It was the club's men's team's 128th season as a member of the Australian Football League, and the third under senior coach Michael Voss.
The number of vice-captains was increased from two to three to make up the broader leadership group, with Charlie Curnow appointed a new vice captain, and Jacob Weitering and Sam Walsh continuing in the role.
The club also traded for former top ten draft pick Elijah Hollands – brother of second-year player Oliver – from Gold Coast.
[35] The season opened well with four straight wins – although two were against eventual bottom-four opponents – before four losses in six weeks saw Carlton drop to tenth place.
Through this period, Carlton was near the top of the league for pressure applied and points scored, and efficiency inside forward 50, and was considered a strong threat to Sydney (which at that stage was a runaway leader on the ladder) for premiership favouritism.
This included losing against top-four opponents GWS and Port Adelaide despite holding a five-goal lead in the second quarter of each game;[37][38] and a three-point loss against Collingwood after Mitch McGovern missed an after the siren 45m set shot.
[40] With a league-high 17-man injury list,[41] Carlton regained eighth place with a win against West Coast in the penultimate round.
This set up a final round in which Carlton need to defeat St Kilda in the Sunday afternoon game, or see Port Adelaide defeat Fremantle in the Sunday evening game, to hold eighth place: against St Kilda, after trailing by as much as 20 points in the third quarter, Carlton took the lead entering time-on in the final quarter, before St Kilda's Jack Higgins snapped a goal with only 12 seconds remaining to secure a two-point win for St Kilda;[42] but Carlton's position in eighth place was secured when Port Adelaide won a close game against Fremantle, kicking three late goals to win by 20 points.
Curnow led in the race for a third consecutive Coleman Medal for much of the season, before falling behind eventual winner Jesse Hogan after round 21, then missing the last two matches with injury to finish second.
Harry McKay was second with 49 goals; since winning the Coleman Medal in 2021, McKay had drawn heavy criticism for year on year deterioration in his goalkicking accuracy, but delivered an improved return of 49.21 after significantly reducing his use of across-the-body snaps from set shots.
These inductees were:[86] From 2023, Carlton lost inaugural AFL Women's player Phoebe McWilliams, who retired after eight seasons in the league and two with Carlton;[87] traded Paige Trudgeon and Annie Lee;[88] and delisted Imogen Milford, Daisy Walker and Chloe Wrigley.
Carlton fielded reserves and state level teams in the men's and women's competitions during the 2024 season.
VFL-listed players newly signed to team included: former AFL senior players Lachie Young (Western Bulldogs/North Melbourne) and Tom Phillips (Collingwood/Hawthorn); and Ollie Badr, Kristian Ferronato, Jess Gedi, Luca Goonan, Bailey Lambert, Luke Nelson, Flynn Riley, Michael Rudd, Tyson Sruk and Callum Verrall.
Retained from 2023 were Noah Barnes, Jed Brereton, Ned Cahill, Patrick Dozzi, Hayden Gill, Darcy Hogg, Blake Kuipers, Jack Lefroy, Michael Lewis, Zavier Maher, Jack Maruff, Liam McMahon, Aiden “AJ” Mills, Hugo Nosiara, Logan Prout, Heath Ramshaw, Archie Stevens, Lachie Swaney and Will White.