2025

Two successive finals appearances but no cigar, let alone a GF. What could the Blues do to ascend?

Well for starters they threw themselves in to the draft despite consecutive finals positions by up-trading to secure Pick 3, Jagga Smith plus the Camporeale boys. A bolstered midfield grouping meant we lost some favourites, but the Blues were not sitting idle. The Blues also changed over the fitness and high performance group in order to add power and fitness. All eyes turned to March after a pre-season which showed promise but not completeness.

Despite the energy and a strong opening quarter, the Blues commenced the season with 2 losses - 1 to a young Richmond outfit against a wave of Carlton errors in Round 1, before the Hawks outran and outspread against us in Round 2. Irrespective of talk of an easy draw, the Blues already had our backs to the wall and after losing their fourth on the trot the Blues started to stink a little.

Some solid games in the middle saw us get close to the 8, but horrific losses to North and Port put us 2 games out of the 8. Besides, even if we did make it, the Top 9 were playing skilled football and the Blues were not. Lots of good contest work, but poor entering 50 and poor with ball in hand. The Blues were set to fall short after 2 consecutive years of finals....

The Blues ended with 9 wins and through the arrival of new CEO Graham Wright set about to re-assess our place in the world. Losing players to free agency, didn't help, or would it in the long run? Another big off-season awaited the team. 2 years of finals and then a meek exit...

Meanwhile the mighty Brisbane Lions won their second in a row - and 5th in 20 odd seasons - to win the Premiership over a gallant but tired and injured Geelong. 16 flags in 25 seasons to 4 Clubs..... something of a wasteland for us but also a structural issue for the AFL.

People of 2025

Coach: Michael Voss
Assistant / Development Coaches: Aaron Hamill (Backline Coach), Tim Clarke (Midfield Coach), Ashley Hansen (Senior Assistant Coach), Luke Power (Head of Development and VFL Senior Coach), Matthew Kreuzer (Ruck Coach); Rob Inness (Head of High Performance)
Captain: Patrick Cripps
Leadership Group: Sam Walsh, Jacob Weitering, Charlie Curnow
President: Luke Sayers, before resigning and Robert Priestley taking over in February 2025

Ladder

Debuts

Round 16: Billy Wilson, Flynn Young
Round 13: Hudson O'Keeffe
Round 11: Harry O'Farrell
Round 5: Matt Carroll
Round 4: Will White
Round 1: Lucas Camporeale, Francis Evans,* Nick Haynes*

Debuts (Carlton): Francis Evans, Nick Haynes

Milestones

300 Goals: Charlie Curnow
200 Games (AFL): Adam Saad, George Hewett
100 Games: Tom de Koning
50 Games: Oliver Hollands, Corey Durdin, Jesse Motlop
50 Games (Carlton): Blake Acres , Lewis Young, Zac Williams
50 Goals (AFL): Zac Williams
Rising Star Nominees: Cooper Lord, Ashton Moir, Matt Carroll
Indigenous All-Stars: Jesse Motlop and Zac Williams
200 Brownlow Votes: Patrick Cripps polled 19 votes in the 2025 count – thereby taking him beyond the 200 career votes only 12 others have tallied. He now has 205 career votes.