For several years Carlton has been on the cusp of being a respected AFL club once again. In 2022, it’s all in front of it.
Blues fans were delivered the best possible off-season news on Monday with the re-signing of Sam Walsh until 2026.
Perhaps Carlton’s most important piece for the future and arguably the most talented player they’ve had since Chris Judd, Walsh was set for a bumper pay rise initially estimated to be in the seven-figure range but later reported by the Herald Sun to be around $825,000 a season.
It comes after Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield declared he’d offer Walsh a 10-year, $10 million deal to lure him to the Cattery.
Walsh’s signature caps off a key retention period for the Blues as the young gun joined fellow stars Jacob Weitering (until 2025) and Patrick Cripps (on a reported $5.4 million deal until 2017) in being locked in long-term at Ikon Park.
And although Harry McKay last year only signed a two-year extension, it’s still a commitment from the reigning Coleman medallist to the club.
In Walsh, Weitering and McKay, Carlton arguably has claim to the best threesome of players that occupy each section of the ground, while Walsh is just 21 years old, and the others, 24. The trio are capable of making multiple All-Australian sides and will play a key role in its fortunes in the coming years.
The Blues’ faith in Walsh and Weitering showed last month when the pair were promoted to dual co-vice captains in support of solo skipper Cripps in a revamped three-man leadership group under new coach Michael Voss.
You’d expect one of Walsh or Weitering will captain Carlton one day, if not both.
Rounding out the club’s absolute key core, it’d be remiss not to mention its biggest wildcard star, Charlie Curnow, once one of the game’s most electrifying key forwards, but plagued by injury over the last two seasons.
Despite having several key signatures secured, retaining Curnow, still just 25, and McKay beyond 2023 will be crucial as the club’s twin tower forwards. Walsh’s sacrifice makes this easier.
On the recruiting side, the Blues have been even busier in recent years in splurging for the likes of Jack Martin, Mitch McGovern, Adam Saad, Zac Williams and Adam Cerra.
McGovern has thus far struggled to deliver on his potential, while Martin has been limited to just 26 games for the club through injury.
The much maligned Williams had an inconsistent 2021 playing in a new midfield role, but he’ll look to rediscover his spark in defence, where he’s been training this pre-season.
Meanwhile, Saad enjoyed a strong season off half back to finish sixth in the club’s best and fairest, while Cerra and George Hewett flesh out a much deeper Blues midfield in 2022.
And as three-time premiership winning Carlton champion Mark Maclure highlighted, on-ball depth is essential, pointing to Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs’ line-ups.
“You can’t get enough midfielders, you need eight or nine midfielders who go through there. Because it’s a taxing job,” Maclure told foxfooty.com.au.
There’s no denying that Carlton has serious talent at its disposal, maybe the most it’s had this century. But in the Blues spending up, both financially and with draft picks, to acquire such players from rival clubs, in addition to re-signing all their stars, the club has put significant stock into this list.
The Age reported last year the Blues had “some wiggle room” in their salary cup prior to getting Cerra and Hewett, while Cerra alone likely would’ve used that up.
Therefore, the Blues have effectively exercised their flexibility over the last few trade periods where they’d now struggle to bring in anyone major moving forward without losing a key piece. It’s the model of a team that should be competing for premierships, or at the very least, a top four spot.
In other words, this is the group that the club has faith can lead it to its first finals appearance since 2013 and maybe even deliver success. Yet essentially the same list is coming off seven wins (twice) and eight wins over the last three seasons.
Of course, it doesn’t happen overnight. A group maturing together takes several years, as the Demons and Tigers have shown in recent times. But the Blues should no longer be merely assessed as having an exciting team with upside, it’s one built to win now. But can it?
Critically, Maclure pointed out having elite personnel means nothing if it doesn’t function effectively as a team. This inability to bind the group has been a major issue that Voss and co. must correct, no matter which 22 is on the park.
“You’ve got to get them to perform together and work for each other, that’s the key. If they don’t do that, they’re going nowhere,” he said.
“They’ve got some pillars, but do they want to go do it properly, do they want to go together or do they want to play individually? That’s not the game, you don’t play individually, because you can’t win.
“That’s the simple things that make a better team. Failure isn’t a problem, not performing is a problem.”
It comes amid a period of significant change at Carlton over the last six months including Voss replacing David Teague as senior boss.
Voss’ inclusion — as part of a major overhaul of the coaching staff — marks his second chance as senior coach following a largely disappointing stint at the Brisbane Lions from 2009 to 2013.
“Voss is looking for a bit of redemption too.... the biggest thing ‘Vossy’ was good at as a player was he could build a team. He had a team around him and he was the captain of it,” Maclure said.
Elsewhere, the Blues landed long-time Cats CEO Brian Cook in a major coup and Luke Sayers took over from Mark LoGiudice as president as one of several board changes.
Sayers even said in a letter to members after he stepped into role that the team’s singular focus is “doing everything in our power to win games of football, to playing finals, and to put ourselves in a position to win premierships.”
The club has made its goals clear amid a reconstruction of its list, coaching staff and those in power.
Now all the work is in front of Carlton and most would agree it’s more than capable of doing serious damage in 2022.
The team’s flimsy defensive structure that consistently meant Carlton couldn’t stop teams from going on big runs was widely considered its biggest weakness in 2021 and something that must be amended for it to play finals, and rightfully so.
But Maclure believes a tough off-season on the track could also pay dividends.
“Voss has brutalised them over the Christmas period. You don’t know how much better you can get yourself until you get rock-hard fit,” he said.
“I think that was one of the problems in the past. It doesn’t kill anyone, it makes you better.
“Getting them to peak fitness is a must. But you never know what can happen because they haven’t been there in a while.... one thing you know is that they’ll be fit and they’ll be hard.”
Indeed, 2022 looms as a big year at Ikon Park after several seasons of failures.
All signs point to it being the year the penny drops and the club delivers on its potential after many years at the bottom of the ladder that saw it land the likes of Walsh, Weitering and McKay with early draft picks.
Clubs can ultimately recruit as many rival stars as it likes, but internal improvement and the coming together of a list is by and large how sides flourish to win premierships.
This Carlton supporter base in particular has been starved of success for some time and grown more impatient with each passing season that the club has failed to live up to expectations, dating back to the Judd-Mick Malthouse days and even beyond.
But they now have everything at their disposal, most critically a list they’ve gone chips in with.
So over to you Blues — it’s time to deliver.
