Carlton's small forwards were horrible and half the side had absolute stinkers of games in their 36-point AFL loss to Fremantle, Blues' coach Mick Malthouse says.
Carlton's top-eight hopes took a hit as top-four contenders Fremantle scored a 17.14 (116) to 12.8 (80) victory in their round-19 clash at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
Malthouse told his post-match media conference that out-of-contract goalsneak Eddie Betts' performance was horrible.
Chris Yarran and Betts contributed 19 touches and no goals between them.
"His consistency at the moment is well down," Malthouse said of Carlton's two-time leading goalkicker Betts.
"But I'm not here to talk about Eddie Betts. And you said Chris Yarran.
"I can name 10 other players that had absolute stinkers tonight.
"But you only have that if your work-rate is not high, and your opposition hurts you with their workrate.
"There's a gulf that we have to fix and fix quickly if we're going to be in the hunt for the eight this year."
Carlton's first loss in four matches leave them with a 9-9 record, at least one game outside the top eight.
Midfielder Andrew Carrazzo was subbed out at the start of the second term with a bruised calf and could be in doubt for next Saturday's game against Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
Marc Murphy struggled to break the tag of Fremantle's Ryan Crowley who held the Carlton captain to just four kicks and nine handballs.
"Top quality players set an agenda to absorb the tag," Malthouse said.
"This is a learning curve for Marc, there's no question about that, and we spoke about it after the game.
"The top quality midfielders over the last decade or so get tagged, and what differentiates you between being a good ordinary footballer and a very good footballer is your ability to learn the lessons from the last tagger, and take them into next week and say, 'Righto, this is what I've got to do.'"
Malthouse blasted his team's lack of hardness and said they were flattered by the clearances figures which showed Fremantle ahead 41-35.
"Five of our top six stat getters were backs," Malthouse said.
