Change is needed at Carlton – and Graham Wright is ready to make the big calls
With the Blues falling into the trap of paying big money for their ‘stars’, incoming CEO Graham Wright won’t be happy with the messy, lopsided salary cap – and big calls are coming.
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To get an insight into what the next six months is going to look like for Carlton, an understanding of the man who is going to be calling the shots is required.
Graham Wright is shadowing Blues CEO Brian Cook to learn the ropes before the club’s succession plan kicks in officially in October.
Cook refutes claims he will hand over the reins early but says Wright is “heavily involved” looking ahead to next year.
“He needs to take a dominant role in whatever happens in ’26, that includes everything, all of the planning,” Cook said.
With the Blues languishing in 12th position with a 4-7 record at the bye, the general expectation is the team many thought would be shaping September will be under the blowtorch for another underperforming season.
And the man applying the heat will be Wright with the football department set to be overhauled.
Wright is a unique CEO in that he’s played the game (Collingwood 201 games including the 1990 premiership), been a recruiter (Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn), list manager (Hawthorn) and head of football (Hawthorn and Collingwood, including the Pies’ 2023 flag).
He still says recruiting was his favourite time in the game so he will very much be a football-first CEO which means Carlton’s playing list is going to be under the microscope from a man who doesn’t just know what he’s doing, he’s not afraid to make big calls either.
BOBBY WHO?
What is the most obvious piece of the puzzle which Carlton is missing?
A skilful, quick X-factor small forward is the correct answer. All of the best teams in the competition have a fleet of hard-running small forwards who make their living by zipping up and down the ground and causing chaos for opposition markers.
Carlton didn’t get that memo.
The Blues’ best small forward for goals last year, Matt Owies (33), was forced out and traded to West Coast in the off-season. His exit left a combination of Jesse Motlop, Lachie Fogarty, Corey Durdin and Zac Williams to do the job which they have spectacularly failed to do.
Wright loves small forwards.
At Hawthorn, he had one of the best ever in Cyril Rioli and the story goes he had his eye on another hidden gem back in the Queensland Covid huddle in 2020.
Clubs were forced to organise scratch matches against each other for the players who weren’t part of the senior team. On this particular day, Hawthorn and Greater Western Sydney were having a hit-out and in the forward pocket for the Giants was Bobby Hill.
After watching a quarter, Wright declared: “That guy is going to play for Hawthorn.”
That didn’t eventuate but when Wright moved to Collingwood he got his man in a trade which will go down as one of the best in modern times. The Pies only gave up a third-round draft pick in 2022 and a future second-round for Hill who went on to be the best player in the 2023 grand final triumph.
“He knows what he wants and the way he wants the game played and Carlton don’t play that game,” a former colleague of Wright said this week.
CLEAR EYES
Carlton’s messy and lopsided salary cap won’t be something Wright will be happy about.
The Blues have fallen into the trap of paying big money for their “stars” such as Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay, Sam Walsh, Patrick Cripps, Jacob Weitering and Adam Cerra which hasn’t left much in the bank for anyone else. It’s no surprise the depth of their list is poor.
Wright will be particularly aghast with Zac Williams’ contract. He signed a monster six-year deal worth $900,000 per season when he arrived from GWS in October 2020.
Included in that deal were CPI increases in the salary cap which has gone up significantly since, meaning Williams will be on around $1 million this year and he still has one more year of the contract to run.
Premiership teams spread the salary cap load. Wright saw this at Hawthorn and then instigated it quickly at Collingwood.
He learnt not to overpay your stars at Hawthorn from club legend Jason Dunstall who was the football director on the board when Wright was list manager.
Wright was negotiating a new deal for Cyril Rioli when Dunstall told him “you don’t pay big money for small forwards”.
While Rioli was already on his way to being one of the best ever – he won the North Smith Medal a couple of years later in 2015 – Dunstall had a figure in his mind which would still make Rioli one of the highest-paid players at the club.
The problem for Wright was the Rioli camp’s asking price was $50,000 extra. He eventually haggled them down to $15,000 over and was excited when he rang Dunstall to inform him that he’d pulled off a miracle to get it down as much as he had.
There was silence on the other end of the phone. “I said not a cent over,” was Dunstall’s reply.
“What Wrighty learnt from it was don’t get starry-eyed about your players, don’t get emotional,” a Hawks insider said. “If you want a player and he’s going to play a role for you, go and get him and don’t worry about the cost because you are getting him for the right reasons.
“Equally don’t get a player who is going to blow your cap up or if a player has been a wonderful servant but you can do something else, or there is a compelling reason why you need to save money, you have to be clear eyed about it. He learnt that from Dunstall.”
In his three years as Collingwood’s football boss, Wright made several big calls. The biggest was letting ruckman Brodie Grundy go who was midway through a monster seven-year deal worth around $900,000 a season.
But Grundy going out meant he could get Hill, Daniel McStay, Tom Mitchell and Billy Frampton. Three of those players – McStay was unfortunately injured – played in a premiership 12 months later.
This is why those who know Wright think he won’t be standing in the way of ruckman Tom De Koning who is currently weighing up a life-changing deal from St Kilda worth $1.7 million per year.
He already has a handy back-up in the reserves in Marc Pittonet and will get a first-round pick in compensation for De Koning – a pick the Blues desperately need given they traded their 2025 first-round pick in a series of deals to land Jagga Smith at No.3 in last year’s draft.
Unfortunately Smith, who was supposed to inject speed into the midfield, blew out his knee in a practice match.
AGENT OF CHANGE
Five months into his stint at Collingwood, Wright orchestrated the smooth exit of coach Nathan Buckley.
The pair were former teammates and had been having healthy respectful discussions for weeks leading up to the moment where Buckley decided to step down.
He then led the search for a replacement and made the inspired decision to go with former Brisbane Lions premiership player Craig McRae.
Adam Kingsley was a close second with Adem Yze third. The fourth candidate interviewed was Michael Voss but according to a Pies insider he was “way out the back”.
That doesn’t augur well for Voss whose job is going to be heavily scrutinised by the incoming CEO should the season continue to head south.
Interestingly, McRae, Kingsley and Yze never got a real look-in for the Carlton job which became vacant in August 2021 after David Teague was sacked following an external review.
The Blues board were adamant the next coach required previous senior coaching experience given Teague – and the man he’d replaced Brendon Bolton – both didn’t have that.
Former St Kilda and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon was the hot favourite until the board got cold feet after an incident during his time at the Dockers was brought up again. That left Voss, who’d previously coached Brisbane and was currently an assistant at Port Adelaide.
Wright has spent time in the coaches’ box this season, scrutinising Voss and his assistant coaches which included the highly regarded Ash Hansen and former Blues champion Aaron Hamill.
There are two camps when it comes to Voss, who took the Blues on a thrilling ride to the 2023 preliminary final in his second season.
There is the great fella, commands respect and players love him but tactically flawed side, and then there are those who say he’s done a great job with the cattle he has but they’re not equipped for the modern game and that’s more a list issue than coaching.
The problem for Voss is that Melbourne were also a contested-based kick-it-long-down-the-line side but they’ve managed to change their game style distinctively in recent weeks to get up to speed with the modern game. Carlton hasn’t.
Last year, injuries were used as a major excuse for not backing up the third-placed finish with experienced fitness boss Andrew Russell departing.
This time there are a lot more people in the gun, notably long-time football manager Brad Lloyd and list boss Nick Austin, with the players’ attitude and attributes under the microscope given they seem to have been found out with the speed of the modern game.
As one rival club assistant said: “If you have too many players with too many limitations it all adds up.”
What that adds up to in Graham Wright’s eyes will be a fascinating watch.
Originally published as Change is needed at Carlton – and Graham Wright is ready to make the big calls
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