Club Symbols
- Guernsey
The current Carlton guernsey is plain navy blue, emblazoned with a white CFC monogram (which stands for "Carlton Football Club") on the front, and white numbers on the back. Other than changes to the font of the monogram, this has been Carlton's guernsey continually since 1909. The club has worn navy blue in its uniform since 1871, when colour of the team's caps was changed from orange/yellow.
The team wears navy blue shorts in home games, and white shorts in away games. Since 2011, Carlton's clash guernsey has been sky blue with navy blue monogram, side-panels and numbers, and worn with sky blue shorts and navy blue socks. The club's clash socks are navy blue with a white hoop.
- Nickname
Carlton's official nickname is the 'Blues'. Since the addition of navy blue to the playing uniform in 1871, the club has been known almost universally in print media as the Blues, Dark Blues or Navy Blues. Other colloquial nicknames include Bluebaggers or 'Baggers.
Prior to 1871, when the uniform was predominantly chamois, the club was known informally as the Butchers. After World War II, the club briefly considered changing its nickname to the Cockatoos, but this never formally eventuated; even so, the push was serious enough that newspaper cartoons depicting a Carlton cockatoo were printed around that time.
- Club song
Carlton's club song is We Are the Navy Blues. The song is sung to the tune of the chorus of Lily of Laguna by Leslie Stuart.
- Home ground
The club's traditional home ground is Princes Park (currently known as Visy Park), located in North Carlton. After struggling to find a permanent home venue during its time in the VFA, Carlton established Princes Park as its home venue when it joined the VFL in 1897. The club played home matches at Princes Park every year between 1897-2005. It was the last of the "suburban home grounds"N 3 to be used in AFL competition.
Since 2005, Carlton's official home ground has been Docklands Stadium (currently known as Etihad Stadium). However, home matches expecting to draw large crowds are usually played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which has a much higher capacity; this has been the case since the 1990s. Carlton continues to use Princes Park as its training and administrative base.
- VFL affiliation
Since 2003, the Carlton Football Club has been affiliated with the Northern Blues Football Club in the Victorian Football League. The Northern Blues, formerly known as the Preston Bullants and Northern Bullants before becoming the Blues in 2012, are based in the northern suburb of Preston, but also play several home games at Visy Park. Under the affiliation, reserves players for Carlton play VFL football with the Northern Blues.
Read more about this topic: Carlton Football Club
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