Carlton coach Brendon Bolton addresses the troops during the Round 13 loss to Fremantle, another low point in a shocking year. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

CARLTON 2018 record: 2 wins, 20 losses (18th).

THE INS
Mitch McGovern (Adelaide), Alex Fasolo (Collingwood), Will Setterfield (GWS), Nic Newman (Sydney), Tomas Bugg (Melbourne), Hugh Goddard (St Kilda), Sam Walsh (Geelong Falcons), Liam Stocker (Sandringham Dragons), Finbar O’Dwyer (Murray Bushrangers), Ben Silvagni (Oakleigh Chargers), Matthew Owies (Seattle Redhawks – NCAA)

THE OUTS
Alex Silvagni (retired), Cam O’Shea (delisted), Aaron Mullett (delisted), Matt Shaw (delisted), Jesse Glass-McCasker (delisted), Matthew Wright (retired), Ciaran Byrne (retired), Cillian McDaid (retired), Sam Rowe (delisted), Jed Lamb (delisted), Sam Kerridge (delisted), Nick Graham (delisted)

THE STRENGTHS
After producing a season reminiscent of Fitzroy in its final years, it’s fair to say that this category isn’t stacked. Although the Blues do at least have one of the game’s genuine superstars in Patrick Cripps, who has now been made co-captain. There’s a bit to like about their back six, too, and the makings of a potent key forward triumvirate can be seen in the form of Charlie Curnow, Mitch McGovern and Harry McKay.

THE WEAKNESSES
Where does one begin? The expectation heading into 2018 was that Carlton might have experienced a little step backwards in its overall rebuild plan, but nobody expected it to produce arguably the worst season in the club’s 122-year history. The Blues were nothing short of pathetic and uncompetitive for majority of last season. In 2018, they registered their lowest ever percentage of games won (nine percent), their equal-lowest tally of wins (two), their most 100-point losses (three) and their lowest percentage (59.1) in 117 years. All of that occurred due to Carlton’s stark lack of quality and experience, which the Blues have attempted to correct with McGovern, Fasolo and Setterfield, but are still a very long way off achieving. Cripps and Marc Murphy aside, their midfield is still very raw and their ruck division is extremely vulnerable with the injury-prone Matthew Kreuzer and back-ups Matthew Lobbe and Andrew Phillips. Carlton’s average losing margin was 49 points and it’s easy to see why given that, on differentials, the Blues ranked last for tackles, 17th for disposals, 17th for clearances, 17th for marks inside 50 and 16th for marks. In terms of totals, the Blues ranked last for inside 50s and second-last for goals per inside 50, while they conceded the second-most inside 50s and most goals per inside 50. Unsurprisingly, Carlton had the second-worst attack and the worst defence in the AFL. In fact, it’s been 55 games since it last scored 100 points. It’s a mess down at Princes Park on a historic scale. The Blues basically have to drastically improve every facet of their game in order to be remotely competitive in 2019. Unfortunately for Carlton fans, the pain doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon and a sixth wooden spoon in 18 years isn’t out of the question.

ONE TO WATCH
Zac Fisher was a rare shining light in what was a season full of gloom for the Blues. The spritely young midfielder gave Carlton fans something to cheer about with his speed and hunger for the footy, drastically improving on his numbers in his debut 2017 season and providing much-needed support for Cripps and Murphy. One of the most impressive youngsters in the AFL, after avoiding the dreaded second-year blues, there’s nothing to suggest that he won’t keep going from strength to strength next year.

UNDER THE PUMP
It would be pretty unfair to single out just one person from such a train wreck of a season so we’ve gone with four candidates, and for varying reasons – Jacob Weitering, Jack Silvagni, Jarrod Pickett and Levi Casboult. Weitering was all the rage in his debut season after being taken at pick No.1, but just hasn’t gone on with it since 2016 and really needs to step it up again in 2019 because he is a crucial part of Carlton’s rebuild blueprint. What do the Blues do with Silvagni? As he closes in on game No.50, coach Brendon Bolton still doesn’t appear to know where to play him. Silvagni was thrown all over the park in 2018 and wasn’t really able to make any position his own. Pickett turned up to pre-season training overweight which is really unacceptable, especially considering he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. Not a great start to his 2019 campaign after injury restricted him to just seven games this year. And Casboult looks like he will struggle to get a game with Charlie Curnow, McKay and McGovern now all in the best 22.

BEST 22
B: Lachie Plowman, Jacob Weitering, Caleb Marchbank
HB: Kade Simpson, Liam Jones, Sam Docherty
C: Zac Fisher, Ed Curnow, Sam Petrevski-Seton
HF: Jarrod Pickett, Mitch McGovern, Jack Silvagni
F: Alex Fasolo, Charlie Curnow, Harry McKay
R: Matthew Kreuzer, Patrick Cripps, Marc Murphy
Inter: Dale Thomas, Matthew Kennedy, Paddy Dow, Lochie O’Brien
Emerg: Levi Casboult, Darcy Lang, Nic Newman, Will Setterfield

The return of co-captain Sam Docherty after a year out will be very welcome and while Setterfield is currently an emergency, the former No.5 draft pick has big raps and despite only having played two games at AFL level, he could break into the side early.