What can you say about this great club, full of history and past champions, when they only won two games and lost 20 in a season that saw them again finish on the bottom of the ladder?
Well, for starters, they have two great champions on their list, and both are committed to the club for 2019.
Kade Simpson started the year on 286 games, just outside the AFL top 100 all-time game players, and by the end of the season had risen to 59th.
Strangely enough, on the Blues’ top 100, he passed only one player – beanpole Justin Madden – early in the season to move from sixth to fifth.
Simpson’s resilience is legendary. He played 21 games for the season, and in the last 13 seasons at the club has only missed playing 20-plus games in a season once – in 2012, when he managed only 19!
Sadly, in a career that has lasted 16 seasons already, he has only played in more winning games than losing in three seasons – 2004, 2009 and 2011.
Although not a prolific goal scorer, kicking only four in 2018, he sits in 61st position on the club’s top 100 goal scorers, with a total of 135.
Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images
The other great champion at the club, Marc Murphy, had a frustrating season in which he managed only 13 games and failed to reach the 250-game milestone by one game.
In spite of this, his interrupted season saw him pass the tallies of such great club champions as Rod Ashman, Rod MacGregor, Sergio Silvangi, Mark Maclure, Andrew McKay and Peter Dean, drawing level with Peter ‘Percy’ Jones in 13th position.
He also scored only five goals, his lowest output in his 13 seasons at the club, which saw him reach 33 on the Blues’ all-time top 100 goal-scorers’ list and the leading current-day scorer.
That said, there are three ex-Carlton goal scorers ahead of him on the list, plying their trade at other clubs in 2018: Eddie Betts (Adelaide), Jarrod Waite (North Melbourne) and Jeff Garlett (Melbourne).
And therein lies part of the story for the club’s present woes – the depth of talent lost over the last decade. Bryce Gibbs and Zach Touhy are another two examples of this drain.
However, the plight of the club is not as bad as some would have you believe. With only three 31year-olds on the list, an absolute champion in Patrick Cripps, and potential long-term players in Charlie Curnow, Jacob Weitering, Lachie Plowman and the impressive Sam Petrevski-Seton (who has played the last 21 games in succession – more than any other Carlton player) they have a nucleus around which to build a strong team.
It may take a couple of seasons, and their supporters may need to be patient and content themselves with cheering on the individual milestones of their two great champions: Kade Simpson (who has worn the famous 6 jumper the second most number of times of any AFL player) and Marc Murphy (who has worn the 3 guernsey the ninth most number of games).
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