The Blues recruited Judd to take them to the Promised Land. Sadly for him, the club has not been able to deliver on the promises that I’m sure they made during the courting phase. Carlton’s sell to Judd was, in part, based on the quality of its star early-round picks. Marc Murphy has lived up to the hype. Matthew Kreuzer has stagnated and not become the influential figure in the game that Carlton expected him to be. As of Thursday night his immediate playing future remains uncertain due to a recurring foot injury. Bryce Gibbs, the No.1 pick in the 2006 draft, the year Judd held aloft the premiership cup with the Eagles, was so highly regarded as an 18-year-old he was immediately placed in Carlton’s leadership group. He is now prevaricating about his future at the club and remains an unfulfilled talent Carlton had the paint and the canvas when it presented to Judd. The picture it painted, however, resembles nothing like the reality. Other top 20 selections that would have been ''sold'’ to Judd at the time failed to justify the ‘'young and exciting'’ tag.

Paul Bower never got there and Jordan Russell, Shaun Grigg and Shaun Hampson all eventually left to play elsewhere. Subsequent drafting has also been in the news of late. Kane Lucas can’t secure a regular spot in the Blues' best 22 and Matthew Watson and Josh Bootsma are battling. And the irony is that Gibbs, controversially, has asked that the club present to him their vision for the future before he commits beyond this year. Just six years ago, the vision for the future, presented by Carlton, was exciting enough to secure Judd, the hottest property in the game. For now, the vision is decidedly blurry, and not good enough at the moment to secure the signature of Gibbs. And it’s that ‘'courting’' phase that made this deal one a first in VFL/AFL history. Judd turned the whole recruiting process on its head when he informed the Eagles that he would be returning to Melbourne.

Rather than sit back and wait for the inevitable avalanche of offers to come rolling in, he, along with his management, boldly stated that they would nominate the clubs that he was prepared to talk and deal with, before declaring his choice. That didn’t sit well with everyone. “How dare one player be so dictatorial.” But, because it was Chris Judd, any ambiguity about whether this was a case of one footballer thinking he was bigger than the game was cast to the side and clubs fell over themselves in their quest to get in front of the champ. He had the football world clamouring at his feet. Eventually the Judd camp narrowed the choice down to four clubs: Essendon, Collingwood, Melbourne and Carlton. Hawthorn, which had an interest, was not granted a hearing, nor was North Melbourne, which was desperate to put its case forward. Judd, and his manager Paul Connors, sat down with all four clubs, and listened as they made their pitch. It was not all one way. The Judd camp sought information, as well as receiving it.

Carlton won the day and secured the most sought-after signature in football. The Blues handed over Josh Kennedy and picks three and 20, and got Judd and pick 46 in return. Now into his seventh year at the Blues, there is enough evidence to suggest, from the football side of things, he made the wrong choice. At he time of his signing, Juddy explained his decision. "They are a powerful Melbourne club, that was going places"; "They have a young and exciting list"; "I have a chance to be a part of something from the ground up. That was the exciting part of it for me." The young and exciting list has failed to live up to its potential, the club sits on the second tier, below power Melbourne clubs Hawthorn, Collingwood, Richmond and Geelong, and the building from the ground up has ground to a halt. Judd will not experience premiership success at Carlton. In his time, the Blues have played in four finals series, including last year's "wildcard" entry, and have won just two of the six finals they have contested, advancing no further than week two of September.

During his time, the young coach Judd agreed to play for, Brett Ratten, was cast aside, despite 12 months earlier taking the Blues to the semi-finals, going down by three points to West Coast in Perth. Kennedy, the player who was traded to the Eagles for Judd, is one of the dominant key forwards in the game, while the forward they kept - who was the Eagles' preference - Brendan Fevola, was traded to the Lions two years after Judd arrived. And today, the question is being asked whether the Blues are actually contending or whether, under Mick Malthouse, they have to go backwards to go forward again. Never is this better illustrated than by the situation Heath Scotland finds himself in. In his 16th year of AFL football, he finds himself on the rookie list. One year after winning the club best and fairest. Make a decision on this man. If Carlton thinks it is in "the window" and Scotland is in the best 26, surely he is on the list. If not, delist him and play kids. Had Juddy selected Collingwood at the end of 2007, the story reads entirely differently. The Pies have contested every finals series since 2008, winning nine finals, losing seven and drawing one. They won the premiership in 2010 and who knows what influence Judd could have had on the group in the Pies' runner-up year of 2011.

The Bombers are a different story. No one would suggest Judd would have been better off at the Bombers given the events of the past 18 months. But it is worth contemplating whether, given his experiences with a troubled Eagles list at the end of his time there, whether he could have recognised the early danger signs and been a voice of reason. He was quoted as saying, in the past week, "he hoped he would have been able to say no, that doesn’t sound like me" if he was put in a similar position to the Bomber players. And though he elected not to talk to the Hawks, the reality is, had he entertained the idea, he could have been a part of two flags and - in the years where they finished second and third - may have been able to help land them another one. Knowing the sort of person Judd is, he would have no regrets or complaints. Wherever he ended up he was going to be extremely well rewarded and the club of his choice would have benefited enormously, both with his football and his presence around the place. But even with that, there was unrest. His third-party Visy deal was a constant source of derision from other clubs and scepticism among the critics. It eventually led to the AFL making changes to third-party agreements. As he recovers from an Achilles injury, I also wonder whether the role he has had to assume at Carlton, as a more bullocking insider than is ideally the case, may cut his career short by 12 months or more.

Whatever the case, he will go down as an all-time great of the game. With one premiership to his name. The Blues weren’t able to assist him in getting another one.