Caroline Wilson has not held back in her assessment of where Carlton is at, five years on from starting their rebuild.
The Blues sacked coach Mick Malthouse and completely overhauled their list in order to rebuild under list manager Stephen Silvagni, CEO Steven Trigg and coach Brendon Bolton – all of whom are now gone.
“Boy didn’t they stuff it up,” Wilson told Sportsday.
“It’s been five years, and they picked the wrong coach and that all fell apart last year.
“The players weren’t scoring enough, they weren’t winning games and Brendon Bolton was a very good assistant coach, but he was not the right choice as senior coach.
“Stephen Silvagni had a bitter falling out not only with the CEO, but with many members of his football department last year and I know that they pointed to the fact that there was a conflict of interest with his boys (Jack and Ben) playing at the club, but there was more to it than that.
“Stephen Silvagni is now feeling pretty devastated about the way Carlton treated him and Carlton feeling like they had to get rid of Silvagni because it just wasn’t working and he wasn’t the right person to be rebuilding their list and they haven’t looked like making a finals since.
“They probably had the wrong CEO in place as well. They didn’t handle his departure well at all.
“They have not been seen as an honest football club. I think there was a lot of acrimony in the footy department last year and I’m not just talking about the last days of Bolton.
“The signs are good now. I think the football department is a lot better, they’ve fixed up their women’s program, but they set themselves back before they had any chance of moving forward in my view.
“They’ve got some brilliant players who have become champions in the last five years and obviously Patrick Cripps heads that list and he’s become a wonderful captain of that football club.
“But I don’t think anyone was even thinking of tipping Carlton to make finals this year.”
Carlton has had 11 first round draft picks since the rebuild began in 2015 and will be hoping they lead the club off the bottom of the ladder.