Might want to look again. We were fined $930,000 (which crippled us financially and barred us from trading players in even should we have had selections to trade for).
Our actual draft penalties were:
- Draft picks No. 1, 2, 31 and 34 from the 2002 National Draft
- All draft picks in the 2003 Preseason Draft
- Our first and second round draft picks in the 2003 National Draft (we finished 15th)
It ended up being picks 1, 2, 5, 21, 31, 34 and all picks (including pick 1) in the '03 PSD.
The years before we had traded in Steven Oreilly in '99 (we gave up our 1st and 2nd rounder at pick 16 and 46) and Corey Mckernan in '01 (again costing us our first and second round pick at 14 and 30).
Effectively our only 1st or 2nd round draft picks (combined) for the 5 years from 99-03 was in '00 when we drafted spuds in Livingston, Sporn and Wiggins.*
OTT penalties plus trading away 1st + 2nd rounders in 99 and 01 and a swathe of retirements came together with a massive fine and an even more massive $8 million white elephant in the grandstand at Prince's Park.
Grab a tape of Carlton matches from 2002-06 and watch the results for yourself.
We werent tanking. We were just that shit.
* I should add the AFL magnanimously allowed us to keep our PP in '03 (Andrew Walker).