Brendon Goddard has called out several Carlton players for not being willing to contribute to team defence, including Adam Saad, who he used to play with at Essendon.
As part of the club’s coaching overhaul, Aaron Hamill has been brought in to work under new coach Michael Voss, with his focus to be primarily on defence.
Goddard previously played alongside Saad at the Bombers, revealing conversations the pair used to have around reinforcing the need to work as part of a defensive structure, rather than focusing solely on providing run off half back.
He said Carlton’s defensive unit more generally in previous seasons has been “really poor”, saying there needs to be more focus on tightening up the side’s structures.
“(Adam) Saad is a great man,” he said on AFL Trade Radio’s Trade Mornings.
“Defensively, what decisions is he making…I used to have to remind him when I played with him that when you run off and try to get involved offensively, there’s a point where you have to make a decision when you can’t impact (a contest) offensively.
“You have to get back in defence, find a man and set up and getting involved in team defence, (you have to) make decisions defensively and not just think that (his) role is to literally provide run and bounce off half back.
“His role is a half back position, I don’t think it is highlighted enough and there wasn’t a big enough focus for Carlton because clearly there were issues.
“We saw it with Zac Williams (when he played in defence), Adam Saad and even Doc (Sam Docherty) a lot of the time, they’re all just running trying to get involved offensively, then their ability to make defensive decisions was really, really poor.”
The Blues will be looking for improvement across the board next year after a disappointing 2021 campaign, finishing in 13th position with eight wins.