The 2011 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 148th season of competition, and 115th as a member of the Australian Football League.
Carlton finished 5th out of 17 teams in the 2011 AFL season with a win-loss record of 14–7–1, ultimately eliminated after a three-point semi-final loss against West Coast.
Club summary The 2011 AFL season was the 115th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 115th season contested by the Carlton Football Club.
Former club champion Stephen Kernahan continued as club president in the 2011 season, a position he has held since August 2008. The club's two joint major sponsors, car manufacturer Hyundai and confectionery company Mars, were unchanged from 2010. As in previous years, the club's primary home ground was Etihad Stadium, with home games expecting to draw larger crowds played at the M.C.G., and with traditional home ground Visy Park serving as the training and administrative base. As has been the case every year since 2003, Carlton has a full alignment with the Northern Bullants in the Victorian Football League, allowing Carlton-listed players to play with the Bullants when not selected in AFL matches.
Carlton set a new club record by selling 43,791 memberships for the 2011 season. The previous high of 42,408 members, set in 2009, was surpassed on 9 June. The club had the fourth-highest membership in the league, and the second-highest of clubs who play home games only in Victoria, behind only Collingwood. The club's membership campaign slogan for 2011 was "No passengers."
Brett Ratten and Chris Judd continued in their respective roles as senior coach and captain of the club, each entering his fourth season appointed to the job. Kade Simpson continued in the role of vice-captain, and Michael Jamison and Andrew Carrazzo retained their places in the club's leadership group from 2010. Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy and Jordan Russell were elevated into the expanded leadership group for 2011, replacing Heath Scotland, who stepped down, and Simon Wiggins, who retired from the AFL at the end of 2010.
There was a substantial number of changes to Brett Ratten's senior coaching panel between 2010 and 2011. The contracts of forward-line assistant coach Matthew Lappin and defensive assistant coach Brett Montgomery were not renewed, with the pair taking assistant coaching roles at CollingwoodHerald Sun, "Magpies sign up Matthew Lappin and Craig McRae", 12 October 2010, Retrieved 28 October 2011. and the Western Bulldogs respectively. Midfield assistant coach Robert Harvey, and development coach/VFL senior coach David Teague also left to pursue assistant coaching roles at St Kilda and West Coast respectively. The three vacant assistant coaching positions were filled by Alan Richardson from Essendon, John Barker from , and Gavin Brown from . Darren Harris, who had been serving as development manager since 2009, stepped into Teague's role as development coach and VFL senior coach, and Luke Webster also joined the club as a development coach.
Carlton adopted a new 'clash guernsey' design for the 2011 season. The new design was predominantly sky blue, with navy blue CFC monogram, numbers, trimming and side-panels. The sky blue guernsey replaced a predominantly white clash guernsey which had been in use since 2007. The guernsey was worn with new sky blue shorts, and the traditional navy blue socks (with a white hoop added in the event of clashing socks). The clash guernsey was first worn in Round 7 against .
Squad and player statistics for 2011 Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football. Senior ListCarlton Football Club, Player List , Retrieved 30 April 2011. No. State Player Age AFL Debut Recruited from Career (to end 2010) 2011 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 1 Andrew Walker 24 2004 Bendigo (U18) 10337 24 5627349238111111621 2 Jordan Russell (lg)Carlton Football Club, Three elevated to leadership group , 27 January 2011, Retrieved 26 March 2011. 24 2005 West Adelaide 9315 16 322671641037355 – 3 Marc Murphy (lg) 23 2006 Oakleigh (U18) 10282 24 22136993913081091081 4 Bryce Gibbs (lg) 21 2007 Glenelg 8940 23 2118548381167174823 5 Chris Judd (c) 27 2002 Sandringham (U18), West Coast 198179 24 141663330133269148 – 6 Kade Simpson (vc)Anderson, J., Herald Sun, "Kade Simpson says it's time for Blues to stand up", 16 February 2011, Retrieved 26 March 2011. 26 2003 Eastern (U18) 13379 24 1718536361175147795 8 Matthew Kreuzer 21 2008 Northern (U18) 5631 12 7714066742744148 9 Kane Lucas 19 2010 East Fremantle80 2 – – 281711104 – 10 Matthew Watson 18 2011 Calder (U18) – – 3 – – 3829992 – 11 Robert Warnock 23 2007 Sandringham (U18), Fremantle 338 20 48229861434251591 12 Mitch Robinson 21 2009 Tasmania (U18/VFL) 2619 23 10215173042131219715 13 Chris Yarran 20 2009 Swan Districts 2223 23 884092961137776 – 14 Brock McLean 24 2004 Calder (U18), Melbourne 10041 4 126223391323 – 15 Jeremy Laidler 21 2009 Geelong (U18, AFL) 20 19 2130019510511042 – 16 Andrew Collins 22 2009 Bendigo (U18), Richmond 2523 2 – 318117115 – 17 Setanta Ó hAilpín 27 2005 Cork GAA 7256 8 11101047232331059 18 Paul Bower 22 2006 Peel 573 3 – – 2013783 – 19 Eddie Betts 24 2005 Calder (U18) 120165 24 50222971761219084 – 21 Mark Austin 21 2007 Glenelg 141 1 – – 84424 – 22 Shaun Hampson 22 2007 Mount Gravatt 3511 9 357429452117185 23 Lachlan Henderson 21 2007 Geelong (U18), Brisbane 3428 15 321731037070341 24 Pat McCarthy 18 – Glenelg – – – – – – – – – – – 25 Luke Mitchell 18 – Calder (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 26 Andrew McInnes 18 – Dandenong (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 27 Dennis Armfield 24 2008 Swan Districts 452 15 71189122674130 – 29 Heath Scotland 30 1999 Western (U18), Collingwood 19967 24 55617346271163732 30 Jarrad Waite 27 2003 Murray (U18) 131153 12 1619174116588324 – 31 Marcus Davies 19 2010 North Hobart 50 8 126738291921 – 32 Bret Thornton 27 2002 Oakleigh (U18) 1618 20 138317215102146271 33 Ryan Houlihan 28 2000 Murray (U18) 195127 6 – 36930391013 – 34 Nick Duigan 26 2011 Norwood – – 22 1235419515913150 – 36 Rohan Kerr 19 – Dandenong (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 38 Jeff Garlett 21 2009 Swan Districts 3051 24 4832294216788496 – 40 Michael Jamison (lg) 24 2007 North Ballarat (U18, VFL) 570 14 14176114627126 – 43 Simon White 22 2010 Subiaco 61 6 116938311711 – 44 Andrew Carrazzo (lg)27 2004 Oakleigh (U18), Geelong 12236 18 5342420521975952 45 Aaron Joseph 21 2009 Tasmania (U18) 455 11 4113079514428 – 46 David Ellard 21 2008 Swan Districts 83 19 15727816211659115 – Rookie ListCarlton Football Club, Carlton Blues Rookie player list , Retrieved 30 April 2011. No. State Player Age AFL Debut Recruited from Career (to end 2010) 2011 Player Statistics Gms Gls Gms Gls B D K HB M T HO 20 Rhys O'Keeffe 20 2011 North Adelaide – – 1 – – 83511 – 28 Jaryd Cachia 19 – Northern (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 35 Ed Curnow 21 2011 Geelong (U18), Adelaide, Box Hill – – 12 31215117984755 – 37 Joseph Dare 19 – Geelong (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 39 Wayde Twomey 24 2011 Western (U18), Werribee, Swan Districts – – 2 1 – 1310378 – 41 Levi Casboult 20 – Dandenong (U18) – – – – – – – – – – – 42 Zach Tuohy 21 2011 Laois GAA – – 11 311387464319 – 47 Mitchell Carter 19 – South Fremantle – – – – – – – – – – – 48 Blake Bray 18 – Western Suburbs – – – – – – – – – – – Senior coaching panelCarlton Football Club, 2011 Coaching Panel , Retrieved 30 April 2011. Born Coach Coaching position Carlton Coaching debut Former clubs as coach Brett Ratten Senior Coach 2007 Melbourne (a), Norwood (EFL) (s) Alan Richardson Senior Assistant Coach 2011 East Burwood (s), Coburg (s), Western Bulldogs (a), Collingwood (a), Essendon (a) John Barker Assistant coach 2011 St Kilda (a), Hawthorn (a) Gavin Brown Assistant coach 2011 Collingwood (a), Collingwood (VFL) (s) Matthew Capuano Assistant coach 2009 Mark Riley Assistant coach 2008 Claremont (s), Fremantle (d, a), Melbourne (a, cs) Darren Harris Development & Academy Manager, and VFL Senior Coach 2009 Wodonga Raiders (O&MFL) (s), NSW/ACT Rams (d), West Perth (s), West Coast (a) Luke Webster Development coach 2011 For players: (c) denotes captain, (vc) denotes vice-captain, (lg) denotes leadership group. For coaches: (s) denotes senior coach, (cs) denotes caretaker senior coach, (a) denotes assistant coach, (d) denotes development coach. Players' ages are given for 1 January 2011. Statistics for AFL matches: Gms – Games played, Gls – Goals, B – Behinds, D – Disposals, K – Kicks, HB – Handballs, M – Marks, T – Tackles, HO – Hitouts. Source for statistics: AFL Tables.
Playing list changes
The following summarises all player changes between the conclusion of the 2010 season and the conclusion of the 2011 season.
In Player Previous club League via Andrew Collins AFL AFL Trade Week, in exchange for Shaun Grigg Jeremy Laidler AFL AFL Trade Week, with pick No. 41, in exchange for picks No. 36 and 53 Matthew Watson Calder TAC Cup AFL National Draft, first round (pick No. 18) Patrick McCarthy Glenelg SANFL AFL National Draft, second round (pick No. 34) Luke Mitchell Calder TAC Cup AFL National Draft, second round (pick No. 42) Andrew McInnes Dandenong TAC Cup AFL National Draft, fourth round (pick No. 67) Nick Duigan Norwood SANFL AFL National Draft, fourth round (pick No. 70) Ed Curnow Box Hill VFL AFL Rookie Draft, first round (pick No. 18) Wayde Twomey Swan Districts WAFL AFL Rookie Draft, third round (pick No. 51) Mitchell Carter South Fremantle WAFL AFL Rookie Draft, fourth round (pick No. 66) Blake Bray Western Suburbs Sydney AFL Elevated from NSW/ACT Scholarship during AFL Rookie Draft, fifth round (pick No. 78)
Out Player New Club League via Simon Wiggins SunshineO'meara, P., Leader, "Roos snare former Blue", 18 April 2011, Retrieved 22 April 2011. WRFL Retired from AFL Shaun Grigg AFL AFL Trade Week, in exchange for Andrew Collins Sam Jacobs AFL AFL Trade Week, in exchange for picks No. 33 and 67 Richard Hadley East FremantleEast Fremantle Football Club, Season 2011: Players , Retrieved 23 April 2011. WAFL Retired from AFL Brad Fisher West AdelaideHomfray, R., Herald Sun, "Former Blue Brad Fisher plays on in SANFL with West Adelaide, 15 December 2010k, retrieved 15 December 2010. SANFL Delisted Chris Johnson GreenvaleGreenvale Football Club, Senior Football News, "New Senior Recruits , Retrieved 28 April 2011. EDFL Delisted Joe Anderson Sturt SANFL Delisted Steven Browne West Perth WAFL Delisted Caleb Tiller Cranbourne MPNFL Delisted Josh Donaldson West Perth WAFL Delisted from rookie list
List management