AFL Carlton v Brisbane: Five issues Blues must address to make finals

Carlton’s midfield is led by the reigning Brownlow medallist and one of the game’s best young players. So, why has it become a problem? Glenn McFarlane names five areas the Blues must lift.

It was the Friday night prime-time audit that showed Carlton coach Michael Voss – and the Blues fans who stuck it out the last quarter – that their side is still a long way short of the elite AFL teams.

So what can Voss and his team do about it as they stare down a six-week stretch to the mid-season bye that will define whether this is yet another season of disappointment or whether they can make the finals for the first time in a decade?

The Blues will face Western Bulldogs, Collingwood, Sydney, Melbourne, Essendon and Gold Coast before the bye.

Voss insisted after Friday’s 26-point loss to Brisbane that his players were ready to don the navy blue overalls and get to work.

“That’s what it showed us,” Voss said when asked if the Blues were off the mark. “That doesn’t mean we won’t go back on Monday and get to work and get into our next game.”

Here are five things Voss and the Blues need to work on or run the risk of missing out on September again.

Michael Voss has a number of issues to address. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

FIX SLOW-BALL MOVEMENT

Nothing infuriates footy fans than boring, slow ball movement, especially now in an age where fast and furious looks to be the escalator towards success.

Carlton is a case in point and must make some in-season ball movement tweaks if it wants to be more competitive against the best teams.

Whether the Blues have the skills required to handle that fast movement remains a question mark, but if they don’t try it – and soon – a season that started with so much promise might once more amount to nothing more than disappointment and frustration.

Adding some dare and flair to their game might give a player a bit more empowerment, if they can execute it by hand and foot.

It seemed to work in the opening quarter against the Lions, but then the Blues went back into their slow ball movement shell.

When the game was effectively over early in the last term, they brought some speed back to the game and they looked better and less predictable.

Blues fans must be wondering why they can’t play that style for a whole game.

GIVE CHARLIE AND HARRY A CHANCE

It seems almost inconceivable that Carlton has the past two Coleman Medal winners yet in the past 20 games the Blues have only kicked over 100 points on three occasions.

Two came against undermanned West Coast sides; the other was against North Melbourne.

This has less to do with Charlie Curnow – who has kicked 31 goals in eight games – and Harry McKay – 10 in eight games – than it has to do with the supply line into the forwards.

On Friday night, the Blues’ ball carriers did Curnow and McKay no favours and this related back to the slow game style but also its poor foot skills and decision-making.

On at least two occasions McKay was frustrated almost to the point of exasperation when he was overlooked by a player going forward after he had found a gap on Harris Andrews.

As former Magpie distributor Dane Swan said on Twitter: “I’m no expert, but I’m not sure why when you have 2 dominant key fwds (forwards) that you move the ball slow and wide instead of trying to get the ball in quick to give them a 1-on-1.”

Harry McKay wasn’t helped by the ball movement last night. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

FIX THE THIRD QUARTER ISSUES

The term ‘premiership quarter’ was coined to describe the third-term dominance of Carlton’s famed back-to-back premiership teams of 1981-82.

But this current Blues team is seriously struggling in third terms, which is often seen as the platform for success for good teams.

The comparisons of Carlton’s third-quarter wipe-out against the Lions on Friday night and a similar slip-up after halftime against St Kilda was unmistakeable.

They got plenty of the ball and were competitive on most measurements – except for two key ones.

The first was the scoreboard; and just as telling, the second was metres gained differential.

On Friday night, in the third term, the Blues were -462 metres gained (a tally of 1102 to 1564) as they went goalless against Brisbane’s 5.2.

In all of the other quarters they were essentially equal in metres gained.

It was the same against the Saints. That third term differential was -383, which was almost 100 more than their overall game differential, as the Saints kicked 5.4 to 1.3.

Patrick Cripps had a quiet night. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

SHAKE UP THE MIDFIELD MIX

Carlton’s midfield is talent-laden but it has a sense of sameness about it at the moment. Maybe it is time for a few tweaks.

As Adam Cooney pointed out on SEN, the Blues need to experiment in trying to find some extra leg speed at centre bounces.

“It looked laboursome and a little bit slow in terms of their sameness,” Cooney said of the midfield performance against the Lions. “You need one or two players to break the lines.”

In fairness, Sam Walsh will be that explosive player when he gets some more game time into him. He’s only played four matches since his return from a back injury.

Patrick Cripps had a rare off night.

Voss was reluctant to make excuses for his mids on Friday night, but the skipper was a little sore before the West Coast game, so that could have been an issue too.

Given the backline struggled on Friday night, and at times it looks like it is ‘Adam Saad or bust’ in terms of halfback distribution, it might be dangerous to throw the explosive halfback into a few centre bounces.

But who knows? It might be a masterstroke, just to mix things up two or three times a game! It’s worth a punt.

MAKE THE FANS A WEAPON

Let’s get one thing straight, anyone who pays to attend an AFL game has the right to come and go as they please.

We get the frustration of Carlton fans who have had to sit through countless false dawns since their last premiership 28 years ago.

They are passionate and impatient, and that’s fair enough.

But if the Blues can get some of their frustrated fans to stick around in games for longer when they are getting beaten, instead of leaving at three-quarter-time as many did on Friday night, maybe they might have access to a weapon.

Just ask Collingwood!

The Magpies have been out of games and almost out on their feet in numerous matches across the past 18 months before being “empowered” by the support of the fans late in games.

Magpie players have spoken about the power of support from the stands as being almost like an extra man at times in the dying moments of tight clashes.

Sure the Blues had almost played themselves out of the game on Friday night. But as they clawed back to within 19 points at one stage of the last quarter with time still left on the clock, an extra few thousands in the stands might have helped them out.