Carlton coach Michael Voss says the Blues are ready to pick apart their 56-point loss to Adelaide on Thursday night, their first defeat of the season.
The Blues were slow out of the gates at Adelaide Oval, with the Crows leading by 38-points at the first break, dominating not just the scoreboard, but the stats sheet.
Adelaide headed into quarter time with 67 more possessions than Carlton and eight more clearances, with Voss conceding post-game that the Blues' slow start was "hard-going".
"We were heavily beaten around the ball," Voss said.
"When you lose that battle, you lose important territory on the field. We weren't able to turn the tap off in terms of their efficiency inside 50. They've had 20 looks at it and they're scoring 55 per cent of the time. That makes it hard going.
"You can have quarters where that can happen, but you can generally hold on a little bit better than that. We weren't able to do that, which put us under pressure. There was a response with the playing group and I'm pleased that they stuck that out for two-and-a-half quarters. I felt like it was really evenly balanced throughout the rest of the night.
Three in a row for the Crows ๐#AFLCrowsBlues #GatherRound pic.twitter.com/ysaX4rfjLt
— AFL (@AFL) April 13, 2023
"We just had to have a throw at the stumps at the end, to see what impact we could have on the scoreboard. Clearly, that last little bit went against us. But we had to have a go at it to see if we could close and we couldn't.
"But when the whips are cracking, you've got to be there at the start and we just weren't."
Carlton now sit with a 3-1-1 record heading into Round 6 with Voss accepting that there will be criticism on how the Blues faltered in the Gather Round spotlight, but said they would "pick apart" the loss ahead of their clash against St Kilda.
โWeโll accept what comes our way, but we can't do much about that now,โ Voss said.
โWe can only go about it in the coming week and prepare for the next opponent ... thatโs all we get the chance to do.
โWhat will be said will be said.
โWhatever (criticism) comes our way we accept that, but what weโve got to do is pick apart this around what worked and what didn't then see what we can put into action immediately and there will be some other longer-term things that we need to continue to address.
โThe importance of this particular round was discussed, the focus that this round brings, and we had a great opportunity to kick off this weekend.
โThere was going to be extra focus and scrutiny on this game, and we were looking forward to that.
โThatโs not foreign to us now, we're well supported, and we didn't do the right thing.โ
