Carlton Supporters Club

The recent public uttering from senior club officials (SOS, McKay, Judd, BB and now The Judge)have all publicly pegged this as the predicted toughest year of the rebuild, even excluding the Docherty injury and Gibbs trade. But they didn't do so pro-actively, before teh season, they waited for the sh1t to hit he fan and then told us retro-actively!

Yet it was hope and an exciting new brand they peddled prior to the season!

If they had just come out and stated this year was expected to be tough, and we were consolidating on the past, most fans would have accepted that!

I realise not everyone believed them, especially the older heads, but it hurts the young supporters more than anything to be offered chocolates only to get boiled lollies! That sort of mean spirited spin hurts the club long term, and I think it tells you who and what they really care about!

It makes them look like car-salesmen! Trust us, we lied to you in the past but we are not lying now!

ACOS was a rookie pick so the recruiting aspect is minor....he was good when he played but a decision will need to be made on him and Sam Rowe.....Sam might get another season and I reckon OShea will too....

There's tough (kruddler and I thinking we'd win about six games for the year) and there's this.

The point is, that not everything is lies and misdirection.

This was most likely to be our worst year of the rebuild is a bit different to dead last 1 and 12 with a percentage of 60 odd percent.

Now if we win four or five games by end of year are they still lying?   IMHO no.

 Some interesting stats:
[1] Lobbe: he had the 2nd best rating on the ground and and did OK in the ruck.
[2] Pickett had 4 possessions. 
[3] LeBois had 4 possessions as well.

Was thinking about OShea on Sat (an Mullet), for all the crape they have copped on this site this year, we put in our worst performance of the year without them in the side. Hmmmm.

Think most expected a bit more from Mullet who was rated a good kick but Brad Scott gave us the tip that Mullet was dumped by Nth due to his poor contesting......Scott was right.
OShea was a reasonable player for Port over the journey but was dumped in the end for his poor kicking/disposal...guess what?....Port  knew what they were talking about. Oshea looked good in the NB's and cleaned up his kicking but the VFL is slower paced and he picked up a lot of easy kicks vs kids from the burbs who lacked experience. Back in the AFL his old problems surfaced, poor kicking, poor decision making due to the extra pressure and pace of the game.

IMO you would delist both at seasons end but with ACOS shot, JGM next to useless and us lacking senior mid range experience they may get another year....
If you look at our backline it appeared full of depth and talent but Marchbank has proven injury prone, Jones has been leaking goals early in the season, Rowe is nearly shot and Weitering still not right IMO..
You look at Thomas and Simpson as retirees, Byrne also injury prone and there are more question marks than answers IMo.....which may help our former two eek out another season....
You could see why Bartel would suggest the Mcgovern brothers as trade targets especially J. McGovern....

But apart from that its all good right?

12 clearances to Kennedy 

Be great if he can produce something similar in the ones.

The results bear no impact on the determination of the clubs behavior, they are two completely different issues!

This isn't some subjective issue we are debating, it's hard copy and spoken words that are out in the marketplace!

The match results are not the issue, the issue now is should we ever believe them again, Judd and BB included?

Think of the bigger picture.

If we came out publicly and said this year is going to be a bust, what message does that send to the players? Try your guts out for us all pre-season, but you are going to get spanked every week.

The message to the players is the sky is the limit. There is no cap on what we can achieve.
Which is true, if everything goes right.

What do you think the 'realistic' message was to the tigers before last season?
Do you think it was "we hope to play finals, but we are richmond so we don't expect to do anything, like the last 36 years"
or
was it similar to ours, the sky is the limit.

For them, everything went right, and they played and won a GF against all odds.
For us, everything has gone wrong, injuries to AA, captain and a large chunk of others.

FWIW, i remember the club saying it was going to be a tough year when Doc went down as you couldn't cover for him, but it gives the opportunity for someone to step up.

8. Lang - still looks well off the pace, interrupted pre seasons do that (yep, I was wrong...). But will be a regular in our starting 22 when fit.

And you could throw Byrne in there too.