AFL Round 12 Melbourne v Carlton: 10th straight season without finals looms for Carlton as Demons beat Blues by 17 points

The fatal flaw in Carlton’s performances bit them once again against Melbourne on Friday night, as time runs out on the Blues to turn their season around.

Harry McKay and Patrick Cripps celebrate a goal.

Sam Docherty calls it the “ticking time bomb” that threatens to detonate Carlton’s season as the Blues attempt to unpick the wires to their skill execution woes and scoring malaise before the whole thing goes up in smoke.

It’s going to take some unravelling … as frustrated coach Michael Voss conceded after the game, acknowledging time is rapidly running out on the Blues’ 2023 season.

A seventh loss from its past eight games, and with a King’s Birthday Eve clash with Essendon, Carlton is teetering on the brink and now likely to miss out on a 10th successive finals series unless Voss and his team can swiftly change the narrative.

Docherty maintains that change can happen, but unless it happens soon, a season that started with great expectations will only end in more heartache for Blues fans.

“It’s a results-based industry, that’s part of it,” Docherty said in the Carlton rooms after Friday night’s 17-point loss to Melbourne.

“We come into each week and try to be a better side. There is stuff we have been able to correct throughout the year … we’ve fixed our contest up, we are starting to be a good defensive side, but that ticking time bomb of the score on the board is costing us at the moment. I think everyone can see that.”

The Blues once again failed to put a score on the board. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

At times on Friday night the Blues’ players looked paralysed in fear … not of the contest, but of making mistakes.

It became contagious.

Too many players froze when they should have gone forward fast; too many handballed in hope when the more effective option was to kick; too many hesitated in indecision when a more daring approach might have led to a more decisive outcome.

And until they can shed that fear of making a mistake, they will keep making them. Again and again.

Voss agreed that the Blues were “just playing too tight. We know this game is imperfect. It’s made up of mistakes and errors and (you must) be willing to take risks at the right times … but it was just way too safe early.”

“We’ve had patches like that when we really challenged, but it’s just too inconsistent (now).

“We’re fighting, but we’re forcing, and it’s making it look really hard.”

There was a sense of hurt and frustration in the Blues’ rooms after the Demons’ loss, but at least there were no fiery board blow-ups as was the case in Sydney last week which led to Craig Mathieson’s departure.

President Luke Sayers and fellow board member David Kennedy chatted calmly to chief executive Brian Cook in the middle of the rooms as the players and the coaches were behind closed doors in a team meeting.

When the group finally emerged a few moments later, a handful of senior players engaged with the trio as the rest of the team filtered off towards their families in the back of the rooms.

Skill execution has hampered the Blues all season long. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Blues say they remain committed to Voss, who is contracted for next year. But the coach conceded after the loss that the sand in the club’s 2023 hourglass is fast running out.

“It’s fast closing,” Voss said of the window to what seems now like an unlikely finals dream with the Blues sitting on four wins, a draw and seven losses.

“Here’s the brutal facts: we’re not good enough at the moment.”

“We just have to accept parts (of the game) that we’re not (good enough). We’ve played against some really good opposition and that’s the feedback we’ve got.”

Harry McKay gave a glimpse into how you can change the narrative from one week to the next. He spoke about his goalkicking yips during the week, and how the fact that it impacts on those around him, including his parents, only served to make it worse.

But he flipped that script early in the game, kicking an angle goal early in the game that brought a smile to his face and to his mum’s, and it seemed for a time to galvanise his teammates.

He finished with 3.2, and was one of the Blues’ best players on a tough night for the team.

The Blues kept Melbourne to their lowest score of the season; the only problem was that they too kicked their lowest score of the season.

Their last four-game scoring tallies – 59, 57, 51 and 44 – reads more like a suburban hackers’ golf card for nine holes instead of an elite AFL team’s scoreline across a month. It must get better.

Docherty said: “Defensively, we held one of the better scoring teams to a low score … in a very scrappy game.”

“(But) it is a story of a lot of our year … we just can’t execute moving forward and put a score that is going to win a game on the board.

“It is a tough one to swallow. But we (have to) get back on the horse.”

Harry McKay was a shining light for the Blues, as he returned to some good form. Photo by Michael Klein.

But has that horse already bolted in 2023?

And if the horse has bolted, why not cast an eye towards next year, rather than keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

They need to start experimenting with personnel, positional set-ups and systems. It might be worth the risk – if not this for this year, then for 2024.

Something has to change.

How else can you explain how their disposal efficiency on Friday was running at 75.3% while their efficiency inside 50 was anchored on 41%?

Or why the Blues’ inside 50 disposal count was -29 compared to the Demons?

Or why so many of their midfielders – who are meant to be the connectors with their attack – revert back to handball (and not good ones) more often than they should?

Or why so many broken tackles and dropped marks became almost a navy blue epidemic at stages of Friday night?

So many of Carlton’s issues are above the shoulder at the moment … which makes Voss’ job of pushing his players a delicate balancing act. Yes, he needs to push and push hard to drive standards, but he knows it also runs the risk of blunting their confidence even further.

Carlton have routinely been wasteful entering their attacking fifty all season. Photo by Michael Klein.

After all, the one area the Blues had been holding up this season had been the contest.

Even that wavered on Friday night, with Carlton being -29 in contested possessions, -11 in tackles, -9 in clearances, -10 in stoppages and ultimately -20 in inside 50s.

Docherty says that the application comes back to the players, not the coach.

“I think the system we are trying to run is going to work and it has shown that it has worked (on occasions),” he said. “But that execution level is on us as players.”

“Us, as players, need to take the brunt of it. We are the ones out on the field … it is on us to go out and execute the plan and execute the skills.”

Voss: Mathieson’s departure ‘show of strength’ as Blues’ woes persist

Carlton coach Michael Voss has urged his struggling club to “stick together” after a tumultuous week for the Blues was capped off with another loss on Friday night to Melbourne at the MCG.

The all-too-familiar tale of off-field instability reared its head again for Carlton on Monday when club director Craig Mathieson stepped down from the board after reportedly being at the centre of a verbal altercation in the rooms following their loss to Sydney last weekend.

But Voss didn’t think the board room tension was impacting his players’ performance, and actually saw the drama as a positive.

“I thought it was a great show of strength from the club about what we need moving forward,” Voss said of Mathieson’s departure.

“We’re going through a tough spot, and form comes and goes, but you need to be able to get busy leading through it, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“We’re trying to provide some guidance, we have to stay really connected and stick together as a footy club, and on other end we’re going to be a much better version of ourselves, but it’s going to mean that we’ve got to stick together on this one.”

The Blues once again struggled to put a score on the board as their lean run continued. Photo by Michael Klein.

Voss also played down the significance of an incorrect media report during the week which claimed captain Patrick Cripps and former co-captain Sam Docherty stayed at a different hotel to the other players while up in Sydney last week.

“Clearly what’s being said or written about us, we don’t get to control that, what we get to control is how we perform,” Voss said.

“From a performance perspective we’re just not meeting our expectations at the moment in the way we want to be able to play and that’s what we should value more than anything else.”

Voss conceded that his team’s finals window is “fast closing” after they slumped to their seventh loss from eight matches against the Demons.

The Blues will slip to 14th on the ladder by the end of the weekend with a woeful 4-7-1 record, and could be as much as 2.5 games out of the top eight with 11 matches left in the season.

“Here’s the brutal facts: we’re not good enough at the moment,” he said.

“We just have to accept parts that we’re not. We’ve played against some really good opposition and that’s the feedback we’ve got.”

Carlton’s score of 6.8 (44) was their lowest in almost two years, and they have now averaged under seven goals in their past four games.

Voss admitted it was hard to keep his players’ spirits up while their attacking potency worsens as the season unfolds, thanks largely to their stagnant and unimaginative ball movement.

“Eventually you need that part because that’s the exciting part of the game, when you get your chance, you challenge, and we’ve found it difficult to challenge,” Voss said.

“We’re just playing too tight. We know that this game is imperfect, it’s made up of mistakes and errors and willing to be able to take risk at right times.

“We’re fighting, but we’re forcing, and it’s making it look really hard.”

Voss praised the team; s fight but admitted his team has a fear of mistakes. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Voss “absolutely” agreed that the fear of making mistakes and reluctance to take the game on was a self-perpetuating issue within the team.

“Because when one person does it, it becomes infectious and contagious and the next person turns up and wants to do it,” Voss said.

“That connection piece around the way we move the ball at the moment is falling down.”

The Carlton coach said he was always looks at different ways during the week to find what “the hook” might be to break the cycle and unlock his team’s potential on match day.

“We’re well and truly in that process of getting after what we need to be able to do (to improve), just all of it hasn’t transferred yet (to match day),” Voss said.

“Every week I’ve walked in here (the ground on match day) and I’ve thought this is the week that it’s going to transfer, and it hasn’t quite gone to plan.”

Scoreboard

DEMONS 3.3, 5.6, 7.11, 8.13 (61)

BLUES 1.2, 2.5, 5.6, 6.8 (44)

LERNER’S BEST Demons: Petracca, May, Fritsch, Langdon, Lever, Hunter, McVee. Blues: McKay, Cerra, Cripps, Docherty, Young, Weitering.

GOALS Demons: Fritsch 2, Petracca, Neal-Bullen, Pickett, Spargo, van Rooyen, Gawn. Blues: McKay 3, Acres, C.Curnow, Fisher.

INJURIES Demons: Bowey (concussion). Blues: Silvagni (hip).

UMPIRES Donlon, Stephens, Findlay, O’Gorman

VENUE MCG

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

LERNER’S VOTES

3 Christian Petracca (Melb)

2 Steven May (Melb)

1 Harry McKay (Carl)

Voss’ cheeky clap back at McKay trade calls

– Glenn McFarlane

Carlton coach Michael Voss has taken a light-hearted dig at his Brisbane Lions premiership teammate and friend Jonathan Brown over his claims that the Blues must consider trading Harry McKay to Sydney.

Voss said Brown’s assessment was “a hot take” and “way off the mark”, saying it was a comment that didn’t help the situation.

Speaking on Triple M before Friday night’s clash against Melbourne, Voss also said the leadership and backing of president Luke Sayers and chief executive Brian Cook, and the support of his players, have reinforced his belief the Blues can turn around a frustrating past two months.

Brown said this week that the Blues should be on the phone to the Swans offering up McKay, whose goalkicking accuracy has been under intense pressure this season.

Brown said on Fox Footy this week: “Knowing Carlton have got a lot of deficiencies in all areas of the ground, if I was in charge of Carlton, I’d absolutely be open to picking up the phone to Sydney and saying: ‘Hey boys, would you like Harry McKay? Would you like your next big marquee up there?’ “It benefits both!”

McKay has a lucrative long-term deal with the club until the end of 2030.

But Voss laughed Brown’s comments off, saying: “He (Brown) was on Fox Footy just before and I said, ‘Mate what are you doing? C’mon Browny, seriously?’

“Of course, it is tongue in cheek. You would think he (Brown) never had poor form in his whole career.

“That doesn’t help, those sort of comments don’t help. It is a bit of a ‘hot take’.”

Harry McKay celebrates a 1st quarter goal with Patrick Cripps. Photo by Michael Klein.

Voss said the Blues had been working with McKay in recent weeks on his goalkicking and he was confident that – like Carlton’s form – it would turn in the coming weeks.

McKay explained the pressures of his wayward kicking for goal — and its impact on those close to him — on his podcast this week.

He scored a goal with his first shot at goal on Friday night, nailing a kick from an acute angle that had him smiling again as he was embraced by teammates.

“‘H’ (McKay) has gone to work on himself and we move on and we hope it translates into some good form,” Voss said.

“He has got to be in a space where he feels safe enough to be able to share that (his anxieties). There have been some discussions we have had with him over the last couple of weeks, helping (him) to navigate through that.

“He has a little period of time he has got to work through, and you tend to lean on your strengths in this period of time, and if that means he needs to be able to get up the ground to be able to get the ball and that is part of his strengths, but he can also reset and get back inside 50 and maximise that strength as well.”