Carlton relive ‘capitulation’ against North Melbourne in brutal match review

Carlton coach David Teague has turned the blowtorch back on his players with a savage review of their “capitulation” against the Kangaroos.

David Teague walks from the 3/4 time huddle. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Carlton players were made to relive their inexcusable performance against North Melbourne when coach David Teague led a blistering review on Monday.

It’s understood countless players were left embarrassed by clips showing them committing basic skill errors and missing tackles as the Kangaroos pierced through Marvel Stadium on their way to a seven-goal run during the third quarter.

The 39-point loss to the bottom team has thrust Teague’s future back in the spotlight entering Friday night’s battle against St Kilda.

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The Blues have been incapable of blunting goal runs throughout Teague’s tenure, which has yielded 20 wins from 46 matches.

“It’s kind of a trend for us where we let teams get a run on for 20 minutes and they pile on a lot of goals,” veteran Eddie Betts said.

“It’s actually embarrassing. We reviewed it (Saturday’s loss to North) we watched some pretty brutal highlights.”

The Western Bulldogs converted a 27-point deficit into a 16-point win with eight consecutive goals in Round 8.

Teague’s winning percentage has dropped each season – 54.6 per cent (2019), 41.2 per cent (2020) and 38.9 per cent (2021).

The 17-player injury list could force Teague’s hand to finally turn to youth in the final month, with Carlton so far unveiling just one debutant (Luke Parks) in 2021 — the equal-fewest in the competition along with Melbourne and Gold Coast.

First-round pick Brodie Kemp, who was drafted midway through recovery from a knee reconstruction, is in the mix to play his first AFL game.

Jacob Weitering couldn’t contain Kangaroo Nick Larkey.

In some positive news for the Blues, gun forward Charlie Curnow’s two-year AFL absence is set to end on Friday night, with the star Blues forward likely to face St Kilda.

After two hit-outs in the VFL, Teague said if Curnow got through training this week unscathed, he would play the Saints.

If he does get selected, it will be Curnow’s first AFL game in 761 days.

Full-back Jacob Weitering was thrown forward in the final quarter on Saturday after having seven goals kicked on him by Nick Larkey.

Weitering said it was a “harsh reality check” after he captained the Blues to victory against Collingwood six days earlier.

Weitering described the third quarter as a “capitulation” and said his team lost faith as it broke down defensively.

“We reviewed it quite hard on Monday,” the All-Australian contender said.

“For the hour that was placed in the schedule for the review there was some vision that you just don’t want to see.

“There were some challenging conversations, there was behind-the-goals vision that you don’t want to see as a player, as a coach and as a leader.

“It does start from the leaders down.”

Weitering, 23, said players understood the significance of the loss for a club that is undergoing an external review.

“There’s definitely a grasp on it,” he said.

“There were some real positives to come out of that (previous 3-1) month and then for it all, to an extent, be thrown out the window for that particular weekend was very disappointing.

“That certainly puts the pressure back on the coaching group, back on the leaders and back on the club.”

Weitering said he had been speaking to external reviewers Geoff Walsh, Graham Lowe and Matthew Pavlich for several weeks.

“I can honestly say I don’t know when the results are coming (or) if the results are being processed at the moment,” Weitering said on SEN.

“There is outside noise regarding that.”

Weitering lost composure against the Kangas and failed to adjust to the ball “coming in pretty hot”.

He will have to butter-up against 200cm Saints spearhead Max King as the Blues confront back-to-back six-day breaks.

BROWN: BLUES CAN’T MAKE TEAGUE MISTAKE TWICE

— Will Hogan

Brisbane great Jonathan Brown says Carlton can’t make the same mistake twice when it comes to the future of coach David Teague.

Speaking on Browny’s Podcast, the Lions legend warned those making the decisions behind the scenes at the Blues must not base their decisions on the final four games, even if they manage to go on a roll to finish the season.

“I’m not sure it’s an absolute guarantee that he would keep his job because essentially what they’re doing, they’ll fall into the same thing they fell for last time,” Brown said.

“Two or three years ago they wanted an experienced coach, Chris Judd spoke about it on (Footy) Classified that they didn’t want a coach with training wheels but the Teague train started ironically.

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Carlton can’t make the same mistake twice on David Teague, says Jonathan Brown. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“They won the last few games of the season, they had that momentum and then they gave him the job.”

The Blues fell to the last-placed Kangaroos in round 19.

Brown said the performance has piled further pressure onto Teague.

“That third quarter especially from Carlton, that was some of the worst football I’ve seen and the lack of effort,” he said.

“You don’t like to use the word coach-killer but that really puts David Teague up against it.”

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Deep dive: Horror stat haunting Teague’s Blues

— Chris Cavanagh

It seemed like the narrative had changed around Carlton and coach David Teague since the bye.

The Blues had won three of five matches and had only one less scoring shot than premiership fancy Geelong in a 26-point loss in Round 17.

Suddenly, the club was back in the race for finals.

But after all that good work, Saturday’s loss to bottom-of-the-ladder North Melbourne was a giant step back that has again brought the Blues under the microscope.

And the stat that continues to haunt Teague reared its head again.

David Teague walks from the 3/4 time huddle. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

For the 21st time under the coaches’ 46-game reign, Carlton gave up a run of five or more unanswered goals during a game.

In fact, they gave up seven unanswered majors during the third quarter – against the bottom side.

Three-time Brisbane premiership forward Jonathan Brown was scathing in the Fox Footy commentary box, describing the defensive effort in that third term as “disgraceful” and “not up to AFL standard”.

The stats sheet backed up that assessment, with the Blues laying only nine tackles for the term as they were completely picked apart.

For Carlton fans, there was a sense of Groundhog Day.

Why does this keep happening?

“The start of the year it was a pattern of behaviour and we’ve been able to limit that damage and that’s probably what’s allowed us to be in more games,” Teague said.

“This one was a hard one because we were getting our looks.

“When they got through us they were able to finish their plays and at one stage they’d had nine inside-50s and seven or eight shots. It wasn’t that we weren’t getting it in our half, it was more that we weren’t using it offensively. You can look at your whole team but your leaders in particular, your experienced players. You want them to step up.”

The leaders didn’t step up and not much changed from the coaches’ box until three-quarter time.

You can make excuses for why Carlton lost.

Last year’s best-and-fairest winner Jacob Weitering has had another super year.

Going into Saturday’s match, the key defender had conceded only 22 goals from 17 games this season.

But against the Kangaroos, he had a stinker.

Normally so strong one-on-one, Weitering was beaten for speed on the lead time and again by North Melbourne forward Nick Larkey.

According to Champion Data, Larkey kicked five of his seven goals while manned by Weitering.

Nick Larkey celebrates one of his seven goals. Picture: Getty Images

At the other end of the ground, Carlton clearly missed the injured Harry McKay, who has been a focal point all season and is the Coleman Medal leader.

Co-captain Patrick Cripps was forced to start at full-forward and – while he finished with three goals – he didn’t look like taking a mark in attack in the first half.

However, Carlton fans are fed up with excuses.

After seven straight seasons of missing finals, they had entered 2021 with a level of expectation that the club was finally ready to sneak into September.

That door has been abruptly slammed shut.

Last year, the Blues played 17 games for seven wins.

This year, they have played 18 games for seven wins.

Going backwards was not part of the plan that chief executive Cain Liddle laid out in a radio interview in February.

“We’ve gone 18th, 16th and 11th,” Liddle said.

“We want to continue to build on that and I certainly agree that the period for development is over.”

It’s worth remembering that this is only Teague’s second full season, after taking over midway through 2019.

The external football department review is ongoing, but performances like what was dished up on Saturday won’t help anyone in that department.

Fans can accept and understand the odd loss, but a blatant lack of defensive effort and intensity when your season is on the line is hard to swallow.

SOUVA WITH THE LOT

The competition is quickly standing up and taking notice of the man they nicknamed “Souvlaki” at Arden Street.

Nick Larkey slotted a career-high seven goals against Carlton in a starring performance, five of them opposed to a very handy opposition defender in Jacob Weitering.

Along with the goal haul, Larkey’s day out included 20 disposals, a career-high eight marks (five contested) and a game-high 13 score involvements.

But it was not exactly a game out of the box.

The 23-year-old has taken his footy to another level in the second half of this season as the key figure in what is otherwise an undersized Kangaroos attack.

Since Round 11, Larkey has kicked 23 goals from eight games.

He has booted multiple majors in seven of those matches.

“He’s taken on a lot of leadership in that area of the ground,” North Melbourne coach David Noble said.

“He’s been working really hard behind the scenes and understanding ball flow, ball movement, the guys that are delivering the ball to him. Today was one of those days where it all connected really well for him. But he’s been really consistent. Since the bye, he’s been terrific.”

Eddie Betts speaks with training staff. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

IS THE TIME UP FOR EDDIE BETTS?

Well done, Eddie Betts.

We’ve all loved watching you play across a remarkable 347 AFL games.

But Carlton isn’t anywhere near the premiership window and needs to look to its long-term future at season’s end.

To be fair, Betts hurt his ankle midway through the second quarter and played only 71 minutes of game time.

You also have to point out that most of the Blues’ 49 entries inside 50 were hardly top-notch against the Kangaroos and that Betts has kicked a respectable 1.5 goals a game from 16 outings this season as a small forward.

However, he had his third goalless game from his past six matches on Saturday, among only two disposals and one tackle.

His opponent throughout the match, North Melbourne’s Kayne Turner, had eight disposals while opposed to Betts.

Betts turns 35 in November.

Finishing on a relative high with 350 games under his belt this year would be a good way to go out.

Originally published as Carlton relive ‘capitulation’ against North Melbourne in brutal match review