A FRESH start.
There's been a new energy to Carlton's start to pre-season according to General Manager of Football Chris Davies, with new players and staff alike as the Blues begin their preparations for the 2026 campaign.
Sitting down with Carlton Media, here's what he had to say.
On the return to pre-season:
"We’ve been very happy with the way the players have presented. What I have seen is they’re quite a connected group of players, which is always a good thing to see - a group willing to train hard and gets along well, which are two pretty significant ticks for players between the age of 18-22. Knowing they’re willing to come in and get the work done is important.
"Getting the coaches together and working together, sharing common language is important during this period. Bringing in the number of coaches we have from a whole number of different clubs, you do see that there are different words that are used for the same meaning. Working through that has been important, but I think the coaches are doing a pretty good job right now."
On how new coaching group is working, part two:
"There’s no one at the Club from a coaching perspective that’s doing the same role as they were last year. That’s a significant change. Then you add the coaches that have come in, there have been significant changes in our department.
"Leigh comes with a lot of experience from North Melbourne, and I think the area he has been responsible for at North Melbourne has performed reasonably well over time. For him to come in and have some fresh eyes over our midfield group will be important. Josh doing the forwards, we had some issues last year executing in that phase of the game, so having fresh eyes again will be important. Josh’s general nature and building of relationships is outstanding, so those two guys will make a significant difference.
"The other staff, the development staff, we’ve brought people in who are passionate about seeing players develop and have the work ethic to drive that. I’m really pleased with where the coaches have got to in a very short period of time."
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On his start to his time at the Club:
"I actually think I started 1 November, it’s not quite a month! It’s been a whirlwind two and a half weeks. Not much has surprised me.
"At the end of the day, as much as we are the Club we are, this is still about football program versus football program. Clearly we’ve got a supporter base that want success, and that’s fair enough - every supporter base does, and from a footy department we should be aspiring to deliver that.
"The first thing I’d say to people right now, based off my experience, is you can’t win premierships or make massive progressions right now if you’re not doing the right things day to day. My message to the people here is to lower your eyes, continue to think about getting better day to day which will stand us in good stead for a longer period of time."
On Travis Boak’s inclusion:
"I’m fortunate to have worked with Trav for a long time. The benefits he will bring straight away are continuing to challenge that group of young players to the way they turn up and the way they train. I think he’ll play a significant role with our leadership group and the way that they need to lead into the future. We’ve got a number of people here that shoulder a significant amount of our load, and I’m sure that Trav will be giving a message of releasing some of that burden and expanding the group of people who can contribute in those areas.
"That’s one of the things Trav spoke about a lot as a turning point in his career from a leadership standpoint, was when he empowered others around him. That’s something we’ve got to continue to foster here. Trav will be fantastic bringing groups of people together. If you think of that core playing group we have and the younger group of people I’ve just mentioned, we need to do some things that are going to connect those groups of people in order for us to achieve the success we want to.
"I’m rapt Travis is coming in, I think he’ll play a significant role in the future success of the Club: he’s a fantastic guy, our supporters will love him I’m sure, and I do know he’ll drive performance within the playing group as well which is what we all want."
On Adam Simpson being appointed to the Club as a coaching consultant:
"We’re really pleased to bring someone of Adam’s experience into the Club. He’s a coach who has a whole heap of experience and is a premiership coach. His role won’t be player-facing, it’ll well and truly be behind the scenes with Michael and the rest of the coaching group. Michael and I have been talking to Adam over the past period of time, and it’s clear that he wants to give something back again. The timing really works well.
"For Michael, it’ll be an objective eye and someone who Michael can talk to from time to time to get an objective view of what’s going on here at the footy club. For the broader coaching group, we really want to continue to invest in their development, so we believe having someone like Adam who can help from a coaching perspective with a broader assistant and development coaching group will be another thing that will be fantastic for them.
"Overall, it’s to have someone who can give their experience, the benefit of a significant amount of experience while also making sure it’s an objective view. We don’t want Adam to get too in-depth so there’s any groupthink, it’s really Adam sits one out and one back and it can be another objective view to our football department."
On the Club’s approach pre-Christmas:
"This period of time is significant from a fitness perspective, clearly we want to make sure the players are hitting the numbers that Rob Inness and our high performance staff want them to hit. You’ll see a bit more dynamic movement in our drills, but mostly it’ll be about bringing the group together as much as we can, working hard together and embedding the things the coaches want from a game style perspective.
"It’s making sure we’re hitting the Christmas break with real momentum so they’re having a good couple of weeks away, because what we do know is when players and staff come back after Christmas, it’s a pretty quick turnaround for games. Given we’re also playing in Opening Round, there’s no time to waste - we don’t have time to waste pre-Christmas either. You’ll see the guys working hard and I’m appreciating watching that at the minute."
