Carlton Supporters Club

I think that we should look at our entire coaching team, apart from Stanton they've been too long out of the game in my opinion, but as you suggest that's only part of a bigger picture.

We need to identify truely tough characters and get them leading the club out of this hole.
We don't need thugs, just mentally tough people that will not back down.
Our captain is the weakest captain in the competition.
Start this process today. Make Cripps skipper.
Make Ed Curnow vice captain.
Any player that doesn't commit their body to the contest plays two's.
Make Liam Jones accountable for his man!!! First and foremost he has to beat his direct opponent before trying to leap over packs, and if he does leave his man he MUST impact the contest.
The one thing any team can give is effort. We need to start by become the best tackling team in the competition.
I don't mind if we get beaten but don't get smashed like yesterday.
We also need to start hurting opposition players when we tackle and bump. We are simply too nice. Richmond tackle and bump with intent every time.

Teague is there too. He's been coaching ever since he retired. Reckon he goes ok. Surprised he hasn't tried for a senior gig, especially after his efforts with the Bullants.

Spare 20 minutes so, just for the heck of it, did some research.

Roughly, our past 5-6 years, looks like this:

3 Presidents. 3 CEOs. 3 Senior Coaches, umpteen assistant coaches. Recruiting staff turnovers... Board turnover and still a divided Board.

Capable players traded out out/sacked: E Betts, J Garlett, B Gibbs, L Henderson, J Laidler, M Robinson, Z Tuohy, J Waite & C Yarran (potential unrealised).

Capable (I know that's subjective) blokes retired/sacked: D Armfield, A Carrazzo, A Everitt, R Houlihan, M Jamison, A Joseph, C Judd, B McLean, H Scotland, B Thornton, A Walker & S White (regardless of whether we all agree that some of these blokes were a loss... most if not all would be in our best 28).

Non-hackers/not in best 28: D Viojo-Rainbow, B Boekhorst, K Jaksch, J Tutt, M Whiley, C Smith, J Foster, M Dick, L Sumner, D Gorringe, B Smedts, R Palmer, R O'Keefe, M Carter, N Duigan, S Kerridge, T Bell, C Wood, J Russell, K Lucas, M Watson, R Warnock, A Collins, P Bower, M Austin, S Hampson, P McCarthy, N Graham, J Lamb, A Mullett, J. Cachia, G Giles, N Holman, L Mitchell, A McInnes, M Davies, R Kerr, D Ellard, C O'Shea, D Buckley, J Bootsma, T Menzel & T Temay.

MIA this year (on or off the field) through poor or indifferent form, or injury: J Silvagni, M Murphy, SPS, M Kennedy, S Docherty, Marchbank, Weitering, Cuningham, Williamson, Pickett, Plowman, Phillips, Byrne, ACOS and Casboult.

Mmm, okay, think I'll go outside and find a strong tree, length of rope and chair.

 

The key is unity...but you only get that if there is a belief, by all, that the path you're on is the correct one.
And the key to that is a measurable or obvious progress in terms of individuals and the team.

Our problem at the moment is that seems to change week by week.

People want to believe and they'll grasp at the simplest positive sign (e.g a win over Essendon).
But results like yesterday are "one step, forward two back".

A concerning thing was that at three quarter time yesterday Bolton was fired up and gave them an absolute blast according to reports.
The players response was an insipid last quarter.

Supporters are one concern, but in the big scheme of things they're not the dominant factor in determining the on-field success of a football club.
Unity within the playing group is the important one.

Now there may have been numerous reasons for the lack of response
-the distractions of last week and the absence of the Curnows which is very important structurally.
-the injury toll
-young bodies just overwhelmed because of an excessive workload.

But the effort just was not there... and more importantly from Bolton's 3/4 response, instructions weren't being followed and that's something that needs to be looked at.

These blokes in bold still play for us....

Ultimately, none of this is all that concerning.

Its the known path we must continue walking down, and all we can control is setting the appropriate standards.

I'm too wussy to be endorsing tackling to hurt. The game is played by big, strong, fit men, and given the nature of the sport, no amount / absence of malicious intent and no amount of mucking around with the rules will ever change the overtly physical nature of the contest. But I accept I'm in the minority on this one, and so I'll leave it at that. Incidentally, there was a story going around during the Ratten era that at a certain point in his tenure, he was instructing the players to tackle to hurt at training - one player's name was mentioned as objecting to this, and that was Yarran. Make of that what you will.

The rest of what you write may well be true, but what I'm talking about is much bigger than changing captains or making Jones accountable. It's almost as though an invisible, negative force field exists around the club that turns everything to sh1t. I really cannot figure it out.

I'm too wussy to be endorsing tackling to hurt. The game is played by big, strong, fit men, and given the nature of the sport, no amount / absence of malicious intent and no amount of mucking around with the rules will ever change the overtly physical nature of the contest. But I accept I'm in the minority on this one, and so I'll leave it at that. Incidentally, there was a story going around during the Ratten era that at a certain point in his tenure, he was instructing the players to tackle to hurt at training - one player's name was mentioned as objecting to this, and that was Yarran. Make of that what you will.

The rest of what you write may well be true, but what I'm talking about is much bigger than changing captains or making Jones accountable. It's almost as though an invisible, negative force field exists around the club that turns everything to sh1t. I really cannot figure it out.

That would probably be something to do with the fact that we have been cr@p for the best part of 25 years and a losing culture has firmly taken a grip of the whole club. I wonder if we have anybody in the club in the strategic management and executive positions who really knows or understands what a successful club looks like from the inside? Is BB just yet another messiah, albeit in different robes? All very well to do resets but do we have a workable plan to move forward? I don't know but what I believe is that we first need a very strong framework of coaching staff and senior players in order to foster  and develop our younger ones. Is it even possible to be successful in the AFL environment doing what we are doing, especially from the very low point that we started at? Maybe just maybe it comes down to patience and time? I'm unfortunately running out of both. 

They will improve drastically with E Curnow back because he adds toughness, but why not put Kerridge in there to bash and crash. It's not like he has silky skills we need to protect.

Maybe the answer to that question is because he is crape? By hand or foot he butchers the ball continually and they've decided he causes less damage holistically to the team when he's nowhere near the ball. The fact that we can't OR wont replace him, along with O'Shea, Mullett, Graham, etc. etc. with someone from the two's is more depressing.

I'M PRETTY SURE OUR CEO KNOWS WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE ON AND OFF THE FIELD.

When I see half a dozen players run out in long sleeves, presumably because it's cold, that tells me that they're probably not of a mindset to endure the pain that's necessary to win. Think about that.