and "I was staggered at the Carlton board’s pre-occupation with past players and past premierships". Malthouse then further eleborated stating "I was reminded in one regular board meeting that the Blues had won 16 premiership cups. I quickly informed them that they had in fact won just a single AFL premiership (1995), which put the club in the low range for number of flags won since the AFL announced itself in 1990". "In another board meeting I was informed of a five-year plan to win a premiership. I was in my second year at the club and I was told we were already three years into a plan that I was completely unaware of. They asked for my assessment, but didn’t like the answer". "It came as a great shock to most of the board members that the plan was totally unachievable in that time frame, and that in fact, until the constraints of contract management were lifted we were going to stay a middle-of-the-road team". "Too many players on an ageing list were overpaid or over-committed in lengthy contracts, in contrast to their ability. There was no room to move, or even to retain star power on the hit list of opposing clubs, and until we could afford multiple trades or multiple draft picks we were carrying the burden like baggage". Statistics Playing statistics |- |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1972 |style="text-align:center;"| | 37 || 9 || 0 || 0 || 42 || 6 || 48 || 13 || || 0.0 || 0.0 || 4.7 || 0.7 || 5.3 || 1.4 || |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1973 |style="text-align:center;"| | 37 || 16 || 2 || 0 || 170 || 33 || 203 || 41 || || 0.1 || 0.0 || 10.6 || 2.1 || 12.7 || 2.6 || |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1974 |style="text-align:center;"| | 37 || 7 || 1 || 2 || 53 || 11 || 64 || 7 || || 0.1 || 0.3 || 7.6 || 1.6 || 9.1 || 1.0 || |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1975 |style="text-align:center;"| | 22 || 18 || 1 || 2 || 133 || 45 || 178 || 29 || || 0.1 || 0.1 || 7.4 || 2.5 || 9.9 || 1.6 || |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1976 |style="text-align:center;"| | 22 || 3 || 1 || 2 || 19 || 4 ||