Carlton’s biggest strength from 2022 has turned into an enormous weakness this season.
They have fallen from one of the best teams in the competition at scoring from stoppages to one of the worst, a swing that David King is worried about.
The Blues played Patrick Cripps, George Hewett, Sam Walsh, Ed Curnow, Matthew Kennedy and Adam Cerra together on-ball, the first time that group has taken the field together.
King believes the on-ball unit may be too big and slow, if they’re not dominating at the source.
“They’re having to play left-handed,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“They’re having to find other ways to win that they’re actually not very good at.
“Credit to the opposition they’ve played, but the bottom line is the big bulls at Carlton haven’t been tough enough, haven’t been clean enough on the inside, haven’t been violent enough to get themselves out of those traffic situations, they cough up the ball, they fumble handballs, and the opposition clearly have more speed on the edges because Carlton goes with the big bulls.
“As soon as the big bulls aren’t playing like big bulls, they just become slow midfielders and vulnerable from step one.
“The gap between Jordan Dawson getting off Cripps is immediate. Hewett had a poor night.”
King broke down how the Blues have swung statistically from one of the best teams at scoring from stoppages to one of the worst.
“A couple of mids had a poor night, but I can’t believe the stoppage game. The stoppage game last year was an absolute weapon for them. They were the second best across the season, at +9 points per game,” he added.
“First 10 weeks of last year they were unbelievable. It was probably closer to 2.5 goals per game. That’s a big advantage – and the territory it gives you saves every other part of your game.
“This year, they’re averaging two less clearances than their opponent week on week, which exposes all the other areas of the game they’re not great at, and they’re 17th at score from clearance differential at -8 points.
“So what was a strength last year is second poorest in the competition right now. They’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s going to come back to the Brownlow Medallist, Patrick Cripps, he might need to go in as a clearance and contested winning midfielder which is not ideally what you want, but the other players are not doing it.
“I said this last year, it’s a tough way to win games of footy. To consistently bludgeon other teams to death, but they have to get back to it quickly because let’s be honest, that’s they’ve all they’ve got.
“The two big boys forward of centre just need supply. The kicking to them was really poor on the weekend. High ball after high ball. They’ve got to be better than that.
“They lack skill in the midfield at the minute and they lack the beast mode from last year. Let’s see if they can turn it around.”
Carlton takes on St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Sunday afternoon in what looms as a huge test of where both teams are at.