Charlie Curnow talks Carlton’s struggles, his future and the rest of the 2025 season

With predictions Graham Wright could make sweeping changes when he takes over as Carlton boss, no one is safe. But Charlie Curnow isn’t buying into talk his future could be debated.

Carlton has returned from the mid-season bye desperate to find easier ways to score as star goalkicker Charlie Curnow believes his side has been playing “a bit congested”.

Blues players were back at training on Saturday after some time off and were thrown immediately into offensive drills to stretch the ground more and create space for forwards.

Skipper Patrick Cripps was one absentee from the training session, but had been given the day off to put his feet up.

Amid a sluggish 4-7 start, the Blues have been generally strong defensively but have only kicked more than 100 points twice – against battlers North Melbourne and West Coast – and notched up five sub-70 scores.

Curnow was starved in last weekend’s loss to GWS, registering just one disposal in the second half and none in the fourth quarter, but said his focus was on the team offence heading into the second half of the season.

“To be honest as a forward, I didn’t know I had one kick in the last half,” he said.

“At times you might only have eight or 10 disposals in a game and you can impact in different ways. Obviously I want to get involved in the game more.

Charlie Curnow has scoffed at suggestions he could leave Carlton as part of a list revolution.

“We are looking as a team holistically how we can create better looks for each other and that is making the ground bigger offensively so that options are easy to see.

“We are a bit congested at the moment I would say and when we have the ball we are a bit congested as a team and it is making the options hard to see for the kicker. That is on all of us as a playing group to make that better.”

Curnow laughed at suggestions his future at the club could be discussed when new CEO Graham Wright steps in for Brian Cook in coming months.

He said that Wright, who is expected to take over in July, hadn’t addressed the playing group about what he had in mind, after successful stints making big list calls at Hawthorn and Collingwood.

“It’s all above my pay grade to be honest,” Curnow said.

“I try to separate myself from the (non) football department and do my job. I pretty much leave that to Graham Wright, I am not going to tell him what to do am I?”

Ruck Tom De Koning’s decision whether to take a monster offer at St Kilda will remain a talking point, in and outside of Princes Park.

Tom De Koning’s free agency call will have a big impact on what Carlton does next.

“I’m not too sure what Tommy is thinking individually, obviously we really want him to say,” Curnow said.

“We always talk about how we would answer this in the media if we get asked about Tommy, it is a tough one. Whatever he feels is the best for him going forward, we are going to back and support.”

Curnow got away to stay with a mate in Suffolk Park, just south of Byron Bay, during his time off and was back as his role as king of the kids hosting a footy clinic for young Blues supporters through his Charlie’s Crew on Saturday afternoon.

There was no repeat of the famous bye week team bonding session led by his brother Ed at a Surf Coast property in 2023, an event that helped turn the Blues around that year and push them to a deep finals run.

“Ed’s wife had another baby, she is trying to avoid us at all costs,” Charlie said.

“I think Camp Curnow might be put on hold.”

Camp or no camp, Curnow was hopeful his team could find the magic that spurred a back-half revival two years earlier, with a meeting against rivals Essendon on King’s Birthday Eve the start of the long run to the end of the year.

“We have seen in the past we can do amazing things in the back half of the season,” he said.

Originally published as Charlie Curnow talks Carlton’s struggles, his future and the rest of the 2025 season