AT LEAST last week, Carlton can say there were mitigating circumstances.

Having shot into an early 57-point lead against West Coast, the side took its foot off the pedal. Even among a host of disappointing fadeouts this season, the Blues' two-goal effort after the break ranked as their second-lowest scoring half of the year.

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In the aftermath, Carlton has internally pointed to its upcoming block of fixtures as a reason for easing off the gas. The trip to Western Australia started a run of three games in 11 days, with two of those interstate.

There is a six-day gap between the West Coast game and this week's fixture against North Melbourne, before a five-day break that separates that clash and a trip to South Australia to face Port Adelaide the week after.

The Blues also lost superstar dual Coleman Medal winner Charlie Cameron to calf tightness just before half-time, while forward-ruck Hudson O'Keeffe didn't make it much further into the second half after suffering a hamstring strain.

But there is also reason to be sceptical, with Carlton's second-half fadeouts becoming a remarkable feature of its 2025 campaign under coach Michael Voss. The Blues are 11-2 to half-time this year, yet have a 3-10 record in second halves.

Across the last fortnight, you could even suggest the fadeouts are happening earlier in games. The Blues have kicked a combined 86 points from their last two opening quarters. But they've only added a combined 78 points in the six quarters of action that have followed.

It's reminiscent of the club's season as a whole. Carlton has an impressive percentage of 139.2 in first halves this year, having scored 611 points and conceded just 439 up until the main break of its games.

But that number dips to a staggeringly low 80.6 per cent after half-time. On average, the Blues are scoring 13 points less per second half this year and are conceding around eight points more per second half. 

What makes Carlton's second-half percentage so extraordinary is the fact that it counts the club's two second-half performances against West Coast and North Melbourne from earlier in the year, when the Blues outscored their opponents by a combined 104 points after half-time.

If you take those two games against its lowly opponents out, Carlton's second-half percentage dips to just 57.1. The side's only other second-half win for the year also then becomes a slender one-point advantage it held over St Kilda back in May.

The Blues have now dropped five games from winning positions at half-time this year, including their upset round one defeat to Richmond (25 points up at half-time) and others to Hawthorn (five points up), the Western Bulldogs (18 points up), Collingwood (four points up) and Sydney (seven points up).

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But, as for pinpointing the exact issue why – be it fitness concerns, game management, or an inability to adjust tactically to changes after half-time – Voss remains unsure of the exact problem at hand.

"We obviously weren't able to continue to play at the same intensity," he said after last weekend's win over West Coast.

"After half-time, it's not a fatigue thing. It's just, 'Are we still valuing the right things? Does the scoreboard actually matter?' We'll dig into that. But what we'll also do is make sure that we put up in lights exactly what we want to play like.

"What are the behaviours that we need to support us? Our challenge will be how do we sustain that? Because we're not right now. We need to be able to sustain that for longer than what we are.

"But it's not because the players don't have a really clear picture of what works. We've got that clear picture. But, clearly, we're obviously not playing it for long enough."

As the Blues now look to respond from an indifferent 6-7 start to the season – that the side's second halves have largely contributed to – Voss said he will continue to focus on the positives of what's coming before the drop-offs in intensity and energy.

"There's some familiarity to it, it's a familiar tale," he said on Sunday.

"But I think the washup will be that we'll look at that, we'll look at it in due course over the next couple of days, and we'll continue to have those conversations. It's not like they haven't been had. We've had a few of them.

"The challenge will be to look at the positivity of the way that we play and what puts us in those positions. That's what we'll probably tend to focus on. It doesn't necessarily mean that we accept it all. We'll challenge where we need to challenge.

"But when you strip it all back, you're coming to an away venue, you're playing against an opposition that's been in pretty good form for the first half of the year, we had a very dominant first half and were obviously able to play out the game with some challenges and not exactly the way we want to finish the game.

"But we get the result and that's a very important four points."

Carlton in first halves

11 wins
2 losses
139.2 per cent
Avg score: 47.0 pts
Avg score against: 33.7 pts

Carlton in second halves

3 wins
10 losses
80.6 per cent
Avg score: 34.0 pts
Avg score against: 42.1 pts