INCONSISTENT and "a mile off" Collingwood, Carlton is a team in need of regeneration after Friday night's demoralising loss, according to coach Mick Malthouse.
Having declared just seven games ago that the Blues were approaching their window to strike for a flag, the coach now believes his team is short of being even a good football side.
Underlining the change of expectations was the form of free agent recruit Dale Thomas, who joined the Blues to help lift them into the next bracket.
Playing against Collingwood for the first time on Friday night, the 26-year-old won five possessions in the first half and finished with 14 against his premiership teammates.
"Good football sides maintain a good consistency," Malthouse said post-match.
"You get beaten like this and someone might say 'aberration', and you say 'That's right, because we're a good football side'.
"We're not there. We can't say this is an aberration.
"This unfortunately has happened two or three times, or four times this year, where we haven't been as competitive as we need to be in the crunch games."
Having kicked just 2.7 across the first three quarters on Friday night, the Blues produced their best quarter of the season and kicked 8.3 after the last break.
Asked what the rallying finish meant, Malthouse simply said: "We were quite poor all day".
He said the Blues were "comprehensively beaten by a very good football side" that deserved to consider itself worthy of a top-four finish.
"The reality was we were a mile off them," the coach said.
"In the position we're in, we are trying to regenerate our list (and) by regenerating your list you take some heavy falls.
"At the end of the year, the facts are that every club will look at their list and we've got to look at our list and keep trying to regenerate."
Malthouse focused on the club's recruitment at the end of 2013 and said the club had "got it right" in snaring Thomas, Andrejs Everitt and Sam Docherty from rival clubs.
Docherty played his first game for Carlton on Friday night and impressed across half-back with 13 possessions and six marks.
"'Daisy' didn't go well today but he's been a good contributor, Everitt's been a good contributor and Docherty … he showed today he can play football.
"We really needed others to stand up. I take my hat off to blokes like (Sam) Rowe and (Simon) White. Both those boys have taken great steps to stay at the football club … they played with heart and soul.
"(But) our side right now has got passengers. At the moment we have players that just don't or can't give that consistency."
