‘Lost their soul’: ‘Bullied’ Blues left in ‘trauma’ as confronting coach vision highlights ‘urgency’

Carlton has “lost their soul” and been left “in trauma” as the prospect of “another season lost” looms large, according to Fox Footy pundits, following a disastrous loss at the MCG.

The Blues’ season is in turmoil after a stunning 11-point upset loss on Saturday to bottom-three team North Melbourne, which slammed on eight consecutive goals spanning the second and third quarters to set up the victory.

Carlton’s latest performance is surely going to turn up the heat on coach Michael Voss, especially with the arrival of new CEO Graham Wright on the horizon.

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So incensed were Blues fans by their team’s performance that a chorus of boos rang around the MCG at half-time, three-quarter time and when their players trudged off the field.

“There’s something about leaving a club in trauma – and that’s what’s happened today,” dual premiership Kangaroo David King told Fox Footy.

“When you’re a fourth-year coach, you’ve got to be better than this at this point in the season. You come up against the Kangaroos, you’ve talked up the back half of the year and this is the starting point … I think the heat is right on the coach and I think the supporter base will join in.

“I think they’ve lost their soul. They’ve lost the fabric of what a footy club is.

Roos pile pressure on Blues with upset | 02:54

“I’ve listened to Robert Walls talk about the Carlton Football Club and Mark Maclure, Stephen Kernahan – proud Carlton men – and how they talk about Carlton, to me, is an absolute bond of mateship. Everything they do, they do together … and do for the CFC.

“I saw some things today – and I reckon this is why Michael Voss is most angry, because they didn’t fight the fight together. There was no unity today. It was a group of individuals that went away from the code – and you can’t have that. You’ve got to have your leaders driving the standards, you know you’ve got your mate’s back and he’s got yours. They haven’t got that right now.”

Triple premiership Tiger Jack Riewoldt labelled the Blues’ effort across the second quarter as “diabolical”.

“I imagine the players and Michael Voss would be asking so many questions. How can you beat Geelong – a team that we think is a chance to win the premiership this year – and this here is Carlton’s worst performance for the year.

“The second quarter they were bullied, they were smacked out of the park. It’s a story we’ve seen all year from Carlton is that when a side gets a roll on them, they can’t stop them.”

Gap in form 'too big' says Voss | 09:44

Voss was visibly furious with his team at three-quarter time and delivered them an angry speech.

“I look at the vision of Michael Voss … if you look at the way he was talking to that midfield group – and most of the stars are in that midfield group – and putting it on them, he doesn’t believe they’re adhering to the system he wants. That is really in-your-face footage,” Riewoldt said.

Herald Sun chief football reporter Jay Clark added: “This shows you the urgency, for mine, for the Carlton Football Club to breathe some life, some sort of resurrection into their season – because at the moment in it’s a bit of a free fall.

“They continually haven’t got it done, the Blues, not just this year but also last year. This was a preliminary final team.

“The pressure is on the senior coach and you can see it.

“How frustrated must their fanbase be? It’ll be interesting this week when the media bus parks itself at Ikon Park how the fans will react, because they’ll become impatient. This is a football club that is going double bogey on 2024/25.”

The result will make it very difficult for Carlton to qualify for the finals. They will probably need to win seven of their last nine games to do so, and they face Collingwood, the Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast, Hawthorn and Fremantle (away) in their run home.

Michael Voss delivered a fierce spray. Source: Getty Images

“Another season lost, let’s be blunt,” Clark told Fox Footy. “Carlton Football Club, they now look headed for an iceberg.

“It’s not ‘if’ they’re going to make change, it’s ‘how much’ change they’re going to make at the end of the season.

“In the run home, if they don’t improve and remain in free fall then there will be more trauma. Graham Wright won’t be afraid to make serious change.”

Clark said he expected Wright to be “forthright”, for he’s come from successful clubs — Hawthorn and Collingwood — where he’s developed “a blueprint that works”.

Asked what changes Wright would be looking to make, Clark said: “I think the list in particular … They’re playing an older style of football, they can’t move it as well on the outside. So that’s going to be significant.

“Throughout the football department, will we see more change?

“And the big story is Michael Voss. He’s got to get busy, they’ve got to improve. Contracted for next year, but they don’t want to continue this haemorrhaging.”

— with NCA NewsWire

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