Dear Donstuie,
There’s no doubting 2018 has been a tough year for our members. Our club embarked on a complete rebuild three years ago, the size of which has never been seen at Carlton. Whilst we all accepted that there would be challenges along the way, a combination of a significant list turnover, our predominantly young list profile and an unprecedented number of injuries, created the perfect storm for a disappointing outcome of only two wins for the year.
However, it’s equally important to highlight a number of positives to come out of the 2018 season. Our future looks exciting with the likes of Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Zac Fisher and Harry McKay all taking huge steps forward in 2018.
After a slow start with injury and form, Jacob Weitering, in only his third year, finished the season well and in that group of five young players, we believe we have the makings of a very strong spine for the future. Carlton members would also have liked what they saw of our first year players in Paddy Dow, Lochie O’Brien and Tom De Koning.
While not an excuse, injury cruelled the years of emerging players Lochie Plowman, Caleb Marchbank, Darcy Lang, Matthew Kennedy, Jarrod Pickett and Ciaran Byrne and the likes of David Cuningham, Tom Williamson and Harrison Macreadie, all of whom were unsighted on-field for the entire season. Our core group of senior players, including Matthew Kreuzer and Marc Murphy were also significantly hampered with injury, while All-Australian Sam Docherty did not play a single game after sustaining an ACL injury early in the 2018 pre-season.
Importantly, throughout the course of the year we were also able to extend the contracts of all our priority players, with our captain Marc Murphy, Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Tom De Koning, Paddy Dow, Zac Fisher, Patrick Kerr and Lochie O’Brien all confirming their long-term commitment to the Club. This is a real show of faith by the players in our strategy and vision for the football club.
The unprecedented spate of injuries prompted a complete review of our High Performance Department and we appointed Ernst and Young’s Graham Lowe to undertake this review in August. Graham has been a High Performance Manager across multiple sports and most recently, was the Western Bulldogs’ Head of Football in their Premiership year, giving him a solid understanding of the mechanics of a successful football department. In his expertise, Graham put forward a number of recommendations that we believe will comprehensively strengthen our High Performance department, all of which will be implemented immediately.
Recently we welcomed Brad Lloyd to Carlton as our new Head of Football. Brad’s most recent position has been as General Manager of List Management at Fremantle Football Club, where he sat on the club executive and the football sub-committee. Prior to that, he was a Player Manager with TLA for eight years. Brad also has a strong playing background, having played 11 senior games with Hawthorn Football Club and 167 senior VFL games. In addition to implementing the recommendations of our High Performance review, Brad will also thoroughly review all areas of the football department, ensuring alignment to our vision of high performance on and off the field to ultimately deliver our members sustained success.
Our players, coaches, staff and members were extremely proud of Patrick Cripps who earned his first All-Australian blazer this week. Under difficult circumstances, you could mount a case that his year was one of the great individual seasons ever by a Carlton player. He broke an all-time competition record for contested possessions and provided an outstanding example to our young on-ball brigade. We congratulate Patrick and his family on his All-Australian honour.
We farewelled four players who this week were advised their contracts will not be renewed for the 2019 season. Aaron Mullett and Cameron O’Shea alongside rookie-listed players Matthew Shaw and Jesse Glass-McCasker will depart Ikon Park, and we thank them for their contributions to the Carlton Football Club. The delistings take the Club’s initial post-season list changes to five, after veteran defender Alex Silvagni announced his retirement from AFL football last week.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge departing Football Department staff Andrew McKay (Head of Football), Tim Clarke (Midfield Coach) and Joel Hocking (Physical Preparation Manager), all of whom have made a significant contribution to the Carlton Football Club in their own rights. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
President Mark LoGiudice and I also met with the AFL Commission this week. The meeting had been scheduled in for a number of months, with the Commission cycling through all 18 clubs over each 2-3 year period. The presentation focussed largely on three key areas of the business, those being; football, members and our masterplan. As is the case with all clubs, we were asked by the AFL what they could do to help us and we discussed a number of opportunities across these areas. It was agreed that the AFL would come back to us with more questions over the upcoming weeks and we will update our members about these conversations once some firm decisions have been made by the AFL.
In AFLW news, we were excited that Carlton’s inaugural father-daughter prospect, Abbie McKay, officially pulled on the Old Dark Navy Blue for the first time last weekend. The eldest daughter of 1995 premiership player and recently departed Head of Football Andrew McKay, Abbie was named in the Club’s Round 16 VFLW team.
The 17-year-old recently represented Vic Metro in the under-18 national championships on the Gold Coast and has been invited to participate in the upcoming AFLW draft combine in October. Abbie will also be playing in the under-18 exhibition match at Adelaide Oval showcasing the country’s best young talent.
We were delighted to have recently announced Chloe Dalton and Brooke Walker who will transition to the AFLW list, after signing on as rookies for the 2019 season. The talented duo has been playing for the Blues’ VFLW side this season since crossing codes from women’s rugby sevens earlier this year. A member of Australia’s history-making gold medal team at the Rio Olympics, Dalton has applied the same level of professionalism to her newfound Aussie Rules career.
Having also represented her country in the same code, Walker moved from Sydney to Melbourne in order to pursue her ambition of playing in the AFLW. We are thrilled to have both these players in the Navy Blue and look forward to watching their AFL careers develop.
Off the field, our membership broke an all-time Club record of 56,005 paid up members and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of you for your support of the Club. Our members are the life blood of the Club and your commitment is another true reflection of the belief in what we are doing and working towards at this Football Club.
To show our appreciation, every 2018 member who renews for season 2019 will receive a complimentary upgrade through our Biggest #BoundByBlue Thank You campaign*. We look forward to providing more detail of this upgrade campaign in the coming weeks.
Internally, we have also re-structured our membership department and have created a custom built call centre, where we are confident the team will deliver a higher level of service and continue to grow our membership number.
We are also excited to announce the launch of a new entry level coterie package in 2019 – “Legends Lounge”. The new product will offer the best reserved seats on level 2 at both the MCG and Marvel Stadium. Legends Lounge members will have access to glass-fronted rooms overlooking the ground, with an ability to purchase meals and access to private bars. Prior to each game, interviews will also be conducted with injured players, assistant coaches and key Carlton staff. A Legend of the Carlton Football Club will also join members each week in the Legends Lounge, where they will be interviewed and available for photos and autographs.
Those currently seated on level 2 (Captains Club Premium and Captains Club Reserved members) will be upgraded into this new package for free in 2019. For more information or if you are interested in this package, please call our membership team on 1300 227 586 during business hours or email
membership@carltonfc.com.au.
Of equal importance has been the ongoing commitment and support from our joint AFL major partners Hyundai and Virgin Australia, who have each committed to the Club for five years, along with joint major partner of AFLW MC Labour, University Partner La Trobe University (five years) and Venue Partner Ikon Services. Finally, after their first year as a Platinum Partner, we thank CUA (Credit Union Australia) who backed the Club at a really important time and have started to resonate with our supporter base.
In more exciting off field news, we are very proud to have launched the Carlton College of Sports today. Our partnership with La Trobe University will see students spend a year at Ikon Park, studying for a higher education diploma. Practical work experiences will be offered within the existing business and students will work across football, membership, events and other areas of the Club within an elite sports environment. More information can be found at
http://www.carltoncollege.com.au and I would highly recommend those students looking for a career in sport to consider applying for the program.
Our Masterplan for the re-development of Ikon Park is also coming along well. We continue to work with the Federal Government in the hope they will match the state government’s support for our plans to significantly improve the facilities available here at Ikon Park, the home of women’s football. We will continue to keep our members abreast of any news relating to this important initiative.
The Board and Management are also putting the final touches on the Club’s new strategic plan. It is likely that this document will be completed by the end of the year and we look forward to sharing the Club’s strategic priorities and key targets with our members.
On behalf of President Mark LoGiudice and I, we once again thank you for your ongoing support of the Blues.
Kind regards,
Cain Liddle
Chief Executive
Member ID: 21499500