Another Carlton halftime lead, another Blues capitulation.
It's been the story of Carlton and Michael Voss for some time now.
Even in a revenge game against St Kilda, who stole the famous Silvagni name and star ruck Tom De Koning from the Blues last trade period, the team out of Princes Park still couldn't get the job done as the Saints blitzed them late.
During the post-game presser, Voss was adamant that he and his players didn't use Jack Silvagni or De Koning as motivation for the match.
"Nah, it's about the Carlton Football Club, not the St Kilda Football Club," he said.
"I don't talk about opposition players; they have left, mate. They left last year, they chose a different direction, so we go on our own.
While the Saints took control of the game after halftime, the Blues trailed by only four points with six minutes left in the third quarter.
However, the predictable Carlton side let the game roll away from them again to the tune of 39 points.
Voss said his players' fade-outs in second halves are not due to a disconnect in messaging.
"Our ability and our intent is not where it needs to be clearly at that phase of the game," he said.
"You have seen we put ourselves in positions to win the game, so that message seems to be working pretty well.
"But our ability to do it for a longer period of time is not at the level it needs to be at, and when the game is against you, you need to defend, and you need to fight, and we are not doing it well enough. I can't be any clearer than that."
First year Blue Harry Dean, who was involved with an ill-disciplined double goal free kick with Saint Liam Henry in the third term, left the ground in the fourth quarter and didn't return to the field of play with a groin issue.
Voss said he was hoping for the best for his emerging star and that he loved how Dean played with a bit of dog about him.
"(Dean) will obviously get his scans; he was ruled out of the game, so he was obviously not fit enough to come back out on the ground," he said.
"We will get the scans and find out what the actual extent of that is.
"I can honestly say this hand on heart, I didn't actually see the exact (Dean-Henry) incident because I had my head down looking at the vision and how we ended up in the goal square in the first place.
"One thing I will say is with 'Deany' is that he is a fiery guy. I love how combative he is, how he goes about his football, and he is an in-your-face type defender. You saw a couple of scuffles that he gets into. I think as he starts to get even more comfortable out there on an AFL field, that's gonna be part of who he is.
"When you have competitors like that, it's not always gonna go exactly to plan, they live on the edge that way and I kind of like that, I kind of like that. I mean there's ways to do it, and I will go back and have a look at the incident, but I don't mind that player that sits on the edge."
Carlton's Lachie Cowan also left the ground in the fourth quarter for an HIA assessment but passed his initial tests.
