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NZ Warriors in-stadium commentary"Genuinely mediocre": Jenkins fires on substandard Blues
Jaiden Sciberras • May 25th, 2025 4:00 pm
Carlton have once again fallen short, losing by 28 points to an undermanned GWS side at the MCG.
Without Finn Callaghan, Brent Daniels, Stephen Coniglio, Josh Kelly and Jake Stringer, the Giants travelled to Melbourne and dealt with the Blues rather comfortably, claiming the lead 20 minutes into the second term and holding for the duration of the game.
Despite a number of opportunities signified by the side’s +11 inside 50’s, Carlton weren’t able to get their star forwards involved in the game, scoring just 82 points to fall to 4-7 on the season.
With the potential to fall as low as 14th on the ladder by the end of the round, former Crow Josh Jenkins believes that the Blues are right where they deserve to be, curtesy of their inability to use the ball.
“They are genuinely a mediocre team,” Jenkins told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“I’m not sticking the boots in by saying that. That’s just where they are at.
“If you want to go further and deeper into it, you talk about the teams they have beaten. You’ll see a West Coast and a North Melbourne, teams like that scattered in there a fair bit.
“The reason I think they’re genuinely mediocre, I think they’re one of the worst kicking teams in the competition.
“Maybe they don’t make the most amount of errors, but they don’t have enough firepower to create scores and create chains of ball movement that either end in a score or at least end with you having the ball in your forward 50 or your part of the ground.
“We hear so much from clubs about ‘we want to win territory and field position, time in forward half’, the best teams all go after those stats.
“Carlton don’t have guys who can create off half back. I see Mitch McGovern go for kicks that are probably a little bit beyond him, but he does it because he knows there’s not a lot else there who make those kicks.
“(Adam) Saad’s kicking has dropped off, (Ollie) Hollands is back there to be that player but he’s not an elite kick, he’s an okay kick. Aside from those couple of guys, they desperately need to get in the market for guys that can kick the footy.”
With their clear inability to spark ball movement from the back flank, Jenkins remains astonished that the Blues failed to go after Dan Houston over the off-season.
Despite talks of Houston desiring a move to Ikon Park, the Blues thought better of the deal involving multiple first round picks, instead shifting their focus to West Coast's pick three for the now injured Jagga Smith.
“Don’t get me started on this,” he continued.
“I was tearing my hair out, consistently saying in trade week, what are we doing? You need someone who can kick the footy like Dan Houston can kick the footy.
“Once you bring a player in like that, and if they perform how you need them to perform, and if he’s kicking the ball and cutting teams open with that type of play, you’re not worried about the draft picks that went out.
“You’re thinking ‘how good is it to have a dual All-Australian, a guy who can break the game open for us, when we just don’t have any of them’.
“I don’t know how they sit around at the end of the year and look at their list and think thieve got enough guys who can kick the footy. That’s why we see (Adam) Cerra moved out of the midfield and moved to half back.
“Cerra’s a very good kick but he’s not an elite kick, he’s not at the very pointy end when we talk about guys who can kick the footy.
“The best teams have a couple of them. Houston’s not playing well for Collingwood but look at what Josh Daicos does creatively off of half back. Jeremy Howe is a really good kick.
“Look at Brisbane with Dayne Zorko and his move to half back and the way he distributes, they’ll get (Keidean) Coleman back. All of these good teams have amazing kicks.
“Karl Amon is a great kick, Sicily at his best. Carlton don’t have anyone who can live in that world.”
Carlton are set for the bye in Round 12 before taking on Essendon the following Sunday.
