What does our club stand for?

[kruddler]

What does our club stand for?

A simple question with a far from simple answer.

I think the club has lost its identity over the past 15 years. We can look far and wide to find our identity, but perhaps the answer is closer than we think.
So close in fact, that each and every player, coach and supporter is wearing the answer more often than not - Our clubs motto.

Mens sana in corpore sano
Usually translated to - 'A sound mind in a sound body'

I did a quick bit of research and came across its original use. Click here for more info

It is from a series of poems that were written about 1900 years ago. Our motto is from the 10th poem.

Now i'm not one to go off reading poems but in this instance, I recommend this be force fed to our players, coaches, staff and board. It is very enlightening given our current circumstance. The English translation is below.

Satire X: Wrong Desire is the Source of Suffering
    It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.
    Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death,
    which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings,
    which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings,
    does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes
    the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than
    the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king.
    I will reveal what you are able to give yourself;
    For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue.

People can work through that themselves, but to me that title is very apt and the take home point for me is as follows.

People who want for the wrong things are destined to suffer.
Whereas people who work hard and give all of themselves will be rewarded.

Is it too much to ask for that we live up to our own motto?

[kruddler]

Another translation of the same poem.

    You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.
    Ask for a stout heart that has no fear of death,
    and deems length of days the least of Nature's gifts
    that can endure any kind of toil,
    that knows neither wrath nor desire and thinks
    the woes and hard labors of Hercules better than
    the loves and banquets and downy cushions of Sardanapalus.
    What I commend to you, you can give to yourself;
    For assuredly, the only road to a life of peace is virtue.

[Mantis]

Our players can't understand what you have posted, yet alone execute the actions needed. Keep it simple for them. "Grow a pair of balls you pussies, or feck off out of this club". "You do not deserve to wear the navy emblem". Go put your skirts back on and take up a non contact sport like netball.

We know you don't have it between the legs, and you don't have it between your ears either. No ticker, and no pride in yourselves. Go walk through a factory without air conditioning and see how some of your supporters earn a living. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, under asbestos roof, on bare concrete and working like a dog for $20 per hour. Then after the tax man has ripped them off, they use the remaining few hundred dollars to pay membership to the club. Added to what it costs to come and watch you dish out pathetic attempts to look like professional AFL football players. Hand them back one and a half months of your wage which equates to what they earn in an entire year.

Then try to explain why your job as football players is so difficult. How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a game, and playing a match ? How many dollars per hour are you pathetic weak people earning to be the worst club in the league (or close to the worst) ? How do you justify your actions on the field to us supporters. How do you justify your earnings ?

Tell me you have a vague idea about "Mens sana in corpore sano".

How so many men before you have brought 16 flags home. How you will never, ever see one in your time. How did they approach their football attitudes comparing to you. While earning so much less ?

PLEASE EXPLAIN, Carlton football club, from ever level, top to bottom. Every coach, official, board member, plare etc. Why, why, fecking why ? >

[DontgoJuddy]

Our players can't understand what you have posted, yet alone execute the actions needed. Keep it simple for them. "Grow a pair of balls you pussies, or feck off out of this club". "You do not deserve to wear the navy emblem". Go put your skirts back on and take up a non contact sport like netball.

We know you don't have it between the legs, and you don't have it between your ears either. No ticker, and no pride in yourselves. Go walk through a factory without air conditioning and see how some of your supporters earn a living. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, under asbestos roof, on bare concrete and working like a dog for $20 per hour. Then after the tax man has ripped them off, they use the remaining few hundred dollars to pay membership to the club. Added to what it costs to come and watch you dish out pathetic attempts to look like professional AFL football players. Hand them back one and a half months of your wage which equates to what they earn in an entire year.

Then try to explain why your job as football players is so difficult. How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a game, and playing a match ? How many dollars per hour are you pathetic weak people earning to be the worst club in the league (or close to the worst) ? How do you justify your actions on the field to us supporters. How do you justify your earnings ?

Tell me you have a vague idea about "Mens sana in corpore sano".

How so many men before you have brought 16 flags home. How you will never, ever see one in your time. How did they approach their football attitudes comparing to you. While earning so much less ?

PLEASE EXPLAIN, Carlton football club, from ever level, top to bottom. Every coach, official, board member, plare etc. Why, why, fecking why ? >

I think you should cut loose and not hold back so much.

[BluePhantom]

Our players can't understand what you have posted, yet alone execute the actions needed. Keep it simple for them. "Grow a pair of balls you pussies, or feck off out of this club". "You do not deserve to wear the navy emblem". Go put your skirts back on and take up a non contact sport like netball.

We know you don't have it between the legs, and you don't have it between your ears either. No ticker, and no pride in yourselves. Go walk through a factory without air conditioning and see how some of your supporters earn a living. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, under asbestos roof, on bare concrete and working like a dog for $20 per hour. Then after the tax man has ripped them off, they use the remaining few hundred dollars to pay membership to the club. Added to what it costs to come and watch you dish out pathetic attempts to look like professional AFL football players. Hand them back one and a half months of your wage which equates to what they earn in an entire year.

Then try to explain why your job as football players is so difficult. How many hours a week do you spend preparing for a game, and playing a match ? How many dollars per hour are you pathetic weak people earning to be the worst club in the league (or close to the worst) ? How do you justify your actions on the field to us supporters. How do you justify your earnings ?

Tell me you have a vague idea about "Mens sana in corpore sano".

How so many men before you have brought 16 flags home. How you will never, ever see one in your time. How did they approach their football attitudes comparing to you. While earning so much less ?

PLEASE EXPLAIN, Carlton football club, from ever level, top to bottom. Every coach, official, board member, plare etc. Why, why, fecking why ? >

Amen  >

[DJC]

I think you will find that 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' or 'a sound mind in a healthy body' goes back well beyond Juvenal's Satires.  The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived around 600 years BCE is the likely originator of the saying.

While there's nothing wrong with 'a sound mind in a healthy body', it doesn't really provide any inspiration or motivation, something that's sadly lacking with our club.

I half heard Buckley on the news tonight and my ears pricked when he said something like, "This will test our side by side."  Clearly, Collingwood use what is a very good line in their club song to reinforce behaviours and I would love to see our blokes sticking together.

That got me thinking of our club song and the line "We're the team that never lets you down." sprang to mind.  They have certainly let us, their coaches and themselves down far too often over the last 15 years.  Rather than investing in a new slogan each season, why not make the team focus 'never letting us down'?

However, whether it's 'never letting us down', 'a sound mind in a healthy body' or 'side by side', it is the behaviours that are more important than the words.  Behaviours that should include earning and maintaining the respect of team mates and opponents, ensuring that opponents know they've been playing the Navy Blues, making life a misery for taggers, busting a gut to get the job done, never taking a backwards step, being proud of the jumper and its legacy, getting the most out of natural abilities, working diligently to improve skills, etc, etc.

[MilkIt]

At the moment CFC stands for "Can't F___ing Compete". 

[Juddkreuzer]

Heard Sellers Maclure talk about what our club stands for on 360 last night. He said if you wanted to play along side Wayne Johnson in our forward line you knew what you had to bring and if you couldn't deliver then the leadership group would toss you to the kerb. Ignited moments of pride in our club that have been lacking for too long.

[Baggers]

We need a very simple and basic indoctrination (written everywhere and shouted together), all for one and one for all. It's not complicated and it is a proven winner over many, many years. It was our motto on one of the war ships I served on in the 70s and once ingrained you found yourself looking out for your mates and knowing that they were 'covering your back'. A few blokes let the crew down and let's just say that after being dealt with, they never did it again (OH&S HR would have not been happy with us!!!).

[DontgoJuddy]

Heard Sellers Maclure talk about what our club stands for on 360 last night. He said if you wanted to play along side Wayne Johnson in our forward line you knew what you had to bring and if you couldn't deliver then the leadership group would toss you to the kerb. Ignited moments of pride in our club that have been lacking for too long.

We once were what Hawthorn are now.