Carlton coach Michael Voss insists the Blues showed “massive improvement” in loss to the Western Bulldogs

Carlton’s season looks consigned to the scrap heap but Michael Voss can see some positives after another loss in a must-win game.

Marc Pittonet tackled by Tom Liberatore.

Carlton’s season looks consigned to the scrap heap after the Western Bulldogs overcame a serious late challenge to claim an 21-point win at Marvel Stadium.

The Blues were booed by their own fans for the second week in a row after a diabolical first half which yielded only one goal, but they piled on six consecutive majors after the main break to snatch the lead midway through the final term.

But the Bulldogs hit back with a four-goal streak of their own, with Arthur Jones snapping superbly from 40m to put his side back in front before Bailey Smith streamed forward to snuff the Blues’ hopes from outside the 50m arc.

Despite the loss, Carlton coach Michael Voss insists the Blues showed “massive improvement” in key areas of their game against the Bulldogs despite succumbing to back-to-back losses.

A raft of poor forward entries and sloppy finishing remain key issues for the Blues, but Voss said there were signs of the game looking more like how Carlton wanted it to look than in previous weeks.

Caleb Daniel collars Sam Docherty. Picture: Michael Klein

He said he was not looking further ahead than next week’s blockbuster clash with Collingwood as the Blues enter a difficult run of games featuring Sydney at the SCG, Melbourne and Essendon.

“Generally there was a massive improvement on what we’re trying to create,” Voss said when asked about the Blues’ perceived ball movement issues.

“I thought we took our moments when we needed to, we took it offline when we needed to.

“We were able to string some great passages of play together, but it still requires a finish at the end, and I think in the first half we were running at seven per cent scores per entry, that’s just way too tight, compared to how they got a couple of goals in the second quarter just against the run of play a little bit.”

Anthony Scott hurt the Blues with two goals in two minutes before halftime, while Rory Lobb inflicted the same amount of damage with a pair of set shot goals on the other side of the break.

“That can hurt a fair bit, because you’ve worked so hard to get to your end and score more but they were up the other end twice and scored two goals from those two entries,” Voss said.

Lobb spent significant periods of the first half on a wing and was one of a number of Bulldogs who dropped back to block the space in front of star forwards Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow.

Michael Voss is under pressure. Picture: Michael Klein

The Carlton coach said it was not an unusual problem to face but admitted it had affected the Blues’ decision making entering their forward 50.

“They had a lot of density back across the entire game, it was clear they came in trying to fill that up, so our re-entry role against the numbers was a little bit of hard work, but that’s not unusual, it’s always hard to score when you’re looking at a bunch of opposition,” he said.

“(We will) try and strip away some of the emotion, some of the disappointment from the performance, and go to work at it.

“Most of the game we had some parts of the game where we walked away and thought that looks more like us, but it wasn’t long enough.”

SCOREBOARD

BLUES 0.3, 1.4, 5.8, 8.10 (58)

BULLDOGS 2.2, 4.4, 6.10, 11.13 (79)

ED BOURKE’S BEST
Blues: Walsh, Newman, Pittonet, Kennedy, Docherty, Cripps.
Bulldogs: Liberatore, Smith, Dale, Richards, Johannisen, L Jones.

GOALS
Blues: Owies 3, C Curnow 2, Durdin, Hewett, Walsh.
Bulldogs: Scott 3, Lobb 2, Johannisen, Naughton, Liberatore, A Jones, Smith, Ugle-Hagan.

UMPIRES Deboy, Donlon, Johanson, Stephens.

INJURIES Blues: none. Bulldogs: none.

CROWD 42,756 at Marvel Stadium

BOURKE’S VOTES

3. T. Liberatore (WB)

2. B. Smith (WB)

1. S. Walsh (Car)

Originally published as Carlton coach Michael Voss insists the Blues showed “massive improvement” in loss to the Western Bulldogs