Full forward Brendan Fevola won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker.
[1] Brett Ratten and Chris Judd continued in their respective roles as senior coach and captain of the club, each entering his second season appointed to the job.Note 1 The club's joint major sponsors were car manufacturer Hyundai, unchanged from 2008,[2] and national tourism promoter Tourism Malaysia, newly signed for the 2009 season.
The club's form throughout the season unpredictable; Carlton returned a 3–2 record against the top four teams, including an impressive Round 19 upset victory against eventual premiers Geelong, but only 2–4 against the next four teams on the ladder; Carlton's record against the bottom eight was 8–3, with all three of those losses coming inside the first seven rounds of the season.
Fevola also won the Coleman Medal, as his tally of 86 goals in the home-and-away season was the highest in the league.
The club's immediate past president Richard Pratt died on 28 April, prior to Round 6, after his battle with prostate cancer.
[27] A long time benefactor of the club, Pratt had served as president from February 2007 until July 2008, and was a key off-field figure in Carlton's recovery from its poor condition in the mid-2000s to its return to the finals this year.
[29] Carlton played its Round 7 home match at Gold Coast Stadium in Queensland, in return for a guaranteed $400,000 payment from the AFL.
Carlton, St Kilda and Richmond each accepted the $400,000 offer to play one game there during the 2009 season.
Already on his final disciplinary chance with Carlton following his indiscretion the previous season,[32] the incident led to Fevola being traded to the Brisbane Lions in the offseason.
[34] It was Fevola's second career Coleman Medal, after winning the award in 2006; in doing so, Fevola became the first Carlton player since George Coulthard in the 1878, 1879 and 1880 VFA seasons to win the league goalkicking more than once in his career, and the first Carlton player ever to achieve the feat in the VFL/AFL.
[36] Chris Judd went on to finish third for the Leigh Matthews Trophy; none of Carlton's other nominees placed.
Aaron Joseph was nominated for the 2009 AFL Rising Star award for his performance in Carlton's Round 12 win against St Kilda.
[41] Chris Yarran was represented the Indigenous All-Stars team, which played a pre-season match against Adelaide on 7 February.
[42] Ken Hands, who played with Carlton from 1945 to 1957, then coached the club from 1959 to 1964, was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
[45] The Bullants finished second out of fourteen in the VFL, after being defeated in the Grand Final by North Ballarat by 23 points.
Carlton rookie-listed player David Ellard, who did not play at AFL level during the season, won the Laurie Hill Trophy as the Bullants' best and fairest.