Passion.
We love it here at The Mongrel, and it is always best expressed by our writers for their chosen teams.
This year, as we head toward Round One, I hand them the ball and ask – what do you love about your team in 2024?
Let’s see what they come up with. Bobby Sands is up as he champions his Carlton Blues. – HB
1. Bandwagon? What bandwagon?
Carlton initially broke our membership record in 2021 whilst simultaneously finishing 13th. Say what you like about the Carlton fanbase, and elements of it can frequently be both hubristic and overly sensitive, but the club stands alone in terms of the loyalty of its supporters. None of the other so-called Big Four have experienced a drought like it since the turn of the century.
The fact that people have stuck around is a testament to both the devotion the club elicits, and the work the club itself has done to ensure that a generation of fans has not been lost while the club was in its AFL-facilitated wilderness (thanks, Ron Evans and Graeme Samuel). Carlton were never the only club to cheat the salary cap (Essendon’s historical infractions were not exactly minor, for example) but the gravity of punishment meted out to Carlton had more than a whiff of score-settling. In 2024 however, the Blues are absolutely coming, and the members have turned out.
2. Michael Voss
It’s a well-worn point, but the influence of Voss, now into his third year , cannot be understated. His next-man-up mantra has been a boon for a Carlton side which looked genuinely lost towards the end of David Teague’s excessively emotional tenure.
AFL Hall of Famer Voss has reconnected with the old school in which Carlton is steeped (mouthguards at training) whilst bringing an exciting, contested brand of modern footy. He has grabbed his second chance at coaching with purpose and (controlled) aggression, and the club is reaping the rewards.
Were the Blues to secure a seventeenth flag in 2024, he would enter than pantheon of Carlton greats. Collingwood, Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney look to be the teams to beat, and it will take all of Voss’ nous to find a competitive edge. The club have backed him accordingly with a two-year extension.
3. Sam Walsh
I know he’s had his back flare up and is on a modified program until Round One, but people thought he wasn’t going to come good last year, either. The kid is a workhorse! He’ll be great again in 2024.
Now into his fifth season, Walsh continues to garner plaudits by the truckload, and being awarded the Gary Ayres Award as the best Finals player (despite Carlton missing the Grand Final) was just reward for a bloke who missed the first four weeks of 2023.
The 2019 Rising Star took his game to yet another level last season, and his last three seasons have all been elite. Patrick Cripps might have – justifiably – taken the umpires’ eyes in the past two seasons, but it is running-machine Walsh who firms as perhaps Carlton’s best chance for the Brownlow in 2024…
… assuming all is well in the back department, of course.
4. Finals football
A decade was a long time between finals for Carlton. So long in fact that you’d have to go back to the 1890s to find a decade in which Carlton didn’t contest at least one finals series. And didn’t the fans turn out – leaving aside the Grand Final, Carlton’s average MGC attendance in finals was fewer than one-thousand behind that of the eventual Premiers.
Not bad for a club whose last trip to September was a decade earlier. This is a supporter-base that will turn out for its club. There have been more than a few false dawns since Brett Ratten was unfairly given his marching orders but, finally, the giant is stirring.
5. Charlie Curnow
A bloke who has played in a side which has won only 35% of their matches across his career must now be keen for success proper. If we think of all the games he’s lost to injury as well, it’s clear that, bizarrely, you could make the case that Curnow is yet to really live up to his potential. So it is then that season 2024 offers an opportunity for Curnow to go into the stratosphere, especially with the quality of midfield currently plying their trade at Princes Park, and small forwards like Jesse Motlop into their second full season.
There really is no better sight in our game than the big forwards on song, and Carlton are supremely lucky to have Charlie Curnow. The dual Coleman Medallist carries a wee bit of pressure after an underwhelming 2023 Finals series – especially for haters who delight in details – but would you trust him to right that wrong as well as deliver a third Coleman? Definitely. Knee injuries have been the death of many a career and yet here he sits, 27 years old, and having played not many more than 100 games. That’s exciting.
6. Collingwood
No really, you’ve read that correctly.
Anyone under the age of 45 doesn’t really know the reality of the Old Firm’s rivalry. Carlton won five flags between 1979 and 1995 and then made a granny in 1999 for good measure. After Collingwood’s 1990 flag, their average finishing position was 10th, including a wooden spoon, until Eddie McGuire entered the fray.
Similarly, Carlton’s downward spiral beginning in the early 2000s, coincided with the Eddie era which, politics aside, stabilised Collingwood and turned them into the powerhouse they are today. It’s sacrilegious for any Carlton member to suggest so, but a powerful Collingwood is good for the Blues. For motivation, look over the other side of Nicholson Street. Collingwood are the standard, and plus, every hero needs a villain. A subplot of this is the Voss-McRae rivalry, which is legitimately intriguing. Collingwood were miles ahead of the pack in 2023, and 2024 could reasonably be expected to produce a couple of classic derbies.
It has been a long time, almost two generations in fact, since both clubs were genuinely up and about. If that’s not reason enough to whet your appetite in 2024 as a Carlton person then I genuinely don’t know what motivates you.
