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James Kelly of Geelong tackles Chris Judd of Carlton during the AFL Round 09 match between the Carlton Blues and the Geelong Cats at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne. Slattery Images
It’s hard not to get caught up in Carlton’s fortunes this season. When a club known for its rich, powerful and successful history makes such significant progress after its darkest period in some time, you are going to notice it.
When Carlton announced their 2009 membership slogan ‘They Know We’re Coming’, it was labelled as premature and reeking of arrogance.
Okay, so it might have been a little presumptuous, perhaps even inaccurate but that wasn’t the point. It was a statement. The kind of statement only Carlton would make just to let the competition know they are on their way back to reclaim their rightful place as a league heavyweight.
But love them or hate them, a healthy Carlton means a healthy competition.
There is a slow and steady rumbling around town when the Blues are winning. A sound no other club can generate with such confidence and authority.
The thing about Carlton is that when they are a good side, they know they are good and that is what makes them so dangerous. Like no other club in the competition, and yes, even Collingwood, the Blues have a holier than thou attitude that permeates through the wider football community, threatening to terrorise all those who stand in their way.
All successful organisations have it and it’s a quality several other clubs would do well to emulate.
Carlton’s success this year is no fluke. After salary cap breaches back in the late 90s, the Blues were on the brink of collapse. Huge fines, disqualifications from the national draft and under the table payments to countless superstars – thanks to the John Elliot regime – saw the club ridiculed from pillar to post and a laughing stock.
It was, at the time, described as the most elaborate and systematic breach of the salary cap ever seen by a football club. Footy fans rejoiced in Carlton’s demise clinging to the hope that the once mighty Blues would fold under the pressure leaving them to die a slow and painful death.
Let’s be honest, it was a close call.
But little did the AFL and its fans know, was that the penalties bestowed upon Carlton would in time, make them stronger. Throughout what we can now look back on as an inconvenience, Carlton supporters and club insiders still managed to maintain the swagger.
You know that strut that all Blues fans seem to be born with.
The punishments were always going to make Carlton a more potent and unstoppable force. To this day, rival fans voice their discontent as it would seem now that Carlton was rewarded for their cheating ways. The punishments were a double edged sword and it’s staggering that nobody saw the ensuing success coming.
The sanctions that sent the Blues plummeting to the bottom of the ladder resulted in a collection of wooden spoons and hence a raft of number one draft picks.
Opposition fans that delighted in Carlton’s decay remain resentful as the bounty for their behavior is now priceless.
After all, the penalties dished out netted Dick Pratt, Greg Swann, Chris Judd, Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs, Matthew Kreuzer and Andrew Walker. Not too bad for a systematic breach of the salary cap.
That’s what makes the Blues rise to the top so utterly absorbing to watch for it has made the club and the fan even stronger and more powerful than they could possibly imagine.
This mighty football club has always had a habit of getting up the noses of, well let’s be honest here, everyone. In times of despair and hopelessness and let’s face it, all clubs go through it, Carlton and their legion of cocky, brash and smart ass fans are able to remain positive simply because they barrack for Carlton.
Something that unless you are a Carlton supporter, will never know what that truly feels like.
And so the story continues. Fans of rival clubs will forever berate, belittle and ridicule Carlton fans for their arrogance in the hope that one day they might just stop looking down their noses at the other AFL competitors – around the time that pigs fly over the MCG or the Dogs win a preliminary final – whichever comes first.
So as we count down to this season’s finals series, one can’t help but wonder whether we might just receive one more delivery as a result of the John Elliot legacy – a Carlton premiership.
I can hear the drums beating already.
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