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Sport Nation
Carlton's overreliance of contested identity "exposed"
Jaiden Sciberras • May 6th, 2025 10:23 am
Carlton failed to capitalise on their winning form, collapsing under Adelaide pressure to fall by 60 points in South Australia.
The Blues entered the clash with Adelaide on a three-game streak, claiming battles against North Melbourne and West Coast before a stunning three-goal win over the Cats in Round 7.
Despite their positive turn of form, an eight-goal to three first half in favour of the Crows including a Jordan Dawson major after the half-time siren buried the contest long before game’s end.
As questions have spiralled around Carlton’s capability to compete at the top level, Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley believes the Blues need to adapt to a modern game style.
“The game went the way you expected it to,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“Adelaide are a modern-day side on the up playing modern football, Carlton are an old school side that are trying to hold on with some great characteristics, some great players that play some hard tough footy inside.
“But the modern game is asking for more than just that. They haven’t got all their elements in play at the moment.
“They defend really well when they have to, but they haven’t been able to find a way to finish well enough to access their quite obvious strengths in front of the ball and they aren’t consistent enough, so they were exposed.”
Buckley referred to Carlton’s overreliance on dominance through centre-field, the area of the game encapsulating their identity through their best phases of form.
Against the Crows, Carlton were beaten quite heavily in the contest battle, losing out in all contested metrics including clearance, contested possessions, ground-ball gets and scores from stoppage.
“They are so reliant on winning contest and clearance, it gives their defenders just a bit of breathing space because they are not that great at defending,” he said.
“If the ball is coming down fast, out of stoppage or in transition, and this goes for all defences, the back six would much prefer to have territory and clearance going that way so they can play on the front foot.
“As soon as it comes the other way it seems to me that Carlton breaks down quicker than most. There’s a dearth of players that are in front of the ball for Carlton that are prepared to do the hard yards to get back and support that defence, and they don’t really have great legs out of their midfield running back the other way.
“They are the things that were exposed, (but) they are a constant working progress. There is an improvement that can come from them, and they’ve shown what their best football can look like.
“I don’t know whether it’s going to stack up against the very best teams and the very best football, and Adelaide looked like both of those on the weekend.”
Carlton will need to re-establish themselves in Round 9 as they take on the Saints at the MCG this Friday night.
