The 1972 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 109th season of competition, and 76th as a member of the Victorian Football League. Carlton fielded teams in the senior, reserves and under-19s grades of the 1972 VFL season.

Under captain-coach John Nicholls, who assumed the coaching role this season after the departure of dual-premiership coach Ron Barassi at the end of 1971, Carlton won the VFL minor and major premierships, defeating Richmond in the Grand Final. It was the 11th senior VFL premiership in the club's history.

Following the VFL season, Carlton competed in the Championship of Australia tournament, finishing runner-up to the SANFL's North Adelaide. The club then embarked upon a world tour, playing three exhibition matches overseas against an Australian All-Stars team.

Club summary

The 1972 VFL season was the 76th season of the VFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 76th season contested by the Carlton Football Club. As it had been since 1897, the club's home ground was Princes Park in North Carlton; additionally, it was standard for all clubs in the league at the time to play three or four matches per year at the neutral VFL Park in Mulgrave.^[1] In addition to its senior team, Carlton fielded teams in both the VFL reserves and under-19s competitions.

Senior personnel

George Harris continued as club president through 1972, a position he had held since after the 1964 season.^[2]

Following the 1971 season, Ron Barassi stepped down as coach; at the time, he left to focus on his business career, although he ultimately returned to VFL coaching (at North Melbourne) after only a year.^[3] Barassi had coached Carlton for seven seasons, and led the team to two senior premierships: 1968 and 1970. John Nicholls, who had been captain since mid-1968, took on Barassi's former role to become captain-coach.^[2]

Squad and player statistics for 1972

The following is the final senior squad as announced at the start of the 1972 season. Numbers in parentheses represent games played and goals kicked for Carlton in the 1972 VFL premiership season. Only supplementary players who played a senior match during the season are listed.

Playing list changes

The following summarises player transfers to and from the club between the conclusion of the 1971 season and the conclusion of the 1972 season.^[4]

In

Player	Previous club	League	Comments
David Dickson	Preston	VFA
Murray Dickson	Hobart	TANFL
Greg Kennedy	Eaglehawk	Bendigo FL	Country zone selection
Greg Lethborg	Scottsdale	NTFA
Eric Pascoe	Northern United[6]	Bendigo FL	Country zone selection
Gary Whitney	City-South	NTFA

Out

Player	New Club	League	Comments
Mark Amos	Fitzroy	VFL	On the Carlton senior list at the start of the year,[4] but later cleared to Fitzroy[7]
Bill Barrot	North Melbourne	VFL	Initially retired,[4] before attempting a return to league football with North Melbourne.[8]
Ian Collins	Port Melbourne	VFA
John Goold			Retired
Ted Hopkins			Retired
Gary Lawson-Smith			Retired
Ricky McLean	Richmond	VFL
Chris Mitchell			Retired
Sergio Silvagni			Retired

Season summary

Pre-season practice matches

Carlton played three practice matches during March 1972 – including, as it turned out, matches against both of the teams it would face in Grand Finals later in the year: Richmond and North Adelaide. Carlton won all three practice matches.

Home-and-away season

Carlton finished the home-and-away season as the minor premiers in 1972, with a win–loss record of 18–3–1. The team sat as low as 6th after Round 4 with a record of 2–1–1, but lost only two of its remaining eighteen matches for the season, moving up to and holding first place from Round 12 until the end of the season. Two of Carlton's three losses were by fewer than six points; a 31-point loss against Richmond in Round 14 was the worst performance of the home-and-away season.

Despite the strong performance, Carlton was in a constant fight for the minor premiership with Richmond, who finished with a record of 18–4–0. Richmond drew within half a game of Carlton after beating them in Round 14; both teams then won all of their remaining eight matches, maintaining that half-game margin until the end of the season. Carlton came very close to losing the minor premiership in the final round, eventually beating Footscray by three points with the significant assistance of Footscray's inaccurate goalkicking .^[12]