FUNDAMENTAL skill errors and struggling under pressure cost Carlton dearly in its shock 13-point loss to Richmond, according to coach Michael Voss.
Voss wasn't dancing around the issues which faced his team, which led by 41 points in the second term against an unheralded and rebuilding Tigers side.
"It was pretty disappointing. Yeah, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. To be in the position that we were in early in the match and give up that lead and that position was – yeah, couldn't be more disappointed," Voss said.
"As the game went, you could sort of see clearly Richmond were gathering more energy. As they're gathering it, sometimes you've just got to stay in that fight when things aren't working for you, and we just weren't prepared to stay in that fight.
"Through error, through inefficiency, they were able to claw their way back, through probably increasing their pressure and capitalising on our mistakes and being a little bit inefficient when we went inside 50, so that was really disappointing.
"But the momentum in the game was certainly against us towards the second half, but what was it, nine goals to two in the second half? It shouldn't have happened that way."
Asked if his players had taken wooden spoon fancy Richmond too lightly, Voss was assertive.
"Gee, I really hope not, because humility has been a significant thing for us," he said.
"It may be talked about externally, but there's never a comment about where an opposition team are, other than it's round one. It's a start of the season. Everyone's got hope. Everyone believes they're a chance and you roll into round one and anything can happen.
"We also know the history of these games, Carlton versus Richmond in round one, they're close. So no matter wherever people have proposed that we're estimated where the teams have been, and how they've projected to be at the end of the season, the reality is, these games have been close. And gee, I would hope that wasn't the case. I really would."
Voss said Carlton will regain star forward Charlie Curnow (knee) for next Thursday night's blockbuster against Hawthorn, and remains hopeful Orazio Fantasia (calf) will also be cleared to play.
