As the club's new head of list management and strategy, Silvagni will remove himself from any discussions about whether the Blues recruit any of his three sons, starting with eldest son Jack, who is eligible to be drafted by the club in 2015.

"We'll look at everything to make sure we can build a list that's going to be a premiership team and that's going to take some time, but we're going to try and get there as quickly as possible," Silvagni said at the Thursday news conference announcing his long-anticipated appointment.

In confirming Silvagni's return to the club that he had grown up around and played at for 17 years, Carlton chief executive Steven Trigg said the club had to "hold its nerve" and build with youth, but that the Blues would be in a position to bring in free agents - at the right price - from 2016 and 2017.

Silvagni, who starts on January 19, will report to football chief and ex-team mate Andrew McKay and will work with Carlton's head of recruiting Shane Rogers. The Blues are unlikely to change their recruiting staff in the short-term and are expected to focus initially on drafting youngsters.

Silvagni said he and Trigg had established ground rules for dealings with his three sons and that he would not be involved.

"Steven and I have addressed that situation in terms of the father-son situation and clearly we've got to make sure that, number one, the boys are good enough to play and secondly they've got to want to play.

"If they are good enough, I'm removed from that decision process. I want to make that clear. I'll step away from that and ultimately that will be left up the rest of the recruiting department and Andrew McKay."

Silvagni said that while he had always harboured a wish to one day return to Carlton, he had believed it important to work in other environments, as he had at four clubs (St Kilda, Collingwood, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs) in coaching roles before becoming Greater Western Sydney's foundation list manager.

"I think it's important to go away and learn from another club, another environment and, having said that, I've got this opportunity now and I feel as though I'm ready for it," he said, calling his task at Visy Park "a huge challenge".

Trigg described Silvagni's unique pedigree - father Sergio played 239 games for the club, while he played in 312 for two flags and was the AFL's full-back of the century  - as "a fringe benefit" of the appointment, which was based on Silvagni's skill set and experience.

"Stephen is perfect because he's been at four different clubs since his time at Carlton," Trigg said.

"He's perfect for it because he has played, coached, been involved directly in list management, been exposed to a number of different environments.

"It wasn't about contacts, friendships, Carlton background. It was about being able to get this job done the best we possibly can."

Silvagni, who recently quit as list manager at GWS, has not had a role at Carlton since a short-lived stint on the club board more than a decade ago, which saw some acrimony between him and the previous board headed by John Elliott.

"That is history," said Silvagni, when asked about the "fallout" between him and the then Carlton hierarchy. "People talk about fallout; I don't think there was that much fallout, to be honest.

"Ultimately, my choice was to always go and do something outside of Carlton at the time, which I have done.

"I've always been a Carlton person, I never stopped going to watch Carlton games, I've taken my boys to watch Carlton games and it's always been close to my heart."

Silvagni has a close relationship with new Blues president Mark LoGiudice.

Trigg said the Blues were on a youth track, but had decided not to "start again" completely. "It's really fundamentally clear that Carlton does need to build steadily, hold its nerve, build the list with some youth."

He said the Blues were "really jammed up right now" in terms of salary cap for 2015, adding, "We could have taken the approach that we strip it right back and start again, but to be excessively vulnerable doesn't create much success.

Asked whether the club would pursue the likes of Adelaide free agent Paddy Dangerfield, Trigg said: "Our ability to then build on that in '16 and '17 with free agency - whether it's a star from another state or this state - remains to be seen. But, you know, our capacity to be able to do something in short in '16 and '17 is very live, so long as we're very disciplined about what we do in managing our current list, up to that point, TPP-wise."

Meanwhile, three prominent Carlton board members will be re-elected unopposed, with vice-president Jeanne Pratt, Zac Fried and football director and 1987 premiership player Adrian Gleeson all to be elected at the coming annual meeting. Pratt is the widow of former president and billionaire Richard Pratt, while Fried is the scion of the wealthy Fried family, which owns Spotlight stores.