2013 Carlton Football Club season

Club summary

The 2013 AFL season was the 117th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 117th season contested by the Carlton Football Club. As in previous years, the club's primary home ground was Etihad Stadium, with home games expecting to draw larger crowds played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and with traditional home ground Visy Park serving as the training and administrative base. The club's two joint major sponsors, car manufacturer Hyundai and confectionery company Mars, and the club extended its deal with Mars for a further three years. 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.

The club adopted a new clash guernsey design for 2013, which was predominantly white with navy blue monogram, numbers, shoulders and waist; the new guernsey replaced the predominantly sky blue clash guernsey which had been in use for the previous two seasons.

The club used the membership campaign slogan "I am Carlton" for the second consecutive season, after having success with the personalisable slogan in the 2012 season. The club set a new membership record of 50,564, breaking by more than 10% the previous record of 45,800 set in 2012.

Senior Personnel

There were several changes to Carlton's senior coaching panel after the 2012 season. Brett Ratten, who had coached the club since late 2007, was sacked with one year remaining on his contract after Carlton underperformed in the 2012 season, finishing tenth when a top four finish had been expected. Shortly after the season, Ratten was replaced in the role by experienced coach Mick Malthouse, who was signed to a three-year contract. Malthouse was at the time a three-time premiership coach at West Coast (in 1992 and 1994) and Collingwood (in 2010), with twenty-eight seasons and 662 games of VFL/AFL coaching experience with Footscray, West Coast and Collingwood; he had last coached in 2011, and had spent the 2012 season as part of the Seven Network's football commentary team.

Several of Ratten's assistants also departed after 2012, and Malthouse restructured the coaching panel. Senior assistant coach Alan Richardson and midfield assistant coaches Mark Riley and Paul Williams were all sacked with time remaining on their contracts, and development coach and Northern Blues senior coach Darren Harris left the club to pursue a career in leadership consulting. Western Australian state Under-16s coach Robert Wiley, who had previously worked as an assistant coach under Malthouse at West Coast, joined the club in the new role of Director of Coaching and Development, and recently retired Melbourne player Brad Green joined the club as a midfield development coach. Development coach Luke Webster took on the additional responsibility as Northern Blues coach for 2013.

Chris Judd opted to step down from the role of club captain, having served in the role for five seasons from 2008 until 2012; he was replaced in the role by Marc Murphy, with Kade Simpson and Andrew Carrazzo named as vice-captains. The leadership group was reduced from nine players to five, with Murphy, Carrazzo, Simpson and Jarrad Waite all holding their places from 2012 and Nick Duigan being elevated to the group for the first time.

Former club champion Stephen Kernahan continued as club president in the 2013 season, a position he had held since August 2008.

Squad for 2013

Statistics are correct as of end of 2012 season. Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football.

Playing list changes

The following summarises all player changes between the conclusion of the 2012 season and the conclusion of the 2013 season.

The 2012/13 offseason was the first in league history to allow players to switch clubs as free agents. Two players who qualified for unrestricted free agency – Jordan Russell and Bret Thornton – announced their intentions to seek other clubs following the 2012 season. Russell moved to Collingwood in the club's only transaction during the initial free agency and trade period; Thornton was delisted, and ultimately recruited by Greater Western Sydney in the preseason draft.

Season summary

During November 2012, the playing list attended a high-altitude training camp in Arizona. New coach Mick Malthouse had taken his team to several such training camps in Arizona while coaching at Collingwood.

Pre-season matches

Carlton won three of its four preliminary matches; due to its strong percentage, the club finished second on the NAB Cup ladder to qualify for the Grand Final, to play against Brisbane Lions, the only undefeated team in the preliminary rounds. Brisbane then defeated Carlton in the Grand Final by 40 points.

Home and away season

Carlton finished the season with a win-loss record of 11–11, the ninth-best record in the league. In summary:

Coming into the last two rounds of the season, Carlton needed to win both of its games to qualify for the finals; so, when Essendon won in Round 22 by six points, Carlton was eliminated from finals contention. However, during the season, Essendon was investigated over irregularities in its supplements and sports science program, and three days after the Round 22 match, the AFL excluded Essendon from the 2013 finals series (relegating it to ninth) as part of the penalties handed down over the scandal, promoting Carlton to eighth place. Carlton then needed to win or draw, or lose and see other results fall favourably, in the final round to hold onto eighth place – and succeeded, coming from 39 points behind to record a one-point victory against Port Adelaide.

Finals

In the elimination final, Carlton faced Richmond, which was in its first finals match since the 2001. Carlton trailed by 32 points early in the third quarter, before an eight-minute purple patch in which it kicked five consecutive goals to bring the margin back to one point; Carlton went on to kick six goals to two in the final quarter to win by 20 points. Sydney was a comfortable winner in the semi-final, leading by 54 points at three-quarter time before finishing with a 24-point win.

Leading Goalkickers

Jeff Garlett was Carlton's leading goalkicker for the season, with 43 goals. It was the first time Garlett had won Carlton's goalkicking.

Team awards and records

John Nicholls Medal

The Carlton Football Club Best and Fairest awards night took place on 1 October. The John Nicholls Medal, for the best and fairest player of the club, as well as several other awards, were presented on the night.

The winner of the John Nicholls Medal was Kade Simpson, who polled 92 votes. It was Simpson's first John Nicholls Medal. Simpson won ahead of Andrew Walker and Lachlan Henderson. The top ten is given below.

The following other awards were presented on John Nicholls Medal night:-

AFLPA Awards

For each of the AFLPA awards, one or three Carlton players were nominated following internal vote of Carlton players; Marc Murphy was also nominated for the Best Captain award by default. Kade Simpson finished fifth for the Robert Rose Awards; no other Carlton player finished in his respective top five.

Other awards

Player records

Northern Bullants

The Carlton Football Club had a full affiliation with the Northern Blues during the 2011 season. It was the eleventh season of the clubs' affiliation, which had been in place since 2003. Carlton senior- and rookie-listed players who were not selected to play in the Carlton team were eligible to play for either the Northern Bullants seniors or reserves team in the Victorian Football League. As in 2012, home games were shared between the VFL club's traditional home ground, Preston City Oval, and Carlton's traditional home ground, Visy Park. The Northern Blues finished 9th out of 14 in the VFL, missing the final eight by four premiership points and percentage; there had been speculation that the Northern Blues could have been promoted to the eighth if the AFL and AFL Victoria had decided to exclude the eighth-placed Essendon reserves team from the VFL finals as part of the punishments for the club's supplements scandal, but the league did not apply this punishment.