"I WANT to play my footy. I want to train hard. [I want] to contribute as much as I can to this footy club … I don't want to be a rock star."

Those were the words Chris Judd uttered at his first press conference as a Carlton player after the Blues won a hotly-contested bidding war for his services at the end of 2007.

On the eve of his 100th game for Carlton, it's fair to say that he's delivered on his first three pledges, but failed dismally on the last.

If you consider a rock star to be an iconic figure that leads from the front and mesmerises a legion of adoring fans with his on-stage feats, then there's no escaping the fact that Judd is the Blues' rock star - which is exactly what they were banking on.

At 24 years of age, with a premiership medal to go with his Brownlow, Judd's stocks couldn't have been higher when he decided to depart West Coast after 134 games.

Carlton paid a high price to beat out fellow suitors Essendon, Melbourne, Richmond and Collingwood.

Promising key forward Josh Kennedy plus picks three and 20 at the 2007 NAB AFL Draft were sent to the Eagles, who selected Chris Masten and Tony Notte, for Judd and pick No.46 (Dennis Armfield).       

Masten has been hampered by injury on his way to 66 games, while Notte is out of the AFL, but Carlton fans have looked on with angst as Kennedy has developed into the power forward they always thought he could be.

It says a bit about the plight of the Blues at the time that they were still able to draft star ruckman Matthew Kreuzer with the first overall pick.

Several years are still to pass before the merits of the mega-deal that brought Judd to Carlton can be accurately assessed, but there's little doubt the Old Dark Navy Blues are in a much better place than when he found them 99 games ago.