Pure Footy: David King and Daniel Hoyne lift lid on AFL trends after round 6

Carlton’s forward line issues go far beyond Harry McKay’s goalkicking yips. And some of the Blues’ biggest names are in the gun.

Carlton’s team includes the reigning Brownlow medallist and the past two Coleman medallists, but all three are part of one the Blues’ biggest problems in 2023.

The Blues have dropped their past two games and suddenly find themselves clinging to a spot in the top eight as success-starved fans start to worry their finals dream could go up in smoke again.

Harry McKay’s goalkicking issues have been well documented but the bad news for Carlton is the forward line issues go much deeper than that.

Fox Footy’s David King and Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne say the connection between the midfield and the Blues’ twin tower forwards – and between McKay and Charlie Curnow themselves – is way off where it needs to be for the Blues to get where they want to go.

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“If you think about (Patrick) Cripps, (Sam) Walsh, (Adam) Cerra, (George) Hewett and (Blake) Acres, their prime movers through the middle of the ground, they’ve been able to generate a mark to McKay and Curnow just three times for the year combined,” Hoyne said on the latest episode of Pure Footy.

“That’s a horrible return.”

Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay aren’t getting the results Blues fans want. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“Nothing’s easy in terms of Carlton and what they’re doing offensively. Even when they do generate a shot, they’re generating the hardest shots of any team in the competition.

“I don’t know if it’s the ball user’s fault or if it’s the target inside 50.”

Cripps has kicked the ball inside 50 on 19 occasions this season, for one Carlton mark.

Jesse Motlop has generated one mark from 12 inside-50 kicks and Ollie Hollands has zero marks from 15 attempts kicking inside the forward 50.

“They’re going as a team 17 per cent of kicks inside 50 are getting marked – only Gold Coast and North Melbourne are poorer,” King said.

His solution is to move quality distributor Adam Saad into the midfield and to ask Curnow and McKay to swap roles in the team.

“I would challenge Charlie Curnow to become Jeremy Cameron and play that role (up the ground), and have Harry McKay play the (Tom) Hawkins role and stay close to goal,” King said.

“Something needs to change, and change quickly.”

In contrast to the Blues, Tom Hawkins alone has taken eight marks inside 50 from Patrick Dangerfield kicks this season.

King and Hoyne revealed another surprising Dangerfield kicking stat, why Collingwood is so hard to beat, how Melbourne has solved its forward issues and the ruckman who has to stop grabbing the ball from ball-ups and throw-ins.