The 2020 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 157th season of competition. The season was disrupted and partially curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was the club's men's team's 124th season as a member of the Australian Football League. The team finished 11th out of eighteen teams with a 7–10 record in the 2020 AFL season.
It was the club's women's team's fourth season as a member of the AFL Women's competition. The team reached the preliminary finals of the 2020 AFL Women's season, before the onset of the pandemic saw the season cancelled without the premiership being awarded.
Club summary The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 124th season contested by the Carlton Football Club. Contractually, Carlton's primary home ground continued to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with many games also to have been played at Marvel Stadium, and traditional home ground Ikon Park continued to serve as the training and administrative base; however, due to the coronavirus pandemic forcing games to be moved out of Victoria, the club hosted games at Metricon Stadium and the Gabba in Queensland and Optus Stadium in Perth, hosted no games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and used the Mercure Gold Coast as a training base for much of the season.
The club fielded its women's team in the fourth 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. Carlton continued its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League through the pre-season; but terminated the alignment on 26 March as a cost-saving measure during the coronavirus pandemic; as with all AFL clubs, Carlton had no reserves team or affiliation during the season, and reserves players were restricted to playing scratch matches against other AFL clubs. The VFL Women's season was cancelled due to the pandemic, so the club's VFL Women's team did not compete.
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 latter sponsorship remained in place, despite the airline going into administration during the coronavirus pandemic. The club's long term on- and off-field apparel deal with Nike, which had been in place since 1998,The President pays a visit to Nike, CARLTONFC.com.au, 22 May 2013 came to an end in October 2019, and the club signed a new 10-year apparel deal with PUMA.
The club again achieved a record membership in 2020, finishing with 67,035 members for the year. The club passed the full-year 2019 record in early March, before the season had even begun – as well as before the curtailment of the season was announced. This was the club's third consecutive huge increase in membership numbers, having increased from 50,130 to a then-record 56,005 members in 2018, then to another record of 64,269 in 2019.
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic The 2020 season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was formally declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020, eight days prior to the scheduled start of the men's premiership season and prior to Round 6 of the women's season.
Carlton's season endured the following disruptions and special arrangements: The men's season was suspended after Round 1, and was shortened from the originally scheduled 22 matches to 17 matches. The season did not restart until 11 June. The team was forced to temporarily relocate away from Victoria after Round 5, due to interstate travel restrictions placed on Victorians during the state's second wave of the virus in July. The club set up a base at the Mercure Gold Coast hub in south-east Queensland starting from Round 6, and travelled to Perth for a one-month hub from Round 9 to 12. The women's home-and-away season was shortened from eight matches to six. Three weeks of finals were to follow, but only one was played before the season was cancelled. Matches in Victoria were played in empty stadiums, and those played interstate in front of restricted-sized crowds, in response to government-imposed restrictions imposed on public gatherings. The start of the 2020 VFL season was delayed, before AFL-listed players were excluded from competing in state league competitions altogether, to keep players in the fully professional environment for tighter medical and quarantine controls. As a result, Carlton reserves players were restricted only to training, or playing scratch matches against other AFL clubs.
Carlton, along with all AFL clubs, were forced to find significant cost savings to cover the loss of revenue, which in Carlton's case included gate and broadcast revenue from closed and cancelled games, as well as gaming revenue as a result of non-essential venue closures across the country; the club also suffered financially as a result of joint major sponsor Virgin Australia being placed into administration, itself severely affected by travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, although the club's partnership with Virgin continued.
Among the cost saving decisions, Carlton ended its 18-year association with its , the Northern Blues, in late March; the club had been investing significant money in building up the club as a development ground for its reserves and a senior development pathway for the northern suburbs; but with money tight, opted to end the affiliation and adopt a lower-cost strategy of re-establishing a stand-alone reserves team, which would contest the VFL at the next opportunity. The Northern Blues club, which was heavily dependent on Carlton's financial support to remain viable as an entity, initially announced that it would be wound up as a result, and it was not included in the ultimately cancelled plans for a shortened 2020 VFL season; but, the club regrouped and remained in the VFL under as a stand-alone senior Northern Bullants from 2021. As with all other AFL clubs, most of the club's workforce was stood down during the height of the pandemic.
During July, while based interstate, the club was fined $45,000 for an inadvertent breach of COVID-19 protocols when one member of the travelling party sought childcare services outside the league's quarantine bubble.
Senior personnel Mark LoGiudice continued as club president, a role he has held since June 2014.
David Teague entered his first full season as the appointed senior coach of the club, having served as caretaker during the second half of 2019 after Brendon Bolton was sacked. Teague was appointed senior coach on a three-year contract with two rounds remaining in the 2019 season. To the coaching panel over the preseason were added: assistant coach Henry Playfair, who became head of coaching performance; AFL Academy manager Luke Power, who became head of development; and Geelong Falcons coach Daniel O'Keefe in a development coaching role. Power replaced Shane Watson, who departed after four years with the club. Following the trade and draft periods, general manager of List Management and Strategy Stephen Silvagni departed the club after five years in the role. The financial pressure of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the termination of the affiliation with the Northern Blues, resulted in Northern coach Josh Fraser being terminated.
Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty continued in their roles as joint captains for the second consecutive season – with Docherty playing his first games as captain after having missed the 2019 season (as well as the 2018 season) due to injury. Liam Jones, Jacob Weitering and Sam Walsh were added to the club's expanded seven-man leadership group, with Ed Curnow and Marc Murphy holding their places. Veteran Kade Simpson stepped aside from the group.
Squad for 2020 Statistics are correct as of end of 2019 season. Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football.