12 faces of Ed
It was a big year for Ed Curnow: a career-best finish in the John Nicholls Medal, captaining the Club for the first time, his 150th game in Navy Blue and even more extremely photogenic additions to the collection.

11 senior debuts
Of those who will enter 2020 as Blues, 11 of them had their first taste of the elite competition in the last 12 months. It started with eight AFLW debuts, with Madison Prespakis, Abbie McKay, Brooke Walker, Chloe Dalton, Charlotte Wilson, Jessica Edwards, Emerson Woods and Jayde Van Dyk. Sam Walsh, Michael Gibbons and Liam Stocker followed suit in the AFL season.

10 years with PUMA
New levels. Carlton entered a historic partnership and a “landmark deal” with PUMA on the first day of November which will typify the next decade.

Nine new AFLW Blues
The post-season is always an exciting time, especially for the nine players who became Carlton’s newest AFLW additions. It began with Joanne Doonan and Katie Harrison from other codes, before Lucy McEvoy, Grace Egan, Brooke Vernon, Sharnie Whiting, Serena Gibbs, Vaomua Laloifi and Courttney Jones realised their dreams on draft day.

Eight re-signing videos
There was an optometrist (see below), a tractor, a WhatsApp message and even a 28-minute livestream of a chair (we wish we were joking). The re-signings of Jack Silvagni, Kade Simpson, Matthew Kreuzer, Liam Stocker, Liam Jones, David Cuningham, Michael Gibbons and Hugh Goddard and - finally - Levi Casboult and Matthew Cottrell were met with the chance to have a bit of fun.

Seven thousand students educated
One of the most significant milestones of the year. After visiting over 4,000 students in 2019, the Carlton Respects program has now seen 7,000 students educated since the initiative’s inception. That was couple with two annual Carlton Respects games, against the Brisbane Lions (AFLW, Round 6) and the Western Bulldogs (AFL, Round 13).

Six wins under Teague
The Teague Train rolled in and was made its official arrival at Ikon Park in August. Prior to that, however, the then-interim coach had a profound impact at Carlton in the months preceding, recording six wins in the final 11 weeks of the season. Onwards and upwards in 2020.

Five wins under Harford
It wasn’t just David Teague who had an immediate impact in the coaching seat. His former teammate in Navy Blue, Daniel Harford was front and centre of a Navy Blue resurgence from the AFLW side of things. After finishing bottom in 2018, Harford led a brand new Blues team on a memorable journey, culminating in a Grand Final in front of a record crowd.

Four Murphy bananas
Looking back on things, arguably the standout moment of 2019 was a Marc Murphy special against Fremantle. The veteran showed it was no fluke however, with his brilliant check-side just one of four for the season. There was Collingwood in Round 8, Richmond in Round 21 and St Kilda in Round 22. That’s bananas.

Three big awards
Patrick Cripps, Madison Prepsakis and Sam Walsh. Individually, the trio celebrated memorable years, kicking off with Prespakis — she became the Club’s first Rising Star winner. That was followed up just months later by Walsh, who completed the double with the NAB AFL Rising Star. Then there was captain Cripps, whose standout accolade in a big year was clearly being voted the AFLPA’s MVP.

Two new captains
It was the perfect way to end the year for Kerryn Harrington and Katie Loynes, who were unveiled as Carlton’s captains for the 2020 season. For the first time, the Game Changers will be led by co-captains, and there couldn’t have been two more popular choices than Harrington and Loynes. The Diamond Creek connection grows even stronger for these two natural leaders.

And a record membership
While we celebrate the individual accolades, the biggest achievement of 2019 was the impact of the people — the Bluebaggers. The Club achieved a record membership total and the biggest growth in the competition, finishing with 64,269 members despite a disappointing 2018 results=wise. It’s bound to be even bigger in 2020, with the Club smashing its previous pre-Christmas record.

With over 50,000 members already signed up to own the future, the Navy Blue surge has only just begun.