The 2019 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 156th season of competition.
It was the club's men's team's 123rd season as a member of the Australian Football League. After a 1–10 start to the 2019 AFL season, fourth-year senior coach Brendon Bolton was sacked and replaced by David Teague – first as caretaker coach, but later as permanent senior coach. Improved performances in the second half of the season saw the team finish sixteenth out of eighteen teams with a 7–15 record.
It was the club's women's team's third season as a member of the AFL Women's competition. The team finished second out of ten teams in the 2019 AFL Women's season, qualifying for the 2019 AFL Women's Grand Final which it lost against Adelaide by 45 points.
The club also fielded a team in the VFL Women's competition.
Club summary The 2019 AFL season is the 123rd season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it is also the 123rd season contested by the Carlton Football Club. Carlton continued its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League, allowing Carlton-listed players to play with the Northern Blues when not selected in AFL matches. Carlton's primary home ground continued to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with many games also played at Marvel Stadium (renamed from Etihad Stadium in 2018); traditional home ground Ikon Park continued to serve as the training and administrative base. The club fielded its women's team in the third season of the AFL Women's competition, running in February and March, and Ikon Park served as the home ground for AFL Women's matches.
Car manufacturer Hyundai, which had been a major sponsor of the club continuously since 2008, and airline Virgin Australia, which had upgraded from a secondary sponsor to a major sponsor during the 2017 season, continued as the club's two major sponsors, under deals in place until 2022.
The club again achieved a record membership in 2019, signing a total of 64,269 members through the season. This was the club's second consecutive huge increase in membership numbers, having increased from 50,130 to a then-record 56,005 members in 2018. This translated also to a significant increase in home attendances for the club's matches on previous years.
Senior Personnel Mark LoGiudice continued as club president, a role he has held since June 2014.
Brendon Bolton commenced the year as the club's senior coach for his fourth season in the role. However, after the team's 1–10 start to the season, punctuated by a heavy round 11 loss to , Bolton was dismissed, bringing an end to his Carlton coaching career after 77 games and a win–loss record of 16–61. The club paid out the balance of the protected period in Bolton's open-ended contract to the end of the 2020 season. David Teague, who has been the forwards assistant coach since 2018 and who had previously coached the club's Northern Bullants from 2008 to 2010, was appointed caretaker coach for the rest of the season; then, with two games remaining in the season, Teague was appointed senior coach on a permanent basis on a three-year contract.
Other than the change of senior coach at midseason, the club's coaching staff was relatively unchanged, with former and ruckman Hamish McIntosh joining the club as specialist coach for rucks.
Marc Murphy stepped down as club captain after six seasons in the role. In his place, joint vice-captains Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty were named joint captains, the first time in club history that joint captains had been named – although Docherty ultimately missed the entire season for the second year in a row after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the preseason. With no formal vice captains appointed, Murphy, Kade Simpson and Ed Curnow formed the rest of a leadership group which was reduced in size from 2018.
Squad for 2019 The following is Carlton's squad for the 2019 season.
Statistics are correct as of end of 2018 season. Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football. Senior List No. State Player Age AFL Debut Recruited from Career (to end 2018) 2019 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 1 Jack Silvagni 21 2016 Oakleigh (U18) 43 32 17 13 11 235 146 89 73 62 0 2 Paddy Dow 19 2018 Bendigo (U18) 20 7 19 7 10 271 138 133 40 50 0 3 Marc Murphy (lg) 31 2006 Oakleigh (U18) 249 173 19 12 3 483 279 204 88 65 0 4 Lochie O'Brien 19 2018 Bendigo (U18) 18 2 17 7 4 211 159 52 80 19 0 5 Sam Petrevski-Seton 20 2017 Claremont 42 15 22 4 4 420 245 175 87 96 0 6 Kade Simpson (lg) 34 2003 Eastern (U18) 317 135 18 3 0 366 265 101 85 46 0 7 Matthew Kennedy 21 2016 Collingullie-Glenfield Park, GWS 31 10 10 11 5 107 62 45 27 16 0 8 Matthew Kreuzer 29 2008 Northern (U18) 173 89 15 5 5 196 127 69 30 34 467 9 Patrick Cripps (c) 23 2014 East Fremantle 81 34 20 13 6 560 212 348 62 123 0 10 Harry McKay 21 2017 Gippsland (U18) 15 24 20 26 30 207 161 46 125 32 20 11 Mitch McGovern 24 2016 Claremont, 48 67 16 22 11 136 96 40 60 24 0 12 Tom de Koning 19 2018 Dandenong (U18) 2 1 – – – – – – – – – 13 Liam Stocker 18 2019 Sandringham (U18) – – 5 0 0 68 42 26 12 9 0 14 Liam Jones 27 2010 North Hobart, 112 84 13 0 0 116 87 29 62 29 0 15 Sam Docherty (c) 25 2013 Gippsland (U18), 92 14 – – – – – – – – – 16 Darcy Lang 23 2014 Geelong (U18), 55 37 8 5 5 63 44 19 24 24 0 18 Sam Walsh 18 2019 Geelong (U18) – – 22 6 13 554 297 257 113 69 0 19 Angus Schumacher 19 2019 Bendigo (U18) – – 1 0 0 13 10 3 4 0 0 20 Lachie Plowman 24 2013 Calder (U18), GWS 73 1 21 0 0 305 220 85 96 48 0 21 Jarrod Garlett 22 2015 South Fremantle, 28 15 2 0 0 22 15 7 5 7 0 22 Caleb Marchbank 22 2015 Murray (U18), GWS 35 0 13 0 0 172 119 53 65 27 0 23 Jacob Weitering 21 2016 Dandenong (U18) 56 10 20 0 0 264 199 65 115 29 0 24 Nic Newman 25 2017 Frankston, 34 12 20 6 2 428 328 100 135 66 0 25 Zac Fisher 20 2017 Perth 34 12 21 9 7 368 190 178 49 58 0 26 Harrison Macreadie 20 2017 Henty 8 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 27 Matthew Lobbe 29 2010 Eastern (U18), 98 22 2 0 0 14 8 6 2 9 55 28 David Cuningham 21 2016 Oakleigh (U18) 16 7 9 7 5 144 65 79 28 32 0 29 Cameron Polson 20 2017 Sandringham (U18) 13 3 3 1 1 21 11 10 0 5 0 30 Charlie Curnow 21 2016 Geelong (U18) 47 59 11 18 8 135 115 20 49 17 0 31 Tom Williamson 21 2017 North Ballarat (U18) 15 1 2 0 0 23 12 11 6 3 0 32 Alex Fasolo 26 2011 East Fremantle, 101 133 3 2 0 20 11 9 6 8 0 33 Jarrod Pickett 22 2017 South Fremantle, GWS 17 8 – – – – – – – – – 34 Andrew Phillips 27 2012 Lauderdale, GWS 36 14 5 1 4 57 33 24 18 17 147 35 Ed Curnow (lg) 29 2011 Geelong (U18), Adelaide, Box Hill 143 27 22 9 8 496 267 229 84 112 0 36 Pat Kerr 20 2018 Oakleigh (U18) 4 2 – – – – – – – – – 37 Ben Silvagni 18 – Oakleigh (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 38 Finbar O'Dwyer 18 – Murray (18) – – – – – – – – – – – 39 Dale Thomas 31 2006 Gippsland (U18), 238 152 20 3 3 386 270 116 105 61 0 41 Levi Casboult 28 2012 Dandenong (U18) 104 117 20 15 11 223 159 64 114 44 164 43 Will Setterfield 20 2017 Sandringham (U18), GWS 2 0 18 6 12 297 183 114 58 56 0 Rookie List No. State Player Age AFL Debut Recruited from Career (to end 2018) 2019 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 40 Tomas Bugg 25 2012 Gippsland (U18), GWS, 96 34 – – – – – – – – – 40 Michael Gibbons 23 2019 Williamstown – – 21 16 14 308 196 112 69 57 0 42 Kym LeBois 19 – North Adelaide – – – – – – – – – – – 44 Matthew Owies 21 – St Kevin's, Seattle Redhawks – – – – – – – – – – – 45 Hugh Goddard 22 2015 Geelong (U18), 10 1 2 0 0 12 8 4 3 3 0 46 Matthew Cottrell 18 – Dandenong (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 47 Josh Deluca 23 2017 Subiaco, 4 2 6 4 1 71 31 40 13 23 0 Senior coaching panel State Coach Coaching position Carlton Coaching debut Former clubs as coach Brendon Bolton Senior Coach(Rds 1–11) 2016 North Hobart (s), Tasmania (VFL) (s), Clarence (s), Box Hill (s), (a) David Teague Assistant coach (Forwards)Caretaker senior coach (Rds 12-23) 2008 (d), Northern Bullants (s), (a), (a), (a) John Barker Assistant coach (stoppages) 2011 St Kilda (a), Hawthorn (a) Cameron Bruce Assistant coach (midfield) 2018 (a) Dale Amos Assistant coach (defence) 2016 South Barwon (s), (a), Geelong reserves (s) Shane Watson Development coach (Defenders) 2016 Lower Plenty (s), Sandringham (U18) (a), Eastern (U18) (s), (a) Josh Fraser Development coach (Stoppages), Northern Blues senior coach 2016 Gold Coast reserves (s) Jason Davenport Development coach (Forwards) 2018 North Shore (s) Brent Stanton Development coach (Midfield) 2018 Saverio Rocca Specialist coach (goalkicking) 2017 Hamish McIntosh Specialist coach (ruck) 2019
For players: (c) denotes captain, (vc) denotes vice-captain, (dvc) denotes deputy vice-captain, (lg) denotes leadership group. For coaches: (s) denotes senior coach, (cs) denotes caretaker senior coach, (a) denotes assistant coach, (d) denotes development coach, (m) denotes managerial or administrative role in a football or coaching department
Playing list changes The following summarises all player changes which occurred after the 2018 season. Unless otherwise noted, draft picks refer to selections in the 2018 National Draft.
The most notable feature of the club's recruiting was the bold live draft pick trade it made with in the National Draft. Carlton was keen to draft Liam Stocker, the 2018 Morrish Medallist whom it rated as the sixth-best draft prospect; and when he was yet to be selected in the later stages of the first round, Carlton set about arranging a trade, offering to swap 2019 first round selections with higher-ranking clubs in exchange for a low 2018 selection. After seeing Xavier Duursma selected by with the No. 18 selection, , who had wanted to recruit Duursma, agreed to the live trade. It was the first live trade in AFL Draft history after rule changes for this season allowed the practice.
For the early part of the season, the bold decision looked likely to backfire badly, and as late as Round 13, Adelaide was sitting in the top four while Carlton was on the bottom of the ladder, opening the possibility that it would lose the 2019 No. 1 selection in the deal. However, Carlton's stronger end-of-season form saw it rise to 16th, and Adelaide lost seven of its last nine games to fall to 11th; and when the teams entered the 2019 National Draft, Carlton had effectively traded pick No. 4 for pick No. 9 and Stocker. Carlton ultimately traded pick 9 as well, turning the 2019 No. 4 pick into three late first round selections: Stocker (No. 19, 2018), Brodie Kemp (No. 17, 2019) and Sam Philp (No. 20, 2019).
In