Game Review

Blues defeated by Power

Port Adelaide beat Carlton by 50 points. - By Cristian Filippo, Carlton Media.

Carlton has fallen by 50 points to Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval. The Blues were outmatched by the Power from the outset in the 16.14 (110) to 8.12 (60) defeat, conceding the opening eight goals of the game. Unable to quell the Power’s uncontested possession (-63 for the night) and marks (-45), the Blues struggled to generate any meaningful offence and found themselves under the pump, with Port owning time in forward half. The Blues weren’t without their own forward entries, but failed to capitalise when they ventured there, kicking six consecutive behinds before registering their first major. Seven of Carlton’s eight goals came in the second half, with George Hewett amassing 22 disposals and nine tackles in the loss. Orazio Fantasia kicked two goals in the final quarter against his former side, while Adam Saad came from the ground in the second quarter following a concussion. Carlton’s next game will come against Collingwood next Friday night at the MCG.

'It's time to come together': Voss urges calm as heat intensifies on Blues.

Carlton coach Michael Voss says his team had no appetite for the contest against Port Adelaide. - By Phoebe McWilliams

Carlton coach Michael Voss says he will "not pass the blame onto anyone" following his side's 50-point thrashing to Port Adelaide on Thursday night. It's the second disappointing loss for the Blues in less than a week, having fallen to 16th-placed North Melbourne just five days earlier. The defeat means Carlton will almost certainly miss finals, which will no doubt add to the already rising pressure on Voss, his players and the club. Though Voss was disappointed with the performance of his team, he was firm in his belief that the club would come together rather than lay blame on any specific members. "We're disappointed. We're absolutely disappointed," he said after the match. "We're not where we want to be. But it's time to come together, not isolate.

"If there's one thing I know about working through really tough times, it's how we connect. And what we won't do, you will not see us do, is pass blame on anyone. "So what we'll do is sit here and we'll say, what's my role in this? We'll get to work hard on that. But we need everyone on board with this. And so that's the way we'll approach it." Voss rued his team's slow start, an area where Carlton has excelled this season, where the Blues conceded eight goals before kicking their first less than two minutes before half-time. "We've been good at that for pretty much the whole year, getting our starts right," said Voss. "But no, we got that wrong. Just didn't come with an appetite to the contest. They were able to go from inside out really quickly and they were able to control the ball more than they should. "And we didn't work quick enough in our response. And then, you know, being untidy with the ball out of the back half, gave even more opportunities back to them. "But, you know, bad kicking's bad footy. We certainly had opportunities in front of goal. Sometimes we hit the scoreboard. Sometimes we kicked it out on the full … We should have been better than that." Key forward Charlie Curnow had another frustrating game, finishing the night goalless, but Voss backed his two-time Coleman medallist. "I thought he competed really hard today. He has had some form struggles, and I understand that he's probably copped some attention because of it, but I tell you what, that bloke absolutely tried his backside off today," Voss said. "I don't think we gave him too many favours, but at the same time, that comes back to the collective stuff. But, no, I'm not walking away from that game and saying that Charlie didn't compete. He competed as hard as he possibly could." The Blues now have an eight-day break before facing ladder leader Collingwood on Friday night at the MCG. And Voss said the club wouldn't change the way it handles things when it next meets at Ikon Park. "We have that weekly review. That won't change. That consistency, the way we want to be able to play and how we review the game and what happened, that won't change," he said. "You've got to walk into our environment. You've got to be able to see the same behaviours every single week. So whether you win, whether you lose, that's what winning is all about. "You turn up on Monday, you try and find ways to be able to get better. You look at what worked and didn't work. This one (Thursday's game), we didn't have the effort at the start."

Port coach Ken Hinkley praised the efforts of Miles Bergman, who helped shut down Carlton captain Patrick Cripps. "I think he's (Bergman) a really high-talent player who can play anywhere. It's such a weapon that you can put, as I said, you could play forward. I think he might have kicked a couple of goals tonight even," he said. "He can probably play front of centre and hit the scoreboard. Certainly, we know he plays behind the ball really strongly. Now, in the last six or eight weeks, he's demonstrating that midfield is well and truly within his grasp. I think he's a really good player. " Zak Butters spent the night being closely watched by Carlton tagger Alex Cincotta before finishing with an equal game-high 30 disposals. "He's a tough bugger and plays really strong footy," Hinkley said of Butters. "He's clearly important and he's learning to deal with tags. I think that's been another growth of him. "I think Zak is a top four or five player in the competition. He's now learning to handle the tags in different ways and not just purely aggressively go after it. He's learnt lots again this year and he's only going to get better." Hinkley confirmed that Jason Horne-Francis was subbed out for precautionary reasons in order to give him extra time to recover from a shoulder problem for next Saturday night's match against Brisbane. "His shoulder's obviously clearly been a bit sore, so we took the opportunity to take him out of the game," Hinkley said. "We've got nine, 10 days between now and our next game. He'll be hopefully back to cherry ripe and he will play a bit more midfield from there. "But the size of the task that's coming is pretty big, against a ferocious midfield and an outstanding footy club, coached really well, reigning premiers, not many bigger challenges probably."

Blues footy boss says change will come, as fans lash out after horror loss

Carlton football GM Brad Lloyd urges the club to 'stick together' in the wake of the club's 50-point loss to Port Adelaide - By Michael Rogers with AAP

Carlton football boss Brad Lloyd has acknowledged change will come to Ikon Park as the Blues' faltering season hit another hurdle with a 50-point loss to Port Adelaide on Thursday. The Blues kicked just one goal to the Power's eight in the first half to trail by 46 points and things didn't improve after the main break. The loss piled more pressure on senior coach Michael Voss, with Carlton slumping to a 6-9 record and potentially falling as low as 13th on the ladder at the end of the round. Asked if he and Voss would be at the club next year, Lloyd told reporters at Melbourne Airport on Friday: "I'm unsure of that. We will just stick at it and keep going to work. "It’s for others to judge. "We have been going at it for a little while now and we have had some good times and some down times like we are now."

Voss is contracted until the end of 2026 at the Blues. Outgoing CEO Brian Cook is handing over to incoming boss Graham Wright, who is expected make his mark on the organisation after a season in which Carlton has failed to live up to expectations. Lloyd warned against targeting senior football officials alone over the issues, saying the whole club needed to work together to improve results. "We need to keep looking across the board. You can go really hard on the senior coaching role and the senior roles within the club, but there's a lot of things we need to look at across the board… We'll keep doing that and keep working towards where we need to get to," Lloyd said. "There'll be change in different parts, no doubt, and there will be parts that we keep grinding away at. "I've seen a lot of times, we all have, through Clarkson and Hardwick and all these different people along the way that have been through challenging times and things have turned. It happens in footy and we'll look towards that as well." Voss preached unity in his post-match media conference on Thursday night and Lloyd echoed that message, while condemning the 'toxic' actions of vandals who graffitied the walls of Carlton's Ikon Park home overnight. The spraypainted messages, which were cleaned off on Friday morning, called for the Blues to keep Voss and instead change the board. “There’s behaviours that can work towards getting better outcomes for the club and there are probably toxic behaviours as well that don’t help anyone," Lloyd said. "The pressure is enormous at the moment but we need to stick together as a team, as a club. The 'stronger together' message, there's no other way around that really." Lloyd said Voss was 'going OK' amid the tumult and media focus on the Blues' form. "He's a competitor and he's hurting with our form, but he's holding up pretty well; he's a strong man and a strong leader," Lloyd said. "He's a wonderful person, I couldn't speak more highly of him as a person, as a leader. I'm very fortunate to be around him and the way he goes about his work. Obviously we're not getting the results that we'd like, but he's a good man."

Blues players hung Michael Voss out to dry

After a week of intense media scrutiny, Michael Voss was looking for a response from his players against Port Adelaide on Thursday night. But instead of a gutsy, hard fought, physical game, Carlton players came out looking lethargic and slow and managed to kick just one goal in a half of footy. Voss says the club is all in it together, but knowing that the coach was in the firing line, the performance from his players would be a cause for great concern. Playing on the big stage of Thursday night and knowing all eyes were on them, the Blues' 50-point loss leaves you wondering why the players couldn't put together a better performance to relieve the rising pressure on their coach. - Phoebe McWilliams

Team

B:	1 Jack Silvagni	23 Jacob Weitering	26 Nick Haynes
HB:	42 Adam Saad	37 Jordan Boyd	15 Sam Docherty
C:	36 Cooper Lord	9 Patrick Cripps (c)	13 Blake Acres
HF:	39 Alex Cincotta	11 Mitch McGovern	8 Lachie Fogarty
F:	33 Lewis Young	30 Charlie Curnow	6 Zac Williams
Ruck:	12 Tom De Koning	5 Adam Cerra	4 Oliver Hollands
Interchange:	35 Billy Wilson	29 George Hewett	3 Jesse Motlop
	14 Orazio Fantasia
Substitute:	45 Flynn Young
Coach:	Michael Voss
Emergencies:	22 Harry O'Farrell	27 Marc Pittonet	19 Corey Durdin

In: Jordan Boyd, Lewis Young, Billy Wilson, Flynn Young
Out: Matt Carroll (omitted), Corey Durdin (omitted), Jaxon Binns (omitted), Marc Pittonet (omitted)

Substitute: Flynn Young replaced Adam Saad at half-time.

Free Kicks

Carlton 28
Port Adelaide 21

Front Runners

Oliver Hollands 15.0km
Cooper Lord 14.6km

Milestones

Debut: Billy Wilson, Flynn Young
Last Game: Jack Silvagni (Carlton)

Interesting Facts

1. 2nd Place AFL Games by a Grandfather/Father/Son Trio - Serge Silvagni, Stephen Silvagni and Jack Silvagni (679 games).
2. This was Carlton's oldest team in 81 years.

AFLCA Votes

10 - Zak Butters (PORT)
7 - Connor Rozee (PORT)
6 - Miles Bergman (PORT)
5 - Mitchell Georgiades (PORT)
2 - Esava Ratugolea (PORT)

Brownlow Votes

3 - Zac Butters (PORT)
2 - Mitchell Georgiades (PORT)
1 - Miles Bergman (PORT)