Carlton faces an array of difficult list calls at season’s end, should it fail to salvage its spluttering 2023 campaign.
The Blues snapped a six-game losing streak in round 14, defeating Gold Coast by 59 points before heading into their mid-season bye.
Despite its struggles seeing it fourth-last on the ladder, Carlton sits just a game-and-a-half (plus percentage) outside the top eight.
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Still, the club’s second season under Michael Voss has led to questions over all aspects of the side, including its list build.
While the likes of Charlie Curnow and Patrick Cripps spearhead the Blues’ senior side, there remain significant doubts over the bottom end of the club’s talent pool, with several players yet to truly emerge as bona fide AFL staples.
Voss has been backed in by key powerbrokers at the club to coach until at least the end of his current contract, which runs out at the end of the 2024 season.
Changes around Voss, however, have not been ruled out, with Voss himself declaring recently the club “won’t miss much” in its post-season review.
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes warned on SEN this week it won’t be easy for the Blues, given the number of crunch calls they face on their list.
“It’s not easy. You can’t just get rid of 15 of them,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“They’re going to have to make some hard calls and I suspect they will do that.”
Underscoring the difficulty of those calls, Cornes put a number of names to dual North Melbourne premiership player David King, asking his co-host to simply respond whether he’d “keep or let go”.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Kane Cornes: Tom De Koning
David King: Keep at your price.
KC: Mitch McGovern
DK: See ya.
KC: Nic Newman
DK: Keep. It’s not going to have a massive bearing, but keep.
KC: Jack Silvagni
DK: See ya.
KC: Alex Cincotta
DK: Keep. Definitely keep.
KC: Brodie Kemp
DK: Definitely keep.
KC: Caleb Marchbank
DK: Thanks for playing.
KC: David Cunningham
DK: Thanks for playing.
KC: Sam Philp
DK: Hasn’t played much footy has he? We haven’t seen the best of that young draft pick.
KC: Ed Curnow
DK: Thanks Ed, you’ve been a warrior.
KC: Josh Honey
DK: We’re delisting a few here. I’d like to have another look at Josh.
KC: Lachie Fogarty
DK: Keep.
KC: Lachie Plowman is in all sorts of trouble so I’ll answer that one for you, he’s gone and probably should’ve been three years ago. Paddy Dow?
DK: I want him to hang around because I love the constant conversation. Who else are they going to talk about at Carlton!?
