The Carlton Football Club, commonly known as the “Blues,” has been active since 1864. They were one of the eight teams that founded the VFL after their departure from the VFA in 1890. The team has been active for more than 157 years. The team’s signature color is navy blue.
Although Carlton hasn’t won a premiership in 26 years, the team holds the record – along with Essendon – for the team with the most premierships accumulated in the VFL, now renamed to AFL. Moreover, they won two premierships while they were still members of the VFA.
Carlton is one of the strongest and most remarkable teams of the AFL; along with rivals Collingwood, Richmond and Essendon.
As we’ve mentioned, the team started its activities in July 1864. During the first years, Carlton was remarkable team and also gained recognition from a large fan base. Throughout this decade, Carlton and Melborune were fierce rivals even before the VFA was established.
In 1877, the Victorian Football Association was founded with Carlton being one of the foundation clubs. During the debut season for this competition, Carlton earned the victory.
Although George Coulthard died at age 27, he became the most remarkable member of the team in the XIX century, and was one of the first teams to recognize players as champions or having them tagged as superstars in Australia.
Carlton won another VFA premiership in 1887. However, their performance started to slowly decline until they officially joined the VFL in 1897.
Despite having such a bad performance in previous years, the team had a strong start during the new century. They won during three years consecutively – from 1906 to 1908. This streak had a pause for six years until they won for two years consecutively again in 1914 and 1915.
The following decades weren’t too remarkable for Carlton. They had to wait for 23 years to win another premiership, in 1938. Then, they won another two premierships in 1945 and 1947 before winning again in 1968.
The team was present in numerous finals throughout the 70s, although they said goodbye to this decade after winning the 1979 Grand Final. The start of the 80s was noteworthy too, as they won in 1981 and 1982. It was in that year that they became the VFL’s most successful club, record they now share with their rivals, Essendon.
Carlton has struggled during the first years of the new millennium, but has been improving a lot since then. Still, the team hasn’t been able to win another premiership since the year 1995, and it is now experiencing the longest drought since the creation of the club.
As of now, Carlton ranks 12 in the rankings after losing two matches against Richmond and Collingwood, respectively. Their only victory as of now has been against Fremantle in Round 3. They’re next paired against the Gold Coast, and the game will take place on Saturday 10 April.
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