Sydney's Daniel Hannebery tackles Carlton's Heath Scotland during the AFL Round 16 match between the Carlton Blues and the Sydney Swans at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne. Slattery Images
It was for all intents and purposes a horror day for Carlton at Etihad Stadium yesterday. The Blues were humiliated on the scoreboard, young gun Kane Lucas badly damaged his hamstring and Andrew Walker is facing some serious time on the sidelines for a crude head high hit.
The siren simply couldn’t come quick enough and when it finally rang and put an end to the misery, the Carlton spin-doctors quickly swung into action.
Brett Ratten sat in the coach’s box for an unusual amount of time after the game looking both shocked and bemused at his side’s insipid performance.
Strangely though when it came to his post match media conference, Ratten’s optimism and positive critique on the game was slightly confusing, and hardly befitting of the result.
“We won the battle after half time” he said
Now I’m not sure if it’s just me but seriously give me a spell Rat’s…why aren’t you putting any heat on the players?
This was Carlton’s big chance to cement a spot in the top 8.
Perhaps the Blues hierarchy sensed the media bubble waiting to burst following the intense scrutiny Matthew Knights was under last week and probably will be again this week, and decided to pump out as much positive rhetoric as they could.
But make no mistake, Carlton is in the middle of a mid-season form slump that is threatening to completely derail their season. And if they don’t quickly find some answers the spotlight will shift away from Windy Hill and over to Princes Park.
Carlton’s embarrassing 39-point defeat at the hands of the Sydney Swans has the Blues hanging delicately onto eighth spot on the ladder, but only by percentage.
When Ratten was asked if he felt any pressure about his position as senior coach he scoffed at the suggestion
“No, not at all, how many of you in the room tipped us to make the top eight, none…am I correct?”
“You’d think from all the talk we are in the bottom four, that’s the thing I scratch my head about. I still smile about it”.
But he certainly wont be laughing if the Blues do end up missing the finals.
And while he did admit his side was down a little on confidence, he seemed to safely deflect anyone questioning the Blues credibility.
Interestingly he also took responsibility for galvanising the group ahead of this weekend.
“The onus is on me. The coach is the person in charge of the place”.
I’d love to hear what Carlton supporters think but in this case I don’t think it’s up to the coach at all, the amount of costly turnovers and horrible skills errors from the Blues were almost unforgivable, not to mention the lack of pressure around the stoppages.
Mentally they didn’t come to play, and as a group I think its up to the players to fix it.
However there are of course a number of on field issues Ratten must address too.
Carlton still has a major deficiency up forward, and without a big strong target is finding it increasingly difficult to kick a winning score.
Until they find one, it’s hard to see them pushing deep into September for a very long time.
Also the back line is leaking far too many goals and in quick succession. They desperately need to learn how to balance defence with attack, otherwise the Blues are in danger of heading down the same ill-fated pathway as Essendon both on and off the field this year.
As we know when performance doesn’t meet expectation, the media, supporters and even the players can quickly turn on a club and its coach, and in this case Brett Ratten has managed to dodge a bullet.
But another couple of losses and I doubt the football world will be as forgiving.
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