Carlton coach Michael Voss has been urged to release the “handbreak” on his team after two straight disappointing losses left his side in danger of slipping out of the top eight.
After going undefeated in the first month of the season, Voss’ side has looked remarkably slow around the ground and static with its ball movement in two straight losses.
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said Voss’ Blues were stuck in a similar predicament to Justin Longmuir and Fremantle, and urged both men to switch up their tactics.
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”It’s hard to know where to start and end for Michael Voss,” he told 3AW’s Wide World of Sports Radio.
“Those two – as the figureheads of their clubs – need to have walked in there today and go, ‘OK boys, this is what I’ve got wrong … and this is where we’re going this week’.
“I know (Bulldogs coach) Luke Beveridge did it after round two. He walked in and put his hand up and said, ‘I don’t believe I’ve coached you guys well enough. We aren’t defending at all, we’re sagging off, we’re allowing too much space’, and put his hand up to the players and said, ‘I’ve got this wrong. I’ve selected wrong and I’m teaching you in a way where you aren’t executing what I want’.
“I feel that Voss and Longmuir need to walk in there and fall on their swords in a sense. I think they should let their players play more.
“I think Carlton and Freo have the handbreak on a lot when the rest of the comp is playing a different way.
“I look at the (Lachie) O’Brien types and the (Josh) Honey types, the lot of them. Even (Patrick) Cripps, I hardly see Cripps ever smile on a footy field. I know he’s a Brownlow Medallist, but they seem to be playing with a lot of tension and (fear of) mistakes, whereas Collingwood embraces mistakes.”
Lloyd said the Blues lacked connection around the ground despite having a host of big-name players on every line.
”Top-end talent will only take you so far if you don’t have a connection as a side. The connection piece is missing for Carlton,” he said.
“They had 86 more disposals, 39 more marks, the six highest disposal-winners on the ground, but there’s no connection between their backs, their midfielders and their forwards.
“Their backline was a mess last year so they seem to have adjusted to try and defend the ground better, but then they’re bottom five for marks taken inside 50 and bottom five for points.
“It just shows that they’ve got talent but they lack connection as a football club and a football team.”
Lloyd also called out key forward Harry McKay and a number of other Carlton stars for their erratic kicking in front of goal.
“You can’t trust McKay to kick for you. You can’t trust Patrick Cripps to kick for you. You can’t trust Jack Silvagni to kick for you,” he said.
“I look at premiership sides and the premiers of last year, (Tom) Hawkins and (Jeremy) Cameron, they know every blade of grass, what type of kick they’re going to take.
“You just see that one McKay just spooned up in the air, it was just a man who’s panicked and he rushed it. I watched Cripps kick for goal, his eyes darted everywhere bar the goals.
“I think Carlton kicked themselves out of it and that does kill your confidence.”
The Blues will look to get back on the winners’ list next week when they face West Coast in Perth, before a crucial month of football sees them face the Lions, Bulldogs and Magpies in consecutive weeks.
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