HOW BLUE CAN IT GET
CARLTON president Mark LoGiudice says the club is at the “toughest point” of its long-term rebuild of the football club. But he has urged fans to trust the process.
“We’re at the toughest point of our strategy,” LoGiudice said last night.
“This year has been a little bit tougher than expected because we’ve had injuries as well, not excuses, these are just reasons. It’s not a surprise and performances like that at the weekend are hard to cop.
“But we are backing our plan and the people in it 110 per cent.”
The embattled Blues have won one game in 2018 and just two of its past 22 matches, prompting fury from fans and past players at the weekend, led by premiership player and coach Robert Walls and former captain Mark Maclure.
The Blues kicked just seven behinds in the first half and rallied to finish with 6.10 against Fremantle on Saturday. They lost by 57 points.
Their only win came against Essendon in Round 8.
“I feel it as much as everyone does, our board feels it as much as everyone else does, we’re all Carlton supporters and members, we all feel it, but we must back the plan we started with,” LoGiudice said.
“It will all turn around and we will be writing a different story at some point in time in the future.
“But it is hard to take in the meantime.”
Two of Carlton’s most influential players, Sam Docherty (knee) and skipper Marc Murphy (foot) have missed a bundle of games. Docherty will be out for the season.
Murphy’s future at the club remains a strong talking point as he weighs up free agency. At the weekend, Maclure called the first-half performance against the Dockers one of the worst he had seen by a Carlton side, while Walls was critical of the majority of journeyman players recruited to support the youth.
LoGiudice described the first half as unacceptable.
“There is no doubt Saturday’s performance was unacceptable, it was disappointing,” he said. He also acknowledged the frustration from fans and some past players.
“I’m frustrated, too, as a member, but we have to stick to our plan and strategy,” he said.
To the fact the Blues had won two games in their past 22 matches, LoGiudice said: “That’s also tough, very tough, absolutely.
“But we always said we were going to three drafts. We always knew this year was going to be the toughest year.”