Editing Carlton Football Club (section)

==Reserves team==
Carlton's seconds/reserves team was established in 1919; it operated semi-independently of the senior club until 1936, when the senior club's committee fully took over its operations.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Herald|publication-place=Melbourne, VIC|title=Seniors to manage second 18|date=29 February 1936|page=19}}</ref> From 1919 to 1991 the VFL/AFL operated a [[reserve team|reserves competition]], and from 1992 to 1999 a ''de facto'' AFL reserves competition was run by the [[Victorian State Football League]]. The Carlton Football Club fielded a reserves team in both of these competitions, allowing players who were not selected for the senior team to play for Carlton in the lower grade. During that time, the Carlton reserves team won eight premierships (1926, 1927, 1928, 1951, 1953, 1986, 1987, 1990). Following the demise of the AFL reserves competition, the Carlton reserves team competed in the new [[Victorian Football League]] for three seasons from 2000 until 2002.

The reserves team was dissolved at the end of 2002, and Carlton entered a [[Australian Football League reserves affiliations|reserves affiliation]] with existing VFL club, the [[Northern Blues Football Club|Northern Bullants]]. Under the affiliation, reserves players for Carlton played VFL football with the Northern Bullants. The partnership between the two clubs was strengthened in 2012, when the Northern Bullants were renamed the Northern Blues and they adopted Carlton's navy blue colours, and the club split its home games between the VFL club's traditional home, the [[Preston City Oval]]; and Carlton's traditional home, Ikon Park.

Carlton terminated the affiliation with the Northern Blues in early 2020, as a cost saving measure during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], and re-established a dedicated reserves team in the VFL for the [[2021 VFL season|2021 season]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/581213/carlton-and-northern-blues-forced-to-cease-alignment|title=Carlton and Northern Blues forced to cease alignment|date=26 March 2020|publisher=Carlton Football Club|access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|publication-place=Melbourne, VIC|title=Heartbreak as Carlton call sees VFL club with 138-year history go under|url=https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/carlton-forced-to-end-northern-blues-alignment-due-to-budget-cuts-20200326-p54e8h.html|author1=Peter Ryan|author2=Daniel Cherny|date=26 March 2020|access-date=26 March 2020}}</ref>

===Development systems===
Under the AFL's 2016 plan to establish club-branded Next Generation Academies across Australia to give all AFL clubs a more active role in junior development, Carlton was allocated the northern metropolitan zone of Melbourne. The academy is linked to the Preston-based [[Northern Knights Football Club|Northern Knights]] in the [[TAC Cup|statewide under-18s]] system.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2016-02-04/blues-allocated-region-for-academy|title=Blues allocated region for academy|date=4 February 2016|access-date=6 February 2016|author=Peter Ryan}}</ref>

Since 2019, the club has operated the Carlton College of Sports, a higher education institution in partnership with [[La Trobe University]], which offers sports education diplomas and is operated out of the redeveloped grandstands at Ikon Park.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2018/release/carlton-college-of-sport-launched|date=31 August 2018|access-date=17 January 2021|publisher=La Trobe University|title=Carlton College of Sport launched}}</ref>