Brisbane give Carlton the Blues

Liam my immediate thought was that Bolton could do with a mentor at the club who could be his yoda. Some one like Kevin Sheedy, Mark Williams or Malcom Blight. They could help with Boltons delivery of ideas. He learned all his craft from Clarko but a wise sage could help him get his points across better. Malcom Blight was a genious with inovating and wacky ways of getting through to players. Morale and how to get it is something Kevin Sheedy and Blight know about. Other possibilties Paul Roos, Denis Pagan, Leigh Mathews

What happened? Kreuzer and Kennedy got injured in round 1, Marchbank in round 2, Murphy in round 3 and on and on it went. They finally looked like getting back towards their best side and then this week we lose Simpson before the game and then Phillips, Marchbank and Weitering during

Paul - The blues do need to get some more experience and hopefully they will land a quality player or two in the off season but it certainly doesn't help when you are missing Docherty, Simpson, A Silvagni and Plowman (all defensive leaders) plus Williamson and Byrne (not to mention likely replacements Cuningham, Schumacher and MacReadie). Dingo - I would have selected McKay this week as well but I am not seeing him train and play each week but the blues didn't leave Curnow one out, they went with playing Kreuzer in Casboults role and have Phillips do the ruck work but Phillips got injured and it left the blues short handed.

Looked bad though AD at one stage!

The problem with your comment, Col, is that you don't seem to be able to put 2 and 2 together. You say the lack of effort is unacceptable and that Bolton can't be judged. What exactly do you think a coaches job is? He is supposed to be inspiring his team to run through walls. The club employs numerous coaches to drill strategy and technique into the players. If the players aren't playing with the effort and intensity expected of a professional football team it is absolutely the head coaches fault. I believe that no team is as bad(or as good) as the consensus thinks they are. The difference between losing and losing bad is half a quarter of bad footy. I don’t think axing Bolton would put the club in an immediately better position. The re-signings of young talent is a sign that the players believe. But the lack of effort demands us to examine Bolton's position

I used to like Richmond supporters til they won the grand final Hopefully I can say the same thing about Carlton fans within the next ten years

Nopeeee. They didn't win by 100.

100 point loss was the bet Tibor, not 65 though I was worried when it got to something near 80.

I thought the same thing. They certainly did give us a run for our money in the first three quarters of the season opener. I feel that the thrashing handed to them by the Suns ( a team they expected to beat ) in round two knocked the confidence right out of them. Their self belief was decimated after that game, and they never recovered. They have had too many injuries as well. Docherty being out for the season was a terrible omen. Trading Gibbs was a huge mistake.

I told you this would happen. Ok ; it wasn't a hundred points yet it was a sizable belting all the same. Enough to make Peter the Scribe and Adelaide Docker change their avatars. I expect to see AD with a West Coast emblem by his name in the power rankings tomorrow.

For an old Carlton supporter the thing disappointing me the most this season isn't the lack of wins, although that hurts, is the lack of effort shown in some games. Against most of the top sides we have seen plenty of effort yet against sides down the bottom of the ladder the effort shown has been terrible. We have been hit hard by injury especially in defense and this has meant we are lacking any sort of run out of our backline. Losing Docherty and Williamson for the whole season, Byrne, Marchbank and Plowman for most of the season has meant we have had to rely on plodders like Rowe, Mullett and O'Shea. Our lack of depth in the midfield compounded by losing Gibbs last year and having Murphy and Kennedy missing for large portions of the season has put too much pressure on Cripps and Ed Curnow and also meant young players in Fisher, SPS and Dow are spending more midfield time than they should be. It has also put more pressure on our depleted defense. As far as Bolton goes a lot of people say he can't coach yet it is hard to show coaching ability when you have not had the luxury of a settled and experienced side. The old Carlton would have sacked him by now but the Club outlined its plan 3 years ago and they said that the third year would be the hardest so despite all the rumblings I hope they give him another year to show his wares.

Not sure who would come and join the club that could actually help. Even Mick mentioned in his last year at Carlton that they were not a destination club and things havnt got any better. It would appear a lot of the critics of the blues position and recruiting are the same ones who said we should trade guys like Gibbs and Tuhoy for draft picks. To be honest some of our kids couldn,t do any worse than some of our so called experienced players. Look at some of the skills shown, or lack of, by Rowe and Jones.

Always rated Beams a potential Brownlow medalist when the Pies Derek Hine pulled a master selection of Beams from under Brisbanes nose at pick 29. That, and Steele Sidebottom at pick 11 in the 2008 draft were two vital pieces of the jigsaw that delivered the 2010 flag.

Except Casboult wasn't fit when he came back last week, after suffering from a broken finger on top of broken ribs. People like to moan about McKay, but for the last three weeks he's been ill, not injured, ill. SPS being ordinary? He's gone in and out of matches all season, due to not having had a preseason due to injury. We're rubbish; everyone knows that by now. What truly, deeply irritates me is that people are not interested in the actual reasons why. They want to place pressure, to blame someone, to point the finger and to revel in self-righteous fury. Carlton fans point at each other, the coach, the players; opposition fans point to all of them and laugh. Not good days, and especially not good days if what you want is analysis.

It was great to see Brisbane keep the foot down in the last quarter, when they could easily have relaxed and coasted along. A classic example of this was the double-fisted, lunging spoil, deep in the Carlton forward line about midway through the last quarter. Not sure who the player was, but it typified the way the Lions fought until the end. Recruiting Hodge has proven to be a masterstroke. The way he directs the young Lions and gives 100% himself would be very inspiring for the team. Not sure if he's playing next year, but hopefully he continues. Beams is a absolute champ. Sublime skills, worth the entry fee just to see him play. Exciting times ahead if they can stay injury free.

To be fair, the Blues injury crisis is at tipping point and they don't have enough experience around the youth to cover it like the Pies, Crows and GWS have. That said, the list management was poor to not protect the good younger players from this season from hell. Time to trade picks for experienced older bigger bodies in the off season now. The policy of all out youth has backfired, trouble is who will want to come to the Blues now?

Against the tigers in round 1, they played some really good attacking footy, in fact booting the first 5 goals of the match before Richmond could respond. It left me thinking that the blues were destined to have a much better season and upset some much stronger rivals along the way. WTF happened???

The Blues are tanking otherwise how it it that they played such exciting football against Collingwood? It was obvious they didn't come to play and Brendan Bolton's coaching leaves a lot to desire. Carlton have always been cheats

As a long-suffering Lions fan, this game was great to see, especially in the stadium.

Yeah list and injuries have certainly haven’t helped the cause. However I have to ask questions of Bolton.... No Harris Andrews gave Carlton a very good opportunity to really test Brisbane key defenders... But Bolton leaves Curnow on his own? Casboult was fit and available and not picked..... the Great white hope McKay available not selected.... Also what’s happened to SPS? He’s been ordinary the last month..... I don’t think Bolton is improving Carlton.