Blues president demands new coach must take Carlton to the finals in 2022

Carlton president Luke Sayers has raised expectations for the next coach of the Blues after the club ended the reign of former best-and-fairest David Teague after two full seasons

Carlton coach David Teague was sacked by the Blues on Thursday after 50 games in charge Picture: Michael Klein

Carlton has no coach and has turned over half its board, yet incoming president Luke Sayers is adamant the Blues must play finals in 2022 based on the potential of players.

After instituting an independent review into their football department in June, the Blues arrived at what long appeared a formality when sacking David Teague on Thursday.

Sayers initially declared Carlton will look for an experienced, successful coach to replace Teague, though later clarified that when saying the club would consider all options.

The decision came a day after Alastair Clarkson officially ruled himself out of the Carlton role, though Hawthorn’s four-time premiership coach has stressed over the past month he would take a year’s break from footy.

The prospect of securing Ross Lyon, a friend and business associate of Carlton great and former list management boss Steve Silvagni, has also been mooted publicly for several weeks.

Reports surfaced on Thursday night that Sayers and Lyons had been in secret talks for two months.

This has added an external sideshow to a scene that, despite the proclamation of good process by Sayers, has generated significant criticism as to the treatment meted out to Teague.

Lyon this week claimed he is the victim of a smear campaign as the circumstances that led to his departure from the Dockers were raised in commentary about his suitability to Carlton.

Adding an element of the absurd to the discussion, the former St Kilda and Fremantle coach recently said he had no interest in coaching Collingwood due to uncertainty about the board.

Asked whether he had spoken with Lyon, Sayers did not answer directly.

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But the recent chief executive of PwC, who has seen five coaches go during his time as a director of Carlton’s board, said he would have been negligent not to canvas interested parties.

“I am always talking to lots of people in footy. It would be remiss of me if I hadn’t always been looking at opportunities,” he said.

“I started this process hoping in my head and heart that David would be the ongoing coach of the Carlton footy club. But I would be remiss in my responsibilities if I hadn’t considered options B, C, D and E.

“Right here, now, we have got to this stage of the process where we will be pivoting and putting a panel together to find the best coach we can find.”

Despite this, Carlton’s powerbrokers claimed they would only begin the process of finding a new coach from Friday, and will need new assistants to replace 2021 departures Dale Amos, John Barker and Brent Stanton.

Carlton great Greg Williams, who joined the board as a football director among a swing of four positions, will be among those tasked with finding the Blues’ next coach.

It is now 11 seasons since Carlton’s marketing department opted for a membership campaign with the phrase; “Can you smell what is cooking?”

In short, there has been a stench about their form on the field for much of this century, with Teague departing having coached Carlton to 21 wins from 50 games.

The silver anniversary of their most recent premiership success in 1995 was last year and the pandemic was not the only reason for the once mighty Blues to feel bleak.

The malaise at Carlton has lingered since they were heavily penalised at the start of the century for salary cap rorting and repeatedly turning over senior coaches is yet to provide a fix.

But Sayers, in publicly outlining his expectations for whoever the next coach is, has faith Carlton has the talent to turn things around rapidly if it is harnessed correctly.

Harry McKay, Jacob Weitering and Sam Walsh were all in contention to be named all Australians on Thursday night.

When firing, Patrick Cripps rates among the best midfielders in the competition. A fit Charlie Curnow would whet the appetite of whoever the next appointee is.

Under Brendon Bolton, the Blues proved too defensively minded. Teague opted for an aggressive approach, but they leaked goals in bursts far too regularly.

The defensive failings featured in the review by Geoff Walsh, Matthew Pavlich and Grahame Lowe, though this weakness was clear to anyone watching the Blues under Teague.

It has been a brutal week for the outgoing coach, who was resigned to the decision about to come yet left lamenting for days as he conducted exit interviews with Carlton players.

A report suggested more than half of those players were critical of the coach, who won a best-and-fairest with Carlton in 2004, in discussions during the independent review.

Yet Teague and besieged football manager Brad Lloyd, who has survived the purge, sat with those players to discuss their futures with Carlton despite having no guarantee about their own.

After spending 90 minutes at Carlton’s Princes Park home on Thursday morning, Teague exited the club for Royal Parade about 9.30am, his tenure of 50 games now over.

As Carlton looks to the future, Teague is left to plot a new path at the age of 40.