Rd 18: Match Day Gallery
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A FRUSTRATED Brett Ratten says poor skills cost Carlton dearly in its eight-point loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.
Ratten said the Blues simply “burned” too many chances -- and not only during the last quarter when a run of six successive behinds meant they just failed to overrun the Crows, after trailing by 32 points early in the last term.
“It’s very frustrating,” Ratten said after the match. “Probably the most frustrated I’ve been all season on a performance. I thought we had enough of the ball to hurt Adelaide and we gave it back and we paid the price.
“I think we over-finessed the footy. In slippery conditions underfoot, we turned the ball over when we were in control and Adelaide swept on our mistakes.
“Everything we touched we pretty much destroyed though parts of the game. Our kicking – we had 72 clanger ineffective kicks. That’s just enormous. To be as close as we did it’s not a bad effort, considering. But you can’t win AFL games of footy kicking the football like we did today.”
The abject disappointment in the Blues change rooms after the match reflected the fact Carlton believed it had dropped a winnable game – and most probably blown its shot at playing finals.
Ratten did not declare that quest over, but said the focus now would be on continued improvement.
“We said a couple of weeks ago that we need to improve as a group individually and collectively, and I think we’ve made some really good transition in aspects of our game,” he said.
“And who knows, if we’d kicked the ball a bit better today we might have been singing the song. But we didn’t and to the Crows credit they played some really good football when they had to after we got a fantastic start".
Ratten described the second quarter incident which saw Crow Jason Porplyzia knocked unconscious when sandwiched between Bret Thornton and Steven Browne as “accidental contact”.
“I didn’t think there was much in it,” Ratten said. “The (Carlton) players were trying to pick up players and they virtually collided and the (Adelaide) player went down. I think it was accidental contact. Hopefully the boy’s alright.”
But Ratten says the incident did contribute to changing the game’s momentum.
“(After that) I thought Moran really came into the game for them, being that target up forward. I thought he presented well.
“We gave the ball back to them, and then they’d get that one-on-one (opportunity) and kicked the quite ball well, and to his credit he made the most of his opportunities. He changed the momentum of the game for Adelaide.”
Eddie Betts didn’t play the second half after feeling hamstring tightness during the second quarter, and will be assessed during the week.
