The 1990's: A Summary
The 1990's were a period of success, but perhaps missed opportunities, for the Carlton Football Club. The highlight of the 1990's was the 1995 Premiership, our 16th, when the Blues lost only 2 games all season, to cellar dwellars St Kilda and Sydney, to take the Premiership from Geelong. Carlton Legends Kernahan, Silvagni, Williams and Bradley led a host of other greats to pull ahead of Essendon (at the time) for Premierships.But it was this astounding level of success that drives the feeling that the Blues missed opportunities in the 1990's. In four successive finals campaigns between 1992 and 1996, the Blues threatened at times but would only take the solitary premiership. The Blues would lose to the Bombers in the 1993 Grand Final, collapse out of the finals despite a strong season in 1994, and be blown out of the 1996 campaign despite coming 5th, suggesting that our conversion rate for Premierships with what would later be regarded as one of our greatest teams of all time was low.
Later on in the decade, after a few years in the wilderness (1997 and 1998) and the retirement of some of our key players such as Williams, Madden and Spalding, the Blues would contest the 1999 Grand Final, but lose to the Kangaroos. With Silvagni, Bradley and Camporeale still playing, the Blues surprised in making the big game by defeating the Bombers by 1 point in a most famous of Preliminary Finals, providing one of the better moments of the 1990's, but could not pull off an unexpected victory.
One Premiership, three Grand Finals, many other finals games, and some Carlton legends provided much to cheer about for the average fan.
A selection of our greatest Home & Away wins in this decade can be found here.
But in the background were a few events that would create havoc for Carlton in the upcoming decade; breaches of salary caps and repetitive trading of early draft picks for good 'senior' players from other Clubs arguably caused the greatest downfall in Carlton's history over 2002-2005.
At the lower levels, the Under 19's were abolished in 1991, and replaced by the TAC Under 18's competition. Carlton's last premiership at U19s level was in 1979.