Dismal Carlton crumbles to 93-point loss against ruthless Greater Western Sydney

Embattled Carlton coach Brendon Bolton insists he won’t let outside pressure bring him down as he braces to face the music over his future. Meanwhile, a Brownlow Medallist has whacked the Blues for their lack of effort.

Embattled Carlton coach Brendon Bolton insists he won’t let outside pressure bring him down as he braces to face the music over his future.

Bolton is now staring down the barrel of a fight for survival following Sunday’s catastrophic 93-point loss to GWS which has left the Blues anchored to the bottom of the table with a dismal 1-8 record.

Carlton famously axed their last coach Mick Malthouse after just eight rounds, and although the circumstances involving Bolton are markedly different, the Blues’ four-year rebuild project appears back at square one.

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Bolton, 40, admitted Sunday’s humiliating capitulation, coming just two weeks after a 58-point pummelling to North Melbourne, was the “worst of” Carlton, and understands he will now be put under an intense spotlight.

“I understand the business. I’ve been in it a little while. Today our group didn’t deliver. You’ve seen the worst side of Carlton,” said Bolton.

“You’ve seen some of the better efforts in the last few weeks. But our job is about being consistent and when you don’t, external pressure comes.

The pressure will come for Brendon Bolton. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“We as a group are really united on our direction going forward and my job, is to make sure that we talk about how to improve.

“I can’t let the outside infiltrate.

“We know that we’ll get some criticism for this game. Deservedly so. But that can’t blur what we’re doing and how we go about it.

“That’s my job as a leader but our club as a united front needs to continue to do that.”

The Blues rallied well after the North Melbourne thrashing to push Collingwood, but it’s clear the build-up of defeats is starting to take its toll.

Superstar midfielder Patrick Cripps was completely silenced by uncompromising Giants tagger Matt de Boer, and his 12 disposals must surely rank as one of the lowest outputs of his career.

Carlton look like a one-man-band, and with Cripps taken out of the game, no one stood up to fill the void.

“It’s sort of like one step forward, a couple back at the moment,” said Bolton.

“It’s a difficult explanation. Our challenge is to aspire to and be a team at that level that we faced today (in GWS).

“I think we can help Cripper out a little bit more than what we did today.”

Bolton said Marc Murphy was taken to hospital for scans on a rib injury, but refused to weigh in on whether Giants ruckman Shane Mumford should face scrutiny for the challenge, where he appeared to collect the former Blues captain with his knees in a tackle.

“I haven’t looked at it in totality,” he said. “had a quick glance and just saw a collision where Mummy charged into the contest but I didn’t look at it tight enough to see if there’s anything more in it.”

Giants coach Leon Cameron said his information – without having seen the tape himself – was that Mumford had nothing to worry about.

Carlton players leave the field after Sunday’s loss. Picture: Getty Images

COONEY SLAMS BLUES’ EFFORT

Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney says Carlton allowed GWS to ‘do whatever they please’ as the Giants romped to a 93-point humiliation on Sunday at Giants Stadium.

The bottom of the ladder Blues, who pushed flag favourite Collingwood in Round 8, were blown away by a relentless GWS hellbent on rebounding from its loss to Hawthorn last weekend.

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Key forward Harry McKay kicked the opening goal of the game for Carlton but there was little else to smile about for Blues fans as the Giants stormed to a 20.19 (138) to 7.3 (45) victory.

“The Giants just were allowed to do whatever they pleased,” Cooney said.

“There was no blocking, they overlapped, a lot of run, plenty of dash, plenty of dare and a lot more workrate than Carlton were able to put in.”

Cooney said the Blues players would be shell-shocked after being belted from the opening minutes.

Carlton players show their disappointment after a hiding against GWS. Picture. Phil Hillyard

“As a player, you sit down when you have a loss like that and you think, how has that happened?” Cooney said on SEN.

“When you’re playing, you actually think you’re giving your all. You think that you’re running as hard as you can and you think that you’re hard at the footy.

“It’s not until you sit down on a Monday or a Tuesday and you look back. at the vision and you see the behind-the-goals vision of yourself in the middle of the ground and you watch one GWS player run past you, you watch two GWS players run past you and you’re jogging.

“You think, ‘hang on, that’s not good enough’. How many times did we see that today? Lachie Whitfield, Tim Taranto just cruise past Carlton players through the middle of the ground.”

The horror show was compounded by former captain Marc Murphy being taken to hospital after a heavy hit from Giants ruckman Shane Mumford.

Mumford clattered into Murphy late in the first quarter and the Blues midfielder had to be helped from the field by trainers.

Marc Murphy was assisted off the field after this clash with Shane Mumford. #AFLGiantsBlues pic.twitter.com/uD5ZHq3SZi

— AFL (@AFL) May 19, 2019

“This is extremely aggressive contact from big Mummy and the fact that Marc Murphy has limped from the ground and been taken to hospital, I think the Giants will be very nervous with what the medical report is going to say,” Fox Footy commentator Alastair Lynch said.

Vision showed a frustrated Patrick Cripps, who was kept to 12 disposals by tagger Matt De Boer, appearing to jumper punch Giant Jeremy Finlayson.

“He’s shouldered so much responsibility and load and he needs another big body in there to help him desperately,” Cooney said.

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Originally published as Dismal Carlton crumbles to 93-point loss against ruthless Greater Western Sydney