The Blues aren’t unhealthy… they’re simply actually, actually dumb
Given the utter catastrophe that was Carlton’s Spherical 1 loss to Richmond, the strain bubbler will in all probability cool following a defeat to Hawthorn that was, on paper a minimum of, infinitely extra creditable.
Not anticipated to win, or actually to return shut given these two groups’ disparate begins to 2025, the Blues fought the nice combat, tackled ferociously, defended with far better vigour than towards the Tigers (though that’s like saying a baby with one arm swam extra vigorously than Stephen Hawking), and even overpowered one of many premiership favourites for a 15-minute second quarter purple patch that felt like one thing from the late-2023 period Blues that rollicked their approach to a preliminary closing.
An honourable loss, in brief.
However I’m not in that camp. Like towards the Tigers, this was an eminently winnable recreation the Blues frittered away with poor decision-making, each on-field and within the coaches’ field, a motley of technique errors, and frequently irritating inefficiency shifting ahead that certainly should have followers craving for the times of Brendon Bolton when a minimum of they KNEW they sucked. (I’m solely being half-sarcastic right here.)
The Blues, proper now, are taking part in the dumbest footy within the league. And the standard of the opposition shouldn’t be the usual on which to evaluate a group that merely must be higher than they’re proper now.
Let’s begin pre-match, with a pair of choices that backfired spectacularly: the alternative of an ailing Harry McKay with Lewis Younger, a like-for-like provided that you’re evaluating centimetres, and the collection of Charlie Curnow in any respect after a nonexistent preparation resulting from a summer time’s price of surgical procedures.
Curnow a minimum of was a logical transfer: Voss was certainly compelled to play his talisman even with solely partial health, particularly as soon as McKay was dominated out. Most coaches would have made the identical name.
However having such minimal affect throughout the sport, with none of his standard tempo on the lead or presence in contested marking conditions, it begged the query why there wasn’t one other function for him, and certainly why the Blues saved banging the ball lengthy inside 50 as if prime Curnow was there to attempt to clunk a giant seize.
The one time I can bear in mind the Blues making an attempt one thing totally different bore fruit immediately: Adam Saad, dashing up the center, goes lengthy and over the pinnacle of the main Curnow and Jack Silvagni, to a one-on-one not that includes both Josh Battle or Tom Barrass, who once more dominated the skies for the Hawks.
It really works completely: a much less succesful one-on-one defender in Changkuoth Jiath is shunted below the ball with ease by Zac Williams, for the best of objectives.
Had that been the play all night time, I’d be singing Vossy’s praises; however alas.
Younger’s 4 years at Carlton have featured a mixture of frustration and potential, however at this level it’s obtained to be questioned what precisely his function is within the Blues’ defence. He neither enhances Jacob Weitering’s standard brilliance as an interceptor and monster-stopper, nor permits him to give attention to one component like Josh Battle and Tom Barrass’ arrival on the Hawks has carried out for James Sicily.
It’s by no means a great signal when the opposition attempt to play via you; however with Blake Hardwick assigned to impede Weitering’s run on the ball at each alternative, the Hawks aimed toward Younger’s contest with Mabior Chol at any time when they might within the first time period – and it was a massacre.
Outpointed within the air and unable to go along with him on the lead, Younger was basically a spectator as Chol took three marks inside 50 to quarter time, with solely inaccuracy stopping him from taking the sport by the throat.
The baffling factor about Younger’s choice isn’t simply the wet climate in Melbourne, nor Hawthorn’s noticeable lack of key forwards – Chol, sub Jack Gunston and transient cameos from Josh Weddle and James Sicily was principally as huge as they obtained down there – but additionally as a result of the Blues are already fairly tall in defence.
Nick Haynes and Mitch McGovern each appear set to play the third tall, intercepting function that may additionally swimsuit Younger; it’s not nice reward to say Haynes was miles higher than in Spherical 1 just because, with eight disposals for the match, he barely obtained close to the ball to screw something up, not like towards Richmond.
He did, nonetheless, have one horror second early within the final quarter to all however present a aim to Chol, which serves as a super segue to my subsequent level in regards to the Blues’ stupidity.
The plain error is Haynes’: with a ball in dispute inside defensive 50 that he brought on with a sloppy fumble, he inexplicably turns into extra apprehensive about catching Dylan Moore excessive than truly competing for the footy.
So he overruns the ball, throws his fingers out to attempt to present he couldn’t presumably be taking Moore excessive (pointless, as a result of his physique nonetheless collides with Moore, who completely may have milked a free kick if he’d been so inclined), and is subsequently powerless to do something however watch Chol decide up the free ball, take a number of operating steps, and snap via a vital aim.
However the blunder is extra than simply on the previous Big: I depend three Blues defenders in Adam Saad, Younger and McGovern watching on from mere metres away, seemingly ready to see what occurs.
McGovern stands, frozen, at the same time as Chol makes his break for house within the ahead pocket; Saad, who was on Moore as the unique kick tumbled inside 50, sags off him to attempt to win himself an affordable possession, assuming (wrongly) Haynes will collect; Younger, in the meantime, is initially going for a similar free ball as Haynes, overruns it, and together with his man Chol the one capitalising, makes about his third or fourth cardinal sin of the night time – should you’re going to go away your direct opponent, you will need to influence the competition.
That’s two weeks in a row now the Blues’ defence has lacked any semblance of cohesion, of assigned roles, and even of duty for a direct opponent.
Probably the most egregious instance of this defensive chaos got here within the second time period, when an simply defusable Hawthorn foray ahead – a scrappy tumbler in the direction of 50 and an under-pressure hack ahead from Dylan Moore – one way or the other finally ends up with two Hawks goalside of their opponents to successfully stroll it in.
Why? Properly, one drawback is Saad once more: when the ball is in his space, he appears to immediately neglect that he’s a defender, to the purpose that I actually hope his teammates have been instructed to cowl for him like many rebounders have carried out for them, and that it’s the opposite backmen who’re letting him down.
Saad does nothing to affect the competition: he actually watches as Ollie Hollands places a deal with on Moore, hovers a number of metres away hoping that the ball will jar free and he can ship it again the opposite manner, after which places in a really bizarre smothering try on a ball shut sufficient to him that it may simply have been stifled if that thought had occurred to him early sufficient.
He’s not the one one at fault – Lachie Cowan is the Blue below the unique excessive ball, makes a poor try at a fist, after which loses contact with Nick Watson, permitting him out the again whereas he doesn’t even assist out Hollands to influence the competition and cease the transfer ahead.
He even will get a fortunate break when, standing in no-man’s land, Moore’s kick wobbles straight to him, however he fumbles it, lets it previous, and from there Jack Ginnivan can collect, dish to Watson, and watch a aim sail via.
As an apart, I’d additionally argue Weitering’s place is defective right here: stationed within the goalsquare, he’s too far again to make any try on the excessive ball that got here in first, which needs to be his bread and butter to defuse both with an intercept mark or a well timed spoil. His opponent, Finn Maginness, merely wants to attend on the prime of the sq. as soon as the ball is in dispute, realizing that his mere presence there’ll deter the Blues’ greatest defender from impacting the competition in any respect – and the Hawks are too intelligent to blaze aimlessly at that one-on-one.
Different techniques have been dumb in additional nuanced methods. Take Blues’ handball-happy fashion within the first quarter, which netted them 41 handballs to 39 kicks and but solely 65 per cent disposal effectivity and 7 marks, none inside 50 because the Hawks harassed and pressured them into turnovers galore; and which they swiftly deserted from there, notching 153 kicks and simply 81 handballs for the remaining three phrases.
Or the usage of Cripps as a defensive 50 ruckman, moderately than actually anybody else (one of many key defenders, like Younger or McGovern, possibly); that didn’t contribute to ALL Hawthorn’s 5 objectives from stoppages within the first half however actually felt prefer it did.
My foremost gripe with it, basically, is that it takes Cripps nearly fully out of the play. Within the above aim, he has no involvement in competing with the ball as soon as the faucet is sorted, and it’s just about unimaginable (truly, unlawful for lots of it) for his Blues teammates to dam for him to permit him to do what he does greatest; win the ball and do one thing productive in shut quarters.
Blake Acres, who gained the ball at floor degree just for his kick to be smothered and ricocheted to Moore, could be a greater possibility, certainly – nearly as tall as Cripps, he may a minimum of compete to the identical diploma, after which enable the Blues their strongest, greatest physique to dispute the ball wherever the faucet goes.
It’s system errors like this that designate how the Blues, regardless of dominant clearance numbers – 51-39 on Thursday night time, to be precise – can rating 5 fewer factors from stoppages than the Hawks. Once they win the ball, it’s bombed aimlessly ahead to an outsized bunch of attacking choices and a half-fit Curnow; and once they don’t, holes open up all over the place.
The Blues are additionally prime ‘bees to the honeypot’; have a look at any disputed ball and observe what number of navy jumpers swarm the footy, all making an attempt to win it themselves. The Hawks, in the meantime, fan out, trusting Jai Newcombe or Conor Nash or Will Day to win it after which both be fed exterior once they do, or clamp inwards to forestall clear Blue breakaways once they don’t.
I can’t sum up higher the issues this creates than Seven and Nick Riewoldt did with their post-game explainer.
Then there’s the kicking: the Blues don’t half butcher the ball, do they?
Maybe my favorite stat from the MCG was the 2 groups’ kicking effectivity within the closing quarter, with the sport up for grabs. The Hawks sat fairly at 81 per cent, together with in all probability the kick of the 12 months from Massimo D’Ambrosio to arrange an outrageous end-to-end aim; the Blues have been down at 43 per cent, and duly went goalless to snuff out a victory probability that seemed sturdy at three-quarter time.
This was not as painful a watch because the Blues’ loss to Richmond – there have been no mind-bendingly unhealthy errors, no horror defensive lapses, no efforts so pitiful as to make your pores and skin crawl.
However that doesn’t imply it wasn’t extra of the identical from footy’s dumbest group.
There’s greater than sufficient high quality at Carlton to show round this 2-0 begin; simply have a look at the second quarter, once they piled on 5 consecutive objectives towards footy’s hottest group, dominated the stoppages, pressured ferociously and hit the scoreboard with abandon.
However till they smarten up in each aspect, from group choice to techniques to positioning to decision-making, all we’re going to see of the Blues’ undoubted, fearsome potential is glimpses which can be much more irritating than in the event that they actually have been simply plain unhealthy.
