Carlton have crashed to a humiliating 50-point loss to Port Adelaide as the heat rises on embattled coach Michael Voss, who says his players failed to show up for the fight.
The Blues managed just one goal in a meek first half as the Power romped to a 16.14 (110) to 8.12 (60) win on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval.
Pundits were already querying if Voss will survive to serve out his contract, which expires at the end of next season.
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And the Blues’ alarming lack of fight will trigger fresh debate after Port booted the initial eight goals of a lopsided encounter.
Carlton, who next meet ladder leaders Collingwood and then reigning premiers the Brisbane Lions, slipped to 11th on the ladder with six wins and nine losses.
“It was a bad performance. Certainly the start of the game when you want to get a sense, especially away from home — we’ve been good at that for pretty much the whole year. We got that wrong,” Voss said.
“We just didn’t come with an appetite for the contest and they were able to go from inside out really quickly, they were able to control the ball more than they should and we didn’t work quick enough in our response.
“Being untidy in the back half gave even more opportunities back to them. But bad kicking’s bad footy. We certainly had opportunities to hit the scoreboard … we should’ve been better tonight.”
Voss maintained the shorter break should have been a positive for the team off the back of last week’s defeat to North Melbourne.
“We just didn’t look like we had the energy for the start of the game,” he said.
He indicated an “important discussion” about the team’s mental application and preparedness for their game style is on the cards.
Asked if players “weren’t willing to dig in and be up for the fight”, Voss said: “Yeah, that’d be a fair assessment.”
But he quickly noted coaches also have to accept their role in the defeat.
“It’s collective accountability,” he said.
“There’s no separating groups here. It’s 100 per cent on what we need to be able to bring to it. We always look at ourselves first and then impart some of the things we need to put in front of the players and ask them to be able to play at a standard as well.
“We’ll look at it thoroughly and see where we need to correct, and obviously we’ve got a week to do that before our next game.”
Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, who backed in Voss to continue as coach, said it was “disappointing” to fall flat early.
“We’re just in a position now where we’ve got to own where we’re at. There’s no sugar-coating it, we’re in a tricky spot,” he told Channel 7.
“We’ve got to make sure we fight to the end of the season.
“One thing I’ll say the group the whole night I felt like we stayed connected out there but we just couldn’t get any traction out on the field in terms of scoreboard pressure.
“These can be tough times, we know there’s going to be a lot of noise coming from everywhere but you can’t get distracted by that.
“It’s easier said than done sometimes but as a leader you’ve got to be really strong on that and keep the whole place united.”
Cripps’ voice was clearly affected by an illness that sidelined him from training on Wednesday but said he “hates missing games” and committed after waking up feeling better on Thursday.
The Blues, who will likely be three wins outside the top eight by round’s end, lost creative backman Adam Saad to concussion late in the second quarter.
Saad was felled by a shoulder bump from Port ruckman Dante Visentini, which sparked a prolonged push-and-shove between a mass of players at half-time.
Saad’s injury came during Carlton’s horror opening half — instead of a steely response to last week’s shock 11-point loss to North Melbourne, the Blues didn’t offer a yelp.
Port kicked 5.4 to 0.3 in an ominous opening term when Blues pair Charlie Curnow and Orazio Fantasia sprayed set shots at goal.
Port then added another three consecutive majors — when Mitch Georgiades booted his fourth goal, the hosts led 58-6.
Carlton’s Lewis Young finally scored the visitor’s first goal 26 minutes into the second term.
At half-time, Port led 8.10 to 1.6 — the second-lowest opening half in Voss’ four-year tenure at Carlton.
“This (loss) sort of changes my thinking. You can accept some performances, you can’t accept that,” Kane Cornes said on Channel 7.
“We thought there would be a response and there was nothing. The form of your players regresses when you’re not maximising talent.
“They’ve got a serious decision to make. They’ll have to pay him out in full so it’ll be a costly one.
“But I don’t think it’s looking good for Michael Voss after a performance like that, and I was one who was suggesting that the last thing they needed was to sack another coach. I didn’t see that performance coming tonight unfortunately.”
The Power slotted three more successive majors to create a 63-point lead just eight minutes into the third period while the Blues were still stuck on one goal.
Carlton belatedly found some scoring punch to finish the term with three goals to Port’s five but trailed by 56 points at three-quarter time.
The Power stretched their advantage to a match-high 68 points early in the final term of a win which lifts them to 10th on the ladder.
Spearhead Georgiades finished with five goals, Willie Rioli kicked three and Darcy Byrne-Jones two.
Utility Miles Bergman (25 disposals) also booted two majors while claiming another scalp in limiting Carlton skipper Cripps to 17 touches and a consolation last-term goal.
Port captain Connor Rozee and his deputy Zak Butters were standouts with 30 disposals apiece, four-gamer Hugh Jackson (17) impressed, as did recruit Joe Richards (22).
Carlton couldn’t find a multiple goal-scorer or a clear winner — George Hewett led the visitor’s disposal count with 22 featuring only six kicks and veteran Sam Docherty was their next-best ball-winner with 19 disposals.
– with AAP