Don't be so quick to label this the darkest period in our history.
Yes, we won wooden spoons and yes, we were up to our necks in shite but the darkest period in our history may well be the years 1948-67 when we went flagless for 21 years. We didn't win spoons but we were cellar dwellers for years and only thanks to Fitzroy, St Kilda and Sth Melbourne who were worse than us, we didn't win those spoons.
Two of those clubs are now gone and the Saints have won one flag in all those years. I think the fighting spirit shown by players, supporters and administrators must have been at least equal to what we now have for them to have taken the club into the golden era. (Having the Bendigo League as our major zone was a big plus as well and sheer luck).
The next ten years may well prove to be another golden era but with the Eagles, Hawthorn and Geelong having such young and talented lists, I think the competition will be fierce.

_________________
Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

I think BS makes 1948 to 1967 sound worse than it was and while I would not label this as our darkest period it comes very close.

Our worst period is the first 5 years of the VFL, 1897-1901 when we finished 7th in an 8 team competition every year. With 17 wins and a draw counting as half in 82 matches we only had a 21% success rate. Thankfully we had St Kilda under us. The turnaround then was due to Jack Worrall becoming the first ever coach. A few years later we won three flags in a row.

We went 23 years between the 1915 & 1938 flags but only missed the finals 6 times. From 1923 to 1926 we missed out 4 years in a row but even during that patch we had a result of nearly 42%.

Over the 48-67 period we only made the finals 6 times but won 201 games and lost 165 with 9 draws so I score that as 54.8%. We only finished below 8th place once, taking 10th place in 1964. That disaster lead to Barassi coming to Carlton and setting us up for great success in the next 20 years.

How dark have the last 6 years been? From 02-07 we have had 28 wins, 102 losses and 2 draws. This is a 22% rating. We are within one percent of the first 5 years of the league. If we had lost one more game during the last 6 years it would be our darkest period ever. It is time for another turnaround.

100 years ago it was Jack Worrall. In the 60s it was Barassi. Who will it be this time? I firmly believe that Judd will be the one to lead us back to the top.

_________________
We're getting closer to 17

Let me tell you that '48 to '68 was pretty ordinary. and i lived through it, admittedly i was only 11 months old when we won the 47 flag but my mum tells me i sat on her knee and listened to the wireless while stafford kicked the winning goal 15 secs from the siren. but from about aged 7 to 12 i suffered and often our rejoicing after each game was when we won a quarter of footy.
i reckon the last five years was the "recession we had to have". what do you reckon BS?

_________________
one you knock back is one you never have

Don't know if we had to have it but we had it anyway.
16 flags makes some good points based on stats and I must defer to him in that regard but for me the early years of my being a Carlton boy were pretty rotten, worse than these past five yeara because I had never known success. I can sympathise with those 10-20 year olds who have not known success like me in my early years. For them, this period will always be the worst and hopefully they won't see the likes again.

_________________
Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

I was born in '82.


The first 13 years of my life were pretty swell.

Yes very true.

It wasn't just self respect, it was ALL respect, not untill now have we stopped being the laughing stock.

I do disagree with the premiership part though, its going to be the sweetedt 1 yet.

EVERYBODY is going to know we won number 17 and the world will hate us once again!!

_________________
Not so best of TheSexySquad


AWWWWWW STEVENS.

What price for dignity?

The club's image was dragged through the mud for years - it will never be worth it.

It's already been 12 years since we won a flag.

Between 48-67 we finished

6,2,8,7,4,5,8,7,5,4,7,3,7,8,2,6,10,6,6,3

5% of the time we finished in the bottom 25%. 60% of the time we finished in the top 50%

Compare that to our record over the last 10 seasons

11,11,2,3,6,16,15,11,16,16

40% of the time we've finished in the bottom 25%. 30% of the time we finished in the top 50%.

The percentages would look even worse if you broke it down further.

This has been easily the darkest period in our history and thats without even mentioning going broke, salary cap penalties and how close we came to closing up. Its not even close.

_________________
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Thanks for going to that trouble, Brad,
So we are past half way to the 21 years between flags. That means we can go another 9 before we equal the drought. Tell that to the 20 year olds who can barely remember 95 and I am sure they'll agree that we are already worse off than in 48-67. NOT. If success is measured in premierships, we still have a long way to go to be worse off than back then IMVHO.'
Stats alone can't prove or disprove this. If they could, Collingwood's 20 odd consecutive losing GF makes them successful. Look at their silver cabinet and ask their supporters is they think so.
I can't comment on the club finances of the 48-67 era so will not coment on them. I just don't feel as bad now as I did then.
I did enjoy the recent Wizard Cup GF wins too, even if many supporters think them worthless. The players certainly didn't hink that, as the after match pics show.
It's bad but I am yet to be convinced it's the worst.

_________________
Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

I don't agree with all the 'hyped up' pain everyone here talks about. Really, we only lost cash flow, not assets. The cash is now coming back. We missed a few draft picks along the way that did not turn out to be team leaders. Cleared out older players and a number of admin people.

If we had not been stung for draft breaches would we have still finished low? I say yes, and would probably have collected at least 2 spoons anyway. Looking back, our list was in trouble at the end of 2001 anyway.

We have had a few rough years after enjoying loads of good times. The club has turned it all around in just 5 years with loads of potential ahead.

Stop sooking about losing - Richmond, St.Kilda and Bulldogs have those rights.
We're back and the expectation of winning is not far off.

_________________
No matter how long it takes Carlton to rebuild, they will still win a premiership before Essendon* and Collingwood.