Finishing position 2015 – 18th, 4 wins 18 losses (64.8%)

Players used: 35 – only four clubs used fewer players than Carlton this season.

Debutants: 4 (Jacob Weitering – Round 1 v Richmond; Charlie Curnow – Round 2 v Sydney; Jack Silvagni – Round 15 v Collingwood; David Cunningham – Round 21 v Brisbane Lions)

Retiring/delisted: Matthew Dick (del), Jayden Foster (del), Michael Jamison (ret), Andrew Walker (ret), Cameron Wood (ret).

In Jamison and Walker, Carlton lose more than 350 games of experience, while Wood, Dick and Foster constantly battled to catch the attention of selectors and failed to play a game this year.

Wood was very much a journeyman, having played 88 games for three different clubs – Brisbane Lions, Collingwood and Carlton – across 11 seasons.

Dick, a former Sydney Swan, finished up with six career games and Foster failed to play a senior match.

There are sure to be a few more departures from Princes Park before the end of the year.

Outlook for 2017: Given many thought the Blues would win the wooden spoon this year and struggle to win games, they did extremely well under rookie coach Brendon Bolton to notch seven victories.

But with another round of deep cuts into the list expected – and they've already begun with five players having retired or been delisted since the end of the season – Carlton will struggle to better their 2016 tally of wins next season.

The Bolton reset will well and truly continue into 2017 and that means more games will be given to the club's promising young players.

That approach will almost certainly mean the team will have to take another step or two backwards before it can start making meaningful inroads into a finals tilt and, ultimately, a premiership assault.

They've already unearthed a few gems in Weitering, Silvagni and Curnow and they are still yet to unveil highly-rated top-10 pick Harry McKay who looms as a mainstay in the Carlton forward line for years to come.

Blues list manager Stephen Silvagni is believed to be keen to bring at least one of the talented Greater Western Sydney backmen, Adam Tomlinson and Caleb Marchbank, to the club to shore up the team's key defensive stocks.

For most of the season, Carlton were a hard nut to crack and opposition teams generally were made to earn their victories against them.

That trend should continue in 2017 under Bolton who this year impressively brought a fairly modest playing group together to execute a structured, disciplined, defensive-minded game plan.

Bolton is very much an educator, and having brought Carlton into the 21st century with a modern football on-field strategy, the team's development appears to be in good hands.

A full season from captain Marc Murphy, who missed the second half of the year due to an ankle injury, would boost the Blues midfield and young gun Patrick Cripps looks poised to take the big step into the elite category of players next year.

Finishing in the lower rungs of the ladder will theoretically ensure Carlton a "softer" draw next season as well under the AFL's six-six-six fixture rule.