Carlton great Robert Walls says Brendon Bolton “deserves some credit” for the Blues’ resurgence in 2022.
Bolton was sacked midway through the 2019 season after winning just 16 of 77 games in charge of Carlton.
Since parting ways with the Blues, Bolton returned to Hawthorn in 2019 as an assistant coach before taking up a Director of Coaching role at Collingwood last September.
The Blues are charging towards a first finals campaign since 2013 under Michael Voss, sitting a game clear in third with an 8-2 win-loss record.
Walls credited Bolton for getting games into some of Carlton’s youngsters while praising the club’s recruitment.
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“What I’m seeing is a team that’s united and a team that’s got a hard edge to it that it hasn’t had for a decade or more. I put that down to a couple of things,” the Carlton premiership player and coach told Sportsday.
“Michael Voss coming in and setting standards that the players don’t compromise on, and also the maturity of a lot of players.
“Brendon Bolton, who will be in the coaches’ box for Collingwood as an assistant coach, he deserves some credit because he gave a lot of those players who’ll be playing on Sunday their first 40 or 50 games of league football when they were a struggling team, but he kept playing those kids.
“The maturity of your (Charlie) Curnows, your (Lochie) O’Briens, your (Zac) Fishers, (Sam) Docherty’s gone to another level, (Tom) De Koning was given early opportunity.
“And the other thing, Carlton has recruited pretty well the last couple of years, and that goes back to Stephen Silvagni and now Nick Austin, who’s the list manager.
“(Adam) Saad’s become a really good player. (Matthew) Kennedy, who struggled early, but faith was kept in him. (George) Hewett and (Adam) Cerra, fantastic players in the midfield. (Jack) Martin’s still got to prove how good he can be. They’ve recruited pretty well.”
The Blues are next in action against rivals Collingwood (5-5) at the MCG on Sunday.