CARLTON expects the early re-signings of Coleman medallists Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow to provide an added motivation to the rest of the playing group this summer ahead of a campaign where the Blues hope to snap a decade-long finals drought.
For the first time in over a century, McKay and Curnow became the first players from the same team to claim back-to-back League goalkicking awards when they each won the Coleman Medal in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
They were subsequently set to open the 2023 season among the hottest free agents on the market, though both elected to turn their backs on rival offers and re-sign before they entered their contract years.
McKay penned a seven-year deal in October that will keep him locked at Ikon Park until at least 2030, while Curnow had earlier signed a six-year extension in August that will guarantee his future at the club until at least 2029.
Having narrowly missed finals last season following a heartbreaking pair of defeats to Melbourne and Collingwood in the campaign's final fortnight, Carlton coach Michael Voss is hoping their re-signings provide a fillip to the playing group upon their return.
"It's huge. The fact they're tied away and they're prepared to invest the amount of years they've gone with, it's pretty significant for us," Voss told AFL.com.au's Draft Night Countdown last week.
"They've left a fair bit on the table. A lot of people are coming and free agents can demand a hell of a lot more. There was probably a hell of a lot more that was in front of them too, but they chose to stay.
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"As you start to build your team together, there is an element of that which you have to have across your group. If you're willing to keep them all together, and we need to keep them all together – and they've shown an appetite to want to do that – it's a bit of give and take across the course of the list build.
"We're comfortable with where they're at, clearly, and obviously we're showing some steady progress in some other areas as well."
Carlton lost its last four matches in 2022 to agonisingly slip from the finals equation, ensuring the club's drought – which has seen it go without finals football since 2013, and without a top-eight finish since 2011 – continues into next season.
The Blues also gave up commanding leads in the final fortnight of the year, resulting in a narrow five-point defeat to the Demons and one-point loss to the Magpies, but hopes the manner of those results provide another layer of motivation for 2023.
"I hope we use parts of it," Voss said.
"We put that whole body of work together, but we don't want to be defined by those last few moments either. If you actually look across the course of the year, there's transformation everywhere.
"We had plenty of moments where we really thrived, and there were a couple of moments at the end that we didn't quite get right. But when you look at the way we played, the style of football we played, we want to keep building that identity.
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"We feel like there's a genuine capacity within this group to be able to match it against some very good sides. But what we haven't been able to do is replicate our system and our roles on the consistent basis that's needed.
"It's a very long season, and we've just added one more game, so it asks lots of questions. We have to be prepared for that. But with another pre-season under our belt and little moments like that, which can help motivate us, hopefully that's the motivation we do need when it gets a bit hard at various stages throughout the season."
