Carlton

At the end of 2002 the Carlton Football Club pulled off a massive coaching coup in drafting in Denis Pagan from North Melbourne to replace out-of-favour coach Wayne Brittain.  It was the last magic trick of embattled president John Elliot, who lost the Presidency shortly after the AFL dared to question Carlton’s premiership winning tactic of rorting the salary cap.  What ensued was great hilarity for any AFL follower not a Carlton fan, as the Blues took out a five year lease agreement on the bottom end of the ladder.

Enter ‘The Dog’ (AKA Fraser Brown).  Not a man known for his subtlety, The Dog didn’t like what he saw down at Carlton.  In fact so outraged was The Dog, that in mid-2007 he offered to pay out Pagan’s contract himself (no doubt from the bags of cash handed to him under the table by Mr Elliot).  And The Dog’s suggested replacement? “I’ll be accused of bunking up a mate”, said The Dog “but Ratts would run rings around most blokes you could name.” Brett Ratten, with a full 6 months experience as assistant coach to the leagues cellar-dwellers and best friend of The Dog.  The man who wore glasses when he first became assistant coach in a bid to look smarter.   Sure, that’ll work.

Ah, well, it sort of did.  The Blues are now even cocky enough to declare a top four spot this season.  So what did The Dog see in Ratts that no one else could?  The answer lies in the Three Ts: Timing, Tenacity and Tanking.  In fact, you could leave out Timing and Tenacity and the result would probably be the same.  And add Tonnes, as in Tonnes of money to Chris Judd for being a Visy Ambassador.  If the Eliott years taught the Blues anything, it is how to be smarter about stacking your list.  The result: so far this season Ratten, a former Blues champion, has out coached former club champions Michael Voss at the Lions and Nathan Buckley at the Pies.  Not too bad for a guy whose only qualification for the job was that he wasn’t Denis Pagan. Oh, and he was a mate of The Dog.

And one last thing – having learnt how to stack their list in an AFL approved way, the Blues have also learnt something else.  Something they learnt from the Pies – coaches don’t count in the salary cap.  Get as many as you like!!!  In fact, the Blues coaching box is so crowded, Ratts has been booted out and now has to sit on the bench during games.  He might want to talk to The Dog about that.

Coaching Staff

Senior Coach:

Brett Ratten

Senior Assistant Coach:

Alan Richardson

Assistant Coaches:

John Barker;

Gavin Brown;

Mathew Capuano;

Mark Riley;

Paul Williams