Dual premiership Kangaroo David King has been left flabbergasted by Carlton’s apparent hesitancy to feed star half-back Adam Saad the ball. And it amplifies a bigger Blues issue: The team’s inability to maximise its on-field assets.
The Blues on Friday night lost their sixth game in seven weeks, going down to Sydney by 26 points at the SCG in a performance that will only increase the already intense scrutiny on coach Michael Voss.
King pre-game asked Voss on Fox Footy about whether the Blues had plans to free up Saad, who had struggled to break tags and have an impact on games this season despite averaging decent numbers.
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“Yeah I think we’re sort of assuming we don’t give permission at times anyway for him to be able to do that,” a defensive Voss told Fox Footy pre-game.
“We’ve certainly experimented with a few different things. It’s something that’s on the agenda.
“Some of the things are there that we’ve been trying, but what we haven’t been able to do so far is be able to put it all together. From your angle, you’re thinking there are some things that aren’t working – and that’s obviously correct – but we have to make sure we put more phases together and more plays together and hopefully we get the confidence off the back of that.”
Carlton Blues press conference | 06:18
By halftime, though, Saad had just three kicks to his name as he struggled to break a defensive tag from Swans forward Sam Wicks. The 2022 All-Australian finished with 18 disposals for the match, of which 11 were kicks.
King said he felt the Blues were “missing a trick” in their decision not to use Saad more on the rebound.
“They just don’t pop handball the ball to him. They don’t encourage him to run,” King told Fox Footy.
“He stays diligent to his man – that’s not what you want. The modern half-back flanker is all rip, tear and bust … you become an extra midfielder from half-back these days, not half-forward.
“I think they’re missing a trick big time here, Carlton.”
King compared Saad’s lack of influence to the game by Swans star Nick Blakey, who was the No. 1 rated player on the ground with 26 disposals (21 kicks at 71.4% efficiency), 12 marks (7 intercept) and 626m gained.
Blakey’s energy and desire to run was one of the major differences in the game, according to King.
“Sydney get the ball and their first thought is to give it to the runner,” King said. “He doesn’t know whether he’s running into trouble or traffic, but you back he’s good enough to get around it, through it, over it. That’s what Sydney do and they did it all night.
“With Adam Saad, you’ve got the stand rule. If you’re going to … disregard Adam Saad’s ability to run and overlap, you want a better service than that (to Carlton’s forwards). That to me is not allowing your team to counter-punch with any fluency at all with any real dare. Your best ball-user in your team, you’re saying ‘no I’m a better kick than you’. I just think it’s really poor play.
“I don’t know whether that feeds down from the coach or the line coach or Adam Saad himself, because he stops running. Too quickly he’s shut-out of games – it’s happened a few times this season – he’s got an issue with being tagged. If he’s set a task, he’ll go and do the job for his team. But if they send someone to him – and it was Sam Wicks (on Friday night) and he finished as the third-highest rated player on the ground.
Swans seal crucial win over the Blues | 02:42
“That’s the problem they’ve got at Carlton. I don’t think they give their star factor players enough opportunity to win the games for them.
“That’s an issue that Michael doesn’t like hearing … but that’s the reality.”
Former Hawthorn sharpshooter Ben Dixon lamented Carlton’s poor kicking forward of centre, saying the Blues didn’t give twin towers Harry McKay or Charlie Curnow “any opportunity for isolation”.
King said that further highlighted his frustration with the Blues’ hesitancy to let Saad be the playmaker.
“If I was at Carlton, I’d be getting the brightest coloured tops for (Sam) Docherty and for Saad and anytime they’re anywhere near your vision, you give them the ball,” he said.
“You start training like that (Mark) ‘Choco’ Williams did that years ago … give the guys who are our best users the footy and let them express themselves.”
Dixon added: “When ‘The Lizard’ (Blakey) goes past, you give him the ball. The threat for Carlton is Saad off half-back and cut you open and do some damage.”