Carlton's 2025 off-season is set to be a pivotal period for the club if they wish to build strongly into 2026, which newly appointed CEO Graham Wright is keenly aware of.
The Blues haven't gotten off to a strong start, losing star talents Tom De Koning and Jack Silvagni to St Kilda via free agency, but have since turned things around, being linked to a number of emerging guns of the game, including West Coast youngster Campbell Chesser.
Speaking with Carlton Media, Wright revealed how the Blues lost both the De Koning and Silvagni stakes, citing 'financial decisions' as the key motivators behind their departures.
"I think both guys being free agents makes it difficult for us," Wright said.
"I think Tom really wanted to stay, but it became a financial decision for him, and us in fairness.
"The Jack Silvagni one was Jack's (decision), an unrestricted free agent. We don't have a say outside of wanting him to stay as well, and we made that very clear that we wanted Jack to stay. He received a far greater offer at another club and chose to leave.
"When you have players leave under free agency, it's always difficult, particularly when we put offers to them as well and wanted them to stay. We understand that's professional footy and the make-up of the game now, so hopefully we're able to attract some people as well."
Following the conclusion of Carlton's disappointing 2025 season, Curnow told senior coach Michael Voss and Graham Wright at his exit meeting last week that he would be open to moving to another club, and is reportedly willing to take a pay cut to help engineer a trade to one of Geelong, Gold Coast or Sydney.
However, Wright has reaffirmed the Blues' strict stance on Curnow's status, unwilling to budge on the possibility of a trade for the two-time Coleman medallist.
"We've been very clear from the start that Charlie's a required player, a contracted player for the next four years, and we want to see him finish his career here," Wright said.
"It's been a big 12 months for Charlie; he's had two or three operations across that period of time. He's away on leave at the moment... but he'll be a Carlton player going forward."
Wright opened up about Carlton's plans for the trade period, stating that the Blues will be extremely active in pursuing rival players and draft picks to bolster their playing list's depth.
"We feel that we'll be really active. We've got potentially Harry Dean and a couple of NGA players that we're considering as well, so we're really mindful of the fact that we may have to match bids for players," Wright said.
"We're hopeful of being able to do that and then being able to bring in some players ourselves that can complement what we're after from a skillset or positional need that we have.
"We'll look to fill those and be active but open-minded to what else is out there for us.
"We need to add players in a positional sense to certain areas, hopefully bring in two or three draft picks as well. Certainly, try and add to that depth across the board."
