THE NEW coach has three premierships to his name. The dual Brownlow medallist has led the team's time-trial around Princes Park. And fans are signing up in droves.??

As the players and coaching staff took off to Arizona, a sense of optimism has swept over Carlton fans, with workers at the club's membership office feeling the brunt of that excitement on Friday.

A club insider told AFL.com.au phones had been "ringing off the hook" since the membership launch, and this was again the case on Friday.

"It's been absolutely crazy," the insider said.?

Carlton is striving for 50,000 members next year and already has 16,312 in its books.

The club cannot compare the figure to the same time last year because it has launched this year's membership campaign six weeks earlier.

"So we're ahead of time with this launch and we already have 16,000 that we didn't have this time last year," the insider said.

Carlton has certainly had topical marketing campaigns in recent seasons but it seems no advertisement can match the pulling power of a three-time premiership coach.??

Mick Malthouse held his first training session at the start of the week with fans flocking to Visy Park to watch the veteran mentor in action.

Two days later skipper Chris Judd led the time trial around Princes Park, which would have also excited fans who at the same time last year were pondering the extent of an injury to the champion's suspect shoulder.

Judd was a convincing winner of the 3.183km time-trial ahead Andrew Collins, Jarrad Waite, David Ellard and Dennis Armfield.?

Earlier in the week, Blues chief executive Greg Swann said he did not think Malthouse was the only reason for the influx of members.?"It is never one thing with membership," Swann told the Herald Sun.??

"The draw is pretty good, we have Mick on board, at the moment there are only one or two injured players compared to 17 operations at this time last year, all of these things give you optimism."

Swann admitted Carlton had been getting left behind in the membership race, despite being one of the few clubs that increased its membership in 2012.?

Carlton's membership was up by more than 2000 this year, falling just shy of 46,000.

Cameron Noakes is AFL.com.au's Chief Sub-Editor. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_CamNoakes