Carlton boss coy on Ratten’s AFL future
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Carlton president Stephen Kernahan has refused to guarantee Brett Ratten will coach out the AFL season and says a bad month could have serious consequences at the club.
Kernahan urged supporters not to focus all their disappointment about the club’s poor form towards the coach.
But he sidestepped when asked if Ratten, who Kernahan’s board last year contracted until the end of 2013, would see out this season.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Kernahan said initially in an interview with Melbourne’s 3AW radio on Tuesday night.
But he quickly hedged his bets, adding: “If that changes, I’ll let everyone know first up that it has changed.”
Asked again for a guarantee, the Blues president said: “I hope he is.”
Pressed further, Kernahan again equivocated, saying: “At this stage, he’ll be the coach until the end of the year.”
Kernahan acknowledged the Blues would be under pressure to act if they were thrashed by top-placed Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night.
The president said Carlton would be able to withstand that backlash.
But he was less certain how they would react if the Blues, on a four-match losing streak, continued to perform poorly for the next month.
“None of us will survive a month of poor form the way our club sometimes operates,” Kernahan said.
He said the Blues’ board had not sounded out Mick Malthouse or Paul Roos, who have been speculated about as potential replacements for Ratten.
Kernahan said Carlton’s heavy injury toll this season was a reason, but not an excuse for their position outside the top eight, after they had predicted a top-four finish.
“We’ve lost some really good players. Other clubs have during the season – they’ve probably handled it better than we have,” he said.
The Blues’ boss also said their confident predictions they would step up from fifth place last season to the top four this year had come back to haunt them.
“You don’t make close-ended statements in this business,” he said.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (8) | Page 1 of Comments
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July 4th 2012 @ 10:10am
Redb said | July 4th 2012 @ 10:10am | Report comment
This Friday night at the MCG Brett Ratten’s team has a choice, keep the coach or send him the way of the dodo.
Carrrrlton must win or else Ratten is gorrrrn…..no folks my keyboard is not stuck
July 5th 2012 @ 11:50am
Macca said | July 5th 2012 @ 11:50am | Report comment
REdb – Friday night is largely irrelevant, it is the weeks after that, must win against North, the Bulldogs and Richmond which would get them to 9-8 (assuming a loss on Friday) with Sydney, (in Melb) Brisbane (in Melb) Essendon the Suns and St Kilda to come.
July 5th 2012 @ 4:20pm
Redb said | July 5th 2012 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
No Friday Night is line in the sand stuff. Carlton must be ultra competitive for Ratten’s sake.
Just making the 8 wont save his job, that is going backwards after expectations of top 4.
North Melb will beat you on current form.
Its Friday night or gonski.
July 5th 2012 @ 4:30pm
Macca said | July 5th 2012 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
Redb – is it “ultra competitive” or “must win”.
And once they make the top 8 with a full list on the park they are just 2 wins away from top 4.
But even that said I don’t think it is that definitive, expectations have to adapt to the realities.
As for North beating us on current form, yes they have played 2 good games but they aren’t exactly a consistent side and the blues were compettive against both Geelong and West Coast and will have a fairly handy inclusion for the North game.
July 4th 2012 @ 10:51am
Strummer Jones said | July 4th 2012 @ 10:51am | Report comment
I disagree Redb
If we look at Carlton’s draw AFTER Collingwood, they have a “good” chance (say 60%) of winning 3 in a row and an OK chance (40%) of winning 5 in a row or rather 6 out of their next 7 games. Check the draw. The Swans in Melb will be the toughest but they struggle at Etihad. My best “guess” is that Sticks told Ratten if they lose 3 of their next 4 games he is gone. Or in other words, if I were Kernahan that is exactly what I would be saying. Forget about this weeks game. If they lose, Ratten will still be there. If he isn’t, then it would be an incredibly stupid decision to dump him next Monday.
July 4th 2012 @ 11:36am
Matt F said | July 4th 2012 @ 11:36am | Report comment
The Swans aren’t actually that bad at Etihad. It’s the MCG where we struggle. I think we’re 3 wins and 3 losses at Etihad since 2011 which is reasonbable, though the Blues did give us a touch up there last year.
I think saying that the Blues are a 60% chance of winning 3 in a row after Collingwood is a bit of a stretch at the moment. On current form North would start favourites and the Richmond game seems to be a 50/50 bet at the moment. Besides if we assume that the Blues will lose on friday then there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll have to win all of their remaining 7 matches just to make the finals as 13 wins seems to be the mark that most people are predicting. Certainly a loss to either the Roos or Tigers will end their hopes for good given they do look to be proverbial “8 point games.”
Though I do agree that this Friday’s match shouldn’t have too big of a bearing on Ratten’s future. Nobody is expecting them to win so, short of copping an absolute belting, Ratten will be judged on the 4-6 weeks after Collingwood.
July 5th 2012 @ 12:00pm
Macca said | July 5th 2012 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
Matt F – “On current form North would start favourites” Remember North have won 7 games and 4 of them have come from The Suns, GWS and Melb so while they have played a couple of good games in a row who knows what they will bring. The blues will get Murphy back for the North game and they were very compettitve against both the Eagles and the Cats.
“the Richmond game seems to be a 50/50 bet at the moment” Richmond have been ordinarry the last couple and now have injuries to King, Vickery and Grimes plus the sacking of Connors and Waite could be back for the blues there.
Not sure 13 will be required, North are currently on 7 wins and have West Coast Carlton & Richmond in their next 3 and Essendon Collingwood and Freo later so they would have to win at least 3 of those games (plus win the other 3) to get to 13.
I thkn 12 wins will get you there.
July 4th 2012 @ 10:55am
Strummer Jones said | July 4th 2012 @ 10:55am | Report comment
One other thing, this business of recruiting Paul Roos worries me.
Didnt anyone watch the movie Moneyball? I can’t help but think this is very close to what happened at the Swans during his reign; excellent recruiting skills followed by the coaching. I’d only be bringing in Roos if Roos could bring his old team of recruiters and coaches in as well.