SEASON 27: What Did Nick Austin Actually Get Right — and Wrong — at Carlton?
We've just dropped another deep dive feature called SEASON 27: What Did Nick Austin Actually Get Right — and Wrong — at Carlton? on rtssg.com...
Richmond supporters have already split into two camps. One sees Austin’s Carlton years and asks why Richmond would bring home a list manager from a club that never won the premiership. The other sees Saad, Cerra, Hewett, Acres, the move to pick No.3 and the enormous Charlie Curnow trade and assumes Austin must have been one of the AFL’s most aggressive list builders.
The question Tiger supporters should be asking is simple:
When Nick Austin actually controlled a list-management program, which decisions worked, which ones did not, and what does that tell Richmond about the operator it has just hired?
Because that's exactly what this feature examines.
It is the first period of Austin’s career where supporter mythology matters much less: Carlton made him Head of List Management, so the trades, retention strategy, draft choices and list balance can be tested against a much clearer level of responsibility.
In the article we break down:
• The list Austin inherited from Stephen Silvagni and the problem he was actually asked to solve
• The 2020 decision to target ready-made speed and flexibility
• What Saad, Williams and Fogarty tell us about Austin’s first big Carlton bets
• Why the Cerra, Hewett and Lewis Young off-season deserves separate treatment
• The low-cost Blake Acres move and what it says about role-first recruiting
• How Carlton’s draft record under Austin really stacks up once pick access is considered
• Why the Jagga Smith move to pick No.3 still cannot honestly be graded
• The depth problem Carlton itself publicly acknowledged in 2025
• What the 2023 preliminary final proves — and what it does not
• The decisions to move useful players out when Carlton wanted different assets or roles
• What the historic Charlie Curnow trade reveals about Austin’s appetite for uncomfortable calls
• Which parts of the Carlton model Richmond should study carefully — and which it should refuse to copy
And that's only the start.
This is not a Carlton ladder review dressed up as analysis. It is a decision audit. The point is to work out what Austin actually does when he has authority — before Richmond supporters decide what his return means.
Read the full feature now on rtssg.com
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