CARLTON coach Mick Malthouse says the Blues will take the good with the bad after missed shots on goal cost them what would have been a stunning win against Richmond at the MCG on Thursday night.
In a dramatic final term that saw the Tigers' six-goal lead cut to just one point, the Blues kicked 3.7, failing to capitalise on a dominant quarter and slumping to a 0-2 start to the season.
Malthouse admitted his team's opportunities were "there to be kicked", but said the result "wasn't all doom and gloom".
"They're the disappointing things – you work that hard to have a chance at it and we botched up a few shots on goal," Malthouse said on Thursday night.
"We were very, very stoic in our approach to a four-goal deficit at quarter-time … we still went down in the second quarter, but showed a little bit.
"The whole idea is just to eat into leads - you may not make it up, but we had our chance to put our nose in front.
"You take the good with the bad … it was a very good fightback."
At his most prickly after the loss, Malthouse summed up the reasons for the fightback succinctly: "getting our hands on the football helped".
He said former Sydney Swans forward Andrejs Everitt (two goals) and late inclusion Dylan Buckley (18 possessions and five tackles) were two players "very, very worthy of mention".
"I'm delighted for Dylan Buckley," he said.
"He played his first game last year as a forward. He's gone back and he was very stiff not to be in the first game.
"He's a very diligent young man and he deserves the accolades he got from today … Andrejs was fantastic."
Bryce Gibbs, meanwhile, "didn't have his greatest day" opposed to Brandon Ellis, who kept him to 12 possessions, but Malthouse was confident he would respond next week against Essendon on Sunday night.
After highlighting a group of Blues had lacked match hardness after round one and couldn't run out four quarters against Port Adelaide, Malthouse said those same players would have taken a step forward on Thursday night.
"I know it's a cricket thing, but you have to be out in the middle," he said.
"You don't get full-game benefit by being in the nets. Our players last week benefited greatly by that game.
"You just benefit from a game like this. This is a game that just didn't stand still.
"When you have that sort of intensity, you can't replicate that under any circumstances at training."
