If Not BB, Who?

[Thryleon]

Yes, it's a tough situation, because the MC will be trying to judge Lang's head-space more than anything else!

The worry is that he was a reluctant resident to start with!

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Not wanting to taint any players, I've a mate who worries about the apparent lack of success of Geelong trades, not just at Carlton but across the AFL in general. Well not really their lack of success, but why they seem to over achieve while at the Handbaggers, like the Handbaggers have some magic potion, it must be the Bellarine air!

This is yet another reason NOT to change things up dramatically at Carlton.

Geelong and Hawthorn are showing us why they have become strong clubs.  They were both struggling at the turn of the century.  Hawthorn were about to go through a merger with Melbourne, and Geelong won wooden spoons in the early 2000's.

What these clubs did back then, was not to change directions because what they implemented didn't yield immediate results.  They set themselves some goals, and conducted proper planning and processes both off and on field to strive to achieve things and continue ticking the boxes off, reviewing what works, what doesnt work, and dont swing wildly from one strategy to another.  Even the transition from Thompson to Scott seems to have been well planned, and paid immediate dividends.

The results were that they ended up with a really stable football club.  Stability off field translates to stability on field.  The thing is, that faces on the footy field do change, but they have a core of players that are there, that have been following the same sort of standards that were established under Bomber Thompson on field, and continue to be adhered to by incumbants.  Tom Harley (premiership captain) relinquished the reigns to Cameron Ling (Premiership captain) who relinquished the reigns to Joel Selwood (who was part of the leadership group under Cameron Ling).

What you see there is a continuity that we at Carlton can only dream about.  Not just the on field success, but the off field strategem.  During this time, we have chopped and changed 4 on field coaches, turned over more players that you can poke a stick at, and could turf our 5th coach and once again swing wildly due to people being worried about not achieving enough wins this season to justify the current course of action.



If you want a reason why you know that Geelong don't have some magic formula down there and simply have a better club culture, its really simple.  Its built on standards and continuity that has seen them go from cellar dwellars to Premierships over the span of 15 years, and when you wonder how they manage it, you only have to look at Zach Tuohy and Lachie Henderson to understand that they arent doing much more there than they did with us, they are simply surrounded by a better formed unit of players and any of our boys would look as good.