Carlton Supporters Club

I think our poblems reef back to the place where they have been for a long time now. The midfield. Unfortunately its heart, i.e. Crippa,  is not firing atm and maybe that is affecting others around him. Walsh is fighting desperately to fill the vacuum but he can't do it all and others need to also step up. Our midfield coaching group needs to lift its game also.

For all the GWS players we picked up we missed on the two that could really make a difference.
Adams and Steele are leaders and have an edge to their game....Stkilda in particular would be nothing without Steele.

re Cripps....
I have vague recollections of him getting cleaned up in a marking contest. May have been twice. Someone jumped into his back and some contact was made front on.

He might be playing injured, but it could be a new injury rather than him carrying one from the pre-season.
That being said, he did have something in the preseason, does anyone remember what injury Cripps had?

There's a lot to like about that post and very few points with which I'd disagree.

Certainly Murphy should have been put out to pasture two years ago.

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Pretty honest feedback at the meeting today. New blokes, who have come from different cultures had plenty to say.

Here's a stat for all of you.
From the 2009-2014 draft picks, Patrick Cripps is the only player who remains on the CFC list.
That's 6 drafts with only one pick left to show for it. Great, isn't it.

Our recruiting has been abysmal.

Now down to tin tacks.

We have a coach who sits in the box like a stunned mullet. No passion. No nothing. When plan A, whatever that is fails, there is no plan B or C. On Thursday night, he was sitting in the box chewing on a pencil, looking like Mr.Peabody from Rocky and Bullwinkle days, if some of you are old enough to remember them.

We are getting thrashed through the mid-field. Who coaches the mid's? Barker. Why is he still there after 12 years of failure.

Unfortunately, our Coach, is a lovely bloke who is obviously allowing his innate softness, and closeness to the players, dictate who he drops, or promotes. We need a right royal piece of cr@p coaching us, who is nice to the blokes when it's the right time to be so, but a complete and utter emotionless bastard when it comes to the selection table, and calling the weak mongrels out for what they are,for their weak efforts on the field.

Our club is far too involved in do good, politically correct off field stuff, and has stopped being concerned with what actually matters to the supporters who contribute through memberships to the clubs coffers and by extension the players salaries.

And just in case someone at the joint is reading this, and doesn't understand what it is that they should really be concerned about, IT'S WINNING GAMES AND PREMIERSHIPS!!

So, a coach with any intelligence, one who places winning games and flags as THE PRIORITY, would drop Murphy in a heartbeat.
Great servant of the club, but the man is gone. His shoulders are stuffed, so he can't stick a tackle. Mind you, because of that issue, he only puts on a show that he is trying to tackle. He won't go into a pack, because he had his jaw broken years ago, and is too scared to have it happen again.
That he's a turnover merchant, is also a reason for him to be dropped, but the first two I mentioned, should be more than enough.

They are allowing their hearts to rule their heads, and our club and the success we crave, cannot afford that.

Levi, is gone.
Williamson, no right foot kicking ability, easily brushed aside, not good enough.
Ploughman, can mark, can kick well, but too easily brushed aside and is a panic merchant. We can't afford him in our side.
Setterfield. Has got ability, but they are still trying to work out where best to play him. Maybe it's the mid-field, but having said that, he has jibbed it on a number of occasions. You can't be in a team and play scared football, and not be prepared to put your body on the line. The coach should be telling him that that is required, otherwise he is of little or no value to the team.
SPS, is NOT a back man. He doesn't have the body for it. He has got silky skills and should be in the mid-field or on the forward line where I reckon he would be very dangerous.
Jones must be told to stop with the two fisted punch. He did it twice that I noted on Thursday night, when he could easily have taken the mark.

Look you have all covered the weaknesses inherent in our team. It starts at the top, and is rusted on right through the whole lot of them.
If only they all played with the passion and determination of Sam Walsh.

And that's where I come back to the coach.

I'm an old supporter. Worked it out the other day, that I have been supporting the club since 1953 when my dad bought me a jumper with Keith Warburton's number 7 on the back.

I've had a great run. Seen more flags won than a 30 year old supporter who has seen none.
I don't care about me, but I do care about those who have never had the pleasure of watching us win a premiership like I have.

So for their sakes, I want to see the coach and those who select the team be ruthless this week. Give blokes who will put in, they may not be the best players in the side, a go. Stop letting their hearts rule their heads. Go to Murphy, and say it's over mate.

They bloody well retired Kade Simpson, and he was playing ten times better at his worst, than Murphy has in the last three years at his best.

I'll cop another year of not making the 8, as long as the message gets through that you don't get a game unless you give 100% for 120 minutes, and if you get beaten, it's not because you didn't give all you had.  At least, we will have a year which we can look on with some pride that they gave their all, but were just not good enough.

Maybe the culture of tossing it in for 10 minutes every quarter and allowing the opposition to run rampant, will have gone.

And who knows, maybe we DO make the 8. Maybe, when we recruit next year, we get blokes wanting to come to the club, not because they are getting $900,000 a year for five years, but because they respect the coach and his staff, and because they respect the tough, hard, uncompromising way that the players play each and every game and they want to be part of THAT culture.

If, week after week, we just keep doing the same thing, if we just keep selecting the same duds week in week out, if the coach keeps sitting transfixed like a statue in the box, if we concentrate more on trying to be all things to all people OFF the field, rather than producing results ON the field, then we have a long, dark future ahead of us, and I am afraid that those of you born after 1990, will never enjoy that which I had the pleasure of enjoying.

Watching the team I love achieve the ultimate success of a premiership.

This isn't a shot against you, but I find this idea laughable. We've had new blokes from successful clubs before. Bolton and Russell both from Hawthorn. Liddle and Callum Moore from Richmond, Smedts and Lang from Geelong. Are these blokes mutes ? Do our blokes have short memories, such that they need constant reminding ? These new ones come in, read the riot act, and our guys all of a sudden see the light, irrespective of what has happened before ? Do these new recruits have some amazing communication skills lacking in those who came before ?

Sorry, but IMO, this is a publicity stunt.