Carlton head coach David Teague has admitted that his side's limp performance against Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon is unlikely to aid his chances of remaining in his current role.
On a day when the Blues both celebrated and bid farewell to club champion and 300-gamer Marc Murphy, the Princes Park side's party was torrentially rained on after the Power surged home by kicking 19-unanswered goals.
The crushing loss came after Teague's injury hampered side had initially came out of their corner swinging to hold a 23-point lead at the 14-minute mark of the second stanza.
But as time eroded from the clock, and the visitor's score failed to accrue, the relatively inexperienced Blues were battered to the tune of 95-points.
Speaking after the resounding defeat, Teague acknowledged that the one-way traffic across the second-half had hardly helped his cause to continue coaching the 16-time premiers.
"Look, it doesn't help โฆ I understand that," Teague said post-game.
"(But) in terms of the pattern of behaviour, that's our first really big loss. The timing is not great, but in terms of where we've been and the way the guys approached it at the start โฆ I thought we cracked in and used it well early.
"It may not help, but I think it's one game. Over the year we've been pretty competitive, but we've got some growth. That's where we're at."
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Having played for the club prior to entering the coaches box, the bespectacled steward stated that although he could see effort from his troops, the result was not up to the standards previously set by the former powerhouse.
"It's disappointing. We're shattered," Teague continued.
"The thing that hurts most is you never want to lose like that when you wear the Carlton jumper, but when it's Marc Murphy's 300th โฆ to do that for his 300th game, it hurts more.
"I know the guys are trying, but for whatever reason once they got a bit of a run-on we went into our shells and we weren't as aggressive."
Despite laying his cards on the table, the 40-year-old remained certain that he was the person best suited to bring the glory days back to Carlton and that irrespective of the board's take on their external review, he didn't expect to be notified otherwise until the club's season had drawn to a close.
Teague's comments came less than 24-hours after his manager, former Cat Liam Pickering, leapt to his defense by labelling members of the media seeking his client's scalp as "vicious" and "nasty".ย
Carlton's 2021 campaign will end after their Round 23 clash against finals fancies Greater Western Sydney next week and the club's brass are yet to release their findings into the highly publicised review.
