1963

Fresh from a Grand Final appearance in 1962, the Blues looked toward 1963 with optimism. Under incumbent coach Ken Hands, and a new captain in John Nicholls, the team was competitive at first, with six victories in the first seven rounds.

However, four of those first six wins came by 8 points or less, so our results weren’t quite as good as they seemed. Remarkably, Carlton’s first three defeats (in rounds 6, 8 and 9) saw margins of 6 points or less, and during the first nine rounds, Carlton played in seven games where the biggest difference between the two sides was 8 points. Two other results; our round 15 win against Essendon, and our round 16 loss to Richmond, continued the trend of close matches. By seasons end, Carlton had played in nine (out of 18) games with a maximum margin of 8 points!

But four consecutive losses between rounds 8 and 11 decided Carlton’s fate. Those defeats dropped the club out of the top four, and even four wins in the last seven games wasn't good enough to lift the club back into finals contention. In the end, a 10-8 win/loss record saw the Blues finish in a deeply disappointing sixth place, three wins short of the finals.

Ladder

People of 1963

Coach: Ken Hands
Captain: John Nicholls
Vice Captain: Serge Silvagni
Leading goal scorer: Tom Carroll - 27 goals

Debuts

Round 14: Dave Rogers
Round 12: Kevin Hall
Round 10: Trevor Best
Round 7: John Goold
Round 6: Doug Ringholt
Round 1: John Comben, Greg Hardie

Lower Levels

U19s: Carlton won the Under 19's Premiership for the fourth time in 1963.