AFTER turning over a mammoth 65 players in the past five years, Carlton is preparing to settle its list this season after coach David Teague's first full campaign in charge.
The Blues had 11 players depart the club last year in former list manager Stephen Silvagni's final season at the helm, capping a period of enormous cuts for the club.
Uncertainty awaits clubs on the shape of list sizes at the end of this year amid the COVID-19 chaos, but Blues chief executive Cain Liddle said the club was through its major list overhaul.
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"The Carlton list has had such significant turnover for such an extended period, and I think moving forward it's something we probably need to settle down," Liddle told AFL.com.au's Footy Feed podcast.
"Whether we're going to be able to do that this year with potential list reductions I'm not quite sure, but certainly we need some stability through that list. Some of those early draft picks that we've brought in, we just need time for them to develop and learn how to play 'Teaguey's' way."
Carlton appointed ex-Western Bulldogs recruiting manager Nick Austin as its list manager in January. Liddle said the Blues would prioritise building from within, with a number of talented youngsters currently outside of Carlton's line-up.
"Whilst we're taking that balanced approach of going to the draft and looking at bringing in players from other clubs, there's equally a big piece of work we need to do in connecting our recruiting team into our development team into our coaching team," he said.
"Because it's OK to say you might need a rebounding defender, or a hybrid mid, or a small forward, but we really have to understand what we have got on our list.
"We've got some first-round picks there in Paddy Dow, Lochie O'Brien, Liam Stocker and a couple of others and equally there's the likes of Zac Fisher and Tom De Koning, and we need to get a clear picture of where we think those boys' best positions are going to be and what heights we think they can hit.
"Your allocation of resources in your TPP (total player payments) is scarce so if we're going to go out and make big investments, we need to be clear they're the right investments and that we don't have the answers to some of those questions sitting right under our noses."
Sydney star Tom Papley asked to be traded to Carlton last year but was denied his request by the Swans, who couldn't prise contracted forward Joe Daniher from Essendon. A number of Victorian clubs are set to ask the question again of Papley as he enjoys a career-best season, but Liddle couldn't be drawn on the Blues making another pitch.
"I think it would be unfair and probably inappropriate to be talking about contracted players. There was a situation that played out with Tom and I think it's been widely publicised why it played out, but I think we're going to leave that in the past and focus on moving forward," he said.
"Some of those boys, as I've already referenced, we've got first-round draft picks sitting on our list and we're really excited by what they might be able to do in the future so we're equally focused on them right now."
