In the wake of Black Friday, Carlton reported a massive (in a bad way) yearly loss of $7.5 million. Much of this related to the writing off of the Legends Stand, a dysfunctional social club and bad money management thanks to the recently departed John Elliott.
To further compound this, the evil entity otherwise known as the AFL required the initial fine in relation to the salary cap breaches - $57,576 - to be payable by December 31, 2002.
So why should I bring this back into the memories of Carlton fans?
If there was ever a year that a Carlton supporter would lose all hope for their club, 2002 was that year. The team that once stood as the benchmark team that every other team strived to be suddenly looked like a team in tatters, with a very uncertain future.
Snapshot of 2002:
Began with the retirements of Dean Rice and Steven Silvagni - and finished with the retirement of Craig Bradley.
Due to trades that saw us gain Corey McKernan and Justin Murphy, and saw us lose Mark Porter, and our first 3 draft picks - Carlton's first active draft pick in the ND was Pick 39 (we chose Justin Davies)
Due to the knee injury sustained in 2001, Koutafides only managed 3 games in 2002.
The season ended with the demises of Wayne Brittain and John Elliott.
Pagan was chosen as coach of Carlton for Season 2003.
Salary Cap breaches incurred a fine of $930,000, the loss of 6 early draft picks over 2 years and being denied to opportunity to participate in the 2002 PSD.
The aforementioned $7.5 million loss.
Snapshot of 20th December 2007.
Pratt.
Ratten.
$2.94 million profit!
Icke, Malouf, Swan.
Judd.
Kreuzer.
Nick Stevens returning from injury.
2 mature gun midfielders in Murphy and Gibbs.
On track for a second consecutive record-breaking membership tally.
A young, capable, hungry side that once again seeks to be the benchmark team of the AFL.
How I felt this time in 2002, was dejected, shattered, and fearing for my beloved clubs existance. Now - 5 years later - I am feeling excited, assured and hungry for success. It may not come immediately but I - like every other Carlton supporter have done 5 years hard time - and finally I can feel a change coming.
**Thanks to blueseum.org for (some) of the above facts that I shamelessly ripped off from their terrific site**
