Just thinking back over the last 8 or 9 years and recalling the thrashings we got every season from Hawthorn and other top sides.
Year in, year out we saw players like Hodge, Gunston, Breust, Mitchell etc, take us apart with their foot skills and ability to control the ball. In those years, with monotonous regularity we would keep turning the ball over, even when not under pressure.
I assumed with the rebuild that Bolton and SOS in their selection criteria with early picks would automatically include recruiting players with foot skills.
Yet, who have we recruited that has the skills to give us a winning forward line?
Richmond last night just continued our humiliation. Why is it that our recruiters cannot see what every Carlton supporter can see is needed?
As I've said before, it wouldn't matter who is coach. There is something so wrong with our club that will ensure we stay close to the bottom for years.
My wife and I are in the high risk age group and being advised with dire warnings on tv and the print media that for our own protection we must self isolate for an indeterminate number of months.
Yet today, without any comment from media commentators, we see photos of hundreds of people in the high risk age group herded together, some waiting for hours, to shop for one hour in supermarkets.
It is expected that this phenomenon will continue for five days a week, week in week out.
After watching our pathetic effort yesterday I watched about half of the Richmond v Giants match. What a reality check.
We are so far off the pace of the top sides - years in fact.
I hate to admit it but the result of our recruiting over the past five years has left the cupboard bare with few players with the necessary skills to match the best of the top eight sides.
It doesn't matter who we have as coach. We seem to be stacked with players with mediocre skills at best who will never get better, only older. And players who promise so much but are not able to deliver consistently.
Then we have the injury prone Charlie and Harry who we expected by now to be leaders in our move up the ladder. Who knows when and if they will deliver in the future.
I don't believe too much stock is being put on one game. It's been said that we played well against Collingwood, as though that's a balance for the weekend's effort. Freo's fringe players really showed by their accurate kicking to position just how many fringe players we have who are going up and down on one spot.
Really, they appear to model their kicking skill set on Ed Curnow - if you get the ball often enough odds are you will get lucky and find a team mate.
For years I've watched Carlton throw away any chance of kicking a winning score, or even getting close to top sides, because players going forward butcher the ball with monotonous regularity, turn it over, and game over.
I don't know whether it is the players we recruit or coaching staff, but after so many years of mediocrity when can we expect to have players with the necessary foot skills to make a serious attempt at making the top eight?
Making allowances for the hot weather, having half our side out, the fact that the players weren't switched on etc, etc - we are still left with players whose foot skills are atrocious, who show no improvement over past seasons, and will see us carved up by the better sides.
If we are not able to have a season with very few injuries we will be punished by the top ten sides.
In the In Game thread people are critical of McGovern and Lang, but how come no mention of the putrid display of Harry McKay?
He's had enough games to give the forward line some strength but today he was just a spectator.
As an example, with 9 minutes to go in the last quarter with the ball deep in our forward pocket he just sat back hoping one of our smalls would give him a hand ball. He is as soft as.
When I heard that we would be without Jones and Daisy, replaced by Goddard and Schumacher, I was expecting a belting around th sixty points mark. To get within 24 points was really good as in the past we have dropped our heads and been thumped.
I was pleasant surprised by Schumacher. He made some mistakes but showed enough for the future.
Does anyone know what has happened to McGovern? I expected him to line up for the Northern Blues. Surely he can't be that unfit not to get a game with them - or is there some other problem we are not being told about?
Supporters survive on hope - hope that each year new draftees will help the team improve its position from the previous year with a premiership the ultimate goal in the years ahead.
Ask any supporter who attended the Essendon game what they thought about our progress and where we were headed and the words hope for our future would be furthest from their minds.
I watched Carlton players display 120 minutes equal parts of lack of ability and lack of application.
I suppose I've seen a worse display some time over my many years of watching Carlton, but what makes this so dreadful is that we are so far into a rebuild. My wife tells me that I'm a masochist for watching and I must agree with her.
I’m pleased to read positive posts but the facts remain: as we have so many players both experienced and new to the club who lack basic kicking skills and seem to automatically make dumb decisions week in and week out, how can we improve?
Hands on heart we were told by the club that this year would see an improvement over last year. Supporters bought into it and membership has increased. What a load of rubbish. Just the same old same old.
