Despite wallowing in last spot with just one win from 10 games after its worst-ever start to a season, Carlton has told the AFL it is not interested in a priority pick at this year’s national draft.
The decision has been met with various responses, but the people who made the decision are determined the club should get itself out of the position it has put itself in, without the need for ‘charity’ from the League.
"My personal view is that the priority pick should be a thing of the past," Blues champion and current director Chris Judd wrote in The Age on Tuesday morning.
“A club that finds itself down the ladder for an extended period does so because of its own poor decisions.
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"If a club doesn't take responsibility for those decisions, and implement changes to prevent those mistakes from reoccurring, another draft pick will change little.”
Carlton CEO Cain Liddle emphasised the Blues are not surprised by where they currently sit and that it’s all part of the plan, but a priority pick is not.
"We feel we're in a good place and on the right track, so a priority pick is something we're not considering or interested in," Liddle told SEN Breakfasts.
"Putting our hand out is something I'm not comfortable with.
"We've got a plan and when you've made savage list cuts like we have in the past few years, you've just got to expect what we are going through now.”
The powers that be at Carlton are always keen to point out the club has turned over a massive number of players in the past three seasons and has a developing group, but their list is not necessarily in as good a shape for the future as the Blues like to think.
The side that lost to Melbourne by 109 points was the same average age and experience as their Demons opponents, and apart from Patrick Cripps, Carlton’s leading players this season have been 28-year-old Ed Curnow, Kade Simpson (34), Matthew Kreuzer (29) and Dale Thomas (30).
SEN host Tim Watson thinks the Blues are crazy not to try and get any advantage it can to move back up the ladder.
“Carlton aren’t interested in a priority pick, which I don’t think Carlton fans will be particularly happy with,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“If I’m with Carlton right now as a supporter, and say Carlton was Essendon, and they were dismissing the idea that they could actually improve their list by getting a priority pick, I’d be saying fool to you.”
The Blues finished 2017 in 16th spot with six wins, following seven victories in 2016 and just four in 2015.
Carlton great Mark Maclure says it would be embarrassing if the club got a priority pick.
— Whateley (@WhateleySEN) May 29, 2018
"It's their own fault," he says on their list.
Carlton you’ve won 21 games in 4 years (worse than Fitzroy in it’s dying days) and you will not try and get a priority pick?!!
— Damian Tardio (@damiantardio) May 28, 2018
I don’t care how the club was driven into the ground, I care about how it’ll be rebuilt. Not going for a priority pick is irresponsible.