Cornwill's season previews: Carlton Blues

After a horrible 2015 season and only winning four games, Carlton departed with head coach Mick Malthouse and in turn brought popular and well-liked Hawthorn assistant Brendon Bolton into the top job at Ikon Park.

Bolton and his Blues had a rather successful year in 2016, winning seven games and climbing to 14th on the ladder, after previously winning the spoon. Hopes were high for the navy blues going into 2017.

Carlton’s season has been heavily debated by media pundits in terms of whether it was a success or failure, which seems strange considering they didn’t win as many games as they did the previous season. Their season was a failure, and there are no two ways about it.

However, Blues fans did see signs that excited them throughout the year. Charlie Curnow, Sam Petrevski–Seton and Caleb Marchbank gave Carlton fans something to look forward to.

Although, with the loss of their best player Bryce Gibbs and then the unfortunate season-ending injury to Sam Docherty, it could be another long year for the Blues faithful if they don’t come up with solutions on how to play without them, and quickly.

Best 22:
FB: Caleb Marchbank, Liam Jones, Lachie Plowman
HB: Kade Simpson, Jacob Weitering, Ciaran Byrne
C: Matthew Kennedy, Ed Curnow, Sam Petrevski–Seton
HF: Jarrod Picket, Charlie Curnow, Darcy Lang
FF: Matthew Wright, Levi Casboult, Jack Silvagni
F: Matthew Kreuzer, Patrick Cripps, Marc Murphy
I/C: Paddy Dow, David Cunningham, Harry McKay, Zac Fisher

Defence:
Carlton’s young defence was one of their shining lights throughout last season. They still conceded goals regularly and heavily, but that is to be expected due to both youth and pressure due to the ball consistently being there.

They look like they have a found a good pairing for the future who can play both small and tall in former Greater Western Sydney players Caleb Marchbank and Lachie Plowman, and they seem to suit the way each other play.

It is a big year for the 2015 number one pick in Jacob Weitering, who has been solid without excelling in his first two years at the Blues. Injuries have been blamed for poor games while when he has good games they aren’t ever spoken of.

He needs to show significant improvement to start living up to his draft selection and in turn, round out the Blues promising defence.

Liam Jones was a revelation in defence for the Blues last year after stringing some really good games together. All of that is great, although no team should be banking on Jones to construct a whole season of good football together, he hasn’t done it before and it is unlikely he will this year either.

Sam Docherty is a huge loss to both the Blues defence and the whole team. He was an All-Australian last season and for good reason – he was the best running half back in the competition.

(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)

With his omission from the team, extra pressure will be put on an ageing Kade Simpson and young Irishman Ciaran Byrne who showed fantastic signs before injuries have derailed his last two seasons.

Carlton’s team defence is very good and they are well drilled in that area of the ground by Brendon Bolton. The loss of Docherty however, will hurt their run and attacking threat from the defence significantly and it is now up to the hierarchy at Carlton to figure out how to play well without him.

Midfield:
The Carlton midfield is one of the most interesting midfields in the competition in 2018.

They have some genuine star quality in there, but they just don’t seem to function well as a unit which may be down to the fact they haven’t played together much or due to injuries, but whatever it needs to be attended by the coaching staff.

Patrick Cripps is the main man of the Carlton midfield headed into 2018. Cripps was struck down by a back injury in the middle of last year which cut his season short but before that, he was again playing extremely well.

He averaged twenty-six disposals in 2016 and again twenty-four in 2017 and was among the top ten in clearances per game in the competition.

His partner in crime and the skipper of the Blues Marc Murphy will again need to shoulder the load of the pressure in 2018, after getting tagged frequently in 2017. Murphy was terrific last season, as it was one of his best in his career and the Blues will need him to carry on playing that way.

Matthew Kreuzer is one of the top five ruckmen in the league and has been brilliant after he has seemingly got over the injury problems that he had for the best part of a decade. The Carlton midfielders should be getting first use in most games again this season.

Another recruit from the Giants in Matthew Kennedy will be expected to come in and play really good footy now that he has been in the system for a few years. Kennedy showed signs of being elite at times when he was actually played in a packed Giants midfield, he should have a good year with more opportunity in the Blues midfield.

Sam Petrevski-Seton has shown great signs in his first couple of years and sometimes just looks like he has the ball on a string. Paddy Dow, the Blues’ first selection in the draft will play and also look to impress.

(AAP Image/Craig Golding)

Overall, like said previously, the Blues midfield hasn’t gelled as much as Brendon Bolton would have liked it to. Nobody from the outside looking in can really understand the game plan, they just seem to hack kick it out of the pack as there is no real fluency in their spread after they get the ball, and they’re hack kicking it into the worst forward line in the league.

Attack:
When analysing teams last year, I came to the conclusion that Carlton had one of the worst forward lines ever assembled, and unfortunately for Carlton and their supporters, not much has changed.

The major difference, however, this season is Charlie Curnow. Curnow had a terrific year last year and showed the whole league that he can potentially be one of the best players in the competition. He kicked twenty goals last year with literally no help whatsoever and if he can continue to improve he may drag the Blues forward line to be somewhat respectable.

Harry McKay looked to show okay signs last year as another key target, although it is hard to see him performing to a high level this season anyway considering it will be his first proper year of senior football.

Levi Casboult will be the same as he usually is, an absolute fantastic mark but when it comes time to put the ball through the big sticks, he just can’t do it. Realistically in most teams, Casboult wouldn’t be playing due to that downfall and it’s hard to see him rectifying it so late in his career.

In terms of small forwards Matthew Wright had a good year last year, however, he has reached his ceiling and won’t be getting any better, thirty goals a year is handy though for a team that can’t score.

Darcy Lang was recruited from the Cats and they don’t get rid of players for no reason, so it’s doubtful you’ll see him apply many tackles.

Last but not least is Jack Silvagni. As a son of a Carlton legend, there was always going to be huge probably undeserving pressure put on him considering most draft experts didn’t have him in the top twenty.

All he is doing now is living up to the expectation of the scouts and recruiters, he could improve dramatically but currently, he just isn’t that good.

Basically, the Blues forward line will rely on the smalls applying a lot of pressure which could lead to turnovers inside their forward fifty. However, with only one good key target, the ball will find itself coming out of the forward line with ease.

Prediction:
This year is the year where the Blues need to actually show a really clear improvement. After winning seven games in Bolton’s first season, to six in his second, a ten win season needs to be on the cards. However, you can’t help but think that the loss of Docherty and Gibbs will hit them really hard this year.

It would be good for the competition if the Blues improved and showed something, but it is very doubtful.

Predicted finish: 16th