Carlton was served a “little reality check” in its lost to the Giants amid a shock turnaround in Saturday night’s clash where the Blues gave up a 39-point lead.
Michael Voss’ side slammed on eight goals in the first quarter of the ENGIE Stadium game before GWS completely turned the tables including recording its second-best scores from stoppage performance (11.4.70) in the last five years.
It snapped a five-game winning streak for the second-placed Blues, who’d emerged as the biggest challenger to Sydney in the premiership race, to now sit just half a game ahead of Fremantle and Essendon.
A Carlton team littered with stars that could have several All-Australians this year, chief Herald Sun reporter Mark Robinson, however, sent a stern reminder that the Blues have “achieved nothing yet” with their current crop.
“What happened? Did you think: ‘39? (points up) I might run over there (forward). We’ve got this’,” Robinson said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“They’ve achieved nothing yet, this Carlton team. Absolutely nothing.
“They’ve got some great players, they’ve got some good players. Great players win premierships, truly great players win multiple premierships.
“They’ve done nothing this mob and I think this is a reminder for the players … to say: ‘Hey, the red carpet is not just laid out for you every week to turn up and say ‘we’re more talented, we’ll do it.’
“It’s a mind game. So what happened? They probably thought they had it over the line.”
The Blues last year played finals for the first time since 2013 and made it all the way to a preliminary final before getting knocked out by Brisbane.
Carlton’s last premiership win was in 1995, while the club hasn’t played in a grand final since 1999.
“Little reality check for them, might have just got ahead of themselves,” Saints legend Leigh Montagna said on Fox Footy’s The First Crack.
“I’m not too concerned, I think their game is in great shape.
“Maybe just a good little reminder, if you take the foot off the gas ever so slightly, anyone can trounce you.”
Dual premiership Kangaroo David King meanwhile believes the Blues need to bring Marc Pittonet back into the team to support Tom De Koning in the ruck.
King suggested Voss needed to at least get another look at the dual-ruck setup in the remaining seven home and away rounds to ensure he has his optimal mix for September.
“Pittonet is in this team for me because the ruck rule has changed … do you go with two ruckmen or one?,” he said on The First Crack.
“They need Pittonet in there. Because if De Koning can’t get it done at clearance in terms of tapwork, they’re a different team.
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