From 2015 the Blues committed to a rejuvenation not just of its list, but of its world-view

By modern football reckoning, clubs are either in the premiership “window”, or working to return to that exalted state with all possible speed. That’s a journey each club begins from a different place, with often very differing circumstances. As Carlton fans digest the first 0-6 season start in their club’s 121-year VFL/AFL history, many amongst them will be contemplating the finer distinctions between a rebuild and a reset, and finding neither much to their liking.



After all, this is a group that had until very recently been encouraged by their club presidents to believe delayed gratification was for other clubs, not The Old Dark Navy Blues. Carlton didn’t do rebuilds, until it absolutely saw no other choice.

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The Blues plummeted out of their premiership window way back in 2002, when Jack Elliot’s overdue departure left a quagmire of draft and financial penalties, and a mountain of recriminations Sherpa Tenzing would have blanched at. That freefall has continued at varying velocity in the years since, while the club continued to behave as if all could be resolved by the next quick fix, the next messiah.

It took Carlton a very long time to come to grips with the reality of modern football life. The growing AFL bureaucracy set more rules and restrictions. Clubs had to operate within tighter parameters. The new world rewarded sound governance, astute, informed drafting, and effective player development. Tellingly, clubs of previously more sober temperament, such as Hawthorn, have adapted better. Buccaneers by inclination, the Blues floundered.

When finally forced to confront the inevitable in 2015, Carlton wasn’t just facing the rebuilding of a football team, it required a rejuvenation of its entire world view.

Whilst Brendon Bolton was given the on-field challenge, president Mark LoGiudice faced no less thorny a task. Advocating patience to an organisation with a history of factionalism that has often put the ALP to shame is unlikely to be without fraught moments. A bloated board was shrunk by attrition, but old protagonists remained. A new message of inclusion and diversity was espoused. A women’s team license was applied for and won. Outwardly, a sense of orderly calm developed.

Then, after the 2017 season, old rumblings re-emerged. CEO Steven Trigg’s sudden departure occurred without much evidence of newly promised transparency. The club issued a non-statement on the marriage equality debate that effectively negated its previous talk of inclusion. Then the fortunes of its women’s team declined precipitously, through a combination of on-field misfortune and persistent rumours of off-field disenchantment.

Against this background, Bolton took his already young team into the new men’s season without two of his key on-field leaders. The clearing of Bryce Gibbs was a concession to the reality of his looming free agency. Sam Docherty’s ruptured ACL was just bad luck. Carlton won six games last year when, of its six main senior players, only Ed Curnow missed a long stretch of games. Before a ball was bounced in 2018, that senior six had become four.

Injury misfortune has continued. The absence of Marc Murphy and Matthew Kruezer saw the Blues play the last two rounds minus their top four in last year’s best and fairest. In a season where many sides have struggled with an increasingly frantic tempo, Carlton has played badly enough for long enough to lose each game thus far.

Yet it’s hard to judge the raw talent not improved. Names such as Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Jacob Weitering, Sam Petrevski-Seton, Caleb Marchbank, Lachie Plowman, Zac Fisher, Harry McKay, Paddy Dow, Lochie O’Brien and Tom Williamson constitute the best group of youngsters the Blues have had in many a day. It’s just that the components are yet to form any meaningful whole. That’s hardly astonishing. With 42 list changes in three years, some of the newest arrivals probably still need name tags.

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A rebuild is the ultimate test of fans’ hope and faith. Doubts will persist. Talent is no guarantee. Improvement is unlikely to follow a clear, linear progression. Football can be as much about intangibles as it is science or process. The competition doesn’t stand still while you strive. Nor will the media be reliably supportive.

Carlton has reached a point that was always coming when it set course in 2015. It’s hard, and likely to get harder before it gets better. It is now that we really discover the mettle of the club’s leadership. Do they have true conviction in the path chosen, the appointments made? If they were to change course mid-stream yet again, how would they be believed in the future?

The Blues are a powerhouse club only in the minds of the remaining nostalgists in its ranks. In reality, the squander of those wandering 13 years leaves it a middling Victorian club in a growing national competition. Foes old and new have left it behind. The useful limits of trading on a storied history have been exhausted. In a time when even Richmond has got it together, Carlton has no more time for delusions.