The 2021 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 158th season of competition.
It was the club's men's team's 125th season as a member of the Australian Football League. The team finished 13th out of eighteen teams with an 8–14 record in the 2021 AFL season – two positions lower than in the 2020 season, ultimately resulting in the sacking of coach David Teague at the end of the season.
It was the club's women's team's fifth season as a member of the AFL Women's competition. The team narrowly missed the finals for the 2021 AFL Women's season, finishing 7th with a record of 5–4.
Individually, Carlton players won the leading goalkicker awards in both the men's and women's senior competitions: Harry McKay winning the Coleman Medal with 58 goals, and Darcy Vescio winning their second leading goalkicker award with 16 goals.
The club also fielded its men's reserves team in the Victorian Football League for the first time since 2002, and fielded a women's team in the VFL Women's competition.
Club summary The 2021 AFL season will be the 125th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it will also be the 125th season contested by the Carlton Football Club.
Contractually, Carlton's primary home ground will continue to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with many games also to have been played at Marvel Stadium, and traditional home ground Ikon Park to serve as the training and administrative base. The club fielded its women's team in the fifth season of the AFL Women's competition, and Ikon Park served as the home ground for AFL Women's matches. Restrictions associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant that crowds were often restricted to well short of the grounds' maximum capacities.
Carlton terminated its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League in March 2020 as a cost-saving measure during the coronavirus pandemic; and will re-establish its reserves team for the first time since 2002, which will contest its fourth overall season in the VFL.
Car manufacturer Hyundai, which had been a major sponsor of the club continuously since 2008, continued its partnership with the club through the season. Airline Virgin Australia, which had upgraded from a secondary sponsor to a major sponsor during the 2017 season, but was struggling owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, continued as the second major sponsor until mid-season; they were then replaced as major sponsor by Great Southern Bank (just recently rebranded from Credit Union Australia), who took on the major co-partner role in a three-year deal.
For the fourth consecutive season, the club set a new membership record, surpassing the 2020 total of 67,035 members on 1 February, and finishing with 81,302 members. The club became debt-free for the first time since financing the construction of Ikon Park's Legends' Stand in 1996, having cleared $7 million in debt since 2017, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The club also ceased to accept financial assistance from the AFL.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic The season was played during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the season began, Australia had largely settled into a paradigm of most states maintaining zero COVID-19 cases outside of their international travel quarantine systems; this allowed football games to be played in front of crowds, usually with reduced capacity, and unhindered interstate travel was permitted without quarantine. However, the different state governments often responded quickly to small numbers or even single virus cases being discovered in the community; this meant border restrictions or quarantine periods were at times re-introduced at short notice, impacting interstate travel for games; and, in some cases, that city- or state-wide lockdowns could be imposed within the impacted states, precluding football activities altogether.
Direct, short notice impact to Carlton's senior seasons as a result of the pandemic were: During the Victorian 13–17 February snap lockdown, the women's team's Round 3 match was closed to spectators at one day's notice; During the Victorian snap lockdown which began on 28 May, the men's team's departed Victoria three days ahead of its normal schedule for its Round 11 match against in Sydney; the team then remained in Sydney for the following week and played its Round 12 home game there at the neutral Sydney Cricket Ground against instead of at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. As a result of Perth becoming a hot zone in late June, the men's team's away game against was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Lockdowns and ongoing restrictions in Victoria saw men's matches from Round 18 onwards closed to spectators.
Senior personnel Mark Lo Giudice continued in his final season as club president, a role he had held for a total of almost eight years since mid-2014. Lo Giudice's replacement, club director and former PriceWaterhouseCoopers CEO Luke Sayers, was announced in April with the pair to prepare for the transition during the year. As part of the transition, and in response to the club's weaker than expected start to the season, Lo Giudice commissioned a review of the club's football department, which was conducted by Sayers, CEO Cain Liddle, and external panel members Matthew Pavlich, Geoff Walsh and Graham Lowe, from which followed substantial changes to the club's administration and football department in 2021. Sayers officially took over on August 17, 2021, one round before the end of the season.
David Teague continued in his second full season as appointed senior coach, having also served a half-season as caretaker in 2019. The coaching panel was reduced in size as a result of seeking cost savings and meeting the AFL's soft spending cap due to the coronavirus pandemic, which saw head of coaching performance Henry Playfair, former Northern Blues senior head coach Josh Fraser, development coach Jason Davenport, and specialist coaches Saverio Rocca, Hamish McIntosh and Greg Williams were all made redundant. Added to the club's coaching panel in the new development role as leader of the Carlton College of Sport Development Program and Carlton Academy coach was former Western Jets and development coach Torin Baker. Long serving assistant coach John Barker, who had also served as caretaker senior coach for part of the 2015 season, departed the club in June after 10½ years, a few months earlier than his originally planned departure at the end of the season.
Squad for 2021 The following is Carlton's squad for the 2021 season.
Statistics are correct as of end of 2020 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 2020) 2021 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 1 Jack Silvagni 23 2016 Oakleigh (U18) 63 4715 9 13200 130 70 70 38 17 2 Paddy Dow 21 2018 Bendigo (U18) 42 15174 2 242 95 147 28 390 3 Marc Murphy (lg) 33 2006 Oakleigh (U18) 285 18915 8 4 191 115 76 47 240 4 Lochie O'Brien 21 2018 Bendigo (U18) 36 1051 3 80 49 31 20 9 0 5 Sam Petrevski-Seton 22 2017 Claremont 80 1914 1 3 198 134 64 56 260 6 Zac Williams 26 2013 GWS Academy, GWS 113 27145 4 264 201 63 55 54 0 8 Lachie Fogarty 21 2018 Western (U18), 23 6176 6 246 139 107 57 620 9 Patrick Cripps (c) 25 2014 East Fremantle 118 542013 11 468163 305 63 853 10 Harry McKay 23 2017 Gippsland (U18) 48 711958 33185 154 31 113 27 6 11 Mitch McGovern 26 2016 Claremont, 76 9856 4 56 42 1424 13 0 12 Tom de Koning 21 2018 Dandenong (U18) 9 1137 4 123 81 42 40 27 219 13 Liam Stocker 20 2019 Sandringham (U18) 5 0172 1 238163 75 58 37 0 14 Liam Jones (lg) 29 2010 North Hobart, 142 8419 0 1219 178 41 105 19 0 15 Sam Docherty (c) 27 2013 Gippsland (U18), 108 14140 0 340 252 88 107 310 16 Jack Carroll 18 – East Fremantle – ––– – – –– – – – 17 Brodie Kemp 19 2021 Bendigo (U18) – –20 0 19 14 5 8 30 18 Sam Walsh (lg) 20 2019 Geelong (U18) 39 142212 6 656 298 358 127 100 0 20 Lachie Plowman 26 2013 Calder (U18), GWS 110 1191 0 219 160 59 85 20 0 21 Jack Martin 25 2014 Claremont, 112 93118 6140 94 46 61 26 0 22 Caleb Marchbank 24 2015 Murray (U18), GWS 48 0–– – – –– – – – 23 Jacob Weitering (lg) 23 2016 Dandenong (U18) 93 10220 1 361 301 60 167 29 2 24 Nic Newman 27 2017 Frankston, 53 14140 1 275 199 76 86 540 25 Zac Fisher 22 2017 Perth 63 27104 8 159 85 74 23 24 0 27 Marc Pittonet 24 2016 Oakleigh (U18), 20 0135 5 147 67 80 26 28 379 28 David Cuningham 23 2016 Oakleigh (U18) 37 2041 0 54 26 28 9 6 0 29 Corey Durdin 18 2021 Central District – –21 0 8 4 42 4 0 30 Charlie Curnow 23 2016 Geelong (U18) 58 7742 5 49 35 14 16 6 0 31 Tom Williamson 23 2017 North Ballarat (U18) 32 2112 3 124 83 41 43 16 0 32 Jack Newnes 27 2012 Northern (U18) 172 68194 9 312 188 124 93 34 0 33 Sam Ramsay 19 — Calder (U18) – ––– – – –– – – – 34 Sam Philp 19 2020 Northern (U18) 2 1–– – – –– – – – 35 Ed Curnow (lg) 31 2011 Geelong (U18), Adelaide, Box Hill 182 402210 3 496 318178 106 80 0 40 Michael Gibbons 25 2019 Williamstown 36 2711 8 5 156 98 58 39 270 41 Levi Casboult 30 2012 Dandenong (U18) 141 148138 5 111 77 34 47 25 79 42 Adam Saad 26 2015 Calder (U18), Coburg, , 109 8222 6 424 311 113 72 390 43 Will Setterfield 22 2017 Sandringham (U18), GWS 36 1081 6 124 7450 35 17 0 Rookie List No. State Player Age AFL Debut Recruited from Career (to end 2020) 2021 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 7 Matthew Kennedy 23 2016 Collingullie-Glenfield Park, GWS 48 23136 2 239 138101 60 54 0 19 Eddie Betts 34 2005 Calder (U18), 331 6131927 16180 121 59 42 31 0 26 Luke Parks 19 2021 Sydney Academy, Glenelg – –60 0 45 30 15 12 12 0 36 Josh Honey 19 2020 Western (U18) 1 05 6 336 24 12 13 6 0 37 Jordan Boyd 22 – Western (U18), Footscray reserves – ––– – – –– – – – 39 Oscar McDonald 24 2015 North Ballarat (U18), 81 132 1 9 8 1 3 2 0 44 Matthew Owies 23 2020 St Kevin's, Seattle Redhawks 1 01315 17 115 6946 43 38 0 45 Alex Mirkov 21 – Carlton reserves – ––– – – –– – – – 46 Matthew Cottrell 20 2020 Dandenong (U18) 5 214 3 2 165 118 47 37 310 Senior coaching panel State Coach Coaching position Carlton Coaching debut Former clubs as coach David Teague Senior coach 2008 (d), Northern Bullants (s), (a), (a), (a) Luke Power Head of developmentAssistant coach (stoppages)(from Round 12) 2020 GWS (a), AFL Academy Manager John Barker(until Round 12) Assistant coach (stoppages) 2011 St Kilda (a), Hawthorn (a) Cameron Bruce Assistant coach (forward) 2018 (a) Dale Amos Assistant coach (defence) 2016 South Barwon (s), (a), Geelong reserves (s) Daniel O'Keefe Development coach (Midfield), Reserves coach 2020 Geelong Falcons (s), Geelong reserves (a) Brent Stanton Development coach (Midfield and transition) 2018 Torin Baker Carlton College of Sport and Academy coach 2021 Western Jets (s), (d)
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 2020 season. Unless otherwise noted, draft picks refer to selections in the 2020 National Draft.
The club lost two of its four most experienced players to retirement at the end of 2020: Kade Simpson retired after 18 seasons and 342 games, the third most in club history; and Matthew Kreuzer retired after 13 seasons and 189 games, having missed all but the first match in 2020 with injury.
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