Other players who were already playing with the Carlton seconds, but who were elevated and made their senior debuts in 1945 were Wal Alexander, Clinton Wines and Don Beauvais.
[33][34] The club entered the home-and-away season with an overall inexperienced team, noted as speedy but lacking in big, experienced key position players.
[38] Carlton also had a limited preseason, due in part to the Carlton Cricket Club occupying the ground later than usual as it won its first district cricket pennant (albeit in the unofficial wartime competition);[6] simultaneous intra-club matches were played at 2:45 Saturday 7 April at Princes Park and Ransford Oval,[39] then again at 2:45 Saturday 14 April at Princes Park and McAllister Oval.
As such, few were surprised when Carlton's season opened poorly, with three comfortable losses, including a club record 100-point defeat at the hands of Essendon, to sit last on the ladder.
[41] After the early losses, Carlton started rebuilding, adopting something of a youth policy; no fewer than eight older but underperforming players – Bernie Bignell, Les Gregory, Arthur Hall, Adrian Hearn, Jim Jones, Cyril Mann, Fred Rose, and vice captain Bob Green – were omitted by the end of Round 6; among them, only Jones ever played for Carlton again.
The Blues recruited 18-year-old Geelong junior Ken Hands after Round 3, who made an immediate impression at centre half forward, and was touted as a future champion by the press within a month.
[49] Sportswriters noted that this loss would likely end the Blues' faint hopes of playing finals, as they were two wins and percentage behind fourth place with six games left.
This set up, for the second consecutive year, a final round clash against third placed Footscray, the winner of which would qualify for the finals.Note Footscray had won the equivalent match in 1944 by one point, kicked after the siren by Harry Hickey; but this year, in front of a then-record crowd of 30,000 at the Western Oval,[51] Carlton dominated with a seven-goals-to-two first quarter before winning by 53 points.
This saw Carlton enter the top four for the first time in the season, in fourth place with a 13–7 record, after winning ten of its last eleven home-and-away matches.
[68] Despite being in fourth place, Carlton's strong form in the second half of the season meant they were considered a genuine premiership threat by sportswriters.
[45][69] Through the latter stages of the season and into the finals, coach Percy Bentley conducted very limited Thursday training sessions, to reduce the pressure to the team which had played in so many consecutive matches which, had they been defeated, would have ended their chances at reaching the top four.
[70] Carlton faced third-placed North Melbourne in the first semi-final, which was in its first ever VFL finals series, and whose late season form had been a little bit patchy.
At the same time, the Blues engaged in rough play to try to put their smaller Collingwood opponents off their game, and melee involving twelve players broke out early in the final quarter.
[73][74] After the melee, Carlton mounted a massive comeback, and kicked the next five goals in a fifteen-minute purple patch, to reduce the margin to two points.
Played in blustery, then rainy conditions, it was a low quality and rough game better remembered for its violence than its gameplay, and eventually gaining its nickname "the Bloodbath" from the several melees which broke out.
Among them, five players – Bob Chitty, Rod McLean, Ken Baxter, Mick Price and Charlie McInnes – had previously played in the club's 1938 premiership win.
[81] Despite coming to the club only after Round 5, and initially being recruited to play centre, Lance Collins ultimately moved to the forward-line and was Carlton's leading goalkicker for the season.