Bring on 04 aka So how about the Blues this year Frederick?

All your question marks are correct.

Carlton will at least have a midfield next season. As middies Scotland and jsa's mate Osama bin Stevens (who will the Port crowd blame next year?) will complement each other and take the pressure off Campo, who will have no excuses left next year, and the game and committed but limited Hulme.

Barnaby French is no champion, both his first name and his football belong in the Dickens era, Angwin is so stuffed in the head if he comes off it's a bonus, and either Ricky Mott or Andrew? De Luca from Box Hill will have to step up in the ruck to above French's level, this season. Both Teague and Morrell are brave and versatile and if Morrell can hold down CHF we might be able to leave Whitnall at CHB and cover our other major weakness (seing as how we traded with Hawthorn over other players, why the hell we didn't go for Jade Rawlings a lot harder is absolutely mystifying). Teague can also play CHB. Also look out for further improvement from blokes like Thornton, Sporn, Davies, Waite and a kid who split the odd pack or two late last year and snagged a couple of goals, Callan Beasy. Blake Campbell is another bloke who looked OK in 2002 but missed most of last year through injury.

If we win three of our first eight next year, unlike 2003 we'll finish with a heap more than four wins. Carlton stagnated badly last season. At least with a younger, fresher list and better depth we'll at least play the season out. Next summer we're back in the draft and we'll be looking to increase our involvement in the first two rounds so the axe will be swinging.

I haven't even mentioned the Boy Wonder, Andy Walker, because I expect his impact in 2004 to be minimal. He looks a bit like Kouta, but that's nearly as big a deal as Andy 'Giggles' Caddick looking like Hadlee, Norman Cowans like Holding, me like Bruce Doull, and every grey hack finishing last in the 3.30 at Moe or Quambatook looking like Schillachi or Gunsynd. Mister Walker will be a lynchpin of the Carlton team sometime hopefully not too long after 2006.

The highest we can hope for is 10th. I name Richmond, Melbourne and the Roos as teams that are potentially much worse than Carlton in 2004.

Cheers Frederick. What happened to Ian Prendergast (sp?). He looked ok the last time you blokes made the eight but he hasn't done much since then. I thought he was going to be something special but perhaps without the security blanket of club legends like Bradley, SOS etc he has wilted.

I am always keen to write off the Roos but the buggers keep bouncing back and being competitive. I can't stand the bastards but you have to admire the mongrel in the playing group. If only the Cats had half of their fighting qualities. The last time the Roos played your blokes they won by 20 goals so I can't see the arrival of fringe players from another team out of the eight and a guy who wants to play for Collingwood being enough for you to finish above them on the ladder.

regards,

REB

If Nick Stevens has his heart set on playing for Collingwood, by lobbing at Carlton he's effectively put himself one club further away than he was at Port, because no player has been traded from Carlton to Collingwood as long as there has been a draft.

Nick Stevens barracked for Collingwood as a kid. So what. So did about 20% of the players in the AFL, 80 if you believe Eddie, and when one of them comes onto the market you can bet Richard Edward McGuire will make sure it's known, and so will the player's Maxwell Smart (my generic name for all player agents), just as part of the crap that gets flung around as part of that process.

So it's a great cheap shot which even jsa (who has yet to read a throwaway line he wouldn't use) isn't even claiming is original, but beyond that, pretty irrelevant.

Sorry Frederick, but with my limited resources, cheap shots are all I can afford. Still, it brought you back to the keyboard! OK, so he REALLY wants to play for Carlton {snigger chortle}, but will that mean that he will actually go into a pack to retrieve the pill?

regards,

REB

BTW - In response to one of your earlier questions (i.e. who will the Port crowd blame now?), I believe they will blame the same fellow that they have always blamed...Choko Williams. And for ONCE, I agree with the wharfies!

r

Like most of us, he probably doesn't give a toss about the name of the mob he works for as long as they pay him enough and treat him with enough respect and he gets on OK with the boss and the other blokes on the floor. He left Port for one or more of those reasons. Which is boring, and goes against all the 'parallel-universe' theology of the AFL, but I'll stick with it. (Actually I don't give a toss why he left Port, there ain't much it's relevant to.)

Anything's better than the self-righteous crap that the player that left your club did it for the money, but the bloke you get to replace him came for any reason but that.

id be interested in you mid season report card on this bloke

btw apparently money has never been a big issue at carlton