute mark before we troubled the scoreboard. Turnovers occurred almost every time we went into attack. On the times when we went from the halfback line through the centre we always seemed to handball to a player under pressure, or kick straight to an opponent, scrub kick the ball along the ground, collide with another team mate, hesitate before making a decision, or kick the ball on top of a forward who had two opponents.
This quarter also exposed problems on our backline. At his best McGovern is a serviceable CHB, but on any other day he is just not up to it. Saad has also lost form. Instead of getting the ball, outpacing opponents and delivering the ball deep into the forward line, on Friday night he had difficulty breaking away and had to run in a semi circle before kicking the ball high into the forward line.
The last quarter was a repeat of the third, only worse.
There is no way that we are going to get into the top four with this list. I'm sure TDK will take the money and run.
Lods, you mention that we dominated for a quarter. Surely our inability to dominate for no more than that is simply a continuation of the form that has kept us rooted to the bottom half of the ladder for so many seasons.
An excuse offered for our mediocre form over the years relates to the high number of injuries we have had each pre-season causing players to miss training and resulting in their never being able to recover their form fully during the season. That excuse cannot be used this season.
With the return of Silvagni and Docherty, together with new blood added to the list, supporters could be excused for expecting a performance that would give them hope for the season.
I hoped we would win, but if we did not we would at least show promise. No wonder supporters are angry, the second half was an embarrassment. Some of the mistakes were almost comical - what you see when people are having a kick to kick session in a park.
I know that the club is under pressure following the number of complaints from supporters. Let us hope we do not have a repeat performance this week.
Lods, I hope you are right, but from where I was sitting I saw fumbles, bad handballs, mis-kicks, kicking to the opposition when under pressure and not under pressure, getting in the way of a teammate when going for a mark etc, etc.
The play was of a standard that wouldn't be tolerated by the coach of a Sunday amateur team let alone an AFL club.
The players are well rewarded and it is not unreasonable for us to expect players to deliver a standard of play certainly way above the rubbish we saw on Thursday night.
The only good thing that happened to me last night was getting a train home before the Richmond mob arrived.
I agree with all the comments made so far on this thread. After so many decades watching Carlton I knew we were in trouble half way through the second quarter. Unlike our glory years when we would come out after half time and belt the opposition into submission by three quarter time, we once again showed the mental fragility that has been on display every season this century.
Despite numerous coaches and hundreds of players moving through our list this century, the two things supporters can expect to happen with certainty are mental fragility and players crumbling under pressure.
Several hours after this incident there was a call to Radio 693 from a woman who said that she lived a street or 2 away.
She said that water had been running from the top of the hill for several weeks, the volume similar to that from a fire hose. In addition, she said that council had been advised of the problem on a number of occasions.
If any of Trump's threats to smaller sovereign nations come to fruition under the guise of defence of the USA, then we will enter a new phase of imperialism.
I see Trump taking the States back to the Fortress America attitude of the 30s leaving China and Russia to deal with their neighbours as they wish.
On another topic, I watched a recent Malcolm Turnbull interview relating to the AUKUS agreement. He described the contract as the worst he had ever seen entered into by any Australian government and held the view we would never see one submarine delivered.
One clause states that a submarine may be delivered provided the president at the time is satisfied that it is surplus to USA needs. . At present the US is making 1.2 submarines a year. It needs to be making 2.4 a year to keep up with the US navy needs. The current backlog is seventeen submarines. To make enough submarines so that we get our first would require production to be boosted to 3.4 submarines a year. I am not sure whether we have given 3 billion or 6 billion dollars to the US shipyards to boost production - whatever the amount Turnbull believes it's gone for good.
If Trump goes ahead with his threat to take back the Panama Canal because it was a "bad deal", then sure ly it is reasonable for Russia to ask for the return of Alaska on the basis that receiving 2 cents per acre from the USA was also a "bad deal".
Also, under Trump's "might is right" policy, it would be reasonable for China to take back Taiwan, and to take control of the South China Sea.
The upside for Australia is that we would not have to worry about trying to curb China's territorial ambitions in the future.
If Trump makes good on his promise to put a 60 per cent tariff on all Chinese goods entering the US then our federal budgets will take such a massive hit that it won't matter which party is in power.
I found a recent letter in The Age on this subject to be of interest.
"The UK has had 60 years of experience building and running nuclear power plants, which is 60 more years than Australia. Yet it is unable to build new plants on time and on budget. Hinkley Point C in Somerset is clear evidence. Its original budget of 18 billion british pounds in 2017 has now blown out to 46 billion british pounds and the completion date has gone from 2025 to 2031."
Figures I have seen relating to French, British and Russian nuclear power plants show that, on average, the life of a nuclear power plant is approximately 30 years with a decomissioning life of 60 years.
Currently, from the time the first sod is turned, it takes approximately 15 years to get a nuclear plant up and running.
One of the many problems faced in the UK is the lack of skilled specialist welders. We will have the same problem.
