Robert Walls once said the thing that made Carlton what it was, was its striving for excellence and the undesirable urge to do whatever it takes to win.
Knowing that as a fan, you couldn’t help but jump aboard the bandwagon, and those born around the late 1950s or early ’60s were rewarded with eight premierships in 27 years.
The cries of “Go get em Blues” after another goal, the “Woof” when Ang Christou kicked the ball, and the famous song starting with “Dada dada dadaaaaaa” ringing around Princes Park in a come-from-behind win still haunts opposition clubs’ memories.
Unfortunately, in recent years, all the things that made Carlton what it was for 100 years have been abandoned.
The club announced a rebuild back 2015, after another wooden spoon, aiming to shed the arrogance that made them mighty for so long, and the losing of the ‘boys club’ image.
In doing so they brought about short-term pain, drafting in future stars instead of trading aggressively for top talent.
I have no problem with what is happening inside the club as long as the goal is to win games. Unfortunately again, that is clearly not the case.
One of coach Brendon Bolton’s favourite catchphrases this preseason, after consistent ten-goal losses, has been, “We’re not going to be judged on wins and losses.”
This message has gone right around the club like a bad smell.
When you have a struggling list, competitive footy is a must. Even if your players are lacking in talent as much as the Blues, you can still tackle, fight for every kick and every goal, and chase every win possible. When you don’t care about winning, you will lose.
Carlton will lose a lot of games badly this year, not due to a lack of talent. They have a bad list, but players such as Marc Murphy, Kade Simpson, Bryce Gibbs, Sam Docherty, Matthew Kreuzer and Dennis Armfield are not terrible, and if all the weak players played with a strong mindset like the old Carlton teams, you would see more wins.
The reason journos, former players and fans from all clubs think the Blues will finish bottom four is because of their attitude. The fans know it too, with only 41,000 members signed up – there are a lot more out there, but so many are no longer interested.
It’s understandable the club would rebuild, as it is a chance to finally get things right. The upside is a shot at a premiership one day with these young draftees and new recruits, but how do we know these aren’t just wasted years? What if Carlton just keeps going around between 13th and 18th? What if all these so-called stars are just no good? There is no guarantee.
At least if the Blues made winning the priority all the time, then fans would warm to them and the years wouldn’t be wasted.
Going from one of the most feared, powerful and successful clubs on and off the field, to the least successful is pretty heartbreaking for Blues fans. I hope the rebuild works, but the current list and direction suggests many painful years ahead.
Tyler Hamsandwich
Roar Rookie
lol this this is such a bad article. don't quit your day job haha
Steve009
Roar Rookie
Any team that is in a rebuilding phase is accepting that there will be losses, this not isolated to Carlton. St Kids and Melbourne are now only just coming out of that period and there was the Bulldogs and GWS before that. Even the great Hawthorn era started from the bottom and was built through the draft. There are other ways, but only a few clubs (Sydney) have made it to the grand final without going through the bottom of the ladder rebuild first. Teams who try to avoid it or get it wrong (Carlton's last attempt), can talk up expectations, but usually endure years stuck in that middle bunch on the ladder. Bolton hasn't said he doesn't want the blues to compete, he is purely stating that at the moment Carlton is a club that is process focused, rather than results driven. Get the process right and results will take care of themselves. Be patient Travis, the next 2 years are going to be rough at times. Near all rebuilding clubs go through this, it just happens to be our turn.
Coloured Guy
Guest
Let's face it, The Blues suck big time and Macca and Col suck each other. Bravo Travis for telling it how it is and voicing what the rest of us, the silent majority are thinking.
David C
Guest
Wooden spoon more like it.
Lofty
Guest
Looks like you had enough time to write an article bagging the club for the direction it has taken but not enough time looking at what the club is actually doing in the process. Do you honestly believe that the players don't go out with the attitude to win. This is the first time I have read that, because of attitude we will finish bottom 4. Please enlighten me. The club has more chance of future success with this approach rather than the quick fix or so called aggressive recruiting.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Fair point, and I can appreciate a well laid trap as much as the next man.
Macca
Guest
TRavis - "We are not going to be defined by wins and losses. We do not absolve ourselves from the responsibility of trying to win games. We are going to go out and win every game we can. We will be measured on developing and giving opportunity to youngsters and always applying pressure." However given I live in reality I am aware that at this stage our list isn't as good as others so I accept that despite our best efforts we will lose more than wee win, however I also see that the exposure and development our young players get while we are losing can be incredibly beneficial.
Macca
Guest
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Travis
Roar Pro
So your accepting losing? Name 1 other club that is thinking that way Macca? Even Brisbane have excited their fans by saying they are going to out and stop getting flogged and are going to try and win games. AFL is a compitition Macca....
Macca
Guest
" If were meant to be happy with that as fans to watch our team lose every week" There is a difference between happiness and acceptance. You don't have to be happy to eat your vegetables but you have to accept that they are good for so you need to eat them.
Macca
Guest
"What Carlton should of done is get in Bolton and not clean out the place, keep the same list which had played finals in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 instead of bringing in all these kids and announcing a re build" That would have been a bit hard to do given by the time Bolton came in most of the key planks of the 2009-2013 era were already gone - Judd, Waite, Betts, Laidler, Duigan, Carrazzo etc, etc. " I can see where this is heading, yes we may get better, but we need to remember there are 17 other clubs who are jumping further and further ahead of us each year and once we hit our peak, the gap between us and the top clubs will be too big for us to make up" We have the most players of any club under 21 and we will more than likely draft heavily again this year, when those players hit their straps is when the gap gets bridged.
Travis
Roar Pro
Macca we can't predict the future. No one knows what will happen in 5 years. All I know that based on evidence for the 2017 season Carlton will probably finish bottom 4. If were meant to be happy with that as fans to watch our team lose every week than I am a chimpanzee. I just really hope my accusations are wrong and we beat Richmond tomorrow night playing with some Carlton spirit! Go blues!!!
Macca
Guest
5
Travis
Roar Pro
Paul your exactly right in what I say. Yes it is the way I think, but mainly due to the fact in Carlton's best times that is the way this football club has operated. The rebuild started mainly because at 2015 we hit rock bottom and there seemed to be little hope inside Carlton, a lot of where the football club was at the time was blamed from arrogant, aggressive culture that dated back to John Elliott in 2002 and Steven Kernahan from 2009-2013. The thing was Carlton was in the situation it was in not from the culture we had but just poor recruiting decisions while effected our playing list, plus sacking Ratten to bring in Malthouse was the biggest mistake of all as we were playing a poor un watchable brand of footy which involved kicking up the lines. What Carlton should of done is get in Bolton and not clean out the place, keep the same list which had played finals in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 instead of bringing in all these kids and announcing a re build. But did Carlton think to do that? No. Now by going so far we have wrecked our short term ambitions. Seriously you all talk about long term goals, none of you can guarantee a flag in the next 5 or 10 years, your all just buying time... Carlton should of been targeting to win as many games at possible with the list we had at the end of 2015 with Bolton as coach, attacking more and running through the center. This year 2017 we should of been targeting top 4, not taking steps backwards trying to go forwards with no guarantee. This is the roar, your sports opinion and I am just making mine, you'll probably all disagree, but not many times in my life have I been wrong about Carlton. I can see where this is heading, yes we may get better, but we need to remember there are 17 other clubs who are jumping further and further ahead of us each year and once we hit our peak, the gap between us and the top clubs will be too big for us to make up.
Macca
Guest
Yeah I did see that report about Macreadie - I would be very surprised, if they went with ROwe instead of MaCreadie he can ruck and go forward or cover for Weitering if they want him to go forward - MacReadie didn't get much of a run against Freo and didn't set the world on fire when he did - looks a good player but longer term.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
Silly me - how could I have forgotten him. Some are even suggesting that Maccreadie is also in the mix but I can only see him playing if they decide to play Weitering forward. Richmond don't have an overly tall forward line either with no big gorillas, so maybe if Rowe plays it is as a second ruckman
Macca
Guest
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ken oath
Guest
Good reply macca
Macca
Guest
I did anticipate this response. The bigger point was that they have only played 20 games together out of 66 however - Its not great but the difference between their winning percentage when they weren't all playing (11/46 for 23.91%) to when they all were (35%) in percentage would be the difference between wining 5 games and winning 8 this year, that is significant enough. Then if we go further into the 20 games and consider the first 10 games were Cripps' 10 his first 11 of his career and resulted in just 2 wins and the second 10 included the first 9 games of 2016 and had 5 wins you see the significance increase again. Basically if you were trying to find reasons why the blues might improve this year - having those 3 play a full 22 games together would be a big one.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Agreed - it's not exactly Richmond with and without Deledio