CARLTON has put pen to paper with 21 of their 2019 stars.

18 of the Blues’ Grand Final squad have committed to play next year and beyond, with nine of their top 10 best and fairest polling players part of that group.

Senior coach Daniel Harford was “pumped” with the retention of key members of the Blues’ 2019 campaign during the AFLW off-season.

“What we’ve done in 2019 is build a great platform and the 21 that we’ve re-signed helps extend that,” he said.

“They are pretty keen to stay and be a part of the journey with us which is really exciting.”

For the first time in the AFLW, clubs are permitted to offer returning players contracts up to two years.

Nine of the Blues returning players have signed two-year contracts, including all three All-Australian Blues in Kerryn Harrington, Gab Pound and Madison Prespakis.

“It’s a new thing in the AFLW to have multi-year contracts, so we’ve had nine of our key players locked in for two years which is fantastic,” he said.

“It just enables us to plan ahead a little bit rather than just worrying about the next 12 months.”

Among the Blues to sign on long term is 2019 Rising Star winner Prespakis, cementing herself as a fixture in the Carlton midfield until 2021.

“She clearly had an amazing debut season with us here at Carlton but she wants to build on what we’ve done,” he said.

“For her to come to us and say she wants two years is really cool and we were very quick to get the pen out.”