IN WHAT was an ‘almost’ game for the Blues, a confident and comprehensive final quarter from the Bulldogs saw the Blues give up a 27-point lead to fall by 16 points.
In a game where the forwards were firing, Carlton was unable to get the ball moving forward in the final term, while the Bulldogs were able to pin the ball in their forward half.
David Teague said the final quarter of the game wasn't to the standard given the work the Blues had put in to that point, and it was evidence of the work ahead of the Blues to match it with the best teams in the competition.
“We were able to get the ball into our half and when we got it into our forward, we looked dangerous, but we didn’t get it down there enough,” Teague said.
“[The Bulldogs] got the field position and pinned it in there, so it’s pretty hard.”
The centre bounce was where the contest was lost, with the Bulldogs finishing the game with a 23-7 centre clearance count.
Teague said that the Navy Blue midfield group acknowledged it in the post-match debrief.
“They owned it, they put their hand up post-game and said it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“You probably want to look at it over a bigger picture and not react to one week. Right now, we’ve got to get better in there and next week we’re going up against a team who do really well in there.”
It was the consistency of a four-quarter performance which once again proved to be Carlton's downfall, after a blistering middle two quarters which saw the Blues get the game on their terms.
Teague did highlight some players that were consistent over the length of the game, but said there needed to be a shift across the board.
“I thought Sam Walsh and Jacob Weitering are the guys consistently putting together four quarters, and we need more guys doing that,” he said.
“At the moment we don’t have enough players as a team playing 120 minutes of footy; You can get away with it at some times but against the good teams, you don’t and we saw that today.”
Unwavering in his belief of the playing group, Teague said the frustration was there for all to see and there needed to be widespread improvement after coming up against some of the competition's best in the opening weeks.
“We have to be better in the contest at times: I think we have to set up better defensively and I thought there were some good plays where we just didn’t finish them going forward,” he said.
“I think all three phases of the game are still in progress and right now we’re not good enough."
