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After slumping to yet another loss on the weekend, the big question that should be asked among Carlton fans is whether they have gone backwards under Mick Malthouse.
The Blues entered their match against Greater Western Sydney with a 4-8 season record and were the favourites, despite the Giants recording their first ever away win when they defeated the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last week.
It appeared the Blues’ would be set for their fifth win of the season, but it was not to be. Captain Marc Murphy withdrew late after suffering a hamstring injury during the warm-up and was replaced by Dennis Armfield with original sub Brock McLean starting.
Carlton started well enough, kicking two of the first three goals but quickly found themselves 19 points down midway through the first quarter.
Although they would draw level at the first change, then briefly take the lead by virtue of a Bryce Gibbs goal early in the second, the Blues were left to play catch-up against the Giants for the remainder of the match.
The loss meant that Carlton because not only the Giants’ fourth victims (and sixth in their existence) this season, they also became the fourth team after Port Adelaide, Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions to lose to both the AFL’s expansion clubs.
We all know what happened the last time Carlton lost to an expansion club.
A 12-point loss to the Gold Coast Suns in the penultimate round of the 2012 season left then-coach Brett Ratten’s position untenable, and five days after that shock loss, Ratten was sacked as the club’s coach.
The sacking was not based on the loss to the Suns, rather, it was on the basis of Carlton’s inability to defeat top sides (though it did beat Collingwood twice that year) and its failure to meet pre-season expectations of a top-four finish, having finished fifth and getting to within a kick of reaching the preliminary final in 2011.
A long injury toll and an untimely suspension to Chris Judd towards the end of the season for that infamous “chicken wing” tackle on North Melbourne’s Leigh Adams did not help the Blues’ cause.
But imagine for one moment what could have been had Carlton been able to manage its players properly and had Judd not been so careless to pull off such an act of stupidity.
Carlton could have had a much better season than it eventually did, and we would not be in this situation right now. Ratten’s sacking at the end of the season appeared unlikely after the Blues had won five of their first six matches.
The Blues’ poor form in 2012 increased speculation of a return to the coaching scene for Mick Malthouse, who spent that season in the media with the Seven Network a year after passing control of Collingwood to Nathan Buckley.
After months of denial and speculation, Malthouse, to much fanfare, was appointed head coach of the club on a three-year contract less than a fortnight after Ratten’s sacking.
His recent success in coaching the Pies to the 2010 premiership was enough to many to show that he could lead Carlton back to the finals.
That he did in 2013, despite a poor start to the season which saw them drop their three openers before the Blues won their first match under his stewardship with a 24-point win over the West Coast Eagles in Perth.
A loss to Essendon in the penultimate round that season all but ruled the club out of finals contention (just as it did after the aforementioned loss to the Gold Coast Suns twelve months earlier), however, some extraordinary events would occur in the days following Round 22, and it involved the Blues.
The Bombers, whose victory over the Blues saw them sit in seventh place with one round to play, were stripped of their berth in the finals as a result of an investigation into their supplements program, thus re-opening up the race for eighth spot.
The Blues were the biggest beneficiary of the scandal. All they had to do was defeat Port Adelaide in Adelaide, and the job was done. They earned an elimination final showdown against Richmond, who were making their first finals appearance in twelve years.
The Blues made the most of their “lucky loser” status in the finals, coming from behind to defeat the Tigers in the elimination final, thus making Mick Malthouse the most successful finals coach in history.
They then bowed out in the second round of the finals in disappointing fashion, crashing to a four-goal loss to then premiers the Sydney Swans.
In the end, Carlton just got lucky. So far the 2014 season has been poor for the Navy Blue and its shock loss to the Giants has all but ended any hope the club has of making the finals this year.
And it could get worse next Sunday night when the Blues face Collingwood for the second time this season, the Pies having already defeated the Blues by 34 points in Round 7 and the Blues yet to defeat the Pies under Mick Malthouse.
It doesn’t end there. In the weeks following a trip to Sydney, the Blues will face North Melbourne, fly west to face Fremantle for their also once-only meeting this season, get a visit by the Gold Coast Suns at Etihad Stadium and play Geelong on the Friday night stage for a second time.
They also have to face Port Adelaide at the Portress (a.k.a. Adelaide Oval) before ending their season against Essendon, another club Carlton have yet to beat under Malthouse’s coaching.
Currently with a season record of 4-9, finals is still a mathematical possibility, but on current form the Blues can forget about it and start trying to regain some respect from its long-suffering fans.
Another club that made the finals last year, Richmond, are faring even worse with a 3-10 record and their coach Damien Hardwick has acknowledged that the Tigers won’t draw huge crowds with such a dismal season record.
Their match against the Sydney Swans drew a total of just 34,633, despite the match being played on a Friday night and being against one of the AFL’s heavyweight sides.
Carlton, meanwhile, played in front of a crowd of only 9,059.
Mick Malthouse is currently halfway through a current three-year deal with the Blues. A report emerged recently that he may be offered a new deal by new president Mark LoGiudice, but that could change given the poor season to date.
LoGiudice has stated that Malthouse is the right man to lead the Blues through its current plight, but is he really right? Many are even saying that not only is Malthouse past his use-by date, but also Carlton have gone backwards under his stewardship.
It is normal for some clubs to suffer just one poor season during any coach’s tenure. Geelong in 2006, and Hawthorn and Sydney in 2009 had poor seasons under Mark Thompson, Alastair Clarkson and Paul Roos, respectively.
In the case of the former, the club’s 10th placing in 2006 came after two years in which they made a preliminary final, and suffered a heartbreaking semi-final loss to eventual premiers Sydney in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
After its season of underperformance, Bomber Thompson survived a stern season review and it appeared that the club would not improve in 2007, when they dropped three of their first five matches that season.
But the rest, as they say, is history. Geelong went on to embark on one of the AFL’s most dominant eras, and the club won their first premiership since 1963 with a dominant 119-point victory over Port Adelaide in the grand final.
After winning the flag in 2008, Hawthorn had to regenerate their list and missed the finals the following season, before they became the true powerhouse that they are now, as evidenced by the 2013 flag.
Sydney also had to regenerate following its 2005 premiership success – three years after recording their worst season since 1995, the Swans returned to the premiership dais in 2012.
Had Brett Ratten survived the disaster that was 2012, then who knows what would he happening now. The Blues could be in contention for a flag, but instead, the club is going backwards under a coach well past his use-by date.
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