Carlton Football Club

Carlton Football Club, nicknamed The Blues for their dark (navy) blue playing colours, is one of the oldest and most successful Australian rules football clubs.

The club is based at Princes Park oval (officially known now as MC Labour Park in a sponsorship deal) in northern Carlton. The suburb combines the academic air of the nearby University of Melbourne with a large quotient of immigrants from Southern Europe, and both groups still leave their mark on the Carlton supporter base. In 2004, Carlton President Ian Collins began the process with Vice-President (now president) Graham Smorgon of reviewing Carlton's continued presence at MC Labour Park. It was decided that six home games be played at Telstra Dome (Docklands Stadium) and five at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A "farewell" game was played at Princes Park on Saturday 21 May in 2005. Despite an overwhelming majority of members voting for the home ground move, it was not altogether popular with all club supporters. Despite this the club achieved record membership levels in 2005. Training and social club facilities at Princes Park remain. There are proposals to redevelop the ground to make it into an elite training facility for the players. Carlton has traditionally been the most powerful on-field club (until recently), boasting winning records over virtually every other club in the competition, including notable rivals such as Collingwood and Essendon.

Rivalry

Carlton's fiercest rivals include the other members of the inner-suburban "big four" - Essendon, Richmond, and especially Collingwood. Collingwood's working-class supporter base, close geographic proximity, and many historic on-field (and occasional off-field) tussles mark the rivalry as the strongest in the game (but, in modern times at least, not to the extent of the religious and ethnic based battles that have occasionally plagued the Australian soccer leagues).

Club History

Early History

Formed in 1864, it originally played in the Victorian Football Association competition, and was one of the formation members of the breakaway Victorian Football League in 1897, which became the Australian Football League in the 1980s.

1970s

One of the most famous clashes in VFL/AFL history took place at the 1970 Grand Final: the Blues, under the brilliant coaching of Ron Barassi, turned a 44-point half-time deficit into a 10-point victory. It is often said that Barassi invented modern football in his half-time instructions to the Carlton players, telling them to concentrate on retaining possession through short kicks and handpassing. This is a considerable exaggeration, as Barassi had been working on the new playing style throughout the 1970 season.

Recent History

The club underwent both off-field and on-field turmoil in 2002. The club finished last for the first time in its history, and mounting losses and accounting irregularities finally caught up with club president John Elliott. Elliott was then voted off the board by club members. The new administration discovered that the club had been making extra, secret payments to certain players, breaching the AFL salary cap. The club was heavily fined and stripped of top picks in the annual player draft, hampering attempts to rebuild the club's player group.

In 2003, Denis Pagan was appointed Coach in an attempt to turn the club around. The following year, Carlton won ten games, more than the previous two years combined. At the beginning of 2005, the turn around seemed a reality after their success in the pre-season Wizard Cup but the club failed to maintain its form for the home-and-away season. Finishing on the bottom of the ladder for just the second time in its proud history it became the second club to win the pre-season competition and the wooden spoon in the same year, with Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs) having done so in 1967.

The club became the last of the former VFL clubs to move away from its original home ground when it played its last match at Optus Oval against Melbourne in Round 9 of the 2005 season. Carlton had played at Princes Park for 108 years.

Corporate

Membership Base

In 2005, the Carlton Football Club had a record membership of 33,534.

Year	Members	Finishing position
1998	25,402	11th
1999	25,719	2nd
2000	27,571	6th
2001	27,735	5th
2002	26,385	16th
2003	33,525	15th
2004	32,445	11th
2005	33,534	16th
2006	28,692*

(*as of 23 June, 2006)

Presidents

John Elliott (1982-2002)
Ian Collins (2002-2006)
Graham Smorgon (2006-)

Current Sponsors

Records

Premierships:
- VFA: 1877, 1887
- VFL/AFL: 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995

Pre-Season Premierships:
- 1983, 1997, 2005

Wooden Spoons:
- 2002, 2005

Individual Records

"Most Career Goals"
- 738- Stephen Kernahan (1986-1997)
- 722- Harry "Soapy" Vallence
- 444- Alex Jesaulenko
- 444- Robert Walls

"Most Career Games"
- 375- Craig Bradley
- 356- Bruce Doull
- 331- John Nicholls
- 312- Stephen Silvagni

Individual Awards

Best and Fairest

See John Nicholls Medal

Brownlow Medal winners

Leigh Matthews Trophy winners

Greg Williams (1994)
Anthony Koutoufides (2000)

Norm Smith Medal winners

Michael Tuck Medal

Craig Bradley (1997)
Brendan Fevola (2005)

Coleman Medal winners

Tom Carroll (1961)

Mark of the Year winners

Current roster

As of December 27, 2005:

Setanta O'hAilpin

18 Paul Bower Eddie Betts

20 Cory McGrath

21 Troy Longmuir

22 Callum Chambers

23 Adam Hartlett

24 Nick Stevens

25 Brendan Fevola

26 Adrian Deluca

27 Chris Bryan

28 Ian Prendergast

29 Heath Scotland

30 Jarrad Waite

31 Jordan Bannister

Rookies

Team of the Century

Four emergencies were also named: Laurie Kerr, Bob Chitty, Horrie Clover and Rod McGregor.

Club Jumper

The current jumper design consists of a navy blue backing, CFC monogram and AFL logo on front, and bold white numbers on back. The club's current major sponsors are Optus, Dan Murphy's and Nike. For home games, the Optus sponsoring is displayed on the front, while Dan Murphy's sponsoring is beneath the player numbers on the back. The sponsors change positions when the club is playing away.

In April 2006, the club announced a "clash" jumper in accordance to the AFL's request that each club have an alternative jumper to be worn against other clubs in similar design. The jumper, although not yet deemed official, consists of inverted colours from the regular home season outfit, complimented by blue stripes on the sides.

http://www.footyjumpers.com/

External links

1864 establishments | Australian Football League clubs | Sporting clubs in Melbourne | Sport in Melbourne | Sport in Victoria

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