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Carlton Football Club

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Carlton
center
Full name Carlton Football Club
Nickname The Blues
Strip Navy blue guernsey with white monogram, navy blue shorts and socks
Founded 1864
Sport Australian Rules Football
League Australian Football League
Ground Telstra Dome/MCG
Club song We Are The Navy Blues
President/Chair Graham Smorgon
Coach Denis Pagan
Captain Anthony Koutoufides
Carlton Football Club, nicknamed The Blues for their dark (navy) blue playing colours, is one of the oldest and most successful Australian rules football clubs.

The club is based at Princes Park oval (officially known now as MC Labour Park in a sponsorship deal) in northern Carlton. The suburb combines the academic air of the nearby University of Melbourne with a large quotient of immigrants from Southern Europe, and both groups still leave their mark on the Carlton supporter base. In 2004, Carlton President Ian Collins began the process with Vice-President (now president) Graham Smorgon of reviewing Carlton's continued presence at MC Labour Park. It was decided that six home games be played at Telstra Dome (Docklands Stadium) and five at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A "farewell" game was played at Princes Park on Saturday 21 May in 2005. Despite an overwhelming majority of members voting for the home ground move, it was not altogether popular with all club supporters. Despite this the club achieved record membership levels in 2005. Training and social club facilities at Princes Park remain. There are proposals to redevelop the ground to make it into an elite training facility for the players. Carlton has traditionally been the most powerful on-field club (until recently), boasting winning records over virtually every other club in the competition, including notable rivals such as Collingwood and Essendon.

Contents

Rivalry

Carlton players during pre-game warmup
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Carlton players during pre-game warmup

Carlton's fiercest rivals include the other members of the inner-suburban "big four" - Essendon, Richmond, and especially Collingwood. Collingwood's working-class supporter base, close geographic proximity, and many historic on-field (and occasional off-field) tussles mark the rivalry as the strongest in the game (but, in modern times at least, not to the extent of the religious and ethnic based battles that have occasionally plagued the Australian soccer leagues).

Club History

Early History

Formed in 1864, it originally played in the Victorian Football Association competition, and was one of the formation members of the breakaway Victorian Football League in 1897, which became the Australian Football League in the 1980s.

1970s

One of the most famous clashes in VFL/AFL history took place at the 1970 Grand Final: the Blues, under the brilliant coaching of Ron Barassi, turned a 44-point half-time deficit into a 10-point victory. It is often said that Barassi invented modern football in his half-time instructions to the Carlton players, telling them to concentrate on retaining possession through short kicks and handpassing. This is a considerable exaggeration, as Barassi had been working on the new playing style throughout the 1970 season.

Recent History

Former Carlton Logo
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Former Carlton Logo
The club underwent both off-field and on-field turmoil in 2002. The club finished last for the first time in its history, and mounting losses and accounting irregularities finally caught up with club president John Elliott. Elliott was then voted off the board by club members. The new administration discovered that the club had been making extra, secret payments to certain players, breaching the AFL salary cap. The club was heavily fined and stripped of top picks in the annual player draft, hampering attempts to rebuild the club's player group.

In 2003, Denis Pagan was appointed Coach in an attempt to turn the club around. The following year, Carlton won ten games, more than the previous two years combined. At the beginning of 2005, the turn around seemed a reality after their success in the pre-season Wizard Cup but the club failed to maintain its form for the home-and-away season. Finishing on the bottom of the ladder for just the second time in its proud history it became the second club to win the pre-season competition and the wooden spoon in the same year, with Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs) having done so in 1967.

The club became the last of the former VFL clubs to move away from its original home ground when it played its last match at Optus Oval against Melbourne in Round 9 of the 2005 season. Carlton had played at Princes Park for 108 years.

Corporate

Membership Base

In 2005, the Carlton Football Club had a record membership of 33,534.

Year Members Finishing position
1998 25,402 11th
1999 25,719 2nd
2000 27,571 6th
2001 27,735 5th
2002 26,385 16th
2003 33,525 15th
2004 32,445 11th
2005 33,534 16th
2006 28,692*
(*as of 23 June, 2006)

Presidents

Current Sponsors

Records

Individual Records

Individual Awards

See John Nicholls Medal

Current roster

As of December 27, 2005:
 
  • 17 
Setanta O'hAilpin
  • 18 Paul Bower
  • 19
    • Eddie Betts
  • 20 Cory McGrath
  • 21 Troy Longmuir
  • 22 Callum Chambers
  • 23 Adam Hartlett
  • 24 Nick Stevens
  • 25 Brendan Fevola
  • 26 Adrian Deluca
  • 27 Chris Bryan
  • 28 Ian Prendergast
  • 29 Heath Scotland
  • 30 Jarrad Waite
  • 31 Jordan Bannister
    		•   Rookies
    • 38 Ryan Jackson
    • 39 Daniel Batson
    • 41 Jesse D. Smith
    • 42 Craig Flint
    • 45 
    Aisake O'hAilpin

    Team of the Century

    Carlton Team of the Century
    B: Bruce Comben Stephen Silvagni Geoff Southby
    HB: John James Bert Deacon Bruce Doull
    C: Garry Crane Greg Williams Craig Bradley
    HF: Wayne Johnston Stephen Kernahan (Captain) Alex Jesaulenko
    F: Ken Hands Harry Vallence Rod Ashman
    Foll: John Nicholls Sergio Silvagni Adrian Gallagher
    Int: Robert Walls Mike Fitzpatrick Ken Hunter
    Trevor Keogh
    Coach: David Parkin
    Four emergencies were also named: Laurie Kerr, Bob Chitty, Horrie Clover and Rod McGregor.

    Club Jumper

    The home jumper is navy blue with a white CFC logo in the middle.
    Enlarge
    The home jumper is navy blue with a white CFC logo in the middle.

    The current jumper design consists of a navy blue backing, CFC monogram and AFL logo on front, and bold white numbers on back. The club's current major sponsors are Optus, Dan Murphy's and Nike. For home games, the Optus sponsoring is displayed on the front, while Dan Murphy's sponsoring is beneath the player numbers on the back. The sponsors change positions when the club is playing away.

    In April 2006, the club announced a "clash" jumper in accordance to the AFL's request that each club have an alternative jumper to be worn against other clubs in similar design. The jumper, although not yet deemed official, consists of inverted colours from the regular home season outfit, complimented by blue stripes on the sides.

    See also

    External links

    Clubs in the Australian Football League
    Adelaide Crows | Brisbane Lions | Carlton | Collingwood | Essendon | Fremantle | Geelong | Hawthorn
    Kangaroos | Melbourne | Port Adelaide | Richmond | St Kilda | Sydney Swans | West Coast Eagles | Western Bulldogs
    Former clubs: Brisbane Bears | Fitzroy | University

     

    From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
    All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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