Inside Carlton’s meltdown: Big weaknesses, ‘silly errors’ haunt Blues in Round 1 nightmare
It was labelled “one of the darkest nights in Carlton’s history” by a club great and it doesn’t get any brighter for Blues fans as JOSH BARNES unpacks their nightmare loss to Richmond.
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The first tremors began with Adam Saad blasting the ball out of bounds soon after half-time and meltdown was on when Nick Haynes let the Sherrin slip through his hands in the final term.
In the end, the Blues dimmed so badly one of their great goalkickers rushed to label the season opener as “one of the darkest nights” in club history.
A bitterly disappointed Jack Silvagni labelled the bungled moments that overwhelmed what was set to be an easy win as “silly errors”, “fumbles” and “costly mistakes”.
Blues fans would have woken up on Friday morning with those moments all through their minds.
And the Tigers fans will have been watching those incidents and accidents over and over across a long weekend of enjoyment.
In the third term, there was debutant Lucas Camporeale missing Haynes with a simple handball allowing Seth Campbell to waltz into goal.
There was Mitch McGovern bizarrely trying to soccer the ball out of his defensive 50 when he had teammates surrounding him.
As the legendarily stern Luke Hodge described McGovern’s hack as a “no-no in your defensive 50”, Jacob Hopper converted a goal.
Right on the three quarter-time siren Lachie Cowan tried to kick the ball to the moon and slid it off the side of his boot, setting Tom Brown up for a momentum accelerator of a goal after the siren.
The 41-point first half lead that meant 80,000 fans at the MCG had settled into the expected Carlton cakewalk had evaporated.
In the first two minutes of the final term, Sam Docherty strangely handballed the footy metres away from Silvagni, letting Tom Lynch assist Sam Lalor for a goal.
Suddenly Carlton handballs were spending more time on the floor than robot vacuums.
Next up was Haynes – a renowned high marker in defence - losing his composure under a high ball, failing to get the ball out of bounds and watching from the deck as Jacob Bauer then kicked the easiest of goals.
The game was almost gone a few minutes later when McGovern bit off a tough kick in the middle, sat it on Docherty’s head, with his one-armed effort not enough.
Haynes then spilled another mark and Rhyan Mansell dribbled it home.
A common nightmare had become one starring Freddy Kreuger.
It got so dark that Blues goalkicking great Brendan Fevola whipped out his phone quickly.
“One of the darkest nights in Carlton’s history tonight,” he posted on X moments after the siren.
“What’s next for the blues ?? (sic)
“41 points up against an under 18 side round 1, packed MCG and they crumbled under teenager’s pressure.”
Coach Michael Voss shook his head post-match: “well they had five goals from defensive 50 turnovers, it’s hard to win if you are just giving goals back to the opposition like that”.
“There were silly errors, fumbles. It was starting to get dewy and slippery and we made costly mistakes in the part of the ground that tends to hurt,” Silvagni said post-match.
“The costly ones are when it gets out the back. You try and keep it to the front. Both teams were fumbling but Richmond were able to keep it in front so they played a brand of footy that holds up in those conditions and we didn’t hold up.”
One of the great practitioners of delivering the basics when it counts most as a player, Voss saw mistakes that have brought down many teams in the past.
“Fundamentals are crucial in this game, falling over, keeping your feet, being clean around the ball,” he said.
“They were relevant 100 years ago and it will be relevant in another 100 years. We just weren’t that. What we will do is we will accept how this played out, we won’t tuck this one away. We will address it.”
Carlton played what Silvagni described as an “assertive defence”, pushing backmen towards the ball in an attempt to intercept.
It worked early – Jacob Weitering took five intercept marks in the opening half and the game was being played in his calm, methodical speed for the first half.
When Weitering wasn’t taking marks in the second half – he took just three grabs after the main break – the Tigers got going and shifted gears quicker than Oscar Piastri at Albert Park.
Voss said he felt the Blues had a “good combination” in defence but the group needed time.
Perhaps it was a bad matchup for the Blues to start the season, with Adem Yze clearly happy to play a Damien Hardwick-style forward momentum game.
“We got the ball going forward and from there we can get a front-half game,” Tigers skipper Toby Nankervis said.
“It’s a brand we know can stack up in big games and hopefully we can keep bringing that.”
Silvagni was playing his first game as a defender on Thursday, Haynes his first in the famous crest.
Ollie Hollands was sent to half-back over summer and Cowan is still finding his feet at the level.
Worryingly, it wasn’t just the new faces, but it was Saad and McGovern as well who made deer caught in headlights look composed.
The backline doesn’t have long to get it together.
Just seven days later the Blues face competition darlings Hawthorn and their pressure forwards Nick Watson, Jack Ginnivan, Dylan Moore and Connor Macdonald.
“We obviously want to play an assertive defence and press forward and what not but they (Richmond) were able to get out the back a bit so it is something we will look at during the week and hopefully not let it happen again,” Silvagni said.
THE BLUES WEAKNESSES
Among the hundreds of season preview pieces leading into Thursday, a couple of questions were always hovering over Carlton.
One was leg speed.
The Blues went out searching for pace in the summer, part of the reason they jettisoned plans to bring in defensive support and went with Francis Evans as one of their summer signings.
Richmond’s young legs were always going to mean the Tigers looked fast, but Thursday night finished like a race between Gout Gout and Cliff Young.
Carlton’s midfield strength dominated the first half.
The Blues outscored the Tigers 32-12 from stoppages and led turnovers 18-13 in the opening two quarters.
Carlton didn’t kick any goals from stoppages in the second half and Richmond zipped past on turnovers, winning that count by 21 points.
Voss’ team has been questioned about its transition game and the answer coming back in round 1 was plainly a fail.
The other glaring worry about the Blues heading into 2025 was the question of depth.
It’s obviously harder to impact when the team isn’t going so well but the half-forwards at Carlton went missing in the second half.
Matt Cottrell (five disposals in second half), Brodie Kemp (four), Evans (five), Lachie Fogarty (six), Zac Williams (three) and Jesse Motlop (two) combined to kick zero goals after half-time as the Blues kicked just two as a team.
It was only round 1, but those questions haunting the Blues remain far from answered.
TIGER TIME
As down as the Blues fans were walking out of the MCG, the raucous Richmond crew were rolling towards Swan St enjoying what could be the best two hours of the entire season.
Sam Lalor will get the headlines for a brilliant debut but the return of Jack Ross was just as telling.
Limited to just seven games in 2024 due to a foot problem, Ross delivered 28 disposals, two goals, six inside-50s and seven clearances in a complete performance.
And Kamdyn McIntosh – looking like Oklahoma City Thunder basketballer Alex Caruso in his headband – battled manfully against Patrick Cripps in his new role in the middle.
Perhaps Adem Yze is building that aura after all.
Originally published as Inside Carlton’s meltdown: Big weaknesses, ‘silly errors’ haunt Blues in Round 1 nightmare
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