Carlton has ended its relationship with VFL side the Northern Blues, ending 138 years of history that started with the Preston Football Club.
The COVID-19 financial crisis is forcing teams to make significant cuts and Carlton Head of Football Brad Lloyd says the club will push forward with a standalone VFL side of their own going forward.
“That’s the plan (to have our own VFL team), but it is all up in the air,” he told SEN’s Captain’s Run.
“The second tier, that’s where even planning for soft caps and staffing and all that, hopefully over the coming weeks we find out what the AFL’s plans are for the second-tier competition.
“If it was the same as this year we’d look to have a Carlton VFL team in next year.
“The last part of this year, how that VFL program looks we’re not sure. Is it eight to 10 VFL games where we run out as Carlton VFL, that would be the plan, or if there isn’t any VFL played we’d probably look to organise practice games against other AFL clubs.
“We’ve got to be pretty agile at the moment as clubs and work through with the AFL how that looks, we’re open to all those possibilities but ideally we would have our Carlton VFL team next year.
“We had a terrific time and relationship with the Northern Blues and it just didn’t make financial sense in the end.
“It was really sad and is still really sad for that to finish, but we will move forward from here.”
