Carlton coach Mick Malthouse has taken a swipe at the free agency system after his team was demolished by 69 points by West Coast on Friday night, warning that free agents didn’t want to join “middle-to-bottom” teams like the Blues.

Malthouse said his team was “very bad outside of the first quarter” against a West Coast outfit that had been “very good” in coming off a six-day break after losing to the Western Bulldogs last Saturday night, adding that the decision by Eagles coach Adam Simpson to move Matt Rosa onto Chris Judd after the Carlton star had gathered 12 possessions in the first quarter had changed the game.

After the loss, an expansive Malthouse said the Blues had simply lacked leadership and quality running players.

“We are not disguising the fact that we are not Hawthorn,” Malthouse said.

“My experience says to me that we are as adequate as anyone physically, but have we got the running players? I don’t think we have got the running players at the football club. That’s one of the things we have been trying to do over the last 12 months.

“You can’t just go out and buy players. We can’t go out and get free agents. We’ve lost two players (Jeff Garlett and Jarrad Waite) to free agency because we are a middle-to-bottom side at the moment.

“Players don’t want to come here. This is part of this two-tiered system. They want to go to the top sides and see finals. We haven’t played in the finals. We didn’t play finals last year.”

Malthouse said Michael Jamison, who spent most of the night playing on a rampant Josh Kennedy, had lost confidence in himself during the game because of the quality and quantity of the delivery to the Eagles’ spearhead, who kicked 10.1.

The coach said Carlton needed more players to stand up in those circumstances, not just the members of the leadership group.

He also said Levi Casboult’s efforts had been impressive, but the high-flying big man still needed to improve his kicking. He said Casboult would hold his place in the team after an erratic performance where he kicked 2.3 while taking eight marks.