Pagan unhappy with stroppy Fevola
Underwhelmed Carlton coach Denis Pagan has taken aim at a scowling Brendan Fevola, whose ill-disciplined performance contributed to a second successive AFL hiding for the Blues.
Smashed by 77 points by Fremantle, their ninth successive defeat at the hands of the Dockers, Fevola kicked 1.2 in a performance more memorable for the negatives than positives.
Setting the tone for a miserable day, Fevola conceded back-to-back 50 metre penalties within the first five minutes, which led to Des Headland's second goal and prompted Pagan to drag his spearhead.
After being well held by Luke McPharlin, the Coleman medallist's frustration surfaced again after he chose a 70 metre torpedoed effort late in the second quarter when Marc Murphy was free inside forward 50 metres.
And ending with a single goal kicked when the contest was long dead, Pagan's feelings were clear when queried about Fevola's double 50 metre penalties.
"What do you think?" said Pagan.
When the reporter responded, "Pretty ordinary", Pagan snapped back: "You will get no argument from me."
Carlton's forward malaise was a key factor in their ninth loss of the season, registering more inside 50s than the Dockers but losing by almost 13 goals.
"We just made some horrific errors and just didn't have enough good forwards up on the day," Pagan said.
"To think we've had 57 entries (into the 50) - I think the Dockers had 53 or something - they smashed us.
"Centre bounces, clearances around the ground; we won more than our share, but when they got a sniff, they started running, and we couldn't keep up with them.
"(Jeff) Farmer, (Des) Headland and (Matthew) Pavlich kicked 13 goals between them, we never got any of our key forwards on song."
Missing Andrew Walker - who Pagan said will likely return next week for the basement battle with Melbourne at the MCG - Pagan said leg speed was the key component missing in successive shellackings.
"We know we have to get run into the side, and we've just got to see if there's any young blokes who play in our VFL side (Northern Bullants) tomorrow who are prepared to run.
"That's probably been evident in (the last two) games."
But despite the season beginning to slide after encouraging signs, Pagan said it was pointless getting downhearted, or taking out the disappointment on his young side.
"We've got a very young group, obviously, and a high percentage of them are trying as hard as they can. We've got to get everybody back into some sort of form," Pagan said.
"You've got no alternative but to be positive, it's not going to serve any purpose with our blokes, ranting and raving at the moment.
"We haven't played well the last two weeks, the previous six weeks was terrific ... we have only got one alternative, to be positive."
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