This is from Phil Rothfield's column in the Sunday Telegraph this morning….I’ve got a feeling somebody has set Phil up bigtime...it can’t be real. : )

Quote:MALTHOUSE HOLDS KEY TO NRL PERFORMANCE
Sunday Telegraph 1/11/15

The NRL has hired AFL coaching legend Mick Malthouse to address Rugby League staff from the 16 clubs at a high performance conference in Sydney this month.

Malthouse will be the keynote speaker with his presentation to focus on:
- Player Power; maintaining the dressing room
- Media relations; managing the intense media scrutiny ;D
- Key stakeholders: handling robust board members and influential chairmen  ;D
- Leadership philosophy

http://www.3aw.com.au/news/carlton-fans-...kk3ak.html

Quote:The Blues featured in six Friday night games last year but voiced their anger on Tuesday after being told they wouldn't feature in any next season.

"I think the ban will have to last at least two years," Caro said on Sports Today.

Did anybody catch the item on 7 News about next year's draw? We open on Easter Thursday against the Tigers. No Good Friday game. Blues right out of prime time schedules.

Sounds like we're up for a few twighlight games on Sunday and the odd Saturday arvo fixture.

We are being sold a significant amount of hope at the moment, if we we are patient!!

If we are to believe that we will be contenders in 5 years time (circa 20/21), there are 2 questions to ponder: who will win the next 5 premierships?  Which of our greatest rivals (Richmond, Collingwood , Essendon) will win one.

Or in other words, do we have the correct strategy and structure in place to beat at least a couple of the sworn enemies (Ess, Coll, Rich) to the next premiership.

16: WCE,  17 WCE. 18 Bullies. 19. Collingwood  20: GWS. 21 Carlton.

Bad luck Tiger and Bombers!!!!

Take with a grain of salt this...
But has the forum ever considered incorporating Twitter and/or Facebook?

I know there has been talk of keeping things lean and I know and appreciate the Vlad has heaps on his plate and not enough time, but (especially Twitter) it could seriously increase the number of reader/members of this site with integration of these tools, because use of good hashtags can result in a lot of free advertising. Also following the players, a few of the prominent sporting identities etc can result in them following back and retweeting forums that are discussed here.

There are SMF mods for integration of both, but also this could be started with setting up the initial Twitter and Facebook pages and manually posting links and tags back to club. The Twitter mod at the moment is a
'share this" style mod, there was a full integration but they removed support for it.

So a simple start might be..

Kerridge has joined us, so we start a thread that welcomes him (where are they this year actually?)
and a tweet goes out along the lines of...

Quote:@CartlonSC sends @Skerridge29 a warm welcome for joining @CarltonFC. Come join in the conversation here  (add tinyurl)  #AFLTrade #CarltonFC 

After an extremely successful trade period, it should be clear to everyone that we are now on a long journey to firstly rejuvenate our playing list and then go on to win No. 17.

With that in mind, here is how I see us performing over the next few years :

2016 : 17th - 18th
With a new coach and a lot of new players, we cannot expect a dramatic improvement in our ladder position especially as we don't have the full set of playing cards to work with. The game plan will be built around our patchwork quilt playing list so we can expect some bad losses score-wise. On the flipside, I'm expecting a more cohesive & committed effort from the team as the season progresses. Players will get to know each other better plus Bolton's message will seep in and the overall camaraderie will be forged.

2017 : 14th - 16th
Another season of retirements, trade deals and new kids via the draft will see our list transform even further. The new young players will have more games under their belt plus they will have physically & mentally developed even further. 

2018 : 8th - 10th
Expecting a quantum leap up the ladder here as the playing list finally takes shape for the future. There'll be closer matches in 2017 with many a nail-biter on the cards, the players will now be disciplined and dedicated to fighting it out to the finish. 

2019 : 6th - 8th
With three years of player development & experience plus some shrewd 'for need' trades, we should be forcing our way into the finals once again. I'm also expecting the new culture in the club to be fully ingrained and a powerful ingredient for all associated.

2020 : Top 4
Learning from our mistakes and with an even stronger hunger for success, this is the year we match it with the best in the league and earn the double-chance in the finals.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victori...7576965233

Quote:THE Carlton Football Club says it’s confident it will have no players by season 2018 as its ‘Player Zero’ strategy picks up pace.

“We’re working really hard to ensure we have no players by 2018 and this trade period shows we’re well on track,” said Carlton CEO Steven Trigg.

“Players are expensive, troublesome and require constant feeding. Draft picks are much easier to manage.

“Having zero players also cuts down on our carbon emissions and everyone knows how much we care about the environment at the Blues.”

Quote:Mr Trigg said Carlton were confident of still being able to keep up their on field performances with no players.
“Really, who would notice? You can finish 18th with or without players to be honest.”

It’s believed that there are elements within Carlton who are less than happy with the ‘Player Zero Strategy’.

“I may be old fashioned in my thinking but I think players are kind of essential to a football team,” said new Carlton coach Brendon Bolton.

“At Hawthorn we had lots of players and a lot of them were also really good at football.

“That was sort of the model I was hoping to replicate here but now it seems unlikely.”

Mr Trigg said the first stage of the ‘Player Zero’ strategy had been to trade away every good player.

“That’s coming to an end now but I want to acknowledge the work of my predecessors.”

“There’s just a few to go. I’m just about to ring around to see if anyone wants Patrick Cripps for a third-round pick.”

When asked if Carlton members and fans should be upset with the trading away of good players, Mr Trigg said they were ‘not a key stakeholder in the process’.

Other clubs have applauded Carlton’s approach. “Every time they ring it’s like Christmas,” said Adelaide CEO Andrew Fagan.

Is someone looking at the BB Code side of the forum?
A couple of nice little tweaks could really help such as including borders in table or header fields so that a table can take on a nicer looks.

Also there are a number of other nice little options that can be added in minutes without a great deal of difficulty to sexy up the forum.

Can't believe ones touched this thread for over a year with the likes of Belly and Sheik around. What's become of this place?

[flash=200,200]https://www.youtube.com/v/jeyzrKiAh_4[/flash]

You're welcome

http://m.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/carl...7574695257

Finally some alternative thinking and professionalism