2023 Carlton Football Club season

In

Out

List management

Pre-season

Carlton played two practice matches, the first deemed unofficial and the second deemed official, as part of its lead-up to the premiership season.

Home-and-away season

Following Carlton's improvement and narrow finals miss in 2022, expectations were high among experts that Carlton would make finals;^[29][30] and the season opened well with the club sitting in second place after an unbeaten first month.

Thereafter followed a sudden drop in form, and Carlton lost eight of its next nine matches – defeating only wooden spooners West Coast – to drop to the bottom four with a 4–8–1 record. While Carlton maintained strong performance in contested ball during this period and frequently won the territory and inside-50 counts, its matches were characterised by low pressure without the ball, and a forward structure which struggled to convert territory into goals^[31] – averaging below eight goals in those losses and including separate 28 and 34 point losses in matches with more scoring shots than the opponent.^[32]

As the losing streak progressed, there was unrest among the club's powerbrokers and directors: on 13 May, long-time powerbroker Bruce Mathieson gave a newspaper interview critical of the club's off-field leadership;^[33] and in the dressing room after the loss against Sydney, director Craig Mathieson was compelled to resign after a verbal altercation with president Luke Sayers^[34] – a reaction which was seen as a strong statement by Sayers against the club's other administrative factions in support of Michael Voss as coach.^[35] In the week prior to the final loss of the streak against Essendon, the playing group organised a campfire retreat at Ed Curnow's Torquay home, which served as an honesty and bonding session, which was considered a key catalyst for the club's onfield recovery in the latter half of the year.^[36]

The club's form improved significantly, and a nine-game winning streak followed – including wins against top four opponents Port Adelaide, Collingwood and Melbourne over a five-week period – characterised by record level stoppage differentials, improved efficiency of scoring from turnover, and a complete reversal of its difficulties converting territory to scores.^[37] The club secured its finals berth in round 23 Gold Coast with its ninth consecutive win – recovering from a 40-point second quarter deficit to win by four points^[38] – before losing a round 24 match against Greater Western Sydney which by the time it was played had no impact on Carlton's fifth-placed finish.^[39]

Across the home-and-away season, Carlton was 3–3 in six games against the top four (who won sixteen or more games), 2–6 against the clubs who finished 6th to 11th (eleven to thirteen wins), and unbeaten with 8–0–1 against the bottom seven. The club's late season recovery was one of the most remarkable on record: only the 1945 Blues, 1959 Bombers and 2023 Giants (who also achieved the feat this year) had ever reached a preliminary final after sitting in the bottom four of a twelve-or-more team competition at or beyond midseason.^[40]

Finals

In the elimination final, Carlton faced Sydney. A strong second quarter saw Carlton build a 29-point lead at half time, before Sydney gradually fought back throughout the second half; Sydney's last goal with thirty seconds left to play drew the margin back to six points, the closest it had been since the first quarter, but Carlton held on for a six-point victory.^[62] In a close semi-final against Melbourne, played with high pressure and high errors, Carlton conceded the first three goals then scored the next five, before neither team managed more than two consecutive goals for the rest of the game;^[63] Carlton trailed by nine points entering time on in the final quarter, before kicking the last two goals to defeat an inaccurate Melbourne by two points.^[64] 2023 recruit Blake Acres kicked Carlton's last goal late in the final quarters of both games: a steadying goal which put Carlton 14 points ahead in the 23rd minute against Sydney;^[62] and the go-ahead goal with less than a minute remaining against Melbourne.^[64] In the preliminary final against Brisbane, Carlton opened strongly with the first five goals to lead by 30 points after 22 minutes; Brisbane then took control of the game, and kicked ten of the next eleven goals between the late first quarter and the early final quarter to lead by as much as 28 points; two quick goals by Carlton brought the margin back to 16 points with eight minutes remaining, but Carlton got no closer and 16 points was the final margin.^[65]

John Nicholls Medal

The Carlton Football Club Best and Fairest awards night took place on 8 October 2023.^[70]

John Nicholls Medal

The winner of the John Nicholls Medal was Jacob Weitering, who polled 210 votes to win the award for the second time in his career. Nic Newman finished second with 193 votes for the best finish of his career to date, and Charlie Curnow was third with 174 votes.^[70]

Other awards

The following other awards were presented on John Nicholls Medal night:-^[70]

• Best Young Player – Oliver Hollands
• Best Clubman – Nic Newman
• Best Finals Player – Sam Walsh
• Spirit of Carlton Award – Blake Acres
• Bill Lanyon Inner Blue Ruthless Award – Sam Walsh
• Carltonians William A. Cook Award – Charlie Curnow
• Coaches' Award – Blake Acres
• Players' Award – Charlie Curnow

Leading goalkickers

Charlie Curnow won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker in the home-and-away season for the second time in his career. Curnow kicked 78 goals in the home-and-away season, winning the award by a margin of two goals from Taylor Walker (Adelaide) after kicking three goals in the round 24 match against Greater Western Sydney, and finished with 81 goals.^[71] Curnow became the first Carlton player ever to win consecutive VFL/AFL leading goalkicker awards; and it was Carlton's third consecutive Coleman Medal as a club, Harry McKay having won the medal in 2021.^[72]

Other awards

Honorific teams

• All-Australian team — one Carlton player was named in the 2023 All-Australian team: Charlie Curnow at full-forward, the second time he had earned selection.^[73] Patrick Cripps and Jacob Weitering were also named in the extended 44-man squad.^[74][75][76]
• 22under22 team of the decade — three Carlton players (Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow and Sam Docherty) were named in the 22under22 team of the decade. The honorific team was announced in March 2023, and it represented the ten 22under22 teams between 2013 and 2022.^[77]

AFLCA awards

• Assistant coach Tim Clarke won the AFLCA Phil Walsh Memorial Scholarship.^[78]
• Sam Walsh won the Gary Ayres Award as the best player in the 2023 AFL finals series. He was the first player who did not play in the grand final to win the award since its inception in 2015.^[79]

Other awards

• Sam Docherty won the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award for his work as an observer to the board of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation and as an ambassador to the MacKillop Family Services’ Paws4Kids.^[80]

Statistical leaders

• Jacob Weitering took 208 marks, the most of any player in the league.^[81]
• Charlie Curnow took 67 contested marks and 73 marks inside forward 50, the most of any player in the league.^[81]

Records

• Round 19 – Charlie Curnow kicked 10.3 against West Coast, the highest tally in his career and the first time a Carlton player had kicked ten goals in a game since Stephen Kernahan in 1995.^[58]
• Round 19 - Charlie Curnow took eight contested marks, breaking the club game record for most contested marks. (Recorded since 1999).^[82]
• Season – Jacob Weitering took 208 marks, tying the club season record held by Lance Whitnall in 2000. (Recorded since 1965)^[82]
• Season – Charlie Curnow took 67 contested marks, breaking the club season record held by Lance Whitnall in 1999. (Recorded since 1999).^[82]

Hall of Fame

• Chris Judd, who played for Carlton from 2008 to 2015, was inducted into the Carlton Football Club Hall of Fame.^[83]

Men's

Carlton's men's reserves team contested its sixth VFL season; and its 86th overall season of reserves and state level competition dating back to 1919.

Club Head of Development Luke Power took over as the reserves coach after 2021–22 coach Daniel O'Keefe departed.^[8] VFL-listed players newly signed to the team included: former AFL senior players Luke Parks (Carlton), Liam McMahon (Collingwood) and Ben Ronke (Sydney); and Sam Grant, Blake Kuipers, Ethan Bentley, Jed Brereton, Charlie Brauer, Noah Barnes, Nathan Scollo, Ben Moyle, Will White, Jack Maruff, Jack Lefroy and Eli Pearce. Retained from the 2022 squad were Ben Crocker, Zavier Maher, Heath Ramshaw, Michael Lewis, Mitch Moschetti, Tyreece Lieu, Patrick Dozzi, Ned Cahill, Hayden Gill, Archie Stevens, Logan Prout, Aiden Mills, Darcy Porter, Hamish Sinnott, Lachlan Swaney. 2023 No. 1 draft pick Harley Reid also notably played two games as the underage 23rd man, zoned to Carlton from the Bendigo Pioneers, early in the year.^[103] Ben Crocker, in his third season with the team, took over as captain following the departure of Matt Shannon.^[104]

The reserves team finished 11th out of 21 clubs with a win-loss record of 10–8 and a percentage of 106.5%. The team narrowly missed the wildcard round, which was played by the teams ranked 7th through 10th, on percentage from the North Melbourne reserves whose percentage was 109.9%. Entering the final round, Carlton had been well placed to qualify even with a loss, but dropped to 11th place after losing more than 12%pts in a disastrous 127-point loss against eventual premiers Gold Coast.^[105] First year senior listed player Jaxon Binns, who did not play a senior game through the year, won the reserves best and fairest.^[106]

Women's

The club fielded a team in the VFL Women's competition for the fifth time. Tom Stafford continued as the team's coach for the second season,^[107] and Christina Bernardi took over as captain.^[108]

The team finished 6th out of 12 in the home-and-away season with an 8–6 record and a league-high percentage of 150.7%, to finish in the last position in the final six; it was a close season overall, with minor premiers Collingwood finishing only one game ahead on 9–5 with a lower percentage. It was the first time Carlton had qualified for the VFL Women's finals,^[109] which were played under the Second McIntyre Final Six System.

In the elimination final against third-placed Williamstown, Carlton recovered from a 0.0 (0) vs 1.5 (11) first quarter to win a wet weather game by four points.^[110] Then in a close first semi-final against second-placed Port Melbourne, Carlton lost by one point, to finish the season in fourth place.^[111]

Finals matches