Carlton Supporters Club

Paul, stopping the pain will become the main and immediate driver. Moving on from that comes next. Not saying it will necessarily lead to success but change will be made on that basis.

Dont agree.

Stopping the pain is a temporary measure that distorts your end goal.

How would that attitude go down in preseason training? Bust your gut to get fitter....but that hurts so let's just stop training to stop the pain?

Pain can be good for you. It's an almighty motivator.
You've gotta lose one to win one.
Why? The pain of losing a granny motivates you to the next level.

Well, that depends on who you ask. I've said many times I expected us to be bottom 2 this year, not because of any inherent fault with Bolton or the plan, but it's just the simple reality of where our club and list is at. Clearly that makes me as popular as a dose of the clap, but it is what it is.

Well, that depends on who you ask. I've said many times I expected us to be bottom 2 this year, not because of any inherent fault with Bolton or the plan, but it's just the simple reality of where our club and list is at. Clearly that makes me as popular as a dose of the clap, but it is what it is.

I think a bit of concern comes from the fact that while you thought we would be bottom 2 Paul, the messages from the club indicate that they certainly didn't (Bolton, Judd comments, trading of the pick last year for Stocker. He may turn out to be a very good player but probably not Pick 1 or 2).

If a poster on a forum is closer to the mark than the football department, that kind of indicates that we're not totally on top of the situation or at the very least we've slipped off the expected pace.

The club has never said, not even in the Green Shoots days of yore, that they expected to lose games, or weren't worried if they lost. No club ever says it, and no club ever will, irrespective of what they may think behind the scenes. Neither Judd, nor Bolton, or anyone else will ever say "we expect to finish bottom 2." I don't know what their internal expectations were.

I wonder if tomorrow's game is going to be -- jokingly -- referred to as the Brad Scott cup... loser gets him 

In the first two years BB and others from the club constantly said that 'we will not be defined by Ws and Ls'... that they had internal markers, goals, KPIs that were set and often reached - wins within the growth, if you like.

The club has publicly stated, numerous times from different people, that winning is the focus this year and that there is an expectation to win many, many more games than last year. Juddy repeated it again on FC on Monday night. The CFC is in the winning business.

Now that's something to play for! 

So assuming that is the case, and wins are not meeting internal expectations, what is the better option :
- sack the coach, and figure out the rest later, or
- conduct a proper audit / review, identify the problems, fix what can be fixed and throw out the rest ?

Well, now I don't think that 'sack the coach' is logically followed by 'figure out the rest later...' You can be very sure that if the club is thinking of replacing BB that they've assessed all options and ramifications beyond that. And if they've given him a few weeks to turn the ship around they would still have assessed options should he fail.

Hopefully, all this is, as I've said before, academic because we 'click' and start winning games and moving up the ladder.

I think a bit of concern comes from the fact that while you thought we would be bottom 2 Paul, the messages from the club indicate that they certainly didn't (Bolton, Judd comments, trading of the pick last year for Stocker. He may turn out to be a very good player but probably not Pick 1 or 2).

If a poster on a forum is closer to the mark than the football department, that kind of indicates that we're not totally on top of the situation or at the very least we've slipped off the expected pace.

Cmon Lods, thats a bit naive.

Which footy club has ever come out and said we will be bottom 2 this year?

Bolton has always said he won't put a ceiling on expectations because anything is possible. For him, or anyone within the club, to say otherwise would be....
a) Opposite of what they've said previously.
b) Cause a division within the club due to mixed messages
c) be a red flag to any potential players/free agents coming in
d) be a red flag to any players potentially looking at their options elsewhere.