Macca- ” If they don’t it is the fans that need to change not the board.”- Seriously? This is a democratic football club, not a dictatorship. We pay out money each year to support a football team we love and in return we want to at leased have some in put on what takes place. Football clubs don’t even exist without their fans and if you said that to any member I guarantee they wouldn’t sign up. The board represents the fans, not the other way round. And yes there are a lot of fans out there who don’t agree with the current situation, just like there are a lot who do agree like you do.

“This is simply not true, we’ve had more than 5-10 players retire through age or injury catching up alone and then another 5-10 who requested a trade away before we even got to the players who were “struggling”.- We went a bit overboard on the list rebuild, thats all that means. It was completely un-necessary to turn over the amount of players we did. Many of the ones we traded have become stars at other clubs, many still had time a few years to play, the ones who were struggling were effected under the Malthouse game plan and would have flourished under Bolton and geez I wonder why so many players requested a trade? Couldn’t be anything to do with the culture of the club could it?

” A return will never happen without an upgrade and even then it is unlikely but more importantly it isn’t up to Carlton, it is up to the AFL.”- Hey Macca, how many games have you enjoyed going to at Etihad in the last 10 years? Carlton fans hate the place and I’ve already said in the past if games aren’t possible at Princes Park then we should play all our games at the MCG, but it seems the board can’t even negotiate that for the supporters.

“It might see a few extra losses along the way but it will pay off in time, to reference the 76ers we need to “trust the process” and not lament over things that happened back in 2014 or before.”- If thats the case then why even watch the games this year? You can’t even say for certain that this re build will lead to something great, weren’t we meant to improve this year? Seems our skill level has gotten worse. Even if there are a few exciting players, it takes a whole team to be up to standard to win a flag. Many of the “exciting” draftees over the rebuild have already failed; Wietering, Silvangi and Marchbank have all struggled, even if they were the only poor players, opposition teams take advantage of that, Carlton though has a lot more players. I’m wondering mate when we have a WHOLE team who can each execute their role.

I agree mate, but as I’ve said, the plan shouldn’t be to go back in the past because that certainly won’t work in the modern attitudes, but in the past the blues certainly played the system at the time best. Essendon and Collingwood as you say have tried to go back in the past which hasn’t helped them at all with the pies having not been in finals for 5 years and Essendon not having even won a final for almost 15 years. However their culture and attitude has delivered large numbers through the door each year and turned them into “destination clubs”. Carlton needs to find some middle ground.

What Carlton needs to do is adopt a similar system to Hawthorn or Geelong which involves sustained success. As we’ve seen with Hawthorn who despite missing the finals look set to achieve the quickest rebuild in AFL history. Geelong back in 2015 had 1 year out of the 8 before bouncing back into the top 4. Carlton needs to adopt those same sort of attitudes and deliver sustained success for its fans. I don’t think this administration has this mind set. I do think a lot of players though have promise and I’ve always been a big supporter of the coach and his game style.

Yes were all so happy Macca….

Couldn’t be more excited to see us lose by 7 goals next week against North and take home the spoon

Won’t beat 1 team producing that crap

Haha Paul, nothing better than when we knocked off the pies in rd 7 seeing Eddies face after the game!

I’m also sure Matty and other dogs fans enjoyed getting seeing Elliott’s face whenever they beat us after the “tragic” comment

” Membership fluctuates with team performance, those disinterested fans all jump on board once the wins start coming”- Ok we’ll use your method then, you even said yourself in 2011 we were a kick of a prelim final and well and truly building towards a top 4 finish in 2012 yet we only had around 42k members in 2011 and only managed 45k in 2012 yet Collingwood was in the high 70’s that year and have continued to remain around there despite the teams performance. Membership doesn’t get determined around wins and losses, while it helps, it isn’t the most important thing, look at Richmond they had 53K members in 2012 and finished 12th and were hovering around the finals like we were for a few years maintaining around the mid 60’s. Culture is the most important thing at a football club and it has been very dis-encouraging at Carlton for the best part of 15 years now.

“By the way community programs is a very good way to build your membership.” did I ever say it wasn’t, of course we keep doing those things, I only said that in this period of time we need to be less focused on that and putting more energy on the commercial side so we can have someone at the top who can attract sponsors, give us more Friday night matches and make profits on the financial side which is an aspect that Lethlan would do a much better job than Trigg at doing.

Macca I don’t think I can agree with Matty more on this mate…

All I can say is about time too! People reckon I’m crazy the way I talk about the Carlton Football Club but there are thousands of dis interested Carlton supporters that feel the same way, for a supposed big 4 club like us to struggle to attract 50k members shows that his way was unpopular in the culture of Carlton to the fans, I’m one of those fans. Trigg in his defence did do a good job of rebuilding the club when we hit rock bottom in 2015 but if we are to continue to rise within the next few years then were going to need a more aggressive CEO who is less interested in community programs and more interested in winning games of football and rising the membership like the President said on SEN this morning.

Look he was handled very poorly and by the way Logiudice spoke this morning here are obvious cracks there between the 2 which he did a bad job of hiding by the way he struggled to answer direct questions especially about whether we were chasing Leathlan, but that is a more personal issue. We just need to make sure we can get the messiah or else this move could come back to haunt us. Yeah to the general outsider this sounds like another loss to our club, but the average blues fan would be pretty happy with the news that we are ready to take the next step into shaping us to be a finals team. If we happen to land Leathlan I might actually buy a membership for the first time since 2012. If outsiders can’t deal with the fact that we are doing everything to become great again then thats their problem and by outsiders I mean Caro

On 7 news tonight- Devan Smith reportedly off to Essendon…

Matty I’m not put off by Macca’s policing too much. The reason I may not be on here much is I have a family that needs me and a 5 day a week job so I don’t spend 24/7 on this site. I know for a fact that Macca will always pick me up on what I say if it is in anyway indifferent to his opinion mainly because he uses statistical evidence to back up what he says while I have always just said what I think off the top of my head because I don’t have the time or interest to search statistics. However I do like to hear Macca’s opinion because at the end of the day his a passionate Carlton supporter who wants the club to rise up the ladder like I do, we just have different views on whats needed thats all, despite you supporting a different club I tend to think a bit more like you Matty. By the way we can debate every issue inside Carlton until the cows come home but really its up to the club and players to execute what they think is best needed for the club.

The Roar however Macca is “your sports opinion” and the definition of opinion is “a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” everyone is initialled whether it be factual or not, if you keep pointing out the inaccuracies in a personal opinion it feels like your invading a persons personal bubble.

Well Matty, originally I thought trading Gibbs would be a good idea to land some quality picks to help secure the Rockliff trade but now his off to Port, I’d say keep Gibbs unless another big name player has interest in coming to Carlton which is pretty unlikely.

As for the Giants players, I continue to find it quite stupid that we continue to chase players who obviously aren’t up to it at GWS and are no better than average footballers (who will play worse in a team like ours). Kennedy is no proven star, I hadn’t even heard of Smith until now and Griffin is basically damaged goods like Dale Thomas was. Silvangi has made it clear that we are out to get a star, but at the end of the day no ‘stars’ are looking to go to Carlton. Bloody Judd and Kernahan couldn’t even land Rockliff.

I’m also annoyed that were trying to bolster our midfield which is actually pretty good if we keep Gibbs to go with Murphy, Cripps, Docherty and Simpson.

Carlton’s real problem is we have no key forwards, Casboult overrated. What we should have been trying to achieve was a straight swap from Adelaide for a key forward or a high draft pick which would turn into a key forward.

Rockliff has nominated Port at the club of his choice after visiting them today which means they did a much better job of luring than we did (what a surprise). Also good to hear from you instead of having Macca consistently criticise in great depth every post I make…

News just in Rockliff has signed with Port Adelaide just as I thought would happen…

Carlton to win the wooden spoon. Makes blues fans really excited to sign up for 2018 eh Macca

Carlton to win the wooden spoon. Makes blues fans really excited to sign up for 2018 eh Macca

Its basically a make or break trade period for Carlton. This is a chance for the club to finally build a depth squad that has some talent on it so where pushing for finals next year.

Just hope we don’t stuff it up yet again as we have seemed to do for the last decade. Draft picks haven’t been too bad but the GWS rejects have basically played like rejects for the last few years and have been at best average footballers. Really hope SOS doesn’t follow through with taking another cheap pastle. Griffin is damaged goods like Dale Thomas, Smith and Kennedy are hardly stars and will definetly play worse in a team like ours. Rockliff would be a good find but even he is ageing (He’ll probally chose Port anyway).

What Carlton needs is a massiah on the field like Judd was. Someone who is a class above the rest and will set the standard for the other players like Dusty did for Richmond. Missed out on Mitchell, missed out on Kelly, missed out on Dusty. We need to be aggressive as possible during trade week to ensure we land the right leader for our next premiership team

Anyone watch Talking Footy last night; Carlton staring at another wooden spoon and playing a ‘boring’ brand of footy.

It’s basically what I have been saying all along, the list isn’t right, their trying but aren’t getting the results. If we can’t kick a winning score, we’ll never win games of football

This is quite becoming a curse for the Carlton Football Club. Yet again, another game where our opponents did everything possible to lose and we still couldn’t pull off the win. The whole place is a complete disaster and last Saturday was yet another day where nothing yet again went right at all….

Bolton- “These close losses will help us in the long run”, no Brendan, the more you lose, the more of a losing culture will develop around the club as the players get used to losing. Yet again, we had the game in our grasp, 10 points up with 3 minutes to go and we absolutely blow it. We can defend properly and keep our opponents goalless for 1 and a half quarters yet we can’t even sustain them for the last 3 minutes, its clearly a mental issue.

Then you have Casboult who would of won us the game if he could kick straight from 30 metres out and yet again let his whole club and 50K supporters around Australia down, then Essendon, like a quality team, go down the other end and convert from 50 metres out.

Part of me wishes we had lost that game by 10 goals, then we wouldn’t be so easy to excuse another ‘honourable loss’. In any sport there is no such thing, you either win or lose (sometimes draw) and for me there is no difference between losing by 10 goals or 10 points because the result on the ladder states the same. The current ladder tells all footy fans Carlton are the second worst club in the AFL (We couldn’t even beat the worst btw) and it also tells us we have gone backwards from last year winning 2 less games. How many will we win next year? 3?

Then worst of all, losing to Essendon, couldn’t be anything more embarrassing walking out of the MCG with my 13 year old son being ridiculed by Essendon fans saying how rubbish our club has become and how they have fought their way back from bottom of the ladder to challenging while we are stuck at the foot of the table embarrassing the AFL year after year. How I shouted my voice out for 4 quarters putting my whole day into supporting this club once again just hoping we could somehow pull off a win when in the end my heart, as with so many other Carlton fans, would be broken again. There are kids out there like mine who go to school and consistently get bullied for supporting a club who is nothing of its former self. We clearly aren’t hated anymore by the other clubs, its worse, were just seen as irrelevant.

But Essendon in 2016 practically had all their players out with hardly any experience whatsoever. No one thought, including me, they would even win a game so they clearly exceeded expectations there, they also beat us and this week they will probably flog us to show you and most Carlton fans how far the gap is between the 2 team.

Carlton on the other hand are being very well coached by Bolton and the players are giving their absolute all each week but are still consistently coming off second best. You can’t just excuse youth for being a factor either, all clubs have young players and you don’t hear them complaining about feeling fatigued once we hit the second half of the year.
Something either isn’t right at the top or its yet another recruiting problem.

Macca- I see where your coming from, but football fans won’t happily walk into a football ground, watch their team lose by 10 goals and then say afterwards to their mate “don’t worry, this will all be worth it”. You can’t just guarantee things in life and with the competition evening up more each year, it is very hard to see which teams we are going to go in front of next year.

Looking at our last 4 games: (ESS, WCE, HAW, SYD) and seeing Brisbane play both Gold Cost and North at home, I think it is almost certain we’ll win the wooden spoon. I’m not sure how you’ll interpenetrate that, perhaps you’ll think its a good thing, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got a winning TAB ticket coming…

The thing I find most strange though; For a club that has won the most premierships, was once a big 4 powerhouse and arguably one of the most reconsidered clubs in Australia. How come we consistently struggle to attract 50,000 members each year? Essendon, Hawthorn, Richmond all have 70K, Geelong have well gone past us and many other interstate clubs are in the high 50’s early 60’s. There are many more Carlton fans out there, probably close to 75K, but they see things how MattyB does and are probably fed up with the whole club. We could probably take a leaf out of the bulldogs book, they were down near the bottom in 2014, but they didn’t rebuild, they build a strong committed list of players all around the same age and only took 2 years to achieve the ultimate…

Its been a long time since the club listened to its members. They commit to a rebuild without even asking members what they want. I’ll tell you what all Carlton supporters (apart from a minority on here who are more interested in stats) they want to see a team that is not only trying but is best equipped to win games of football before every other goes past them.

Were the complete laughing stock of the AFL mainly because we have a board that cares about 2 things above football; Themselfs and meaningless programs they drag our name into such as Sex discrimination, indigenous, multicultural and RESPECTS programs. The fans don’t care less about that nor does CARLTON, it is just blokes like Gleeson, Trigg and LoGuidence who care and are happy to turn the attention away from the football because they know they have made mistakes in their leadership.

Macca- Have a bit of a listen to MattyB for once. You all treat him like he knows nothing about football, his assumption of Carlton is actually pretty accurate.

Our recruiting has been really poor for the last 10 years which has left us in this hole which we may not climb out of. We talk of a rebuild that will ‘eventually make us an AFL power again’ when we need to remember the competition isn’t going to wait for us and other teams around us will keep getting better.

That is why we are probally going to be stuck in this cycle for another 4-5 years though. I don’t really see the point of buying memberships if the rebuild package comes with rubbish like that.

We have actually proven we can play good footy throughout the year, but the success of a footy club is detirmend from sustained, consistent success week in week out. If Bolton says the young kids are tiring, than they are the wrong players at this point in time to be wearing the Carlton Football club jumper.

I could be right yet again about this club, I said I hoped I would be wrong but watching this team play, our current list isn’t up to challenging for finals which is what football is all about winning.

Mattyb like most footy fans looks at the ladder, that is the only estimate on how a club is going and at the moment we are arguably the worst performed team in the last 4 years apart from Brisbane. We should of traded aggressively to boost our list, as it was once said in 1991 “-“We don’t rebuild at Carlton.” “But we could do with a bloody good renovation.” Well I vote for a bloody good renovation.

Clear the place out, give the supporters something to be excited about on field in 2018 and like Essendon have done grow the membership with winning games the number 1 priority. They do have 20K more members than us.

This sad tragic club is nothing of its former self that once ruled the competition. The way we are going, we could fold if seasons like this continue.

The emotion is a big issue and I do see that so much history will be lost if North Melbourne does re locate to Hobart, but the reason there was so much heart break with Fitzroy in the first place is because the identity of the club was completely lost as they were completely taken over by Brisbane and have nothing based in Melbourne. At leased if North does move to Tassie their identity will be kept, they won’t be merging with anyone and will still get 9 games in Melbourne anyway to reconnect with fans.

Last Fridays match was really poor, even if more fans had gamed into Etihad Stadium there still would of been little passion from the stands, as had been the case most weeks at Etihad. I don’t see the huge loss in todays day and age. There are no such things as home grounds anymore anyway, whats the difference between going to play at a concrete stadium at Etihad or playing games in Tasmania.

It can benefit North in so many ways economically with their membership numbers swelling to over 50K with so many Tasmania members signing up. Also if the AFL wants to truly “Nationalize the game” than they need have a team in Tasmania, what better way than evening things out by taking another team out of Victoria which is way to crowded and is effecting other clubs.

Like Hutchy, when you consider all these things, it really is a no brainier for the Roos, the AFL and the future of our great game.

Eddie might resign if we win next week.

He didn’t seem to happy on ‘Super Saturday’ yesterday.

Sorry, I knew I got it wrong. Thats who I meant. Charlie Curnow.

What a great win by Carlton.

I thought last weeks critisism was very negative as we played a very young list and got beaten interstate in a game we were never going to win. I thought we would make a game out of it, but to play as well as we did in that second half made me so proud to be at the MCG today.

I thought Alex Silvangi was outstanding against Buddy, Casboult (apoligies Macca) played the best game I have seen him play in about 3 years. He has proven we do have some power up forward. Williamson was great and this Harry McKay, who reminds me of Kouta, did some nice things.

The usuals Cripps and Docherty were good too.
Carlton have proven in that they are going to be a force to be reckoned with. All this negativity with Mick, failed trades, poor culture and a club driven by failur has changed. This group are detirmend, hard, agressive and will always put in the effort in every game. Part of it reminds me of the Carlton of old.
I couldn’t be prouder to be a Carlton supporter than I was today, lets stick it up Collingwood next week.

The debate continues, another great MCG performance, should we be playing all our home games at the MCG?. When is it time to play 2 or 3 smaller games at Princes Park instead of Etihad where we only have a 37% winning record?.

Quite a few over reactions throughout Friday nights game.

“Carlton’s latest hammering won’t sway Brendon Bolton from his course to rebuild the club, the coach insists.”- This is Carlton’s only hammering to this point, every other game we have been competitive in. If we had kicked straight in the first half it might have been a different story on the scoreboard. Not sure where the author gets his information from.

““We don’t get too high or too low,” he said.

“That is really important, particularly with a young group. We look at what worked, what didn’t, why and why not.”- The media wants Carlton to get too low or too high (more the first), but in doing to it won’t help the team win games, it will only make things worse.

Most Carlton fans are going to make excuses because we played so many teenagers, but I am not because I am a realist. We played terrible on Friday night and even though that was a game we were destined to lose the decision making with the ball especially in the first half was terrible. Early on we were second to the ball and completely outplayed, if Port had kicked straight themselves we would of lost by more.

It isn’t for the media to go sticking their heads into the journey we are going through. The players know they were dreadful, but in previous weeks they have proven (yes the young kids) to the supporters they can play good footy. That is why it is important they don’t get to low. We beat Essendon, should of beaten Melbourne and 1 poor quarter against Gold Coast stopped us from potentially beating Gold Coast.

After Friday, I would expect the players to be fired up against Sydney at the MCG this week and come very close to winning. Yes football is defined by winning, it always has been at Carlton since I remember, but laying the boots into a team won’t help them at all.

Yes I know, but in both the actual games against Hawthorn and Brisbane, Essendon steadied and were able to run out the match by winning. If I was to ramble on about pre season form I would say how terrible Carlton was to lose to St Kilda by 90 odd points, but I have figured those games are pretty meaningless. I’m happy we caught them on a bad day.

Make no mistake, Essendon have some quality players and as much as I hate them I can see they will come very close to making the finals unless teams can do what Carlton did yesterday and come up with a clear strategy to make things harder for them. We put an extra man behind the ball so we could chop off the long kick from the corridor. Essendon’s biggest strength is it’s quick ball movement from the midfield to the forwards. Saying they have a poor defense doesn’t mean anything if they are winning games in shoot outs. By stopping the quick ball movement and being able to keep possession we were able to lock the ball in our forward line.

The problem is many other teams won’t think to do that and will be too worried with their own game to come up with a strategy to stop them first.