Carlton accused of lacking passion for the jumper after a humiliating defeat to Brisbane

TWO-TIME premiership player David King has lashed Carlton as playing passionateless and spiritless football in the wake of their loss to Brisbane, which all but confirmed another wooden spoon.

Caleb Marchbank under pressure from Tom Cutler.

TWO-TIME premiership player David King has lashed Carlton as playing passionateless and spiritless football.

The Blues suffered a massive loss at the hands of the Lions on Saturday, falling by 65 points at the Gabba.

It marks the first time in the club’s history that it has been 1-14.

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“(To lose by) 65 points to a team that has won two games for the year ... that’s the bottom line,” King said.

“It’s easy for us to sit back and whack the club. It really is, and we’ve done it a couple of times this season - there’s no doubt about that. But the way they played today ... it just lacked effort, it lacked a real spirit, a real passion for the jumper.

“Brisbane took 147 marks, they kicked the ball at 80 per cent - this is hardly the Harlem Globetrotters. They are taking some big steps forward ... they’ve been great.

Charlie Curnow attempts to mark against Brisbane.

“But this was a game they were supposed to be competitive in.”

Carlton coach Brendon Bolton admitted the club had a lot of work to do after another losing season.

“We’ve been impacted significantly — particularly down back — with injuries,” he said.

“Moving forward we’ll continue to challenge this group, in and around basic fundamentals — and I thought they were low (against Brisbane) — chains of ball movement, we were out and didn’t capitalise.

“We’ve got to work and keep chipping away at that and work strongly on our defensive action. But our group needs to hear that we’re going to try and be defined by pressure.

“That’s something that we’re not going away from and we’ll stay united as a footy club.

“It’s been inconsistent and we’ve got to work really hard at it. Really hard. We’re disappointed and we’ll challenge hard and we’ll work hard.”

King said he believed Carlton fans would be justified to question the Blues hierarchy in a situation he described has now become a “full club” issue.

Hugh McCluggage is tackled high by Nick Graham.

“Right now, the Carlton fans ... they’re sitting back saying ‘have we got our man? Is Brendon Bolton the man?’. And that’s the easy question,” he said on Fox Footy.

“But I think this is a full club discussion now. We need to hear from Steven Silvagni. Has he put this path together correctly? Are they following the vision according to Steven? The president - Mark LoGiudice. He needs to come out and say ‘OK, he’s definitely our man, Brendon, we’re going forward and this is where we’re at’.

“It’s too hard for Brendon to stand out in front of a media throng week-in, week-out, after performances like this. Something’s got to give.”

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Originally published as Carlton accused of lacking passion for the jumper after a humiliating defeat to Brisbane