David King takes aim at Carlton after goalless first half in loss to Fremantle

DUAL premiership star David King says Carlton’s rebuild has found a trap door as the Blues slumped to their 18th loss from their past 20 games but coach Brendon Bolton says the club is “up for the fight”.

Brendon Bolton’s Carlton went goalless in the first half. Picture: Michael Klein

DUAL premiership star David King says Carlton’s rebuild has found a trap door as the Blues slumped to their 18th loss from their past 20 matches.

King called for the spotlight to brighten on coach Brendon Bolton after the Blues were held goalless in a first half for the first time in nine years.

The Blues trailed Fremantle 0.7 (7) to 12.5 (77) at halftime at Etihad Stadium.

MATCH REPORT: NO POSITIVES, NO EXCUSES FOR BLUES

Carlton great Mark Maclure said on ABC: “I’ve watched a lot of games in my life and that’s probably the worst half of footy I’ve ever seen from Carlton.”

Blues chief executive Cain Liddle has already ruled out asking the AFL for a priority draft pick but King said they desperately needed assistance.

“They absolutely need one, if not two,” King said at halftime on Fox Footy.

“You question the whole rebuild now. You question the philosophy. This is a club really that’s now got a percentage of 60 — coaches get sacked on those numbers.”

Carlton coach Brendon Bolton has plenty to think about as one Blues fan can’t believe what he’s seeing. Picture: Michael Klein

The Blues asked the AFL for a priority pick in 2015 but were denied.

After Round 13 the Blues percentage is 61.9. The last time they finished a season with a worse percentage was 1901.

The Dockers entered the game averaging 56-point losses on the road this season.

At halftime Triple M opened the lines and furious Blues supporters called in to vent their anger.

Some booed the players as they left the field trailing by 70 points.

“I thought the rebuild had bottomed out,” King said.

“It appears it has a trap door. This is horrific.
“I’ve been staunch with Carlton — I’ve stuck by Brendon Bolton, because he’s talked about the growth of the group.

“But you can’t put on a performance like this. They’ve been outrun, they’ve been outmuscled and by a team that’s no more experienced than them.

“The excuses are dissipating quickly. Fremantle coming to Etihad is hardly a daunting prospect historically.”

Carlton’s Kade Simpson tries to break out of the tackle of Fremantle's Lachie Neale. Picture: Michael Klein

However, Bolton said the club is “up for the fight” as it continues to work its way through a “difficult and challenging” period.

“It could have got really ugly but to the players’ credit, a bit of strong culture at halftime, they rallied each other,” Bolton said.

“So there’s a little step forward for us in that. But clearly they jumped us at the start and our response was too slow.

“We’re disappointed with it. We’ll go away as a group and ask questions around what was in the mindset early.”

Bolton said he was unaware the team was booed off the ground by supporters at halftime but said while the second half “wasn’t perfect” he hoped fans had noticed the response.

The Blues again appeared to lack leadership and game-changers which Bolton acknowledged was an issue facing the side with Marc Murphy and Sam Docherty sidelined through injury.

“They’re significant outs,” he said.

“Alex Silvagni’s in our leadership group and he’s not playing as well. So you could say there’s not enough leadership but the way we look at it it’s an opportunity to learn how to lead so that will be part of the review.”

While fielding an older and more experienced side than Fremantle, Bolton said the lowering age profile of Carlton’s list meant the rebuild would not be “linear”.

“Each year we’ve dropped the age profile significantly to get young talent in the draft,” he said.

“In essence this is our youngest year. We’re not using it as an excuse but we’ve been to the draft and we’ve done that (and) it’s been coupled with injury to some key players. Is it difficult and challenging? Yes. But we’re up for the fight and we’ll keep working our way through that.”

The Blues rallied to outscore the Dockers by 13 points in the second half.

The Dockers held nine of the first 11 contested marks, with Carlton’s two taken by full-back Liam Jones.

“They cannot take a contested mark around the ground,” Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton noted.

King said it was time “the heat comes on Carlton”.

“This is a method-less group at the moment,” King said.

“The desire is just not there. How can the desire not be there? There’s no reason for it. There’s no answers, there’s no excuses, there’s no alibis.

“All the focus has been on St Kilda — maybe it needs to correct back to Carlton.”

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