CARLTON president Mark LoGiudice says the struggling team "can't get any worse" on the field.
However, he has denied the club is at the lowest ebb in its history and has hit the airwaves selling hope.
The battling Blues – last on the ladder with one win and 16 losses – have left most of the talking to coach Brendon Bolton despite their woes, but now the president is opening up.
"I wouldn't say it's the lowest point. On-field it's been disappointing, it's been a disappointing season and there's no doubt with just winning one game … but I don't think it's the lowest point, no," LoGiudice told SEN Radio.
He believed, however, the team had bottomed out, "because I don't think you can get any worse results than what we've had".
Declaring the Blues had been decimated by injuries, LoGiudice said the club was standing by the three-year strategy which had seen it finish 14th, 16th and now likely 18th.
"I think our strategy has been very clearly documented and publicised," he said.
"We've actually done what we've said we're going to do.
"We need to push on, the future is bright and there are exciting times ahead.
"If we could find the right players, pick the right team and work out that we weren't going to have any injuries we'd do it in a heartbeat, but the reality is we set a path, we set a strategy and we're sticking to it.
In other headline-making comments LoGiudice:
- refused to confirm whether he'd personally offered the Blues chief executive position to former AFL football operations boss Simon Lethlean last year.
- said "We haven't stopped backing the coach", again assuring Bolton would remain next season.
- confirmed Bolton remained on a rolling agreement as an employee of the Carlton Football Club.
- said the list strategy was in place before Bolton was appointed.
- said declining to apply for a priority pick was about taking ownership of where the club sat.
- backed Carlton's 55,000 members to re-commit, saying they all believed in the strategy.
Carlton plays Hawthorn on Sunday as it desperately searches for a second win.
"Winning is the ultimate, obviously, losing is unacceptable and we're not sitting here saying we're enjoying this position that we're in," LoGiudice said.
"No one likes to be in this position we're in.
"There are 18 teams and one has to be on the bottom."
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