I'm not sure that their time has passed necessarily, but its hard to get the balance right.
Judd was their best player last night, but even when he's playing well, he's not as good as he used to be.
They badly missed Henderson, but even with him in, they are still a good key forward short. Ironically, a player named Josh Kennedy would slot in nice.
Murphy would certainly improve things, but while they do have Simpson, Scotland & Carrazzo, all of these players are what I'd consider to be very solid, but not gun players.
So Carlton's problems are really two-fold.
Firstly, they lack depth of talent in their top 22 that can have quite an impact when a couple of their better players are out and another couple are down on form.
Secondly, and more tellingly, they lack sound list depth in general.
As I've said often now, you have to be careful in how you assess the tern 'depth' in 21st century football. Its not the same as it was when there was no salary cap and wealthier clubs could stockpile talent in their reserves.
Its a test of any side's mettle these days when they're forced to call upon their 'depth'. The quality of your depth these days translates more to being able to mitigate the extent of your losses, rather than essentially replace them.
Collingwood have good contemporary 'depth', as they've been able to string together a strong winning run despite being down on a lot of personnel. Even then, however, they've been fortunate that their irreplaceables (Cloke & Jolly remain unscathed).
Carlton have certainly had personnel problems, but not as bad as Collingwood, yet their poor depth means they've struggled for wins, of any description, over the same period.
You'd still think that if a bloke like Malthouse took the reins then Carlton could lift again, but they're a quality midfielder and key forward short, even in the best of circumstances.
