Nathan Buckley doesn’t believe coaching is to blame for Carlton’s poor run of form.
The Blues slumped to their fourth loss from their last five games on Saturday night going down 59-79 to the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.
While many believe Carlton have the obvious talent to compete near the top of the ladder, putting the coaching and tactics in the spotlight for their struggles, Buckley believes the issues are across the board.
He discussed Carlton’s woes with Kane Cornes on SEN Breakfast.
Buckley: “I don't think it's a coaching issue with Carlton.
“It's across the board … their players, their leaders.”
Cornes: “How can you say it’s not a coaching issue? They had 29 entries for one goal in the first half.
“Surely that is something structurally that’s flawed about the way that they're moving the footy to be that inefficient.”
Buckley: “There was no problem with moving the footy to get it in 29 times.
“There was a problem with the last kick, there was a problem with the execution of the individuals that had the ball, there was a problem with the contest on the other side of it.
“They only went inside 21 or 22 times in the second half, and they started kicking goals.”
Cornes: “There's the number of times you go in, but there's the quality of entry.
“A lot of them were slow and wide going in, which is easy to defend.
“Whereas in the second half it was more chaotic, more frenetic, they took a few more risks, faster ball movement.
“I wonder why that doesn't happen from the start.”
Buckley: “I think that's what that shows, is the contrast.
“They got more supply, less output (in the first half) and less supply, more output in the second half.
“We talk about system, we talk about process, I thought Carlton sort of flipped it upside down.
“Their forward structure changed a little bit, it changed a lot, their talls went up higher and smalls went a little bit deeper.”
With Buckley highlighting that Carlton improved once their forward structure shifted, he believes that superstar forwards Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow aren’t doing enough to help their side impact games and win front half contests.
Buckley: “They're not getting enough of a contest in front of the ball at the moment.
“They're big units, and (Charlie) Curnow has kicked a lot of goals, (Harry) McKay has gotten a lot of contests.
“But they’re not providing consistent contests, they had four or five entries where the ball went within three or four metres of Charlie Curnow and I think that he needed to close the distance to get there.
“You're not going to get a free run at every contest, but you've got to compete.
“Aaron Naughton at the other end of the field, he didn't have an exceptional game but, and he looked really good early hit the post a couple of times, 1.2 from three shots in the first quarter, but he will consistently launch and throw himself at the aerial ball.
“When you've got a player that does that in front of the ball, then your ground level players come and grow off the back of that.
“Carlton have lost that.”
Cornes: “So McKay and Curnow aren't competitive enough?”
Buckley: “I don't think so.
“They used to go to Curnow, McKay, (Tom) De Koning or (Marc) Pittonet early last year and they were criticised for having too many aerial targets in one spot.
“I reckon they did it once on the weekend where Curnow and McKay were in the same contest about 20 metres out from goal.
“Now they didn't score from it, but if you actually have a look at the still shot of that (contest), the space that there is at ground level when all of the aerial players, all the Western Bulldogs defenders were drawn to that contest, and they looked like there was greater space at ground level.
“You keep providing that opportunity for (Matt) Owies, for (Corey) Durdin, for (Jesse) Motlop, for (Sam) Walsh who's coming back in, for Cripps, who's got to find himself more forward to the contest, and you're going to get the Carlton that you got through most of last year when they were playing their best footy.
“I reckon that they've tried to be a little too pretty.
“Just kick it to the contest, that's where you do your best work.”
Carlton will hope to improve when they face archrivals Collingwood in a huge game on Sunday afternoon at the MCG.