CARLTON players need to tread the fine line between finding positives from the club's 0- 4 start to 2025 and facing up to the shortcomings that have resulted in a month of losses, skipper Patrick Cripps says.
Speaking to fellow Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell on the Ball Magnets podcast, Cripps said he was acutely aware of his responsibility to set the standards at Ikon Park amid a winless first four matches.
But that could not come at the expense of fostering a sense of hope among the playing group, he said.
>> WATCH THE FULL CRIPPS INTERVIEW ON BALL MAGNETS BELOW
"The No.1 thing is you never lose hope as a leader," Cripps said.
"The energy, the spirit, the optimism - you can never lose that. You've still got to find the positives in what you're doing.
"There's also the element of you've got to face the facts of what's happening as well, and that's where you've got to be really strong on the standards and the behaviours as a group, that - whatever the team's going through - you feel like is acceptable or not.
"You've got to find that blend where you always have the hope and optimism but you've also face the facts of where you're at, because you can go through times where you can also have blind optimism too, where you just always look for the positives but you're actually not addressing the things that are costing you the game."
The Blues' plight was familiar for Mitchell, who went through a similar patch at the start of 2024 when the Magpies entered the season as reigning premiers, only to lose their first three matches.
"We experienced it last year. It's a tough position to be in. As soon as you lose spirit and even the enjoyment of coming to the footy club, that's when things go downhill," he said.
"You have to almost fake it 'til you make it, to some extent. You have to come in feeling positive. You have to make an effort to get around someone, or work with someone, and that becomes infectious throughout a playing group."
Mitchell, who is still sidelined with an foot problem, asked Cripps if the Blues had identified the key drivers behind their losses, which have been characterised by strong first halves followed by fadeouts after the main break.
"If I knew that answer, we'd probably have won four games," Cripps said with a laugh, before identifying the in-game resilience of the playing group as a focus ahead of this Saturday's game against West Coast at Adelaide Oval in Gather Round.
"A bit of it is just when challenged in games is the ability to really hold on and still go back at them. Watching a few games back, you just sort of see us go a bit safe with the ball. That's something that we'll keep working on. That's a confidence thing, but also that ability to really bite down on the mouthguard and really dig in."
