Eddie Betts believes anything short of a Preliminary Final would be a failure for Carlton this year.
The Blues great is confident that Michael Voss has the right balance and mix to again take the club deep into September after last year’s drought-breaking finals run.
At one stage of the 2023 campaign, Carlton sat in the bottom four after Round 13 with a 4-1-8 record before producing a nine-game winning streak which enabled them to make the eight for the first time since 2013.
Carlton’s charmed run would come to an end at the hands of the Brisbane Lions in a Gabba prelim and now that they’ve had that experience, and with a stacked side, Betts is expecting more of the same in 2024.
“It must be a big call but anything less than a prelim or Grand Final is a failure for Carlton this year,” Betts said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“They went all the way to the prelim (last year), they’ve got the talent, they’ve got the structure with ‘Weiters’ (Jacob Weitering) down back to build around. Then they’ve got the two talls (Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay) up forward and they’ve got a super midfield.
“If you can’t go all the way again (at least to the prelim), it would be a fail.”
Heading into Gather Round, the Blues find themselves with a 3-0 record and sitting sixth on the ladder ahead of Saturday evening’s Adelaide Oval clash with the similarly undefeated Fremantle.
Betts, who also starred for Adelaide during his remarkable playing career, sees plenty of similarities between his two old clubs with one struggling and the other flourishing.
He recalls the Gather Round opener last year when the Crows trounced the Blues by 56 points despite entering the game as outsiders, providing hope for Matthew Nicks’ men in Thursday night’s meeting with Melbourne.
“I remember this time last year they played Carlton and you thought Carlton were going to come out and give them a crack, but Adelaide just smacked the hell out of them,” he said of the winless Crows.
“I truly believe that Adelaide can get the job done tonight.
“They’ve got some exciting talent and once they get going they play some awesome footy.
“Carlton were in Adelaide’s position last year. They were down and out, everybody was jumping on them.
“When you win, that’s where you get your confidence from and you build that confidence around the club. It’s easier going in, the boys are happier and you trust each other more when you go out and play.”
The second iteration of Gather Round kicks off when the Crows host the Demons at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night from 7:40pm AEDT.
