CARLTON can use its biggest win in more than 10 years as a launching pad for the rest of the season, with coach Michael Voss smiling for more reasons than just Charlie Curnow's nine-goal bag.
Curnow set a venue record at Optus Stadium with his career-best haul on Saturday night as the Blues played ruthlessly for four quarters to beat West Coast by 108 points in their biggest win since 2011.
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After back-to-back losses that had heaped pressure on the Blues after nine years out of finals, Voss hoped it would prove a momentum-building win ahead of a blockbuster Friday night clash against Brisbane next week.
"While we might be Charlie-focussed going forward, I'm certainly not going to be. I felt it was a fantastic team performance," Voss said on Saturday night.
"We balanced our game style a little more, which is what we've been working on the last few weeks, and there were a lot of other things that went right tonight.
"We probably had our midfield group together for the first time, that I could recall … they are forming their cohesion as well. We have to use this as a launching pad for the season."
While Voss was focused on the work the Blues did to create Curnow's opportunities, even the coach was able to "let his guard down" late in the game as players hustled to try and find the spearhead a 10th goal.
"The boys came up and asked, 'I hope you don't mind'. But by then there is theatre in having someone try to kick 10, and West Coast was mindful trying to stop it," Voss said.
"It was really impressive. He's a handful. I have watched him and Harry (McKay) through pre-season and for him to be able to finish his work was important."
As well as his nine goals, Curnow set new career benchmarks for contested marks (eight) and marks inside 50 (11), taking a classic grab on Shannon Hurn's shoulders and converting from tight angles and long range.
Up the ground, the Blues had six players rack up 30 disposals or more, winning the overall possession count by 167 and taking 137 marks to the Eagles' 57.
Leading by 71 points at the last change, Voss implored his players to finish strongly.
"We've had games we've won and not played the right way at the end and it felt like we lost, such is the expectations we have of ourselves," the coach said.
"So it was important we finished the right way. Walking away we feel we get the confidence out of the game we want."
For West Coast, the loss represented the second-heaviest defeat in Adam Simpson's tenure, with the coach labelling the performance "unacceptable" and "not good enough".
After recent performances that had represented progress for the injury-hit club, which was missing at least 10 players from its best 22, Simpson said Saturday night was a step backwards.
"That was disappointing … it's not what we've been training and playing and trying to put out. Carlton were ruthless and they put the foot on the throat and made us pay," he said.
"We're clearly undermanned at the moment, but we've found a way to stay competitive, albeit we haven't been winning.
"There's a fine line with that. There's reality about it, and then there's what we're chasing, what we expect, and what we didn't deliver tonight.
"We were outhunted, they moved the ball better, it looked like they ran over the ground a bit better than us, and their talent got the rewards."
The Eagles lost young defender Rhett Bazzo to concussion protocols late in the game, while Samo Petrevski-Seton suffered a corked leg that the club hopes will not sideline him.
With 17 players unavailable, Simpson was optimistic premiership midfielder Dom Sheed would return from a throat injury for next Saturday's clash against Richmond at the MCG.
He said the Eagles needed to own their personnel issues and "get to work" after falling back into old habits on Saturday night.
"I don't think we'd ever say we gave up, but we got outworked today," he said.
"We were really disappointing tonight, and we want to get better. That just means we need to get back to work."
