“WE LET ourselves down and we’re not shying away from that.”

Carlton co-captain Sam Docherty said there was no reason for doom and gloom at Ikon Park this week: all that could be done was putting words into action.

Speaking to media yesterday, Docherty said the overriding feeling was one of frustration after Carlton proved to be its own worst enemy at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

However, he said it was crucial that attention turned to Geelong instead of focusing on ‘what might have been’ from the weekend.

“We can’t go back, we can’t win the four points that we’ve lost. We’ve got to focus on what we’ve got coming up,” Docherty said.

“We’re very confident in what we’ve got and the work that we put in. As a leader, that’s why I’m here.

“We’ve got to get our first quarters right and that’s pretty obvious. It is for everyone in the footy club and everyone externally.”

Docherty polled three coaches votes on the weekend, forming part of a defensive unit which conceded just three scoring shots after half time.

He said that while there were positives to take from the weekend, the only thing which mattered was the end result.

“As a leader of this club, we’ve got to get it right. Otherwise, we’re going to put ourselves out of the game,” he said.

“We did a lot right but giving teams that head start makes it very hard to get back into the game… there’s a bit of time in the last quarter we’d love to have back.

“While the results haven’t gone our way, the majority of those games have seen us play some good footy. We’re pretty confident we can go down [to Geelong] and give it a good old crack.”