“WE HAVE to own this.”

Carlton AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss and captain Patrick Cripps said there was no point “sugarcoating” what went down in Round 3 against Melbourne.

After kicking out to a big lead, the Blues were outgunned in another disappointing second half, letting slip the chance of a second consecutive win at the MCG.

Saying the Blues needed to address performance and mental barriers when games turned, here’s what both Cripps (on 3AW post-match) and Voss had to say.

Cripps on the manner of the defeat:

“It’s frustrating, I’m not going to lie. It’s one of those things at the moment where the first half, we’re playing great footy, but we can’t carry that through in the second half. We’ve got to own this.

“It’s something that keeps rearing its head, and the only way you change it is going at it and performing. Until we do that, we know what the narrative will be.”

Cripps on addressing the psychological nature of second half fadeouts:

“I think we’ve got to look at it in that way, to be honest, because our system and the way we play is powerful when we go at the game. We know teams are going to challenge us, and it’s important that we keep going back at the opposition when that happens.

“I don’t know what it looked like today, but it feels like we tend to go safe in those moments and we don’t take the game on. There’s a bit to work through. As leaders, we’re going to own this.”

Cripps on supporter frustration at the end of the game:

“I can understand why they’re angry, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. As players, we echo how they’re feeling. When you prepare all week, you want to capitalise on that momentum. We weren’t able to do that.

“I can understand the anger and we have to own this, I’ve said it a few times. Until we rectify that, I can understand why people are frustrated.”

Cripps on Michael Voss’ message at half time:

“A lot of the time, the game is set up how we want it, and we double down on the message that put us in that position.

“He’s doing all he can, it’s up to us as players to execute and keep going at the game. We’ll do some digging, I don’t have the answers right now - just frustration.”

Voss on immediate reactions post-match:

“I’m pretty filthy. We’re putting ourselves in great positions, and we’re handing it back.

“I’m not taking anything away from Melbourne: you’ve got to be able to go at the game and challenge the opposition and turn the momentum your way. But we’re not helping ourselves.

“We have to own it, that’s the first thing we have to do. I’ve taken the measure of glass half full and seen the things we’ve been rehearsing over the course of pre-season and seeing the transfer and highlighting what those moments are and chipping away at that.

“But today, it was really disappointing. I was expecting more than that.”

Voss on what changed in the second half from a Carlton perspective:

“There’s going to be periods of the game where things aren’t going your way, and you’ve got to be able to defend. You talk about process all you like, but the reality is when the opposition gets the ascendancy, you have to be able to defend. If it’s five minutes, it’s five minutes. If it’s 15 minutes, it’s 15 minutes.

“And then you wait for the movement where you get the score going the other way. We kept it in our half 12 times in the first quarter, we only did it nine other times for the rest of the game.

“Yes, there’s ball movement and erratic things we need to clean up. There’s discipline in roles we need to continue to reinforce. But more importantly, when we’re asked to hold and defend behind the ball as a collective, we’re not doing it for long enough.

“To give them 88 points in the second half after keeping them to 12 points in the first half, which was an exceptional defensive performance in the first only to be let down in the second.”

Voss on whether there was a mental factor to the way the game played out:

“We can’t ignore it. We have to accept some reality in that.

“Right now, my position is that we own it, whatever it looks like. It comes back to process and keeping the process really simple. But the whole things around staying connected as a football team and playing the right way, there’s got to be energy towards that. We’re not able to sustain that.

“That starts with me as a leader, I’m not shying away from it and nor will our leaders. Speaking to them in there, we own this. As a leadership group, we own this - that’s an extended leadership group, senior players - and that’s me.”

Voss on how things change:

“We’ve got to put a roadblock somewhere. We’ve got the capacity to get it done, and we’re not executing for long enough. When we’re asked to defend for long periods of time, let’s defend.

“But there are other things we need to tidy up. Why it’s frustrating and why you’re filthy is there’s all this work, but the gloss has been taken off because we can’t finish off games and continue the way we want to play.”

Voss on whether it was a fitness issue:

“We had probably our strongest running team out there today. In terms of our balance and running power, it’s probably as strong as it’s been.

“We don’t discount anything, but the capacity side of things, everything is there that we need. We just have to back it in more than we are currently.”