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A DEFIANT Mick Malthouse says he has no intention of giving up on Carlton despite slumping to 1-5 after Sunday’s loss to a previously winless Brisbane Lions.
The Blues led for 66 minutes of the match but a concentration lapse late in the third term cost them dearly as the Lions piled on five unanswered goals.
Five talking points: Carlton v Brisbane Lions
It ramps up the pressure on Malthouse who last week said he felt depressed after being smashed by Collingwood by 75 points.
"I find that strange that you'd ask (if I’m determined to see the job through). What's my history? Just turn the toes up and go, do you reckon?" Malthouse said in his post-game press conference.
"The simple fact is that while a job is there to be done I will be doing the best I possibly can, along with the rest of the match committee."
The 716-game coaching veteran acknowledged his side faced a tough test in rebuilding from the bottom up.
Click here to watch Mick Malthouse's full post-match press conference
Asked whether the Blues' predicament was the toughest test of his coaching career, Malthouse was typically philosophical.
"I don't go back over things. It's here and now," he said. "This is right now. This is real."
Malthouse said the club had a simple choice: to accept where it resides, at 17th on the ladder, or work hard to develop the right habits and instill optimism for the future.
"We know where we're at. If we're not on the bottom, we've bottomed right out," Malthouse said.
"We can accept it or we can keep having a crack at it at round six, going into round seven. This will be a great test of the football club, match committee and in particular the playing group."
The Blues led by one point at the first change and six points at half-time but fell away badly after the major break, with Malthouse identifying the third term as the point at where his side fell out of the contest.
"I thought if we could just squeeze another goal out of it (the third term) … Every goal that we got we had to fight for. The goals that they got were pretty well structured," he said.
Malthouse lamented his defence's inability to win crucial one-on-one contests; a theme, he said, that has continued throughout 2015.
We've been beaten badly one-on-one in the back half all year," Malthouse said.
"Talls seem to get us. They've got us right throughout the year. We just haven't been able to get settled there. Michael Jamison's been in and out and Rowey's under massive pressure every week."
In positive news for Carlton, ruckman Matthew Kreuzer managed to get through unscathed in his comeback game for the Northern Blues in the VFL on Sunday.
The injury-plagued big man, who last played AFL in round one 2014, kicked two goals and was carefully managed throughout.
Young forward Troy Menzel also booted two goals as he continues to build up important game time after tweaking his calf in round two against West Coast.
Both will be considered for selection for the Blues' next-up meeting with Greater Western Sydney at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Hard-working defender Kade Simpson pulled out of the game on Saturday, and was replaced in the 22 by Clem Smith, after succumbing to calf tightness.
The Blues say Simpson will be monitored during the week.
