LoGiudice not only comes with the strong backing of the Pratt family but also the club’s recently vocal and influential gaming benefactor Bruce Mathieson. In addition, he counts Stephen Silvagni as a close and long-time friend and if you are unaware of the concerted push to bring SOS back into the fold, then you don’t know Carlton.

Kernahan will remain president - largely in name only - until the Blues’ 150th celebrations in mid-June. His formal departure at the end of the season spells trouble for club chief executive Greg Swann, who remains inexorably tied to the sacking of Brett Ratten and recruitment of Mick Malthouse, a coup seen at the time as the key to a tilt at the top four and a premiership.

Now that tilt sits in tatters and the coup exposed as an expensive and poorly conceived embarrassment. Off-field, Swann has been criticised for Carlton’s relatively poor membership but, in fact, the business at Carlton has been turned around under his reign. In an industry relatively bereft of strong club chiefs, both at corporate and football levels, he will remain sought after.

Swann, who is no longer signed to a long-term contract and knocked back an approach from St Kilda late last year, will most likely depart the club in timing of his own choosing, but it is unlikely he would have survived either way, given the horrific slide in the club’s football fortunes.

Carlton’s problems, however, cannot be solved alone by a new president and chief executive. Clearly the list requires continued and forensic transforming, but the Blues’ issues start at the top. The club remains mired in mistakes of the past and its failure to transform its board into a progressive, cohesive group of directors is an indictment on every one of them.

For close to a decade, the board has vowed to reduce its numbers and for close to a decade few have been prepared to vacate their roles for the sake of good governance. Kernahan promised the dying Richard Pratt he would take over the reins for the sake of stability back in 2008 but he, too, for whatever reason, has failed to reduce his board or to identify a worthy successor.

A push back in 2010 by some members of the Pratt family to promote vice-president Jeanne was stymied and then two years ago Ahmed Fahour and Luke Sayers were recruited. One of those was to become president after both were tested over a 12-month period but neither made it to the starting line. Sayers could not devote the time to the job and Fahour failed to command the required numbers and yet the board as a result continued to bulge.

Yet another former vice-president, Richard Newton, was deemed inappropriate, leaving entrepreneur Ryan Trainor and LoGiudice as the last men standing. The latter has commanded the numbers - and the vocal Mathieson’s nod - to win the board’s vote at its next meeting at the end of the month.

But the truth is that the board requires a radical cull, not unlike Carlton’s list. External forces have not ruled out challenging towards the end of the season with famous Carlton names such as   Tom Elliott and Fraser Brown among those who could be part of a push for a total spill of positions.

AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, who must be horrified at the Blues' fortunes this season, will definitely not be involved and will remain in the game’s top job at least until the next media-rights negotiations are complete.

Silvagni, certain to star in the club's forthcoming list of 150-year greats, has been unofficially sounded out as a list manager for the future but he remains contracted in that role at GWS until the end of 2016. The fact that at least one, and potentially all three, of Silvagni’s boys could finish up at the Blues remains a pleasant stumbling block for both its champion full-back and the club.

So the Kernahan handover will not necessarily be the end of the story where board upheaval at Carlton is concerned, but it will spell a sad farewell for the popular dual premiership captain and long-time director. Kernahan correctly fought to stick around for this, the Blues’ 150th season, in the absence of a worthy successor but his timing could not have been worse.