Scott Gullan unpacks what – and who – is really at fault for Carlton’s disastrous 2025 season
Fitness? Coaching? Recruiting? Fingers are being pointed at Ikon Park as to how Carlton’s season has turned into a dumpster fire, but Scott Gullan unpacks what – and who – is really to blame.
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Graham Wright’s desk at Ikon Park will be overflowing with printouts of reports, balance sheets and flow charts which every division of the club has sent him in recent weeks to justify their existence.
That’s what happens at football clubs, fingers get pointed when the wheels start to fall off which is what’s happening right now at Carlton, just in time for the incoming CEO to take over the reins.
Wright has been around football for a long time so he would have seen all the tricks each department in the club will attempt to pass the buck for a horrible 12 months on the field.
But all that really matters is what’s on Wright’s office whiteboard because when there are so many balls in the air, there’s nothing like a good old blame pie chart to bring clarity to the situation.
Scroll down for the breakdown on each section.
RECRUITING/LIST MANAGEMENT – 34%
This will be Wright’s favourite section given he’s a former recruiter and list manager and he will find holes all over the place. What has become more and more obvious as the season has progressed is the Blues have too many of the same thing, and it’s the wrong thing. Slow, inside mids aren’t what you need a lot of in the modern game which is more and more slanted towards leg speed and fastball movement. Patrick Cripps, George Hewett, Adam Cerra and Blake Acres aren’t going to win the Stawell Gift anytime soon while their best runner, Sam Walsh, is struggling with his body.
Fast, skilful small forwards who cannot only hit the scoreboard but are just as critical with their work up and down the ground (think Geelong and Hawthorn) have become important weapons nowadays. Carlton haven’t unearthed anything special out of Jesse Motlop, Zac Williams, Lachie Fogarty, Orazio Fantasia, Corey Durdin, Will White, Ashton Moir and Francis Evans. And they let go their best one from last year, Matt Owies, to West Coast.
The salary cap is lopsided, heavily weighted at the top end with the likes of Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay, Jacob Weitering and Walsh taking plenty while underachievers Mitch McGovern and Williams were lured over on ridiculously big pack packets. Speaking of which, Tom De Koning, who you could argue has become the team’s best player, is about to take a very big one to go to St Kilda.
Bottom line, if you have too many players with too many limitations it all adds up.
GAME STYLE: 23%
The Blues are the No. 1 contested differential team in the competition. In Voss’ reign they’ve put all their eggs in the contest basket but contest isn’t winning anymore in the modern game. Other clubs don’t rate the statistic like they once did but Carlton is hanging onto it because that’s all they have.
But has the game style been forced on them because of their list? You could argue that because you can’t coach a fast game if you’ve got slow players. In saying that contested football is how Voss likes to play and coach the game.
He prefers the back release from stoppage and then working your way around. The best teams now favour the forward handball at every opportunity which puts speed on the game and they’re always thinking centre corridor.
There’s no doubt having two quality key forwards has seduced the Blues in the past and while Curnow and McKay have won their fair share of games over the journey, the way opposition clubs defend on them has improved and kicking long bombs forwards simply doesn’t work anymore.
COACHING: 22%
Voss coaches a boring game which is something this team wasn’t two years ago when they made that stunning run to the preliminary final.
That Blues outfit had something about it, they were quick, daring and capable of tearing opposition attacks apart but a shift to focusing on defence after that finals series has come back to haunt.
Somewhere along the way they lost the DNA which made them successful in Voss’ second season. The fact he has been unable to get it back is on him and his panel which has some highly-regarded names like senior assistant Ashley Hansen, Aaron Hamill and Luke Power.
The issue for Voss is that when Wright was at Collingwood one of his first jobs was to gracefully exit Nathan Buckley and to find his replacement. Voss applied for the gig but finished a long way back in fourth position behind Craig McRae, Adam Kingsley and Adem Yze. Hmmm.
LEADERSHIP: 15%
When your president is forced to quit because of a dick pic, then question marks about leadership are warranted. Luke Sayers’ messy exit started the rot this year and while Brian Cook babysitting Wright for the season before handing over the CEO reins makes sense, it’s not without its issues.
The football department has managed to avoid too much change despite multiple reviews with a sense many in high positions are more focused on protecting their turf than actively finding new and better ways to operate.
FITNESS: 4%
Carlton can’t run games out. The stats show it and each week there is more evidence provided that this team lacks the resilience and physical make-up to go with other elite outfits.
It’s not a new problem and attempts to change it in recent years have failed. This pre-season the focus was on speed and power rather than endurance, and clearly that theory has sunk as well.
Again it gets back to the physical capabilities of the players drafted. If they’re slow you can’t make them fast and if they don’t have big engines, it’s hard to create one. The problem is Carlton has too many players with the wrong athletic profiles.
INJURIES: 2%
Walsh and McKay are big outs but you still shouldn’t be losing to the third-worst team in the competition because of them. The loss of first-round draft pick Jagga Smith in the pre-season hurt because his speed was going to rejuvenate the midfield but in many ways that sums up Carlton, relying on a kid who’d never played a game to solve all their problems.
That’s fantasyland and that’s exactly what Carlton has been stuck in over the last 12 months.
Originally published as Scott Gullan unpacks what – and who – is really at fault for Carlton’s disastrous 2025 season
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