The saying that the ‘fish rots at the head’ is used quite frequently in football, and it couldn’t sum up the situation at Carlton any better.
Brendon Bolton had to go. Four wins from 43 games just isn’t good enough for any club, and even he understood that.
Carlton couldn’t sit idly by as they had another two-win season and unfortunately, the buck always stops with the senior coach. Bolton spoke incredibly well at his outgoing press conference, which is a testament to the character of the man. He’ll go onto bigger and better things in the football world.
To put into a metaphor, Carlton gave an apprentice a job he might not have been ready for and then struggled to give him the tools he needed to survive and do the job.
Nobody replaced Neil Craig when he departed, which was a huge mistake as there was nobody to steer a young coach in the right direction. In turn, the club basically wasted three and a half years.
Former Blues head coach Brendon Bolton (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Regardless of what you think of the Carlton list, there are still major questions to be asked of the hierarchy. Mark LoGiudice did himself no favours in the press conference when he consistently stated that the club, and the board “stuck to the process” and is “not changing their direction”. They clearly have – unless sacking their coach four years into a rebuild was a part of their plan.
LoGiudice has a terrible track record as the president of the club. They’ve only won twenty-six games out of a possible 126 games. He’s gone back on his promise to the supporters twice now, the first coming in 2017 when he sacked CEO Steven Trigg, after only three weeks earlier stating that his position was safe.
Fast track to 2019 and he’s done the same thing to Brendon Bolton. He said that he wouldn’t be stepping down as the president in the press conference on Monday, but the signs are ominous for him.
Cain Liddle will likely survive the review that Carlton will have throughout the remainder of the season, considering he’s boosted membership numbers and helped the club financially.
That’s the main aim for any CEO, and it is one of the big factors that led to Brendon Bolton’s sacking.
The fact that the supporters weren’t showing up, and started to lose hope. He’s under pressure like everyone at the club is, but they’d be hard-pressed to find a reason to sack him, considering he’s only been there for two seasons.
Chris Judd and Stephen Silvagni simply have to be moved on before the offseason begins. Judd was on the committee that appointed Bolton as the senior coach, and his new role at Carlton is the football director.
He was offered the position without any experience at all, and you’d suggest it was based on the Judd name, rather than any credentials or potential, as to why he got the job. When you look at the football directors of the good clubs, you hear names like Neil Balme, Graham Wright, and Geoff Walsh.
Regardless of any of that though, I’m not sure how a football director’s job can remain tenable after winning nine out of a possible fifty-eight games.
Stephen Silvagni may go down as the worst list manager in the competition’s history. He’s time at Carlton has been eerily similar to Greg Miller’s time at Richmond. The difference being that Miller actually achieved something before Richmond gave him the keys to the castle.
Stephen Silvagni, List Manager of the Blues (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Silvagni was the list manager at Greater Western Sydney when they first came into the competition. He had two years of basically thirteen top twenty picks, and the Giants have still failed to win a premiership – now in year seven.
Silvagni has traded in nine Greater Western Sydney players throughout his time at Carlton, and not one of them has performed well.
Carlton’s drafting hasn’t been good either. Currently, Jacob Weitering is playing terrible footy, as is Sam Petrevski – Seton and Paddy Dow, who were consecutive first-round draft picks from 2015 – 2017.
Coach after coach are being shown the exit door at Ikon Park, but is it really the coach’s fault? I don’t think we ever really got to see whether Brendon Bolton could coach, as the support systems just weren’t there for him.
Until the attitudes and culture of the club changes, which includes practically every board member, the Carlton football club won’t be successful. Whoever the new coach is – whether he be experienced like Brad Scott, or inexperienced like Blake Caracella, has the toughest job in football waiting for them.
William Cornwill
Roar Guru
Why?
Wayne Kerr
Guest
I have met Bolts on several occasions, down at Carlton, and he is a great guy, but he is also not cut out for coaching. S.O.S made it hard for him, with his decimation of the list. Total rebuilds do not work. We have no mature players protecting our young players. No one steps in and helps Cripps. He has to go. Getting rid of Tuohy was a huge mistake. Offloading Gibbs, who was prepared to stay, was an even bigger mistake. S.O.S, despite his connections, never landed a big fish. His trading out of our first round pick is unforgivable. LoGiudice should step down. He has done nothing as president. He says one thing while does the other.
SneakyKal
Roar Rookie
Brendon tell me any sporting organisation that would tolerate this record and keep him. Of course he had to go. Any coach who has 3 plus years and you go watch them they have no hand print on what game plan Bolton wants them to play ?? that’s just a failure as a senior coach. It doesn’t matter what injuries you get who you didn’t trade for or what draft pick didn’t work out you still should have put your stamp on the team. Bolts couldn’t do that.
Brendan
Guest
Why is there so much conjecture about the Bolton decision.He was coached for 3.5 years and I struggle to recall any game his coaching was the difference in.What else could the club do .Bolton won't be the only one departing Carlton before next year.
SneakyKal
Roar Rookie
This is laughable “ Silvagni will go down as the worst recruiter in the history of the game” what a joke this is amateur stuff
William Cornwill
Roar Guru
Doesn't that tell you that more than just the coach is the problem? LoGuidice, Pratt, Silvagni and Judd are huge issues at that football club.
anon
Roar Pro
Indeed it does. The little bloke wasn't cut out for it, but that's football. Chase a stable career like everyone else if you don't like being judged by wins and losses and put under public scrutiny. Got to be the worst coach in the AFL era.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I suppose he didn't have to nail all of his picks at GWS anyway, since half the guys he selected were going to get squeezed out sooner or later. I don't think Boyd at 1 was a bad call though. He was the consensus pick and he basically won the Dogs a flag with a huge finals series. If not for the mental health issues who knows what he could have been.
Jake
Guest
Rubbish. The talent is there, the coaching, development and game day tactics were poor. In hindsight maybe hiring a rookie coach was a mistake but then again they did try one of the most decorated and experienced coaches in history (Malthouse) before that and look how that turned out.
William Cornwill
Roar Guru
Fair call there for the most part James. I tend to disagree that Dow, in particular, is still looking like a good prospect. He just can't kick the footy. Blues supporters would be hoping it's decision making that is letting him down because if it isn't, they've wasted another top-five pick. Weitering looks scared when I watch him at the moment. It'll be very interesting to see how they go under a new coach. Regarding his GWS years - I'd argue anyone could have done that with the selections he had. He still got a few horribly wrong (Jonathon O'rourke at number two, Lachie Plowman at number three, Kristian Jaksch at number twelve, Tom Boyd at number one).
JamesH
Roar Guru
True, although he must have had a fair idea that he would be joining the Blues by the time those trades were made. Not that I'm suggesting he didn't approach them as professionally as he could in the circumstances. I'm sure there were upsides to the Henderson and Tuohy trades but it doesn't necessarily follow that they couldn't have still drafted a handful of talented youngsters with their own picks that they gave up in those (and other) trades. And it's the lack of more experienced players that has really hurt, particularly with injuries to leaders like Murphy and Docherty. Tuohy didn't want to leave but he was offered peanuts to stay.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Quote : S. Kernahan - " Carlton is best, f... the rest ". Footy karma is such a beautiful thing !
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
JamesH, Silvagni didn’t trade in Jaksch & Whiley, he was still at GWS when that trade occurred. Henderson & Tuohy trades helped bring in Mc Kay, Plowman, Phillips, Marchbank, Pickett, Macreadie, Williamson & Kerr. Most of the trades Silvagni brought in cost very little and yes a lot weren’t successful but the plan was to go to the draft for 3 years which they did with some early picks and the trades were more for adding depth and providing backup. Unfortunately a fair number of injuries forced Carlton to play a lot of the depth players in the same team which didn’t help.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I agree with the thrust of what you're saying. Bolton was the coach and so he copped the brunt of the fallout from Carlton's failures. That's the way it tends to go. But he was probably the least of their problems. There seems to have been a real lack of support around him and I'm not sure Robert Walls is the guy you want looking over your shoulder. I also agree that Silvagni's record in terms of trading and recruiting is questionable, although I don't think he's done badly draft-wise. Weitering, SPS and Dow still all look like good prospects to me. I think they're just under too much pressure because of a lack of senior talent around them. SOS also drafted McKay, Curnow, Cunningham, Fisher, O'Brien, Walsh and Stocker (ignoring the trade they made to get him), who all seem like sound picks at this point. Even Jack Silvagni only cost pick 50-odd. If you go back to his GWS years, he mostly nailed the selections there too. Cameron, Shiel, Treloar, Wilson, Coniglio, Hoskin-Elliott, Haynes, Tomlinson, Greene, Adams, Smith, Whitfield, Boyd, Kelly, McCarthy, Lobb and Marchbank were all ticks, despite subsequent departures. Its the trading and the recruitment of free agents/delisted players at Carlton where the criticism comes in. SOS basically doubled down on some of his misses at GWS when he recruited the likes of Jaksch, Whiley, Sumner, Lamb and Pickett, even if it didn't cost much to bring them in. I'm not sure how much giving games to these sorts of players affected the way in which guys like Henderson and Tuohy departed but it can't have helped.