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The Carlton Football Club are languishing towards the bottom of the premiership table and their 2014 season is over. Carlton fans filled with hope and anticipation pre-season are now asking the question: what has gone wrong?
The answers stem beyond Mick Malthouse’s tenure and to a long line of empty promises, impatience and poor recruiting.
It is difficult to identify the exact date, but it is also not important. Carlton supporters sub-consciously carry various empty promises into every season, every game and every quarter.
Carlton were cellar dwellers for longer than a proud club cares to remember but the reward, as promised, was that the premiership window would gloriously open up from 2013.
After all, Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs and Matthew Kreuzer would be in their prime and ready to contend for the 17th premiership, but you can’t win a flag on the back of a series of draft picks.
Clubs currently at the bottom of the ladder will testify to that statement. It’s all the recruiting that occurs around the number ones that count and unfortunately Carlton got it very wrong.
Mistake one, and this will be controversial, was that Carlton should have never traded for Chris Judd. In a series of drafts that contained a limited number of quality forwards, it was important that Carlton used a top pick on their next Stephen Kernahan. They did, with pick number four, bring in Josh Kennedy.
You might be familiar with Josh, he currently causes havoc in the West Coast forward line, kicking goals at will, with every one a dagger through the heart of a Carlton supporter. Everyone knows what Chris Judd has done for Carlton, and he will be remembered for leading the club when it lacked leadership.
But the Judd for Kennedy trade was nothing more than another example of rich Carlton power-brokers throwing money at a problem rather than exercising patience and strategy.
Mistake two occurred between 2009 and 2011. Carlton’s drafting in this period was wasteful.
Kane Lucas (number 12 – 2009 draft) struggles to hold down a regular spot in the team, and is likely to be traded, while Nathan Fyfe (number 20) is a million dollar man. Lewis Jetta (number 14) was instrumental in Sydney’s 2012 flag and Daniel Talia (number 13) will be a 200-game defensive rock for the Adelaide Crows.
Throw in the delisting of Marcus Davies and Rohan Kerr, and it is safe to say Carlton would rather forget the 2009 draft.
In 2010 and 2011 Carlton drafted players such as Josh Bootsma (fired for poor behaviour), Matthew Watson (likely delisting), Patrick McCarthy (delisted) and Luke Mitchell (delisted).
One can’t help but think Carlton were searching for another Josh Kennedy towards the middle of the draft and they failed miserably. There is a cliche regularly spoken in the AFL community: “A week is a long time in footy”, but imagine three years.
The impact of poor drafting decisions are felt on a weekly basis, and with every game the supporters become more and more frustrated. Yes, the typical analysis would highlight a frustration with the current players, and even the game plan by those more offensively minded, however on a more deep-seated level the supporters are frustrated by the empty promises lingering in their minds.
There is still hope, and the Carlton faithful will continue to proudly wear the navy blue. The supporters can turn their attention to recent inspiration. Troy Menzel is a star on the rise, as is Dylan Buckley. Sam Rowe appears to be a regular rock in defence and Patrick Cripps looks a likely replacement for Chris Judd.
If only Carlton had been patient.
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