Verdicts on every Carlton player out of contract and what lies ahead in 2026
It’s expected the Blues won’t make wholesale changes after a disastrous 2025. But with 19 players looking for a new deal, some tough calls are coming. Here’s who should be on the outer.
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All Carlton fans have different theories why the club has fallen in a hole this year, whether it’s the list, the coaching or some other cultural problem.
What is undisputed is that the Blues will have a bunch of tough calls to make as their season peters out given they have 19 players out of contract, alongside Collingwood as clearly the most.
Where the Magpies have good problems to solve around veterans playing well, the Blues seem to come up with new questions every week.
Whether they aren’t performing or simply aren’t up to it, the questions about Carlton’s ‘bottom six’ players each week are valid, and the club just hasn’t been able to solve that problem.
Carlton is already over-stocked and will have to make at least six culls given the summer signings of Will White, Francis Evans and mid-season draftee Flynn Young.
Plus, they have of course have to make room for whoever they draft in November.
Where Geelong has turned scrap heap or rookie players like Tyson Stengle, Ollie Dempsey, Tom Atkins, Jack Henry and Zach Guthrie into vital cogs and stars, Carlton has failed to find winners to plug around their stars.
And with 19 currently without a deal for next year, the Blues clearly have left themselves room to move to cut deep if need be, and reshape the list.
The biggest question sits with Tom De Koning, a decision that is out of the club’s hands.
Then there are others like Orazio Fantasia who haven’t paid off or Sam Docherty who may be headed towards retirement.
And it will all begin again next year, with Sam Walsh and Zac Williams among another big cohort out of contract in 2026.
If De Koning stays on a contract worth more than $1m a year, the Blues will be choked for room in the salary cap.
This is where the Blues who are out of contract sit, and the moves they can make.
THE OUT OF CONTRACT CALLS
WHERE TO IN 2026?
The contract pressure won’t ease once the Blues work through their cohort this year.
Regulars Adam Saad, Lachie Fogarty, Sam Walsh, Ollie and Elijah Hollands, and Zac Williams will headline a big group of players coming off deals next year.
At first blush, Carlton may plan to get in early and extend most of that group.
But the same would have been said about Matt Kennedy this time last year and the popular Blue, who was contracted at Carlton for 2025, is now thriving at the Dogs as his former team flounders.
It’s expected the Blues won’t make wholesale, sweeping changes, but there might be value here.
An ironman in his first three seasons, Walsh’s body hasn’t been at the same level in the past three and he will miss another month at least with his latest issue, a foot injury.
Perhaps Walsh would be keen for some security because of his injury issues, but otherwise he would enter 2026 as a looming free agent and be a massive target for a club like Geelong, who has gone after running midfielders and Walsh grew up there.
Could Carlton get ahead of the free agency and put Walsh on the market as a pre-agent?
It’s unlikely given the Blues’ dearth of running options means he is so valuable at his best as one of the few on-ballers who can actually run out of stoppages.
Saad signed a contract in February for next year and is having a down year, so needs some rejuvenation in his role.
Given his injuries – Williams has played in 53 of Carlton’s 109 games since he arrived at the club – the big contract handed to Williams has clearly not paid off.
You can’t blame Williams for signing a six-year deal worth nearly $5m, but right now it’s hard to see it as anything but a mistake.
If Carlton was desperate to make the most of next season, it could try and dump Williams’ last year with a pick – it’s hard to see a rival club paying much to take him off their books.
That would open up room but come at a draft cost for a club that doesn’t have enough young talent on its list.
In and out of the team this year, Lewis Young was floated for a trade last year but nothing went through.
Originally published as Verdicts on every Carlton player out of contract and what lies ahead in 2026
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