Carlton to hit ground running in start to 2020 pre-season
Carlton will start its first pre-season under David Teague with only three players unavailable as the Blues lay the groundwork for a long-awaited rise up the ladder.
Carlton
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David Teague will have only Charlie Curnow and Caleb Marchbank missing in the early weeks of summer as his first pre-season kicks off tomorrow.
Teague’s Blues roared home last season, winning six of 11 games under his tenure in a year in which he was signed as the full-time Carlton coach.
A handful of Blues started training at Ikon Park yesterday ahead of the official start on Wednesday.
The Blues remain confident they will secure Jack Martin in the pre-season draft after adding to their depth with free agent wingman Jack Newnes last week.
Captain Sam Docherty is fully fit but will ease back into contested work and full training leading into Christmas after his second ACL tear.
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Curnow had surgery to stabilise his patella after standing on the foot of a rival playing casual basketball with a group of friends including Patrick Cripps and Zac Fisher.
He is expected to start running before Christmas after a season already plagued by knee issues including bone bruising.
Centre half-back Marchbank missed the last two months of the season with a neck fracture after receiving a knee to the back of his head in early July.
The non-displaced fracture of a vertebrae was always going to delay his start to the pre-season by about a month.
The Blues will hope to get a big pre-season into second-year midfielder Liam Stocker after he finished the year in excellent form in the VFL.
Teague will also be eager to get a big summer into new ruckman Marc Pittonet after the 24-year-old played only seven games before crossing from Hawthorn.
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The Blues believe they will draft 24-year-old Gold Coast Sun Martin for free, with the half-forward making it clear the will not play for Melbourne.
If the Suns pass on him in the pre-season draft the Blues will secure him for nothing. There has not been a pre-season draft for the past three years through lack of club interest.
It will also allow them to keep its 2020 second and third-round picks, which were offered to the Suns in an aborted trade.