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“Right now they coach offence. They really aren’t investing in the game when they don’t have possession of the ball,” analyst and former North Melbourne premiership player David King said onFox Footy.

“They were assaulted again today to the tune of another eight-goal run. We’ve talked about ‘Teaguey’s gift’ - there’s always a five goal run at some stage in-game. So,if you’re not building from defence first,and it doesn’t mean absolute defence,it means components of where you want to win the ball back ... what do you end up with?”

Champion Data also point out that the game was statistically troubling because it wasn’t only a run on of goals they could not stop,they were also overwhelmed in centre clearances.

From the nine minute mark of the second quarter until the 18th minute mark of the last quarter theBulldogs recorded 16 centre clearances in a row. The Blues did not once clear the ball from the centre through that long middle stage of the game.

This period did not correspond entirely with the Bulldogs’ comeback but does point to an underlying problem at Carlton,which was magnified by the below par performances of their midfield.

Captain Patrick Cripps,ordinarily the man to hold Carlton’s midfield together and stand in the way of an opposition onslaught,was unable to exert any significant influence in the second half of the game.

He started the second half on the bench and struggled to get on for a period,then managed only five touches for the half including just two in the last quarter.

The game continued a trend for Cripps,who is having,statistically,his leanest season since his first couple of years in the system,according to Champion Data who observe he is trailing off in impact in the second half of games.

Cripps’ numbers in the second half of games have dropped this year. In his most prolific season in 2016 he averaged 16 touches in the second half of each game. This year it is down to 11.6.

His clearance numbers in second halves are down to 2.5,which is the least since his debut season. And he is not laying the tackles in the second half of games the way he had previously - just 1.9,which is the fewest in any year of his career.

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