Carlton continued its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League through the pre-season; but terminated the alignment on 26 March as a cost-saving measure during the coronavirus pandemic; as with all AFL clubs, Carlton had no reserves team or affiliation during the season, and reserves players were restricted to playing scratch matches against other AFL clubs.
Carlton's season endured the following disruptions and special arrangements: Carlton, along with all AFL clubs, were forced to find significant cost savings to cover the loss of revenue, which in Carlton's case included gate and broadcast revenue from closed and cancelled games, as well as gaming revenue as a result of non-essential venue closures across the country;[23] the club also suffered financially as a result of joint major sponsor Virgin Australia being placed into administration, itself severely affected by travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, although the club's partnership with Virgin continued.
[7] Among the cost saving decisions, Carlton ended its 18-year association with its VFL-affiliate, the Northern Blues, in late March; the club had been investing significant money in building up the club as a development ground for its reserves and a senior development pathway for the northern suburbs; but with money tight, opted to end the affiliation and adopt a lower-cost strategy of re-establishing a stand-alone reserves team, which would contest the VFL at the next opportunity.
The Northern Blues club, which was heavily dependent on Carlton's financial support to remain viable as an entity, initially announced that it would be wound up as a result,[24] and it was not included in the ultimately cancelled plans for a shortened 2020 VFL season; but, the club regrouped and remained in the VFL under as a stand-alone senior Northern Bullants from 2021.
[25] During July, while based interstate, the club was fined $45,000 for an inadvertent breach of COVID-19 protocols when one member of the travelling party sought childcare services outside the league's quarantine bubble.
[27] David Teague entered his first full season as the appointed senior coach of the club, having served as caretaker during the second half of 2019 after Brendon Bolton was sacked.
[33] Liam Jones, Jacob Weitering and Sam Walsh were added to the club's expanded seven-man leadership group, with Ed Curnow and Marc Murphy holding their places.
The matches against Fremantle and Brisbane were scheduled as part of the Marsh Community Series, and the match against Collingwood was arranged between the clubs in late January with the gold coin entry donation fee serving as a fundraiser for the 2019–20 Australian bushfire relief effort.
The only such change which affected Carlton was in Round 5: on the Monday prior to the game, Carlton's Saturday game against St Kilda was rescheduled to Thursday night, to fill the television timeslot left by a cancelled Richmond vs West Coast match; the venue was changed from the Melbourne Cricket Ground to Marvel Stadium.
Carlton maintained consistent performance through the majority of the season, and had a 4–4 record through the first eight rounds, with many games decided by close margins.
From Rounds 9 to 12, Carlton went into a hub in Perth, where it lost its first two matches against Hawthorn and West Coast after holding strong leads to fall to 4–6; but, a narrow victory against Fremantle to end the hub period and a comfortable win against Gold Coast the following week brought the club back to 6–6, and still in a position to challenge for finals.
A mathematical chance of finals remained until the Round 17 loss against wooden spooners Adelaide, and a 1–4 end to the season saw the club finish 11th, with a record of 7–10.
The John Nicholls Medal, for the best and fairest player of the club, as well as several other awards, were presented on the night.
[85] The winner of the John Nicholls Medal was Jacob Weitering, who polled 137 votes to win the award for the first time in his career.
Finishing second in Conference B after the curtailed home-and-away season, Carlton qualified for the semi-finals, hosting Brisbane, who had finished third in Conference A. Carlton had a comfortable win against Brisbane in the semi-final, gaining the lead in the second quarter and extending its advantage in each quarter thereafter before winning by 29 points.