Winless woes: Who is better placed out of Carlton and Melbourne in 2025 beyond
They are both 0-4 to start the year after coming into the season hoping to play finals. So is Carlton or Melbourne better placed to bounce back now and in the future? Have your say.
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A month into their respective seasons and it feels like footy has gone past both Carlton and Melbourne.
The two teams sit 0-4 thanks to deflating loss after deflating loss and their game styles feel out of place in 2025.
With another five months of footy to come, Melbourne and Carlton have time to turn things around but that time is beginning to run out.
So who would you rather be?
THE NEXT 20 WEEKS
Melbourne needs some kind of overhaul.
Simon Goodwin has shifted his game plan to open up to the outside game a little more but so far it hasn’t worked with the Dees failing to make the most of their inside-50s.
And now the inside game is falling apart, with Melbourne ranked 17th for clearance differential and 13th for scores from clearances since the start of 2024.
The Dees may want to play like the free-flowing Hawks but they don’t really have the cattle, there is a distinct dearth of high quality ball users and outside runners in the midfield and forward half.
Melbourne also isn’t running out games well, having been beaten in every last quarter this year.
Running out games is the real problem for Michael Voss’ Blues, who have led at half-time in all four matches this year, only to lose.
That in itself can be seen as a positive – Carlton is at least in the contest.
The Blues are just battling to score and are ranked dead last for scores per inside-50.
Some of that has been personnel, Charlie Curnow is only just finding football fitness and Harry McKay’s return to senior football is unknown.
Get those two back up and running and the Blues can turn inside-50s into goals more regularly, but Voss needs to figure out a far better method for attack than the current mode of long kicks to contests.
Carlton has two must-win games against West Coast and North Melbourne next, while Melbourne has an open run with winnable games against Essendon, Fremantle (at the MCG), Richmond and West Coast to come.
JOSH BARNES SAYS: Carlton is the team in better form and can turn things around quicker.
GETTING BETTER IN OCTOBER
If this season continues to tank for both teams, attention will turn to how they can improve in the trade period and what they can do with any salary cap room.
The Blues are crunched for salary cap room and are trying to fit Tom De Koning in.
If he chose to leave for St Kilda, it would open up some room but not massive space.
And there isn’t much on the Blues’ list to trade for space and pieces.
If De Koning moves on, the Blues would need to find a big man, given veteran Marc Pittonet is a worthy back-up but not able to take the No.1 job for a full season.
Most worryingly for Carlton, their first-round pick is now with Hawthorn, so there won’t be a top-end teen walking in the door either.
Melbourne, too, does not have a first-round pick in this year’s draft after sending it to Essendon to get an extra go at the 2024 draft.
So much of Melbourne’s short and medium-term future depends on whether Christian Petracca, Kysaiah Pickett and Clayton Oliver stick around after flirting with trades last year.
If the three go, by their choice or Melbourne’s, it would mean a big draft haul coming back in but it would be unlikely the Dees would get much personnel in to improve, unless Luke Jackson had another change of heart.
Taking those three players out of this Melbourne side and leaving an ageing Max Gawn and Steven May as bedrock stars points to a long rebuild.
JOSH BARNES SAYS: Melbourne at least has more trade options, even if it would set the team back.
THE YOUNG TALENT
Both the Dees and Blues have made big swings to get more young talent in.
Melbourne has moved its way up draft boards to land four top-13 picks in the last two drafts: Caleb Windsor (pick 7, 2023), Koltyn Tholstrup (13, 2023), Harvey Langford (6, 2024) and Xavier Lindsay (11, 2024).
It was smart business by list boss Tim Lamb and each of the four have shown great early signs when they have played.
The Dees do have a batch of proven players who are 24 or under: Judd McVee, Pickett, Jake Bowey, Jacob van Rooyen and Trent Rivers.
For Carlton, a bunch of moves last trade season set up the drafting of Jagga Smith at No.3 last year.
The Blues could not have been more pleased with the young midfielder but he busted his knee and will miss his entire first season.
The Blues like defender Lachie Cowan and forward Jesse Motlop but both are yet to repay the faith with consistent performances, while Ollie Hollands looks a 200-gamer.
There is hope the Camporeale twins can become jets at the top level but players like Ashton Moir, Billy Wilson and Jaxon Binns have struggled to break in to Voss’ team when it is crying out for young legs.
With a top-heavy list, the Blues just haven’t found enough young players to fill the gaps below their big guns.
Who is better placed: The Dees have better depth in their youth right now.
OFF THE FIELD
The Blues ran into possibly summer’s biggest off-field story when former president Luke Sayers resigned in the wake of a lewd photo being posted to his X account.
He has denied that it was posted by him.
Normally that would mean Carlton’s off-field stability is wobbly compared to Melbourne, but the Blues closed ranks and promoted board member Robert Priestly to replace Sayers.
It’s been as smooth as you could get since then, and since Brian Cook moved in to Princes Park in 2023, Carlton has locked in on stability.
You can’t say the same at Melbourne.
Brad Green has admirably stepped up as president, replacing Kate Roffey in September, as he seemingly warms the seat for Steven Smith.
Green has done the right things, he has been strong publicly, and was compassionate with the players in the rooms after Friday’s loss to Geelong.
But with Green likely just filling in at the job and searching for a new full-time CEO after Gary Pert’s departure, there is a hole at the top.
Interim boss David Chippindall has partially moved his stuff into Pert’s office but the search for a new CEO has been going for months and an answer appears to be a fair way away.
That raises the question whether the interim bosses are willing to or have the power to make a big move on Goodwin, if it comes to that.
JOSH BARNES SAYS: Carlton has stabilised better.
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