Editing Carlton Football Club (section)

===Victorian Football Association and Victorian Football League===
In [[1877 VFA season|1877]], Carlton was one of the foundation clubs of the [[Victorian Football Association]], and was a comfortable winner of the premiership in the competition's inaugural season.<ref name="fpf1">{{cite web|url=http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/Carlton_part_1.htm|title=Carlton – Part One: 1864 to 1919|first=John|last=Devaney|access-date=8 October 2011|publisher=Fullpointsfooty|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806045331/http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/Carlton_part_1.htm|archive-date=6 August 2011|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

Carlton was one of the first clubs to have a player worthy of the superstar tag: champion player [[George Coulthard]], who played for Carlton between 1876 and 1882, and was noted by ''[[Australasian Post|The Australasian]]'' as 'The grandest player of the day'. He died of tuberculosis in [[1883]], aged 27.

[[File:Carlton fc 1887.jpg|thumb|left|Carlton's 1887 VFA premiership side]]
The club won one more VFA premiership, in [[1887 VFA season|1887]], but after that, particularly during the 1890s, the club went from one of the strongest clubs in the Association to one of the weaker, both on-field and off-field. In spite of this, the club was invited to join the breakaway [[Victorian Football League (1897–1989)|Victorian Football League]] competition in [[1897]].<ref name=bluehistory>[http://www.carltonfc.com.au/ Official Website of the Carlton Football Club] [http://www.carltonfc.com.au/carltonfc/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/4311/Default.aspx?newsId=2467 History of the Blues] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070901171133/http://www.carltonfc.com.au/carltonfc/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/4311/Default.aspx?newsId=2467 |date=1 September 2007 }} Retrieved on 15 April 2007.</ref> The club continued to struggle in early seasons of the new competition, and finished seventh out of eight teams in each of its first five seasons.