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Ratten dismayed by Hawthorn tactics

August 31st 2008 03:10
CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has expressed his displeasure at the tactics employed by Hawthorn counterpart Alastair Clarkson to prevent Brendan Fevola kicking his 100th goal in the Blues' 78-point loss at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

Lance Franklin kicked his 100th goal in the first quarter but Fevola fell agonisingly short of joining of joining him in three figures after kicking seven goals to finish on 99 for the season

Asked if he would have done the same if the roles were reversed, Ratten said:"I won't answer that."

When pressed on the issue, Ratten said: "I suppose we could have maybe done that at the start [to Franklin], but I suppose that's the way he's seen it,"


"They were only 70 points up."

Ratten also said he would have loved to have seen history created on Saturday night.

"If he would have kicked it, this game would have been replayed regardless of the score between the two teams," said Ratten.

"I don't think you'll ever see two full-forwards kick 100 goals on the same day in the same round. It would have just been fantastic fairytale, romance."

"You would have looked in 100 years time and said 'they have done it and they did do it in the same round'."

"For the AFL to get the two teams to play off, in the last round and kick the 100 goals, the stars are aligned. It nearly happened, it's just a shame it didn't."

Despite being at times frustrated with his side's unhealthy reliance on Fevola, Ratten said he had no problems instructing his players to do everything in their power to help get the spearhead over the line in the last quarter.

"I think there's a bit of romance. He's played a lot of footy for Carlton and he's won games off his own back," Ratten said.


"If we could go out of our way to maybe see if we could get him there, for one quarter, I think that's fair enough. And we were that close."

Meanwhile, a Telstra Dome official said on Saturday night that nobody had been handed the mandatory $6,000 fine for the pitch invasion.
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THE chances of Carlton's home ground returning as an AFL venue appear to be slim following the Blues' announcement of an $18 million re-development of Princes Park.

The ground will be known as Visy Park as part of former president Richard Pratt's long-running financial support of the club.

The Blues will now have state-of-the-art training facility but the ground's capacity had to drop from 32,000 to around 20,000 to allow the re-development to proceed.

The AFL recently said it was interested in establishing a third ground in Melbourne but Swann said it was 'highly unlikely' that Princes Park would be used again for AFL matches.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for the club and it brings our facilities up to equal of any in the world," he said.

"But it's a training facility, with a whole lot of community facilities within it and that has been the emphasis of the re-development."

"As you can see from that area (which has been demolished) we have lost quite a bit of seating," he said.

"And while it's not beyond the realms (of possibility of the ground again being used as an AFL venue) it's highly, highly unlikely that we would be hosting games here (in the future)."
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Ratten on the verge of new deal

August 27th 2008 03:45
CARLTON coach Brett Ratten is likely to win a contract extension sooner rather than later, according to Blues chief executive Greg Swann.

Ratten was only given a two-year contract but has been impressive in his first season as coach, steering the Blues to 10 wins from 21 games.

Swann said the club had already held preliminary talks about extending Ratten's contract in light of his performance as coach this season.

"We spoke about it yesterday and at the end of the season we do a review like we do every other year and part of that is what we do with the senior coach," Swann said.

"And we will be certainly looking very favourably at extending Brett's contract because the club has improved tremendously and we think there is more improvement to come so that (extending Ratten's contract) will be done in due course."

Ratten admitted that he would love to get a contract extension but said it was not his focus at this stage.

"I think it would be great," he said.

"But I am not really worried about all that until the year is finished."

"If the club thinks I deserve an extension I would love to get one but we will sit down and see what happens."
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Blues overrun Lions

August 23rd 2008 13:00
CARLTON has all but ended Brisbane's season with a thrilling six-point win at the Gabba on Saturday night.

The Blues trailed by more than five goals heading into the final change but lifted in the last quarter to prevail 18.7 (115) to 16.13 (109).

Both the Lions and Carlton now need need St Kilda to lose to Adelaide and Essendon in its last two games and Richmond to lose to Melbourne, while they need to win themselves in the final round to be any chance at all of sneaking into the eight.

Carlton skipper Chris Judd and Nick Stevens were instrumental in the win with 33 and 35 possessions respectively while Jordan Russell did a superb blanketing job on Travis Johnstone, restricting the former Demon to just eight disposals.

Cameron Cloke starred up forward with four goals, two of which came in the final term while Brad Fisher and Ryan Houlihan chimed in with three majors apiece.

For Brisbane, Bradd Dalziell continued his impressive form with a team-high 32 possessions while Simon Black and Jared Brennan were busy contributors with 23 and 24 disposals respectively.

Daniel Bradshaw was damaging up forward with six majors while Jonathan Brown chimed in with four goals.

The Blues started brightly with Houlihan and Cloke booting three and two goals respectively in the first quarter to help their side to a 22-point lead at the first change.

Brisbane hit back with early goals to Brown and Luke Power but two majors to Fisher in the space of a minute ensured the Blues remained in control, taking an 18-point advantage into half-time.

It was the Bradshaw and Brown show in the third term with the pair booting four and two goals respectively as the Lions opened up what appeared to be a match-winning 32-point lead heading into the final change.

But the Blues took control of the midfield in the final term, racking up 115 disposals to 56 as they slammed on six unanswered goals to record a memorable win.

BRISBANE LIONS: 3.4, 7.9, 16.12, 16.13 (109)
CARLTON: 7.2, 11.3, 12.4, 18.7 (115)
GOALS: Brisbane: Bradshaw 6, Brown 4, Corrie 2, Power 2, Hooper, Rischitelli
Carlton: Cloke 4, Houlihan 3, Fisher 3, Waite 2, Fevola 2, Murphy 2, Stevens, Walker
BEST: Brisbane: Dalziell, Bradshaw, Brennan, Patfull, Black, Brown
Carlton:Judd, Stevens, Murphy, Cloke, Russell, Houlihan
INJURIES: Brisbane:
Carlton:
REPORTS: Nil
CHANGES: Browne and Jamison (Carlton) replaced by Anderson and Bentick
UMPIRES: Stewart, Meredith, Ryan
CROWD: 34,327 at Gabba
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CARLTON still has plenty to play for according to coach Brett Ratten.

The Blues' finals hopes ended last Sunday with a 51-point loss to the Kangaroos but Ratten wants to finish the season on a high note.

If the Blues manage to win their last two matches against Brisbane and Hawthorn they will have won 11 games for the season - the first time they would have at least broken even in a season since 2001.

Ratten admitted his side has improved but said last weekend's loss to the Roos showed that the club still had a long way to go before they could challenge the competition's elite sides.

But he believes a positive end to the seasn will set the side up for an even better 2009.

"I suppose what we did learn on the weekend (against North) was regardless of playing in the eight, that was the standard we have to match," he said.

"And we could let ourselves down if we think that's it (now the club can't make the eight) and we put the cue in the rack thinking we have done a good job."

"This competition goes for 22 weeks and the standards we have set will have a big imprint on 2009 and you never want to leave a season, regardless of whether you are going to play finals or not, with a sour taste in your mouth and hopefully we don't."

"And I have seen it at our club before (as a player) where we have finished off a season well and translated it into the following season because it helps your belief over the pre-season."


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Blues rule out switch

August 20th 2008 04:31
CARLTON has ruled out switching its round 22 home game against Hawthorn from Telstra Dome to the MCG.

With Hawthorn star Lance Franklin on 94 goals and Carlton spearhead Brendon Fevola on 90 goals with two rounds remaining, the pair could go into the round 22 showdown within reach of bringing up their first century of goals each in a season.

Such a scenario would mean a potentially enormous crowd if the match was played at the the MCG instead of the much-smaller Telstra Dome.

The MCG is available on the Saturday night of the Blues-Hawks match but will host a match between North Melbourne and Port Adelaide earlier that day.

But Carlton chief executive Greg Swann said it would be difficult for the games to be switched at such late notice and said the club had not even considered approaching the AFL.

Carlton coach Brett Ratten admitted such an occasion was worthy of being played at 'the home of footy' but said it would be up to the AFL to decide whether the match should be played at the MCG.

Ratten also said it was important for his side to remain focused on improving and winning games of football rather than helping Fevola bring up 100 goals.

"We still need to get improvement through the other players and if Brendan is good enough to kick 100 that is fantastic and hopefully he can achieve it because it would be a fantastic individual achievement but at the end of the day I'd rather win the game than maybe him kick ten goals because that is what we are about," he said.
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Walker avoids jail

August 19th 2008 03:14
CARLTON midfielder Andrew Walker has avoided jail after being charged with driving while his licence was suspended.

Walker was yesterday sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court to one month in jail, which has been suspended for 12 months.

He was also fined $500 without conviction and his licence was suspended for two months.

Police prosecutor Sen-Constable Jaci Steiger said police intercepted the 22-year-old on Rosamond Rd in Maribyrnong in March this year.

A second serious driving offence carries a mandatory minimum one month jail term
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We rely on Fevola too much: Ratten

August 18th 2008 03:28
CARLTON will not make the eight if it continues to rely on star forward Brendan Fevola, according to coach Brett Ratten.

Ratten said the Blues would ignore other forward options in preference to Fevola, who at times had as many as five opponents against him.

"If you go down that path you probably won't make the top eight," Ratten said.

"I think sometimes we went out of way to kick the ball to him."

But Ratten said it was not Fevola's fault the Blues searched for him.

"Brendan just leads. He's a big forward, who's quick. He usually gets a bit of a gap so he looks like the best option most times and we seem to honour that a fair bit," he said.

The Blues coach said the blame lay on the ball-carrier and other forwards who Ratten suggested were playing selfish football.

"But we need to move our direction and kick the ball to other people to bring them into the game," he said.

"I think it's the bloke, he's virtually captain of the team when he's got the ball in his hands, and he just needs to use it a little bit different at times."

"I think sometimes we do, and we've had a focus going forward to try and do that but today was really obvious that we didn't use too many other forwards."

"We said to play at home a bit more, maybe blokes worrying about some possessions … instead (of) about what they were doing for the team. I think it might have taken some pressure of Brendan, maybe given ourselves a chance of getting more on the scoreboard."

Besides Fevola, only two Blues have kicked more than 20 goals this season - Brad Fisher and Eddie Betts, who missed the clash against the Kangaroos.

Ratten said the Blues would improve as a side as soon as the workload was shared up forward.

"Until other players start to kick threes and fours, no one's going to worry about playing on them," he said.

"And they'll just keep pulling back into the hole, in front of his space. That's the whole team debate that we need to get better as a team to honour these players. If someone's got three behind their name the opposition starts to look a little bit closer."

Ratten said shifting Fevola from the goal square would be considered this week while moving utility Jarrad Waite from defence into attack was also an option.

"Jarrad gives us great counter attack so that's the conundrum; whether we reduce our counter-attack and we might not get it in our forward 50 as many times," he said.

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Ratten backs AFL 100 goal ban bid

August 13th 2008 05:09
CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has thrown his support behind the AFL's decision to fine or evict fans from the ground if they invade the field when a player kicks 100 goals.

With Hawthorn's Lance Franklin and Carlton's Brendan Fevola a chance to become the first players since St Kilda's Fraser Gehrig in 2004 to kick the ton, the AFL is warning fans not to run onto the ground if they kick their 100th goal

Ratten said it was in the best interests of the players for fans not to run onto the ground.

"It's dangerous now to let people come on the ground," he said.

"I think they (the AFL) are just trying to look after the players' welfare and if they can get security around the player that is one way they can attack and if they think they (can stop) no-one (getting) on the ground then that is another way as well."

"We just don't know what the risk is - you just don't know with a lot of people and you have got to be careful don't you."

"You wouldn't want even a spectator to get injured, let alone the players."

In past years thousands of fans have traditionally invaded the oval when the goal is kicked but Ratten said times had changed.

"A lot of things have changed - like kicking the ball (by fans on the ground) after games and things like that so this might be another part of the game evolving to the next millennium sort of thing."

"It's just (best) for the welfare of everyone."


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Grigg wins nomination

August 12th 2008 00:04
CARLTON youngster Shaun Grigg has been rewarded for his impressive performance against Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome last Saturday with the round 19 NAB Rising Star nomination.

Grigg, who has played 17 games this season after playing five in his debut season last year racked up 25 possessions and booted a goal in the Blues' 66-point win over the Power.

The 20-year-old was secured with pick 19 in the 2006 AFL Draft and recently signed a new two-year deal with the Blues.

Carlton coach Brett Ratten said Grigg was developing nicely.

“This is well-deserved recognition for the development in Shaun’s game, particularly this season,” Ratten said.

“He has provided pace and some of his work around the stoppages on Saturday was very good."

“The continued development of our young players is important for our progress and Shaun is one of the young players who is setting a great example in the manner in which he approaches his game."



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Blues smash Port

August 9th 2008 07:54
CARLTON has kept its finals hopes alive with a 66-point win over over a disappointing Port Adelaide side at Telstra Dome on Saturday afternoon.

The Blues' 18.24 (132) to 9.12 (66) victory is their biggest win in seven years.

Carlton did as they pleased against a Port side that appeared to be lacking confidence, direction and skill.

The Blues dominated every facet of the game. They entered their forward 50 a staggering 70 times and every player touched the football 10 times or more.

Andrew Carrazzo and Bryce Gibbs were prolific in the middle with 30-plus disposals. They received good support from Marc Murphy, Heath Scotland, Nick Stevens and Chris Judd, who all racked up 20-plus possessions while Jarrad Waite was busy in defence with 29 disposals and 11 marks.

Carlton had 11 individual goalkickers for the match - Brendon Fevola the most effective with four majors while Andrew Walker and Brad Fisher chimed in with three each.

The Blues stamped their authority on the contest from the opening bounce, slamming on the first four goals of the match with Walker booting two.

Carlton should have been further in front at the first change but some poor kicking in front of goal kept Port in the contest with a late major from Justin Westhoff reducing the deficit to 21 points at quarter-time.

The Blues continued to dominate in the second term but were again let down by their wastefulness in front of goal, booting a wayward 4.9 to take a commanding 47-point lead into the main break.

Port was more competitive in the third term but failed to make any inroads on the scoreboard with Carlton booting four goals to three to take a match-winning 56-point advantage into the final change.

The Power were desperate to add some respectability to the scoreboard and came out firing in the final term, slamming on three of the first four goals of the quarter.

But with percentage set to play a role in determining the make-up of the final eight the Blues finished strongly, piling on five of the last six goals to cap off an impressive win.

CARLTON: 4.7, 8.16, 12.22, 18.24 (132)
PORT ADELAIDE: 1.4, 2.5, 5.8, 9.12 (66)
GOALS: CARLTON: Fevola 4, Walker 3, Kreuzer 2, Fisher 2, Grigg, Gibbs, Stevens, C.Cloke, Simpson, Scotland, Judd
PORT ADELAIDE: White 3, Westhoff, K.Cornes, Motlop, Brogan, Ebert, Salter
BEST: CARLTON: Carrazzo, Gibbs, Murphy, Scotland, Waite, Grigg, Judd, Stevens, Walker
PORT ADELAIDE: K.Cornes, Carlile, White, Brogan, S.Burgoyne
INJURIES: CARLTON: TBC
PORT ADELAIDE: TBC
REPORTS: Nil
CHANGES: Travis Boak replaced in the selected side by Ryan Williams. Eddie Betts replaced in the selected side in by Shaun Hampson.
CROWD: 29,696 at Telstra Dome


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Ratten urges Blues to lift

August 6th 2008 05:05
CARLTON coach Brett Ratten has reminded his side that they are running out of chances to make the finals this season.

Ratten said if the Blues were expecting the four points to be easily attained against lowly Port Adelaide then they were in for a rude shock.

"It's a must-win for us, we are running out of chances to keep our season alive," Ratten said.

"This is a big game for us at home against Port."

"They've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain (with a) young list, players fighting for their careers."

"One thing in their game though that is very similar (to 2007) is the speed in their team. They are very quick and they use the ball very well. Skilful players are really starting to find some form."

Ratten also said the Blues' come-from-behind win against Port in round 10 gave the club a lot of confidence and was responsible for their strong second half of the season.

"It probably did give us a lot of belief as a team, the comeback victory," Ratten said.

"The runs we have had in the last quarters, I think that (win) has given us the confidence."

"It was a real stepping stone for us."

Meanwhile, small forward Eddie Betts will be given until Friday to prove he has overcome a hamstring injury.

Former Brisbane Lion Richard Hadley is expected to resume in the club's reserves while Ryan Houlihan will again play for the Northern Bullants after a half last weekend.



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Blues hopeful on Betts

August 4th 2008 00:32
CARLTON remains hopeful that small forward Eddie Betts will be able to play in Saturday night's must-win clash against Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome.

Betts left the field in the second quarter of the Blues' eight-point loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium last Saturday after straining a hamstring and did not return.

Blues football operations manager Steven Icke said Betts would have scans today to determine the extent of the injury.

"We don't think it's much, but we'll get a scan done and assess it from there," Icke said.





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ADELAIDE forward Brad Moran and Carlton's poor use of the football were the key factors in the Blues' eight-point loss to the Crows at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon, according to Carlton coach Brett Ratten.

Moran stepped up in the absence of Jason Porplyzia who was knocked out in the second quarter, booting four goals; including three majors in the third term.

Ratten said the former Kangaroo proved to be the difference between the two sides.

"I thought Moran really changed the game for them being that target up forward. I thought he presented well," Ratten said.

"To his credit he made the most of his opportunities. He did change the momentum of the game for Adelaide."

Carlton had its chances to win the game but they were hurt by their poor use of the football -they notched up 72 ineffective kicks.

"To be as close as were, it's not a bad effort considering (their clanger count). But you can't win games of AFL footy kicking the football like we did today," he said.

"I think we over-finessed the footy. I thought we turned the ball over when we were in control and they sweated on our mistakes."

"It's probably the most frustrated I've been all season on performance. I thought we had enough of the ball to hurt Adelaide and we gave it back and paid the price."


Meanwhile Ratten is hopeful first-year player Steven Browne won't be penalized for his second quarter hit on Porplyzia.

Ratten said he didn't think there was much in the incident.

"The players were trying to pick up players and they virtually collided and the player went down," he said.

"I think it was accidental contact and players were just trying to find players so I didn't think there was much in it but hopefully the boy is alright."


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