How Carlton’s demise has parents fighting to keep their children engaged with the club they love
As parents who grew up supporting Carlton, Sam Edmund and Tim Michell are fighting to keep their sons in the navy blue faithful. But with the Blues struggling, it might be a losing battle.
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Schoolyards are graveyards for poor footy teams.
As navy blue parents, it’s something you learn pretty quickly.
It’s because on just about every weekend of the footy season, we fight to keep our kids as Carlton supporters for another week.
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Personally, the passion I had for the Blues had dissipated before starting a family.
That’s probably a natural occurrence when you become part of the footy media and you’re covering different clubs and building relationships with people at other organisations.
That and the fact Carlton descended into the abyss, but that bothered me less and less anyway.
Then my wife and I had a son and the older he gets, the more I find myself riding every kick, mark and handball.
At seven years of age, his enthusiasm for the Blues and the game has dredged those teenage feelings back up again.
The passion, the anger, the disappointment and those rare moments of joy.
We roared ourselves hoarse behind the goals in the win over the Western Bulldogs.
The handful of videos from that day won’t be leaving the camera roll of the iPhone anytime soon. They are precious.
They also provided a moment of relief from the more common statements like, “I wish I went for someone else” and “Why are we so bad?”
How can you blame him?
The tears started as Gold Coast surged the ball forward in the last minute of Round 4 and flowed when Jack Bowes snapped the winner.
There was anger when we had the Hawthorn game under control only for them to tear it back in the second half in Round 6.
The GWS game we started watching before turning off at half time and pretending it wasn’t happening. It was a joint decision, for the record.
It sounds silly doesn’t it? Talking about football this way. A game.
Yet it’s more than that. It’s bonding time, it’s having a shared interest and it’s about making memories.
After never getting riled up about umpiring, you find yourself abusing every second decision. You wonder, ‘What has happened to me?’
You want is so badly, not for you, but your child. Like anything, their joy is your joy.
How much longer do we have to play used car salesman and try to convince them it will all turn around?
“Son, Richmond are a very good team”. Yeah, dad.
“Hawthorn don’t lose in Tasmania often.” OK, dad.
“GWS are hard to beat up there”. I know, dad.
How much longer can we talk about 1995? The 16 premierships? The Dominator, Big Nick “Sticks” Kernahan and Greg Williams?
The Anthony Koutoufides biography that rests high on the book shelf comes out often.
So too, do the YouTube clips of the 1999 preliminary final.
But we are on borrowed time aren’t we?
It sounds dramatic, but is Carlton facing losing a generation of supporters?
The effect that teasing has on impressionable minds can swing the most loyal of little followers.
I’ve heard of Carlton families offering bribes and materialistic rewards to keep young loved ones aligned. I’m open to suggestions.
But there’s only one guaranteed saviour — winning and it can’t come soon enough.
TIM MICHELL: I DOUBT MY SON WILL GROW UP A BLUE NOW
Patience is wearing thin among Carlton supporters.
Anyone who listened to talk back radio or logged onto social media after Sunday’s horror show against GWS Giants will tell you as much.
As a Blues supporter since 1995, I’ve ridden the highs and predominantly lows of our proud club’s most unsuccessful era.
Modern-day Carlton fans who missed the period when the club won four premierships between 1979 and 1987 are wondering when the club’s next finals appearance — let alone premiership tilt — will arrive.
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We have endured a run in the past five years where the club has won 20 of its past 97 games, a success rate which effectively equates to success in one in five matches.
In the past year and a half, it’s a dire three wins and 28 losses.
My son turns four later this year and in his lifetime Carlton has 16 wins and 60 losses, a win-loss ratio of 12 per cent.
I’m resigned to the fact he’s unlikely to grow up as a Blues supporter.
I’ve watched the past three weeks, against North Melbourne, Collingwood and GWS, with interest.
Who would have thought of those three games, Carlton would come closest to a shock win against one of the premiership favourites?
The hammering against the Roos, when it was 17th against 18th, was tough to stomach.
For all the talk of green shoots, coach Brendon Bolton conceded the effort required was lacking on a day where Blues supporters travelled to Marvel Stadium full of optimism.
Carlton fans aren’t asking for your sympathy.
Footy is ruthless and only the most naive of us wouldn’t be expecting the odd barb from colleagues or mates this week.
What we desperately want is a sign the green shoots which have so often been referenced during Bolton’s reign aren’t withering.
It would be unfair to say there hasn’t been reason for optimism despite the club’s 1-8 record this year.
Patrick Cripps was understandably frustrated on Sunday but gives his all every week for the club and its famous navy blue jumper.
No. 1 draft pick Sam Walsh is battling against the odds in a tough midfield role nine games into what promises to be a successful AFL career.
Zack Fisher has shown flashes of brilliance, Harry McKay’s rise has provided hope and Blues fans have revelled in the transformation of Liam Jones into a key defender.
As agonising as the Hawthorn and Gold Coast losses were, performances like Sunday’s blowout against GWS Giants hurt more.
Much has been made of the live trade Carlton made last year during the AFL National draft to part with its first-round selection for 2019 in exchange for the pick which netted Liam Stocker.
If the ladder remains as is and one of this year’s elite talents Matthew Rowell or Noah Anderson head to Adelaide, frustration will reach fever pitch among the Blues faithful.
Carlton has a crucial four-week stretch ahead with games against St Kilda, Essendon, Brisbane Lions and Western Bulldogs.
As one caller to SEN said on Monday, ‘all we want is to see them try’.
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