Carlton's VFL affiliate, the Northern Bullants, had a disappointing day on Sunday at Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo when they suffered a 32-point loss to the 11th-placed Bombers.

They now sit seventh on the ladder with seven wins and seven losses for the season.
 
Assistant coach Matthew Lappin shares his thoughts on the match and how some of the Carlton-listed players performed.

IT WAS a long drive to Bendigo, and we began the match poorly.

The Bombers started much better than us, forcing us to play catch-up footy for the rest of the match. They used the ball well and we didn't, which meant turnovers. I also thought we really lacked in our intensity at the ball.

Despite grabbing some consolation goals in the final quarter, we had very few winners on the day.

Bendigo were on top of us everywhere. They played really well; our guys didn't turn up ready to play and when that happens at VFL level, you get your pants pulled down.

One of our rookie boys, Lachie Hill, played his best game for the club, which was a big positive. Lachie hasn't played a whole lot of VFL footy with us, so it was pleasing that he was one of our best players.

Jason Saddington was good again, Mark Austin defended well and Andrew Walker won plenty of the ball, as did Luke Blackwell. They were a little rusty in areas but they won enough possession.

Walker played his third game back and his form has been about the same for all three games. He's got enough fitness to step up to the AFL and will be ready to go when the coaches call him up, whether that's this week or the next.

There's no doubt Andrew is in Carlton's best 22 so he will be itching to get back in the team.

Along with Saddington, Austin and Walker, Darren Pfeiffer has also been playing really well. I suppose one pleasing aspect is that our core midfield group keep putting their hands up.

We've got a short week this week so there's only so much you can do on the track. We may not train for long periods, but the intensity will be there as we work on our tackling and pressure.

We have dropped off a bit lately. We played selfishly on the weekend -- worrying about individuals rather than the team.

We're up against Box Hill this week. Coach Barry Mitchell used to be in charge of our boys so hopefully they'll be fired up and ready to go and will get the result.

We need to turn up in the right frame of mind to play. The two areas we were ordinary in on the weekend were intensity and skill level, so we'll address those during the week and hopefully we'll be right to go this weekend.

We'll get Ryan Jackson back this week from suspension, and I think coach David Teague is going to play this week as well. We've also got some other players who aren't too far away in  Ryan Houlihan, Jordan Bannister and Richard Hadley.

Coaching and playing has been a new thing for me and 'Teaguey' this year. It's a challenge but gives us the opportunity to coach the boys in "real time", as the events are happening which is helpful.

But it's hard sometimes when you're frustrated as a player. We play the same amount of time we would if we weren't coaching, so yes: it is a strange set-up because most of the boys wouldn't have played in this situation.

BENDIGO BOMBERS  5.2  10.7  13.11  14.14  (98)
NORTHERN BULLANTS  3.1  4.5  5.6  9.12  (66)

GOALS
Bendigo Bombers: G. Weeks 4, B. Hartigan 3, R. Dyson 2, S. Geary, J. Atkinson, J. Coghlan, T. Bellchambers, R. Magin
Northern Bullants: C. Ackland 3, J. Saddington, B. Davies, A. Hartlett, S. Hampson, D. Davies, D. Ellard

BEST
Bendigo Bombers: R. Dyson, G. Weeks, J. Atkinson, H. Skipworth, J. Coghlan, C. Hooker
Northern Bullants: L. Hill, D. Pfeiffer, S. Jacobs, S. Hampson, A. Walker, M. Austin