2016 Carlton Football Club season

Club summary

The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 120th season contested by the Carlton Football Club. Carlton's primary home ground continued to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the club playing six home matches there and five at Etihad Stadium; traditional home ground Ikon Park continued to serve as the training and administrative base. The club's two joint major sponsors were car manufacturer Hyundai, which has sponsored the club since 2008, and job seekers' service provider CareerOne, newly signed in 2016 to a two-season deal; the club's six-year association with confectionery company Mars came to an end at the end of the 2015 season. 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 faced a financially challenging schedule, with no matches in the most lucrative Friday night timeslot following poor performances in 2015. The club's membership was 50,130, a 6% increase from 2015. The club's operating profit for the season was $1.1 million, with a net deficit of $765k after depreciation and amortization – an improvement on its $2.7m net deficit in the 2015 season.

The club made a small alteration to its clash guernsey for 2016, by removing the navy blue panel around the waist of the guernsey and narrowing the widths of other blue panels and features, resulting in an overall whiter design. The design is plain white with navy blue side and shoulder panels, trimmings, monogram and number. A second match day mascot, Navy Nina, was introduced to serve as a female counterpart to established mascot Captain Carlton; as with Captain Carlton, she is a masked, navy-wearing superhero.

In June, Carlton was granted one of four Victorian licences for a team in the AFL's national women's competition, which is planned to be established from the 2017 season. Carlton's was one of the four successful bids among the eight Victorian clubs who applied for licences, with Collingwood, Melbourne and Western Bulldogs the other successful applicants and North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda and Geelong the unsuccessful bidders.

Senior Personnel

Mark LoGiudice continued as club president, a role he had held since June 2014. Marc Murphy retained the role of captain for his fourth season in the role, and Kade Simpson remained vice captain; the rest of the seven-man leadership group comprised Patrick Cripps, Ed Curnow, Bryce Gibbs, Andrew Walker and Sam Docherty.

The club's coaching panel underwent significant changes after the 2015 season, following the dismissal of incumbent Mick Malthouse after Round 8, 2015. In August 2015, Hawthorn assistant coach Brendon Bolton was appointed Carlton's new senior coach; the club appointed Bolton to an ongoing staff position, rather than the more typical approach of hiring a senior coach on discrete fixed term contracts, with the caveat that Bolton be paid out for his first three years if dismissed during that time. The majority of the assistant coaching panel was turned over with only John Barker, who had served as caretaker coach in 2015 following Malthouse's dismissal, and Matthew Capuano surviving from the 2015 panel. New additions to the assistant coaching panel were Richmond assistant coach Tim Clarke (midfield), Geelong assistant coach Dale Amos (backline), North Melbourne assistant coach Shane Watson (forward-line), and Gold Coast reserves coach Josh Fraser (development and VFL senior coach). Neil Craig replaced Rob Wiley as director of coaching, development and performance, after having served in a similar role at Essendon.

Squad for 2016

The following is Carlton's squad for the 2016 season after offseason transfers and drafts.

Statistics are correct as of end of 2015 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 which have occurred since the conclusion of the 2015 season. Unless otherwise noted, draft picks refer to selections in the 2015 AFL draft.

Pre-season matches

The club's three scheduled pre-season matches were played as part of the 2016 NAB Challenge series.

Home and away season

Following its 2015 wooden spoon and the loss of some senior players to trades and free agency over the offseason, expectations on the club's 2016 performance were low – with some pundits even predicting that Carlton would perform worse than an Essendon team missing twelve of its best twenty-two players due to suspensions for using illicit substances during the 2012 season. Nevertheless, the club improved significantly on its 2015 performances to finish with seven wins, three more than the previous season.

The highlight of the club's season was the seven-round stretch between Rounds 5 and 11, in which it won six of seven games, including an upset win against eventual third-placed team Geelong, which had the team sitting in a season-high tenth place with a 6–5 record. However, the club had the worst record in the league in the second half of the year, winning only one of eleven games; and although it impressed with narrow losses against eventual finalists West Coast, Sydney and Hawthorn, it also unexpectedly lost matches against the bottom two Brisbane Lions and Essendon. Overall across the season, the club was:

Altogether, the club's ability to defend and prevent its opponents from scoring improved greatly, conceding 376 points fewer than it had in 2015; but its lack of options in the forward-line was a continuing problem, and the club was the second-lowest scoring team in the league below only the suspension-affected Essendon.

John Nicholls Medal

The Carlton Football Club Best and Fairest awards night took place on 9 September. 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 Sam Docherty, who polled 179 votes to beat vice-captain Kade Simpson (169 votes) and 2015 winner Patrick Cripps (168 votes). It was Docherty's first John Nicholls Medal.

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

Milestones and game records

Season records

Leading Goalkickers

Matthew Wright was Carlton's leading goalkicker for the season in his first season for the club after crossing from Adelaide. His tally of 22 goals was the fewest to lead Carlton's goalkicking since Ian Nankervis' leading tally of 18 goals in 1964.

Other awards

Jacob Weitering finished third for the 2016 NAB AFL Rising Star, polling 26 votes to finish behind Callum Mills (Sydney) and Caleb Daniel (Western Bulldogs). Weitering was nominated for the award after his Round 3 performance against Gold Coast. He was the only Carlton player nominated for the season.

For each of the AFLPA awards, one or three Carlton players were nominated by an internal vote of Carlton players; Marc Murphy was also nominated for the Best Captain award by default. Weitering placed third for the best first-year player award.

At the 2016 Carlton Football Club Hall of Fame dinner on 29 April, four players were inducted into the Hall of Fame and one was elevated to Legend Status:

Northern Blues

The Carlton Football Club had a full affiliation with the Northern Blues during the 2016 season. It was the fourteenth 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 Blues seniors or reserves team in the Victorian Football League. The club's nine home matches were split with five matches at the VFL club's traditional home ground Preston City Oval, and four matches at Carlton's traditional home ground Ikon Park. The Northern Blues finished 13th out of 15 in the VFL with a record of 6–12.