Roll on AFL season 2024
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And so it begins, the 2024 AFL premiership season is on our doorstep again. Personally, I follow the Might Blues and have not had a very joyful past couple of decades, but this seems to be our time to reassert ourselves as the AFL powerhouse my generation was used to. Until the early 2000's Carlton had been a finals shaper and premiership contender almost every year for granted as a given for most of my life and I must admit to a degree of arrogance in that it was not so much a question of would we make the finals as much as would we be there and win on grand final day. The VFL and then the AFL were dominated by a handful of teams for most of that time. Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn seemed to monopolise grand final appearances during these and times showed the same well justified confidence and expectations that we did at Carlton. A couple of other clubs such as North Melbourne and Essendon popped up for very successful spells but did not quite have the long-term domination of the previously mentioned clubs over the 70's, 80's and 90's. With the establishment of the AFL and interstate teams it was inevitable that changes were afoot. Rules were constantly changed, sometimes for the better but just as often to the detriment of the spectacle the game was. On the positive side, teams that had languished down the ladder most years became true contenders for finals places and started to enjoy success. It has been great to see the competition even out over more recent times and the spectacle in my opinion has improved dramatically. All the states have enjoyed success over this century so far and the competition has benefited as a result. Finally, my own bias is coming to the fore and the expectation of Carlton regaining its rightful place in the AFL and challenging for that ultimate prize of an AFL premiership is strong. The old enemy Collingwood is bound to be up there again for another year and Brisbane may again be the leader of the pack for the interstate teams again this year while you never can tell recently which team may be a bolter and make an unexpected run to the AFL flag. I have confidence that Carlton will continue their improvement and achieve what Collingwood did last year by winning the AFL Premiership, but the only real certainty is that we will have another entertaining and strongly contested AFL season that provides great spectacles week in and week out so from a Carlton to all AFL followers, good luck and enjoy the spectacle that is Australian Rules Football in 2024.