Carlton’s list issues exposed by Hawthorn as Michael Voss confronts Blues nightmare
Carlton aren’t a team that typically sit on their hands when things aren’t going well. Yet another loss to the Hawks means it’s make or break time for Michael Voss, writes Scott Gullan.
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Eighteen months ago Carlton played the most electric 30 minutes of football in recent memory, blitzing Brisbane in the opening quarter of the preliminary final at the Gabba.
History shows the Lions eventually reeled them in and then a year later went onto win a flag.
Carlton were supposed to bounce off that disappointment, reload with the mouth-watering Charlie Curnow-Harry McKay forward combination as their premiership window had been thrown wide open.
Instead the Blues have headed in the opposite direction and on the evidence of the opening two rounds seem to be going backwards at a rate of knots.
Questions need to be asked about what has happened to that preliminary final excitement machine because right now Carlton are a long way from it.
They are devoid of run, devoid of any notion of taking a risk, of moving the ball with speed, or even just simply handballing to a teammate to get the ball moving in the right direction.
So many Carlton players are going by the philosophy that if I just put my head down, kick the ball as high and far out of my area as possible then it becomes someone else’s problem.
The man whose problem it has become is coach Michael Voss.
Voss got a lot of credits in the bank for that stunning run to the final four in 2023 but lost a few for last year’s ordinary season — they were lucky to finish eighth — and now he just might be in the red.
How he gets this team out of this hole will either make or break him as a coach because historically Carlton aren’t a club which sits around on its hands if mediocrity becomes the norm.
Right now, it is.
JUST GIVE IT
What is Carlton’s game plan?
Their ball movement, particularly out of defence, lacks any sort of system and basically their theory is let Patrick Cripps win the contested ball in the stoppages and then everyone kicks it on the head of Curnow.
Hawthorn are a very good kicking team so the last thing you want to do is give the ball to them easily which is exactly what you do when Curnow — who was without his partner in crime McKay after he was a late withdrawal through illness — is double-teamed and having to compete with three elite intercept defenders in Hawks skipper James Sicily and new recruits Josh Battle and Tom Barrass.
The stats told the story of the two different game styles.
Hawthorn had 55 more disposals and were +41 handballs which screams elite ball movement and playing on at all costs. They owned the uncontested possession count +56 (215-159) and were also +25 on marks with 13-5 inside 50 marks.
As usual the Blues won it in tight and off the back of two-time Brownlow Medallist Cripps they were +12 in clearances, +11 in stoppage clearances and won the contested possession count.
The one time Carlton decided to move the football quickly resulted in their best passage of play. It came early in the second quarter when Adam Saad took off from half-back, had a bounce and kicked long to a one-on-one between Zac Williams and Changkuoth Jiath.
Williams had the sit on his opponent because of the fast ball movement and expertly edged Jiath underneath the drop and then easily ran into an open goal.
That moment came during the Blues best patch of the game where they kicked five consecutive goals to take the lead at half-time.
They had a crack which was something they hadn’t done in the second half the previous week against Richmond but the fact Voss was talking that up after the match won’t go down well with Blues fans.
“They turned up their intensity a bit, started asking questions, but I was pretty happy with our fight,” Voss said.
“There was a fair bit of determination within our group throughout the night.
“I don’t know, moments, take a contested mark, maybe there’s an inside 50 we don’t quite hit or a goal we don’t quite finish.
“Often in those games that’s what it comes down to, they come down to moments, there was plenty of swings in that game.
“There was some swings that went in our favour and some that went in Hawthorn’s favour, both teams were able to swing it back.
“I can’t ignore they were able to execute for a bit longer at times and it was probably the difference in the end.”
What also can’t be ignored is that Voss has only won two of his last 11 matches with Carlton’s only victories since July last year coming against North Melbourne and the West Coast Eagles.
Ouch.
BUCKS WAS RIGHT
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley didn’t miss his arch rival in the lead-up to the season when he declared the Blues wouldn’t make the finals because the depth of their list is full of “real grinders and battlers”.
“They’ve got talented players whose best is A-grade but I think their lower level hasn’t been able to come up to speed,” Buckley said.
The proof of Bucks’ observation was in the pudding on Thursday night with the lack of skill — and chronic fumbling — by Carlton’s bottom 10 players exposed against the slick Hawks.
Lewis Young started horribly by being non-competitive in the first 20 seconds which gave Mabior Chol the opening goal of the match and then he got worse.
There was a reason Nick Haynes wasn’t getting a game for the Giants over the past couple of years while Sam Docherty’s comeback to football has been heart-warming but he had some very poor moments on Thursday night.
Lachie Fogarty, Brodie Kemp and Matthew Cottrell are battlers, Jesse Motlop lifted in the second half but can make some shocking blues while Zac Williams kicked two goals but doesn’t get enough of it.
Then there is Mitch McGovern who is a perennial frustration and one who Bucks singled out as having “massive doubts” about. He did nothing to change that perception against the Hawks.
With Sam Walsh clearly suffering from missing a chunk of the pre-season, there really isn’t much to get excited about although at least Adam Cerra (28 possessions and one goal) did step up with an improved showing.
But once again soon to be out-of-contract ruckman Tom De Koning was the stand-out with 19 touches, 40 hit-outs and seven clearances. Imagine if they didn’t have him . . . hang on, they might not next year.
And that is Michael Voss’ worst nightmare.
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