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Blues announce new sponsor

Carlton captain Chris Judd displays the new sponsor's logo

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By Jason Phelan 2:00 PM Tue 09 February, 2010
CARLTON has gone some way toward putting a summer of discontent behind it with the signing of Mars to a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal that will see the confectionary giant's name appear on the club's guernsey for the next three seasons.

Mars joins Hyundai as the club's joint naming-rights sponsor following the departure of Tourism Malaysia with its logo to appear on the front of the jumper for away games and the back for home fixtures.

The move is a major positive for the club after its players made headlines prior to Christmas with a series of alcohol-fuelled indiscretions that club chief executive Greg Swann admitted didn't help as he courted several suitors to replace Tourism Malaysia.

The new sponsorship arrangement was officially announced at the Blues' new Visy Park training facility on Tuesday and while specifics of the contract were not discussed Swann revealed there were no special behavioural clauses included.   

"We've got the standard [clauses] and there are no special ones in it," Swann said. "As it should have, it has normal [behaviour] clauses in it, but … having said that the clauses are almost irrelevant - we know what we have to do and we know what our partnership obligations are.

"We lived a pretty horrific week that last week before Christmas and we don't want to go through it again, nor do the players and nor does the rest of the club.

"We've spoken in detail about behaviours … [and] the onus is back on the players, they've accepted that and I think there's a real belief that it won't happen again."

Swann expressed his hope that the announcement of the sponsorship deal would prove to be a turning point for the 2010 season.

Despite his confidence that there would be no further transgressions, Swann added "you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that it will be a pretty serious matter" if a player were to find himself in hot water.

Skipper Chris Judd, who had some questions asked of his leadership style in the wake of the December booze cruise, also attended the launch and echoed the sentiments of the chief executive.

"The players are pretty clear in their understanding of what's expected," Judd said.

"We don't want to behave well because there's a clause in the Mars contract - we want to behave well because that's how we want to be perceived in the community and that's how we want to be ourselves.

"We've put some things in place … and we're pretty confident that the behavioural standards we've set will be upheld."

The sponsorship deal rekindles a relationship between the two parties which famously saw Carlton don a bright blue guernsey for a home and away match in the 1997 season to promote the launch of Blue M&Ms.

Coach Brett Ratten was one of the players who wore the garish jumper that day against Adelaide and he expressed his delight at the new deal which he feels will help the club take the next step on-field.

"We've got those resources behind us now and as a football department we go forward with confidence knowing that we've got the things that we need to succeed," Ratten said.

"It really builds confidence for us in 2010 and beyond.

"It made it fantastic for the players and everyone to come back in January and see the new machines and just everything that we have at our fingertips now. We can really compete with the teams that have been on the forefront of new facilities."
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