One of my favourites annual topics, looking to see where we are going to get our goals from this season.
If we use a rule of thumb that you need to kick 15-goals in 50% of your matches and 20-goals in the other 50% of your matches to win more than you lose, we need to snag 385 goals in a season to be successful.
So, who is going to responsible for making a contribution ??
There is a lot of speculation about how we will go in 2014 with many predicting a rise up the ladder and a strong showing in the finals. However, the ultimate goal is always going to be winning the premiership and naturally, some of us older supporters are wondering if and when we'll see another one soon.
The question is though, will our next premiership be whilst Judd, Waite, Carrazzo and the older brigade are still at the club ??
I found this quote in an article about young Patrick Cripps which made me sit up and look twice :
Quote
In a season where Carlton will push aggressively for a top-four berth, Cripps could provide its ageing centre line with an injection of youth.
The Blues' midfield could take a new-look this year after recruiting Collingwood superstar Dale Thomas, ex-Lion half back Sam Docherty and former Swan and Bulldogs' utility Andrejs Everitt to help bolster the third oldest squad in the AFL.
We have the third oldest squad in the competition ?? What the hell ?? I would never have thought that was right but it is something of a damning statistic regardless how you look at it.
It makes me now believe that Malthouse is putting in place another of his patented 5-year plans in which he will systematically build a unique list of players that will give the club a sustained assault at the flag over many years instead of an "all your eggs in the one basket' last ditch attempt.
The way the list was turned over in the off-season was no accident, especially the players that were brought onto the playing list. I'm also expecting the same thing to happen at the end of 2014 actually, possibly not as savagely but certainly with the same intent and targetted direction.
Yes, we will be competitive over the next season or two but until we address those nagging long-term issues down the spine we are only an outside chance to pinch a flag.
This is why I believe that although we all would like to see the club win a flag whilst the old brigade is still playing, I just can't see it happening quite frankly.
2014 - holding pattern & learning curve 2015 - the start of the move into the fray 2016 - serious threats
Starts Friday, the Poms are in virtual tatters and we are looking at a 5-0 series win if we don't let this all go to our heads.
Team selection will be interesting, there are a couple of guys who shouldn't be in the team but a big score recently has bought them some extra time. Watson is the one who has to go IMO, should never have been selected to play Test cricket in the first place (I'll give him some credit for that one delivery in the recent Test).
In a club podcast with long-time lieutenant Robert Wiley in August, Malthouse, coming to the end of his first season at Princes Park, questioned the club's winning mentality, reminding the Blues they had won just one flag since the league changed its name to the AFL in 1990.
Malthouse, a three-time premiership coach, sensed the Blues had a ''built-in'' mentality of not knowing what price to pay to consistently win games, and enjoy finals success.
THE full gravity of England's Ashes implosion is unfolding with former England skipper Michael Vaughan predicting a 5-0 walkover by Michael Clarke's resurgent Australians.
Sir Ian Botham predicted England would crush Australia 10-0 in home and away Ashes series. However it is Australia leading 2-0 and on course to repeat the 5-0 drubbing Ricky Ponting's side meted out to Andrew Flintoff's shambolic England outfit in 2006-07.
This is the Test we need to win to secure The Ashes, if we can do that then the other two Tests can be used to blood some new up & coming players.
On a quick Perth deck, Lyon should be rested and another speedster bought in to replace him.
Watson surely needs to be dropped also, he is the weak link in the line-up at present too.
This week, we have been inundated with news about the fires raging on the outskirts of Sydney, the Blue Mountains & Hunter Valley. We've had to put up with smog across the city and people with asthmatic conditions have been flocking to hospital for treatment. Add into that the amount of manpower needed to battle these blazes, the damage to private homes & wildlife and it all adds up to a massive unnecessary mess for everyone.
It came out that one of the fires was started by an 11yo boy who was held in custody overnight and upon leaving the police station, flipped the bird at the reporters taking his photo. Just to show that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, his father did a double-bird at them too.
The current laws state that juvenile offenders cannot be jailed or punished but I'm at the stage where I don't feel the law is adequate enough when it comes to young people who commit serious crimes like this.
Should Australia have juvenile jails built so that these young people can feel the full wrath of the law or should they be put in adult jails to serve a penalty ??
I've had enough of young thugs & punks getting away with it on the basis of their age, maybe their parents should do the jail time instead ??
Sunday afternoon at the MCG, will be a sellout too !!
Hard to know how it will pan out, if we play like we did up to 3/4 time today against the Power, we will get belted out of the park. Turn it on like we did in the last quarter and we will smash the Tigers.
Team selections will always be crucial, I reckon Duigan may have done enough to keep his slot as the sub but Casboult is a serious concern.
What would be ironic is if we were to knock over the Tigers in their first final for many years after finishing 9th.
Just watched a terrific doco on ABC2 (called 'Days Of Our Lives') about the band Queen from it's formation in 1969 right through to Freddie Mercury's death. I have seen it before but wanted to watch it again due to it being really well done and provides some insight into what goes on inside a mega-band etc.
They came to prominence when I was in high school with one of my buddies becoming a huge fan. I wasn't always an avid listener but I did like them when they rocked out (eg. Tie Your Mother Down, One Vision, Hammer To Fall etc) as opposed to the campy & theatrical stuff that they regularly dabbled in.
I always imagined that they would polarise music listeners too, either you were into them big time or not at all.
8 goals to 3 in the first quarter was a telling sign, they placed us under pressure and forced skills errors, we tried to rough them up a little (eg. Robinson V Martin) but it had little effect on them.
What happened in the second was simply terrific, where it started and by whom is irrelevant, the fact that it happened shows that they are capable of matching it with the other teams in the eight if they want to be switched on and committed to each other.
Fighting gritty third quarter saw us hit the front quickly with a goal by McLean and then a goal after the siren from Casboult put us back in front at 3/4 time.
The things we did so very well in the 2nd & 3rd quarters which got us into the game and kept us in it started to dissipate halfway through the last, was it fatigue or a lack of faith in themselves ??
The Tigers were always going to throw the kitchen sink at us in the last so we needed to brace ourselves and confront their sustained attack. I felt that even though we knew they were coming at us, we started to fumble and make it harder for ourselves than we needed to. As it turned out, the longer the quarter went, the more the Tigers panicked as a result of the scoreboard pressure.
I'm still trying to understand how Maric was able to sneak forward on a number of occasions, take marks inside the 50m arc, kick goals from close range too. His mark & goal late in the last kept them in touch and a chance.
Menzel could of probably sealed it with 4mins to play when he had a relatively easy shot on the run from 35m out and missed everything. As an oddball parallel universe happening, Casboult kicked one off the ground to us 15 points up with 3.5mins to play.
Yarran, the player all Blues supporters get a woodie over, from 20m out on the run missed what would of been a certain sealer 30secs later. #badkarma
Ended up with a solid win and one that puts a smile on everyone's face especially after the crap they served up the past few weeks.
The young guys are the future now, that was the most obvious thing to come out of the match for me today, leave them in the seniors to learn the caper.
Did anyone see a Carlton team-mate go and give Menzel a pat on the back for getting back on his own and diving to touch the ball right on the line when to prevent a Tigers goal in the first ?? Didn't see to many say 'well done' when he kicked that terrific goal in traffic moments later too. #gonnabegood
Robert Warnock, here's a tip on how to play the ruck role by someone who never played ruck - try looking at the ball instead of the opposition ruckman at a centre bounce, you may get your hand a little closer to it if you do. #useless
Was Bootsma on Riewoldt part of a long-term development strategy or was it purely through necessity ?? #scratchinghead
Hey Bryce, feel free to actually tackle the Tiger player with the ball, standing a metre away flapping your arms like a seagull just doesn't cut it anymore. #exposed
Mitch Robinson's second quarter was the most devastating he has ever played, in fact, if he could constantly play with that level of disciplined intensity, non-one would ever doubt him. #trainthebrain
Eddie Betts, the smallest player on the field tried to take Mark of the Century by climbing high on Astbury's back only to give away a free kick. #playthepercentages
Nick Graham looked like he was meant to be there, just needs to kick through the ball instead of those that went flat & low. #thathaircutisrad
Tom Bell is dumb, pure and simple, made too many errors and bad decisions under pressure. Brute force with a lack of polish & general awareness will see him ousted from the club. #wicrapwasntso
McInnes looks like such a calm & reliable player now, resembles an old style cool Blues defender. #partofthefuture. Really like what he offers and disappointed that I ever doubted him. #nooneisperfect
Can we get Dr. Frankenstein to join Gibbs' kicking ability with Casboult's great pack marking to create the perfect player ?? #tellhimhesdreaming
Jarrod Waite playing as a permanent defender was the balancing act we need to keep Henderson up forward. #goodcoaching #rightthingtodo
Josh Bootsma, please sprint at the ball when it is well in front of you, don't lope along so your opponent can catch up to you. #worrying
Panesar, who had been part of the Sussex team defeated by Derbyshire in three days in a match that ended on Sunday, then walked up to the promenade above the club and urinated on the bouncers.
