Former St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt was frustrated by Carlton’s lack of game sense during Sunday afternoon’s loss to his old side.
Two goals down and with less than three minutes on the clock, Blues defender Lachie Plowman had a kick in and elected to go short into the pocket, rather than long down the middle, which is what the Carlton players were set up for.
“They were set up for it (the kick into the corridor) so I’m putting this on the player,” Riewoldt told SEN Breakfast.
“The players have got to be so much better than this. Understand the situation that you’re in, show some leadership.
“Yesterday, Plowman in the goal square, two minutes to go, two scores down, they’re set up down the corridor, he goes sideways into the back pocket, held up on the mark, burns 20 seconds, he goes back to Plowman – game over.
“That complete lack of game sense and game awareness, who cares if you lose by three goals? Take the game on, go down the corridor and give yourself a chance to score.”
What frustrates Riewoldt is that he believes the Blues made the same mistake a fortnight ago against Collingwood.
“Cast your mind back to the Collingwood game. They’re about 10 points down with a couple of minutes to go,” he said.
“In the middle of the ground is Matthew Kreuzer, Patrick Cripps, Marc Murphy, they’re set up for the long kick down the middle.
“Jacob Weitering’s got it at full-back and he kicks sideways into the pocket. Held up, goes back off the mark, you lose the opportunity to take on the corridor, you burn some time.
“Now, they may not have won, but no game awareness.
“That was it, when I saw that, I thought, these blokes haven’t learned anything. This is three weeks after. Surely this had to be spoken about.”
Carlton sits two games clear on the bottom of the ladder with one win from 10 games.
They take on an injury plagued Essendon this weekend in what is a huge game for both clubs.