| Club: | Carlton Football Club |
| Season: | 2021 |
| President: | Mark LoGiudice Luke Sayers |
| Coach: | David Teague |
| Captain: | Patrick Cripps Sam Docherty |
| Home Ground: | Melbourne Cricket Ground (Training and administrative: Ikon Park) |
| Regularseason Comp: | AFL season |
| Regularseason Result: | 13th (8–14) |
| Finals Series: | AFL Women's |
| Finals Result: | 7th (5–4) |
| Leading Goalscorer: | Harry McKay (58) Darcy Vescio (16) |
| Club Membership: | 81,302 |
| Prevseason: | 2020 |
| Nextseason: | 2022 |
The 2021 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 158th season of competition.
It was the club's men's team's 125th season as a member of the Australian Football League. The team finished 13th out of eighteen teams with an 8–14 record in the 2021 AFL season – two positions lower than in the 2020 season, ultimately resulting in the sacking of coach David Teague at the end of the season.
It was the club's women's team's fifth season as a member of the AFL Women's competition. The team narrowly missed the finals for the 2021 AFL Women's season, finishing 7th with a record of 5–4.
Individually, Carlton players won the leading goalkicker awards in both the men's and women's senior competitions: Harry McKay winning the Coleman Medal with 58 goals, and Darcy Vescio winning their second leading goalkicker award with 16 goals.
The club also fielded its men's reserves team in the Victorian Football League for the first time since 2002, and fielded a women's team in the VFL Women's competition.
The 2021 AFL season will be the 125th season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it will also be the 125th season contested by the Carlton Football Club.
Contractually, Carlton's primary home ground will continue to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with many games also to have been played at Marvel Stadium, and traditional home ground Ikon Park to serve as the training and administrative base. The club fielded its women's team in the fifth season of the AFL Women's competition, and Ikon Park served as the home ground for AFL Women's matches. Restrictions associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant that crowds were often restricted to well short of the grounds' maximum capacities.
Carlton terminated its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League in March 2020 as a cost-saving measure during the coronavirus pandemic; and will re-establish its reserves team for the first time since 2002, which will contest its fourth overall season in the VFL.[1]
Car manufacturer Hyundai, which had been a major sponsor of the club continuously since 2008,[2] continued its partnership with the club through the season. Airline Virgin Australia, which had upgraded from a secondary sponsor to a major sponsor during the 2017 season,[3] but was struggling owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, continued as the second major sponsor until mid-season;[4] they were then replaced as major sponsor by Great Southern Bank (just recently rebranded from Credit Union Australia), who took on the major co-partner role in a three-year deal.[5]
For the fourth consecutive season, the club set a new membership record, surpassing the 2020 total of 67,035 members on 1 February, and finishing with 81,302 members.[6] The club became debt-free for the first time since financing the construction of Ikon Park's Legends' Stand in 1996, having cleared $7 million in debt since 2017, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The club also ceased to accept financial assistance from the AFL.[7]
The season was played during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the season began, Australia had largely settled into a paradigm of most states maintaining zero COVID-19 cases outside of their international travel quarantine systems; this allowed football games to be played in front of crowds, usually with reduced capacity, and unhindered interstate travel was permitted without quarantine. However, the different state governments often responded quickly to small numbers or even single virus cases being discovered in the community; this meant border restrictions or quarantine periods were at times re-introduced at short notice, impacting interstate travel for games; and, in some cases, that city- or state-wide lockdowns could be imposed within the impacted states,[8] precluding football activities altogether.
Direct, short notice impact to Carlton's senior seasons as a result of the pandemic were:
Mark Lo Giudice continued in his final season as club president, a role he had held for a total of almost eight years since mid-2014. Lo Giudice's replacement, club director and former PriceWaterhouseCoopers CEO Luke Sayers, was announced in April with the pair to prepare for the transition during the year.[13] As part of the transition, and in response to the club's weaker than expected start to the season, Lo Giudice commissioned a review of the club's football department, which was conducted by Sayers, CEO Cain Liddle, and external panel members Matthew Pavlich, Geoff Walsh and Graham Lowe,[14] from which followed substantial changes to the club's administration and football department in 2021. Sayers officially took over on August 17, 2021, one round before the end of the season.[15]
David Teague continued in his second full season as appointed senior coach, having also served a half-season as caretaker in 2019. The coaching panel was reduced in size as a result of seeking cost savings and meeting the AFL's soft spending cap due to the coronavirus pandemic, which saw head of coaching performance Henry Playfair,[16] former Northern Blues senior head coach Josh Fraser,[17] development coach Jason Davenport,[18] and specialist coaches Saverio Rocca, Hamish McIntosh and Greg Williams were all made redundant.[19] Added to the club's coaching panel in the new development role as leader of the Carlton College of Sport Development Program and Carlton Academy coach was former Western Jets and development coach Torin Baker.[20] Long serving assistant coach John Barker, who had also served as caretaker senior coach for part of the 2015 season, departed the club in June after 10½ years, a few months earlier than his originally planned departure at the end of the season.[21]
The following is Carlton's squad for the 2021 season.
Statistics are correct as of end of 2020 season.Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football.
| Senior List | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | State | Player | Age < | -- At end of 2020 --> | AFL Debut | Recruited from | Career (to end 2020) | 2021 Player Statistics | |||||||||
| Gms | Gls | Gms | Gls | B | D | K | HB | M | T | HO | |||||||
| 1 | 23 | 63 | 47 | 15 | 9 | 13 | 200 | 130 | 70 | 70 | 38 | 17 | |||||
| 2 | 21 | 42 | 15 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 242 | 95 | 147 | 28 | 39 | 0 | |||||
| 3 | Marc Murphy (lg) | 33 | 285 | 189 | 15 | 8 | 4 | 191 | 115 | 76 | 47 | 24 | 0 | ||||
| 4 | 21 | 36 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 80 | 49 | 31 | 20 | 9 | 0 | |||||
| 5 | 22 | 80 | 19 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 198 | 134 | 64 | 56 | 26 | 0 | |||||
| 6 | 26 | 113 | 27 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 264 | 201 | 63 | 55 | 54 | 0 | |||||
| 8 | 21 | Western (U18), | 23 | 6 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 246 | 139 | 107 | 57 | 62 | 0 | ||||
| 9 | Patrick Cripps (c) | 25 | 118 | 54 | 20 | 13 | 11 | 468 | 163 | 305 | 63 | 85 | 3 | ||||
| 10 | 23 | 48 | 71 | 19 | 58 | 33 | 185 | 154 | 31 | 113 | 27 | 6 | |||||
| 11 | 26 | Claremont, | 76 | 98 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 56 | 42 | 14 | 24 | 13 | 0 | ||||
| 12 | 21 | 9 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 123 | 81 | 42 | 40 | 27 | 219 | |||||
| 13 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 238 | 163 | 75 | 58 | 37 | 0 | |||||
| 14 | Liam Jones (lg) | 29 | North Hobart, | 142 | 84 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 219 | 178 | 41 | 105 | 19 | 0 | |||
| 15 | Sam Docherty (c) | 27 | Gippsland (U18), | 108 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 340 | 252 | 88 | 107 | 31 | 0 | |||
| 16 | 18 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 17 | 19 | – | – | 2 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 0 | |||||
| 18 | Sam Walsh (lg) | 20 | 39 | 14 | 22 | 12 | 6 | 656 | 298 | 358 | 127 | 100 | 0 | ||||
| 20 | 26 | 110 | 1 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 219 | 160 | 59 | 85 | 20 | 0 | |||||
| 21 | 25 | Claremont, | 112 | 93 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 140 | 94 | 46 | 61 | 26 | 0 | ||||
| 22 | 24 | 48 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |||||
| 23 | Jacob Weitering (lg) | 23 | 93 | 10 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 361 | 301 | 60 | 167 | 29 | 2 | ||||
| 24 | 27 | Frankston, | 53 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 275 | 199 | 76 | 86 | 54 | 0 | ||||
| 25 | 22 | 63 | 27 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 159 | 85 | 74 | 23 | 24 | 0 | |||||
| 27 | 24 | Oakleigh (U18), | 20 | 0 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 147 | 67 | 80 | 26 | 28 | 379 | ||||
| 28 | 23 | 37 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 54 | 26 | 28 | 9 | 6 | 0 | |||||
| 29 | 18 | – | – | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |||||
| 30 | 23 | 58 | 77 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 49 | 35 | 14 | 16 | 6 | 0 | |||||
| 31 | 23 | 32 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 124 | 83 | 41 | 43 | 16 | 0 | |||||
| 32 | 27 | 172 | 68 | 19 | 4 | 9 | 312 | 188 | 124 | 93 | 34 | 0 | |||||
| 33 | 19 | — | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 34 | 19 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |||||
| 35 | Ed Curnow (lg) | 31 | 182 | 40 | 22 | 10 | 3 | 496 | 318 | 178 | 106 | 80 | 0 | ||||
| 40 | 25 | 36 | 27 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 156 | 98 | 58 | 39 | 27 | 0 | |||||
| 41 | 30 | 141 | 148 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 111 | 77 | 34 | 47 | 25 | 79 | |||||
| 42 | 26 | Calder (U18), Coburg,, | 109 | 8 | 22 | 2 | 6 | 424 | 311 | 113 | 72 | 39 | 0 | ||||
| 43 | 22 | 36 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 124 | 74 | 50 | 35 | 17 | 0 | |||||
| Rookie List | |||||||||||||||||
| No. | State | Player | Age | AFL Debut | Recruited from | Career (to end 2020) | 2021 Player Statistics | ||||||||||
| Gms | Gls | Gms | Gls | B | D | K | HB | M | T | HO | |||||||
| 7 | 23 | 48 | 23 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 239 | 138 | 101 | 60 | 54 | 0 | |||||
| 19 | 34 | Calder (U18), | 331 | 613 | 19 | 27 | 16 | 180 | 121 | 59 | 42 | 31 | 0 | ||||
| 26 | 19 | – | – | 6 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 30 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 0 | |||||
| 36 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 36 | 24 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 0 | |||||
| 37 | 22 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 39 | 24 | North Ballarat (U18), | 81 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 44 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 115 | 69 | 46 | 43 | 38 | 0 | |||||
| 45 | 21 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| 46 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 165 | 118 | 47 | 37 | 31 | 0 | |||||
| Senior coaching panel[22] | |||||||||||||||||
| State | Coach | Coaching position | Carlton Coaching debut | Former clubs as coach | |||||||||||||
| Senior coach | 2008 | (d), Northern Bullants (s), (a), (a), (a) | |||||||||||||||
| Head of development Assistant coach (stoppages)(from Round 12) | 2020 | GWS (a), AFL Academy Manager | |||||||||||||||
| John Barker (until Round 12) | Assistant coach (stoppages) | 2011 | St Kilda (a), Hawthorn (a) | ||||||||||||||
| Assistant coach (forward) | 2018 | (a) | |||||||||||||||
| Dale Amos | Assistant coach (defence) | 2016 | South Barwon (s), (a), Geelong reserves (s) | ||||||||||||||
| Daniel O'Keefe | Development coach (Midfield), Reserves coach | 2020 | Geelong Falcons (s), Geelong reserves (a) | ||||||||||||||
| Development coach (Midfield and transition) | 2018 | ||||||||||||||||
| Torin Baker | Carlton College of Sport and Academy coach | 2021 | Western Jets (s), (d) | ||||||||||||||
The following summarises all player changes which occurred after the 2020 season. Unless otherwise noted, draft picks refer to selections in the 2020 National Draft.
The club lost two of its four most experienced players to retirement at the end of 2020: Kade Simpson retired after 18 seasons and 342 games, the third most in club history; and Matthew Kreuzer retired after 13 seasons and 189 games, having missed all but the first match in 2020 with injury.
| Player | Former Club | League | via | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Restricted free agent signing
| ||||
| AFL trade period, received along with a second-round draft selection (provisionally No. 38), in exchange for a higher second-round draft selection and a third-round draft selection (provisionally No. 30 and 51 respectively)[24] | ||||
| AFL trade period, received along with a third-round draft selection and a fourth-round draft selection (provisionally No. 48 and 78), in exchange for a first-round draft selection and a fifth-round draft selection (provisionally No. 8 and 87)[25] | ||||
| AFL National Draft, second round selection (No. 37 overall) | ||||
| AFL National Draft, second round selection (No. 41 overall) | ||||
| AFL Rookie Draft, first round selection (No. 8 overall) | ||||
| Pre-season supplemental selection period.[26] | ||||
| Mid-season draft, first round selection (No. 6 overall).Web site: Mirkov's rapid rise continues at IKON Park. 3 June 2021. 5 June 2021. Carlton Football Club. Cristian Filippo. | ||||
| Mid-season draft, second round selection (No. 20 overall).Web site: Boyd becomes a Blue. 3 June 2021. 5 June 2021. Carlton Football Club. Cristian Filippo. |
| Player | New Club | League | via | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retired[27] | ||||
| Retired[28] | ||||
| Waratah[29] | Delisted after the season[30] | |||
| Ben Silvagni | Northern Bullants[31] | Delisted after the season | ||
| Finbar O'Dwyer | Delisted after the season | |||
| University Blues[32] | Delisted from the rookie list after the season | |||
| Williamstown[33] | VFL | Delisted after the trade period[34] | ||
| Delisted after the trade period | ||||
| Fraser Phillips | Carlton reserves[35] | Delisted from the rookie list after the trade period | ||
| Wangaratta[36] | O&MFL | Delisted from the rookie list after the trade period. He remained on the club's train-on list through the offseason but was not recruited back to the senior list afterwards. |
| Player | Change | |
|---|---|---|
| Elevated from the rookie list to the senior list.[37] | ||
| Demoted from the senior list to the rookie list. | ||
| Demoted from the senior list to the rookie list.[38] | ||
| All three players received permission to train with Carlton during the 2021 pre-season ahead of the supplemental selection period;[39] McDonald was ultimately added to the club's list. |
The club played two full-length practice matches in the lead-up to the season. The match against St Kilda was scheduled as part of the 2021 AAMI Community Series, and the match against Essendon was arranged between the clubs and played behind closed doors but was live streamed on the club website.
| Date and local time | Opponent | Scores (Carlton's scores indicated in bold) | Venue | Attendance | |||||
| Home | Away | Result | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | Thursday, 25 February | align=left | Essendon | 14.11 (95) | 11.8 (74) | Won by 21 points[40] | Ikon Park (H) | Closed | |
| align=left | Thursday, 4 March | align=left | St Kilda | 15.9 (99) | 19.11 (125) | Lost by 26 points[41] | Marvel Stadium (H) | 10,228 | |
Following improvements to 11th place under Teague in 2020, Carlton was expected to continue its improvement in 2021 and at the start of the season was considered an outside chance of playing finals.[42] The first half of the season prior to the midseason bye fell short of those expectations, with the clubs sitting 14th with a 4–8 record – avoiding any big losses with a heaviest defeat of only 28 points, but also unable to record any victories against top eight opponents – the closest chance coming against the in Round 8, when the team led by 27 points in the third quarter before conceding eight consecutive goals and losing by 16 points. During the mid-season bye, the club's football department review was announced. The second half of the season proceeded similarly, with a 4–6 from the last ten games, but suffering more heavy defeats including a 95-point loss to in Round 22, the club's heaviest loss since 2018. The club still maintained a mathematical chance of making finals until Round 22, but ultimately finished 13th with an 8–14 record.
Carlton's formline was erratic. The club had a 0–9 record against the top seven teams. It was 4–2 against the teams placed between 8th and 12th, with its Round 7 win against eighth-placed Essendon serving as its highest placed defeated opponent for the year. Against teams placed 14th to 18th, Carlton's record was only 4–3, suffering one loss against each of the bottom three teams (and).
| Rd | Date and local time | Opponent | Scores (Carlton's scores indicated in bold) | Venue | Attendance | Ladder | |||||
| Home | Away | Result | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | align=left | Thursday, 18 March | align=left | 15.15 (105) | 11.14 (80) | Lost by 25 points[43] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (A) | 49,218 | 14th | ||
| 2 | align=left | Thursday, 25 March (7:20 pm) | align=left | Collingwood | 13.7 (85) | 16.10 (106) | Lost by 21 points[44] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (H) | 51,723 | 15th | |
| 3 | align=left | Sunday, 4 April (3:20 pm) | align=left | Fremantle | 16.13 (109) | 9.10 (64) | Won by 45 points[45] | Marvel Stadium (H) | 24,551 | 12th | |
| 4 | align=left | Saturday, 10 April (7:25 pm) | align=left | Gold Coast | 8.11 (59) | 9.16 (70) | Won by 11 points[46] | Metricon Stadium (A) | 11,618 | 7th | |
| 5 | align=left | Saturday, 17 April (7:25 pm) | align=left | Port Adelaide | 9.14 (68) | 14.12 (96) | Lost by 28 points[47] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (H) | 32,893 | 11th | |
| 6 | align=left | Saturday, 24 April (4:35 pm) | align=left | Brisbane | 12.13 (85) | 15.13 (103) | Lost by 18 points[48] | Marvel Stadium (H) | 29,576 | 13th | |
| 7 | align=left | Sunday, 2 May (3:20 pm) | align=left | Essendon | 16.11 (107) | 19.9 (123) | Won by 16 points[49] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (A) | 57,447 | 12th | |
| 8 | align=left | Sunday, 9 May (3:20pm) | align=left | 16.11 (107) | 13.13 (91) | Lost by 16 points[50] | Marvel Stadium (A) | 27,663 | 13th | ||
| 9 | align=left | Sunday, 16 May (3:20pm) | align=left | 13.16 (94) | 10.8 (68) | Lost by 26 points[51] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (A) | 38,581 | 13th | ||
| 10 | align=left | Saturday, 22 May (1:45pm) | align=left | 13.8 (86) | 9.9 (63) | Won by 23 points[52] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (H) | 45,741 | 12th | ||
| 11 | align=left | Sunday, 30 May (3:20pm) | align=left | 15.10 (100) | 11.12 (78) | Lost by 22 points[53] | Sydney Cricket Ground (A) | 29,822 | 13th | ||
| 12 | align=left | Sunday, 6 June (3:20pm) | align=left | 10.13 (73) | 14.11 (95) | Lost by 22 points[54] | Sydney Cricket Ground (H) | 5,137 | 14th | ||
| 13 | Bye | 14th | |||||||||
| 14 | align=left | Saturday, 19 June (7:25 pm) | align=left | GWS | 16.6 (102) | 9.12 (66) | Lost by 36 points[55] | GIANTS Stadium (A) | 7,035 | 14th | |
| 15 | align=left | Sunday, 27 June (4:10 pm) | align=left | 12.11 (83) | 10.13 (73) | Won by 10 points[56] | Marvel Stadium (H) | 14,930 | 13th | ||
| 16 | align=left | Saturday, 3 July (7:40 pm) | align=left | 8.16 (64) | 12.8 (80) | Won by 16 points[57] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (A) | 12,103 | 13th | ||
| 17 | align=left | Saturday, 10 July (4:35pm) | align=left | 5.14 (44) | 10.10 (70) | Lost by 26 points[58] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (H) | 31,834 | 13th | ||
| 18 | align=left | Sunday, 18 July (3:20 pm) | align=left | 9.8 (62) | 13.13 (91) | Won by 29 points[59] | Melbourne Cricket Ground (A) | Closed | 13th | ||
| 19 | align=left | Saturday, 24 July (1:45pm) | align=left | 11.11 (77) | 18.8 (116) | Lost by 39 points[60] | Marvel Stadium (H) | Closed | 13th | ||
| 20 | align=left | Friday, 30 July (7:50 pm) | align=left | 12.9 (81) | 18.4 (112) | Won by 31 points[61] | Marvel Stadium (A) | Closed | 12th | ||
| 21 | align=left | Saturday, 7 August (1:45pm) | align=left | 8.9 (57) | 11.10 (76) | Lost by 19 points[62] | Marvel Stadium (H) | Closed | 13th | ||
| 22 | align=left | Saturday, 14 August (4:05pm) | align=left | 21.14 (140) | 5.15 (45) | Lost by 95 points[63] | Adelaide Oval (A) | 13,943 | 13th | ||
| 23 | align=left | Saturday, 21 August (7:40pm) | align=left | GWS | 11.9 (75) | 12.17 (89) | Lost by 14 points[64] | Marvel Stadium (H) | Closed | 13th | |
The Carlton Football Club Best and Fairest awards night took place on 14 October 2021, taking place as a virtual event due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.[65]
| Pos. | Player | Votes | |||
| 1st | Sam Walsh | 183 | |||
| 2nd | Jacob Weitering | 172 | |||
| 3rd | Harry McKay | 118 | |||
| 4th | Patrick Cripps | 112 | |||
| 5th | Ed Curnow | 100 | |||
| 6th | Adam Saad | 97 | |||
| 7th | Lachie Plowman | 86 | |||
| 8th | Liam Jones | 80 | |||
| 9th | Eddie Betts | 75 | |||
| 10th | Jack Silvagni | 71 |
Harry McKay won both the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker in the home-and-away season, and Carlton's leading goalkicker, kicking 58 goals.[66] His tally of 58 goals was the most by any Carlton player in a season since Brendan Fevola kicked 89 goals in 2009, which was also club's most recent previous Coleman Medal. It was McKay's first Coleman Medal, and was achieved despite playing only 19 of 22 games. He held a ten-goal lead when his season ended due to injury with two rounds remaining, and ultimately won by four goals from Tom Hawkins on 54 goals.
Small forwards Eddie Betts and Matthew Owies occupied the next two positions – the former in his final season, and the latter in his breakout season – followed by midfielders Patrick Cripps and Sam Walsh.
| Player | width=5% | Goals | width=5% | Behinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | 33 | |||
| 27 | 16 | |||
| 15 | 17 | |||
| 13 | 11 | |||
| 12 | 6 |
The club's 2021 squad is given below. The number of games played and goals scored in the 2021 season is given in parentheses.[79]
| Rd | Date and local time | Opponent | Scores (Carlton's scores indicated in bold) | Venue | Attendance | Ladder | |||||
| Home | Away | Result | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | align=left | Thursday, 28 January | align=left | 4.3 (27) | 5.3 (33) | Lost by 6 points[80] | Ikon Park (H) | 6,712 | 9th | ||
| 2 | align=left | Friday, 5 February | align=left | 6.6 (42) | 5.6 (33) | Lost by 6 points[81] | VU Whitten Oval (A) | 3,479 | 9th | ||
| 3 | align=left | Saturday, 13 February | align=left | St Kilda | 2.4 (16) | 6.4 (40) | Won by 24 points[82] | RSEA Park (A) | Closed | 8th | |
| 4 | align=left | Saturday, 20 February | align=left | 8.3 (51) | 7.4 (46) | Won by 5 points[83] | Ikon Park (H) | 2,212 | 8th | ||
| 5 | align=left | Saturday, 27 February | align=left | Kangaroos | 9.5 (59) | 6.1 (37) | Lost by 22 points[84] | UTas Stadium (A) | 820 | 8th | |
| 6 | align=left | Sunday, 7 March | align=left | Geelong | 10.4 (64) | 4.7 (31) | Won by 33 points[85] | Ikon Park (H) | 1,764 | 8th | |
| 7 | align=left | Sunday, 14 March | align=left | Fremantle | 6.5 (41) | 6.9 (45) | Lost by 4 points[86] | Ikon Park (H) | 2,048 | 8th | |
| 8 | align=left | Friday, 19 March | align=left | Gold Coast | 4.3 (27) | 13.9 (87) | Won by 60 points[87] | Metricon Stadium (A) | 272 | 7th | |
| 9 | align=left | Sunday, 28 March (4:10 pm) | align=left | Greater Western Sydney | 4.7 (31) | 4.8 (32) | Won by 1 point[88] | Blacktown ISP (A) | 903 | 7th | |
Carlton fielded reserves teams in the men's and women's competitions during the 2021 season.
After having an eighteen season reserves alignment with the Northern Bullants\Blues club in the Victorian Football League, Carlton terminated the agreement in March 2020 as a cost-saving measure during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the club re-established its own reserves team for the first time since 2002.[94] The reserves team contested its fourth VFL season, having previously contested the 2000–2002 seasons; and its 85th overall season of reserves and state level competition dating back to 1919.
Daniel O'Keefe, who had joined the club as a development coach in 2020, took the role as the reserves coach. New players signed to the club's VFL list included former AFL players James Parsons, Ben Crocker (/)[95] and Ryley Stoddart ; former AFL-listed players Fraser Phillips, Tom North, Harry Reynolds (Sydney), Cody Hirst (Sydney), Will Golds and Toby Wooller (Brisbane);[96] as well as Alex Cincotta, Daniel Guccione, Cooper Stephens, Stefan Radovanovic, Lachie Potter, Aaron Gundry, Lachie Bond, Edward Delany, Matt Shannon, Dale Marshall, Lachie Swaney, Ben Caluzzi, Lachlan Gawel, Owen King, Zane Barzen, Ben Nikolovski[97] and Alex Mirkov, who was added to the club's senior list during the mid-season draft. Stoddart and Shannon served as co-captains of the team.[98]
In a planned sixteen-game season which was repeatedly interrupted and ultimately curtailed by COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns, the team played only nine home-and-away matches for a 4–5 record, finishing 12th out of 22 teams.[99] Ben Crocker, who kicked 29 goals for the year, won the reserves' best and fairest.[100]
The club fielded a team in the VFL Women's competition for the third time, after the competition's one-year hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic. The scheduling of the competition shifted in 2021, now running concurrently with the AFL Women's season rather than after it, meaning that the team will function as a reserves team, rather than a senior team at state level.[101] [102] The team finished eighth out of twelve teams, with a win–loss record of 6–8 to miss the finals by one win and percentage.[103]