The season opener for 2009 was certainly a big occasion. The build up had been like nothing before, it was big and it seemed to go of for six months and in the end it came down to two hours of football between Carlton and Richmond.

 

Four players making their AFL debut and another making his Carlton debut provided a different look to the Carlton side, a look that some had concerns with. “It is dangerous to take four first gamers into such a big game,” was the call from a number of the media outlets when the teams were announced on Wednesday evening.

 

Any such concerns were quickly forgotten the further the game went on Thursday evening with the Blues having a fantastic start to the 2009 season with an 83-point victory over the Tigers.

 

And what a way to start the season, at the MCG, in front of 86,972 fans, just 227 fewer than the biggest crowd for a Carlton first round match. That of course was in that wonderful year of 1995 when 87,199 were at the MCG to see the Blues defeat Collingwood in what was Stephen Kernahan’s 200^th game. (“Sticks” pulled a bigger crowd than Judd and Cousins combined!). The only other bigger home & away crowd for a Carlton game was in round 20 in 2000 when 91,571 were at the MCG for the Carlton/Essendon match on a Friday night.

 

The crowd did eclipse the previous biggest home & away crowd for a Carlton/Richmond game. The highest crowd before Thursday was 85,673 for the round eight match in 1980.

 

Perhaps people needed to look at history to be more confident in the team. The last time Carlton had five players making their Carlton debut in round one was in 1984, against North Melbourne at Waverley. Tom Alvin, Wayne Blackwell, David Honeybun, Fraser Murphy and Warren Ralph all played their first game for Carlton in that game, with the Blues winning by a record 137-points.

 

This was the tenth time five players had made their Carlton debut in round one but it is certainly not the most to do so. In 2004 nine players made their debut for Carlton in a 47-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco. Two of these players; Adrian Deluca and Steven Kenna were making their AFL debut, the other seven were recruited from other AFL clubs; Jordan Bannister, David Clarke, Daniel Harford, Brett Johnson, Digby Morrell, Heath Scotland and David Teague.

 

In 1925 eight players made their Carlton debut in round one, on three occasions seven players have commenced their Carlton career in round one and six player have done so on five occasions, the in 1992 against Brisbane at Carrara. Mark Athorn, Ron De Iulio, Paul McCormack, Stephen Oliver, Brett Sholl and Earl Spalding were new Carlton players in the Blues 24-point victory over Brisbane.

 

Thursday was the second time in 2009 that Carlton had proven to be very good when given plenty of time to prepare for a game. The first was in round one of the NAB Cup with an excellent victory over North Melbourne.

 

The challenge now is to prepare and perform week in, week out throughout the season and earn a finals position. There is certainly no room for the very poor start that was displayed against an undermanned Hawthorn in round two of the NAB Cup. Hopefully that was a great wake up call to ensure a good victory is put behind them quickly and the focus is quickly on the next opponent.