“WE LOVE the passion of our supporters and we can’t wait to play in front of them again.”

As a former player, assistant and now Senior Coach, David Teague knows that Carlton supporters have heard it all before.

That pre-season optimism.

However, speaking on SEN Breakfast, Teague assured supporters that all measures were being taken to bring the club sustained success in the future.

He said the only way Carlton would return to the success of the past was to embrace a different method, and one which has been in place in recent seasons.

“We know we’ve got passionate supporters and we know we haven’t delivered over the past 25 years. Our club in the past has been used to success,” Teague said.

“The game has changed and equalisation has come in. It’s hard to win premiership and that’s where we’ve got to get back to.

“We feel like we’re building a club that’s going to have sustained success.

“We know that a lot of [our supporters’] minds go to ‘here we go again’ or ‘it hasn’t happened yet’: we feel like it’s not far away from going ‘we’re about to go again’ rather than going the other way.”

Carlton’s AFL side will play in front of Victorian-based Bluebaggers for the first time in 361 days, an opportunity that Teague said has been a long time coming.

Since the last time the Blues played in front of their home fans, a lot of water has gone under the bridge: in particular, a 2020 season which saw growth but also one regarded as a missed opportunity.

Teague shed some light on what Carlton had been training over the summer in response to its inconsistency in-games which left the Blues ruing in 2020.

“We’ve had to grow it. I think what you’ll see is a group of players who experienced it last year: we went through it together,” he said.

“I think what you’ll see is it won’t be one person or one thing that jumps up, it’ll be the collective that has experienced it and sticking to the game plan for longer and keeping the focus in the right areas.

“We didn’t get the results, and that’s a sign of where we are at as a group — we’ve got to get better. We’ve had to work hard and that’s what the players have done.”

Speaking just a day out from Carlton’s AAMI Community Series clash with St Kilda, Teague flagged that it would be treated as a full dress rehearsal prior to the season opener in a fortnight.

“We need to get game time into our players. We’ll start with 22 that will hopefully get through the majority of the game so they’re conditioned for Round 1,” he said.

“We also have game against St Kilda’s VFL squad to condition the rest of the group.

“We’re keen. Are we prepping for this game to be at our best? Probably not. We’re looking at the season, from Round 1 to towards the end of the year and finals.”