NAB Challenge: Carlton vs. Essendon Sunday 28th Feb

[shadesy]

2 mickey mouse pre-season games into a 3 + year complete re-build......I'll reserve my overreacting for a while.  And if you decide whether or not to renew your membership on that back of a result in one of these matches.........have a good hard look at yourself.

That's easy to say, but the cold hard facts are that we need members and people prefer to back a winning side. I'm a little concerned with the players Bolton has picked these Games but hopefully he is having a good look at some of the Spuds and putting lines through their names.

Raydan is right, Home Game at PP with a competitive side and the young kids  = 5,000 more members IMO. They missed a trick here, but Don't mind we are treating the NAB challenge as it should be. Glorified Scratchy.

[blue4life]

I really hope that what BB is drilling into the playing group after yesterday's performance is that its ok to make mistakes but its not ok to not try hard enough. As a supporter I accept mistakes will be made and there will be losses this year, some pretty bad ones too. What I can't abide this year is players not fighting like hell every time they take the field and not showing some passion for the jumper.

To be honest I've never doubted our commitment over the last decade or more, in my opinion our lack of success has come down to a lack of playing personnel and I don't see that turning around any time soon.
When you're getting well beaten on a regular basis it often looks as though you've given up, and subconsciously that may even be true to some extent, but even last season I saw players like Docherty, Tuohy, Simpson, Murphy, Buckley, Curnow, Bell, Rowe and plenty of others busting their gut to the final bell when we were 8 or 10 goals down and all hope was lost.
One of the biggest problems that poor sides face on a regular basis is that they hit troughs during games and yesterday was no exception, at one stage Essendon kicked 9 unanswered goals.
If this was out of character or some sort of aberration it wouldn't faze me, but it's been an ongoing theme at Carlton now for longer than I care to remember.

[PaulP]

Bolton's only been here 5 minutes. He needs to be able to see all his charges under something vaguely resembling match conditions. It becomes harder and far more risky to select a depleted side during the H/A season.

Nobody wants a losing culture, but I think he's going about it the right way, at the right time.

[blue4life]

We have plenty to work on and we won't win a lot but it's more about process more than result driven outcome in the pre-season.

We've been telling ourselves that for so long it's become monotonous.
Explain the process to me of you will.

[PaulP]

To be honest I've never doubted our commitment over the last decade or more, in my opinion our lack of success has come down to a lack of playing personnel and I don't see that turning around any time soon.
When you're getting well beaten on a regular basis it often looks as though you've given up, and subconsciously that may even be true to some extent, but even last season I saw players like Docherty, Tuohy, Simpson, Murphy, Buckley, Curnow, Bell, Rowe and plenty of others busting their gut to the final bell when we were 8 or 10 goals down and all hope was lost.
One of the biggest problems that poor sides face on a regular basis is that they hit troughs during games and yesterday was no exception, at one stage Essendon kicked 9 unanswered goals.
If this was out of character or some sort of aberration it wouldn't faze me, but it's been an ongoing theme at Carlton now for longer than I care to remember.

You get institutionalized whether you are in a losing or a winning culture - subconsciously you expect one or the other, depending on what you've mostly experienced. This will be another big challenge for Bolts and co.

[cimm1979]

A good result may have helped momentum in the membership stakes but to suggest it cost us 10% of our membership is ridiculous.

We've been short sighted for far too long.

ROUND 1
ROUND 1
ROUND 1

That's all Bolts has been saying.

3 year rebuild and half the CSC board are putting a gun to their temple after a dodgy NAB game.

[Gointocarlton]

I left the post game function just before 6 and walked through Princes Park towards the city.  On the next oval I saw Matt Korcheck and two other players doing wind sprints under the direction of one of the fitness staff.  They were fitted with GPS harnesses and appeared to have been working hard for quite a while.

It reinforced the impression I have that Bolton has a program in place and it's being followed precisely.

He stated is his presser that Cripps, Gibbs, Murphy, Thomas and some others were put through a training session yesterday morning. They have a plan and they are sticking to it which is great to see quite frankly.

[cookie2]

Soooo, as a membership drive it was good preparation for R1 in terms of sorting the sheep from the goats? 

[flyboy77]

A good result may have helped momentum in the membership stakes but to suggest it cost us 10% of our membership is ridiculous.

We've been short sighted for far too long.

ROUND 1
ROUND 1
ROUND 1

That's all Bolts has been saying.

3 year rebuild and half the CSC board are putting a gun to their temple after a dodgy NAB game.

Well, that's all good if we actually turn up TO PLAY in Rd 1 AND WIN!!!!

[cookie2]

Well, that's all good if we actually turn up TO PLAY in Rd 1 AND WIN!!!!

If we can beat the Tiggers I would be mightily pleased - they will be a big challenge for us.