The 2018 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 155th season of competition.
 It was the club's men's team's 122nd season as a member of the Australian Football League. The team finished last out of eighteen teams in the 2018 AFL season, with the club's worst ever win–loss record of 2–20.
 It was the club's women's team's second season as a member of the AFL Women's competition. The team also finished last, out of eight teams, in the 2018 AFL Women's season with a 2–5 record.
 The club fielded a team in the VFL Women's competition.
 The 2018 AFL season was the 122nd season of the VFL/AFL competition since its inception in 1897; and, having competed in every season, it was also the 122nd season contested by the Carlton Football Club. Carlton continued its alignment with the Northern Blues in the Victorian Football League, allowing Carlton-listed players to play with the Northern Blues when not selected in AFL matches. Carlton's primary home ground continued to be the Melbourne Cricket Ground; traditional home ground Ikon Park continued to serve as the training and administrative base. The club fielded its women's team in the second season of the AFL Women's competition, running in February and March; Ikon Park served as the home ground for AFL Women's matches. The club also fielded its VFL women's team in the VFL Women's competition for the first time, splitting home games between RAMS Arena, Craigieburn and Ikon Park.
 Car manufacturer Hyundai, which had been a major sponsor of the club continuously since 2008, and airline Virgin Australia, which had upgraded from a secondary sponsor to a major sponsor during the 2017 season, continued as the club's two major sponsors, each signing a five-year extension to their existing deals. In August, the club launched the Carlton College of Sports, a higher education institution in partnership with La Trobe University; it received its first intake of students in 2019 to study sports education diplomas, with much of the program operated out of the redeveloped grandstands at Ikon Park.
 Mark LoGiudice continued as club president, a role he had held since June 2014. CEO Steven Trigg resigned shortly after the 2017 season, and he was replaced by Richmond Chief Customer Officer Cain Liddle.
 Brendon Bolton continued as club coach for his third season in the role. Originally, it was the final season of Bolton's open-ended contract in which he was guaranteed a full payout if sacked; but over the off-season, the club and Bolton renegotiated to extend this period until the end of 2020. The club's coaching staff underwent some changes and expansions before the 2018 season. Director of Coaching Neil Craig retired from the football industry at the end of 2017 after more than four decades as a player and coach; John Barker took over as the club's head of strategy. Former player and development coach David Teague, who had been most recently serving as forward-line coach at Adelaide, returned to Carlton as an assistant coach, and former Melbourne player Cameron Bruce, who had most recently served as defensive coach at Hawthorn and had worked there with Brendan Bolton, joined Carlton as defensive coach. Recently retired Essendon midfielder Brent Stanton and Geelong Football League coach Jason Davenport both joined the club as development coaches.
 Marc Murphy retained his position as club captain for the sixth season. Kade Simpson stepped down as vice-captain after nine years in the role, but remained in the leadership group. Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty named joint vice captains in his place – Docherty's nomination coming despite having already suffered a season-ending knee injury prior to the announcement. The rest of the extended leadership group comprised Ed Curnow, who held his place in the group from 2017, and Matthew Kreuzer, Lachie Plowman and (despite being on the rookie list) Alex Silvagni, who were all newly elevated, replacing Dennis Armfield and Bryce Gibbs, who both left the club at the end of 2017.
 The following is Carlton's squad for the 2018 season.
 Flags represent the state of origin, i.e. the state in which the player played his Under-18s football.
 The following summarises all player changes which occurred after the 2017 season. Unless otherwise noted, draft picks refer to selections in the 2017 AFL draft.
 As in the 2016/17 offseason, Bryce Gibbs was linked to Adelaide during the trade period. Originally South Australian, Gibbs was three years into a five-year contract, but sought a return to Adelaide for family reasons, nominating the Adelaide Crows as his preferred destination. No deal had been reached during the 2016/17 offseason, but successful negotiations in this offseason saw Gibbs traded to Adelaide for draft picks. Carlton made three recruits during the trade period, and entered the 2017 draft with two selections in the top ten.
 Carlton will participate in the inaugural pre-season AFLX competition. The club competed in Pool B at Etihad Stadium on Friday 16 February, playing its round-robin matches against Melbourne and North Melbourne. The club took a young team into the tournament, including several players new to the club in 2018, and Caleb Marchbank served as captain. Carlton lost both of its round robin games and failed to progress to the final.
 The club will play two full-length practice matches as part of the JLT Community Series.
 The Carlton Football Club Best and Fairest awards night took place on 5 October. The John Nicholls Medal, for the best and fairest player of the club, as well as several other awards, were presented on the night.
 The runaway winner of the John Nicholls Medal was Patrick Cripps, who polled 166 votes to comprehensively beat Kade Simpson, who finished second with 108 votes, and Ed Curnow and Charlie Curnow who tied for third with 98 votes. It was Cripps' second John Nicholls Medal, having first won the medal in 2015.
 The following other awards were presented on John Nicholls Medal night:-
 Charlie Curnow was Carlton's leading goalkicker for the season with 34 goals. It was Curnow's first time as Carlton's leading goalkicker.
 One Carlton player, Paddy Dow was nominated for the 2018 AFL Rising Star award, nominated after his Round 14 performance against Collingwood. Dow received no votes for the final award.
 For each of the AFLPA awards, one or three Carlton players were nominated by an internal vote of Carlton players; Marc Murphy was also nominated for the Best Captain award by default. Patrick Cripps placed second in the Leigh Matthews Trophy voting for Most Valuable Player, polling 529 votes compared with winner Tom Mitchell's 773. Kade Simpson also placed in the Robert Rose Award for Most Courageous Player, finishing fourth.
 Key recruitments to the Carlton AFLW squad in the trade period were Brisbane marquee signing Tayla Harris and Collingwood best-and-fairest winner Nicola Stevens. Former first-round draft pick Bianca Jakobsson was traded to Melbourne, and Nat Exon and Bella Ayre were traded to Brisbane. Owing to traded draft picks, Carlton's top selection in the AFLW draft was in the second round (No. 12 overall), used to select Georgia Gee. Altogether, eleven new players joined the Carlton AFLW squad for 2018. Brianna Davey was made captain of the team, having been a vice-captain in its first season; inaugural captain Lauren Arnell became vice-captain alongside Sarah Hosking. Damien Keeping continued as the team's coach for the second season, with assistant coach Nick Rutley also filling in as match day senior coach in two matches when Keeping was absent due to illness.
 The following is the final senior squad as announced at the start of the season. Numbers in parentheses represent games played and goals kicked for Carlton in the season. Only supplementary players who played a senior match during the season are listed.
 Head coach
 
 Updated: 23 October 2017Source(s): 
 
 The team won its first two matches of the season, before falling dramatically from form to lose its last five games – mostly by wide margins – and finish last in the competition. Part of the club's on-field fall from grace was attributed to the season-ending knee injury suffered by captain Brianna Davey in round two.
 Prior to the 2018 season, Carlton was one of six AFL clubs granted a licence in the VFL Women's competition, as part of a significant reconfiguration of that competition which saw all Victorian-based AFL clubs taking a direct or affiliative involvement in a VFLW team. Carlton fielded a women's team, branded as the Carlton Blues, in the VFLW competition from the 2018 season onwards. The team finished 7th out of 13 in the league with a win–loss record of 6–8.
 The Carlton Football Club had full affiliation with the Northern Blues during the 2018 season. It was the sixteenth season of the clubs' affiliation, which had been in place since 2003. Carlton senior- and rookie-listed players who were not selected to play in the Carlton team were eligible to play for the Northern Blues senior team in the Victorian Football League. The club's home matches were split between the VFL club's traditional home ground Preston City Oval, and Carlton's traditional home ground Ikon Park. The team finished 12th out of 15 in the 2018 VFL season with a win–loss record of 6–12.SportsTG