All aboard! Momentum builds at Carlton as Teague train fuels for push toward finals return
The good vibes are back at Carlton. Eddie Betts is in navy blue, the young guns are maturing and the ‘Teague train’ is gathering steam. Patrick Cripps senses something special is building to reward the club’s loyal supporters.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Patrick Cripps could sense it almost as much as he could hear it.
Cripps had previously felt its power, but what was happening on the other side of the fence throughout the second half of 2019 was far more audible than anything he had experienced.
The “it” relates to the decibel‑rising roar of the Blues’ faithful on match day.
***Footy20 is available from February 29 while stocks last at participating newsagents and IGA and Woolworths stores in Victoria/Riverina. Cost is $4.95 plus purchase price of that day’s Herald Sun.
FIND YOUR NEAREST PARTICIPATING RETAILER HERE
For he and his teammates, and for senior coach David Teague, it was nothing short of intoxicating.
Long-suffering Carlton fans — many who were weaned on premiership success and had bragging rights in the schoolyard or at the office water cooler — have had to deal with their club being mired in mediocrity for almost a generation.
Watch every match of every round of the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE & On-Demand with KAYO. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Now, after more rebuilds than Scotty Cam has overseen on The Block, after going through more coaches than Cobb and Co. in its prime, and almost as much infighting and intrigue than your average political party, the promise of a Blues revival is gaining serious momentum.
“You could definitely feel the excitement (from the fans) in the back half of last year,” Cripps says.
“If you play good footy, you can feel it. We’ve been starved of success for so long now that it is about ready to erupt.”
We have seen that promise unfulfilled before. Who could forget Carlton’s
much-lampooned “They Know We’re Coming” slogan ahead of the 2009 season? Or the almost cringe-worthy “Can You Smell What The Blues Are Cooking” a year later?
FOOTY TIPS! Join Australia’s best footy tipping competition for your chance to win big. Add our experts to your league and join now at TIPS.COM.AU.
What was dished up — for the most part — since the club lost a raft of prized draft picks and was handed a crippling fine for salary cap cheating before the 2002 draft was so unpalatable it would have left the Department of Health and Human Services wringing its hands.
In that time, the Blues have played only six finals — for two wins and four losses.
But this latest incarnation looks and smells different.
It seems more about substance and less about slogans, coming off the back of some high‑end draft picks maturing, some solid recruitment from rival clubs and a second‑half revival under Teague last year that yielded a more attacking game style and six wins from his 11 games at the helm.
Only time will tell if the sleeping giant that is Carlton — as Mitch McGovern recently referred to the club — can wind the clock back to its glory days.
There is a hell of a lot riding on it.
It was not that long ago Richmond was the butt of so many AFL jokes, a one‑time powerhouse almost reduced to rubble. The Tigers are not only off the endangered list, they have two more premiership cups in the Punt Road foyer.
"I've really loved having him as a senior coach... I'm on the Teague Train."
— 7AFL (@7AFL) August 4, 2019
– Patrick Cripps#AFLBluesEagles pic.twitter.com/knL2QgeYx3
If you saw what happened in Swan St in 2017 and 2019, imagine what Lygon St would be like if the Blues can climb the football mountain again.
And just consider for a moment what it would mean for the AFL’s financial coffers if the Blues can become the juggernaut it once was.
But, as Teague stressed recently, while the signs are good, he was taking nothing for granted as he and his tight‑knit coaching staff try to steer the Blues back into contention.
Asked about the “Teague Train” moniker — the wave of public momentum last year that helped secure him the role as permanent coach — Teague is frank: “We’ll drop that … I’ll be honest, I haven’t been promoting it.
Running on schedule. #TeagueTrain. #BoundByBlue https://t.co/eGFjEr2Vb1 pic.twitter.com/hvZ6SRo37O
— League Tees (@LeagueTees) August 18, 2019
Just leaving this here... #AFLBluesSaints #BoundByBlue #TeagueTrain pic.twitter.com/kLAc8B7hKW
— Rebecca David (@rebeccadavid01) August 17, 2019
I’m onboard
— DarrenWheels (@DarrenWheels) August 15, 2019
💙🚂💙#BoundByBlue #TeagueTrain @CarltonFC pic.twitter.com/QwIJJGkbK9
“I think a journo wrote it once and then ‘Crippa (Cripps) jumped on it. It grew legs from there. I know what’s going to happen, when we start losing a bit, you’ll say the Teague Train crashes. Hopefully we don’t get to that stage.”
The plans are in place to make sure that it doesn’t, starting with the coach’s connection with his players. “I say that to (the playing group) all the time, I actually believe in them,” Teague says.
“Most of our energy has been on controlling what we can control. It’s our habits and it’s the way we train. From what I’m seeing, it’s been pretty strong. But we need to see it against opposition and how we handle that. When we get into those big moments, we need to continue to execute under pressure.”
MORE FROM THE FOOTY20 MAG:
Crystal ball: News Corp footy experts make their predictions ahead of the 2020 season
Brett Ratten loves coaching again and says his son Cooper will always be with him
AFL stars Jack Riewoldt, Nat Fyfe, Josh Dunkley channel James Bond for Footy20 magazine
With potential comes expectation, with expectation comes pressure … and that’s something Cripps craves.
“I don’t look at it as pressure,” he says. “We just need to go out there and get the job done, and have some fun along the way.
“I think it was (about) staying really tight as a club (especially when Brendon Bolton was sacked mid‑year) and not pointing the finger at anyone.
“I was really proud of the way the club handled last year.”
It hasn’t always been the case with Carlton. There were a few murmurings among supporters — and those critical of the powers that be — centred on the messy departure of club legend Stephen Silvagni from his list manager’s role late last year. With that came an early season challenge to the board members up for re‑election.
But a calm‑speaking, cool‑headed Teague says the vibe around the club is overwhelmingly a positive one.
He says Silvagni’s sons Jack and Ben have knuckled down after being disciplined in November for drinking alcohol at a music festival when injured.
The coach also defends the club’s drinking policy after question marks surrounding the behaviour of a few players at the wedding of co‑captain
Sam Docherty in January, insisting he trusts the group and doesn’t want them to become robots.
Off the field, the club has again made up a lot of ground in recent years.
Once anchored by a significant debt, the Blues have cut it back in recent years with president Mark LoGiudice saying the club aims to be debt‑free by 2022, which would be the first time this has happened since 1996 — the year after its last flag.
This has meant Carlton has been able to make a sizeable investment in the football department.
“With the support of our board, club executive and staff, led by CEO Cain Liddle, all of our players and commercial partners and, of course, our members, we have been able to achieve a significant improvement on the financial performance,” LoGiudice says.
Liddle says: “Importantly it has allowed football department investment to increase significantly, and Carlton will be in the top three AFL clubs for football department spend in 2020.”
Fittingly, this has largely been funded by the fans.
MORE CARLTON NEWS:
Carlton publicly says it will look at getting out of pokies industry, but does the club mean it?
Can Carlton repeat Richmond’s rise from bottom-eight battler to premiership contender?
Carlton AGM: Blues defend Stephen Silvagni’s exit as failed candidate lashes election process
Carlton hit a membership record of 64,269 in 2019, up from 56,005 from the previous year This was the biggest year‑on‑year membership increase in the club’s 155‑year history. Already, the club is tracking more than 10,000 members up on the same stage as last year.
The Blues’ average home attendance went from 31,775 in 2018 to 46,730 in 2019 — the biggest percentage growth across the AFL for the season.
There are a myriad of potential storylines ahead for Carlton in 2020.
Docherty’s influence as a leader; Cripps’ quest for success; ready-made recruits in Eddie Betts, Jack Martin and Jack Newnes making their mark, plus hopefully a more healthy McGovern in his second season at the club.
Veterans Marc Murphy, Kade Simpson and Matthew Kreuzer are hungry for footy finals again and 2019 Rising Star winner Sam Walsh leads a pack of young Blues eager to take the club forward.
Cripps has not played an AFL final, with the Blues last doing so a few months before he was drafted.
“I know we are going to get there (the finals) soon, whether it is this year or not,” he says. “You never want to put a timeline on it. But I am really confident with this group that we will make it happen (soon).”
Just imagine the roar from the other side of the fence when that happens.
CLICK ON THE INTERACTIVE BELOW TO SEE OUR TEAM’S PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2020 AFL SEASON
***Footy20 is available from February 29 while stocks last at participating newsagents and IGA and Woolworths stores in Victoria/Riverina. Cost is $4.95 plus purchase price of that day’s Herald Sun.
FIND YOUR NEAREST PARTICIPATING RETAILER HERE
Originally published as All aboard! Momentum builds at Carlton as Teague train fuels for push toward finals return
‘Oh my god’: Monster deal stuns Buckley
Injury-prone St Kilda key forward Max King has been handed a monster new deal that has left AFL greats in disbelief.
Inside AFL’s draft combine: See the standouts, surprise packet
Draft hopefuls for both the AFL and AFLW were put to the test at this year’s combine, with one Victorian key forward producing a stunning 20m sprint. See the results and more here.