CARLTON captain Marc Murphy says his teammates fell into the trap of believing their positive showing against Richmond last week would just happen again against Gold Coast on Saturday.
Just over a week ago, Carlton's round one loss to Richmond was being looked at in a positive light, with many lauding their new attacking brand of football and improved scoring power.
Murphy suggested after their 34-point loss to the Suns, which was littered with unforced errors, poor decision making and a lack of composure, that the team had collectively expected all they had to do was run out and they would play the same way.
"I think we just learned a lesson today," Murphy told AFL.com.au afterwards. "You don't have the right to go out there and just turn up and expect it to happen again
"The Suns are playing some really good footy in the JLT series and in their first game, they're a really good contested side and we didn't get that right.
"We were really fumbly and it just got contagious throughout the whole game.
"We didn't panic but we didn't take a deep breath and look for the right option at the right time.
"We've got work to do in that area."
WATCH: Brendon Bolton's full post-match media conference
Murphy didn't suggest the players had read too much into what was said in the press last week or listened to the commentary that followed their encouraging loss to the premiers.
But he did hope that being humbled by the Suns, who are just two games into a new style themselves, would prove a turning point for the mindset of his teammates.
"We just didn't deliver on what we as players are really trying to drive," he said.
Five talking points: Carlton v Gold Coast
"Last week, I thought we showed that.
"This week, I thought blokes just expected that to roll on and it didn't happen that way.
"Every week you've got to reset and go again, and we didn't really do that too well today so it was a disappointing performance."
Even though the loss was compelling with the Suns' pressure stifling the Blues when they weren't making mistakes off their own boots, Bolton found some positives.
The inside 50 count went 67-50 the way of the Blues, which showed their system to get the ball forward was in fact working, even if it didn't deliver goals.
Murphy said there was plenty of time left in the season for Saturday's lesson to pay off.
"It's a long year and we can't just forget what we've been building," he said.
"Last week was a really strong performance but this week was pretty poor and we're all pretty disappointed about the way we went about it today.
"The beauty about it being early in the year is we get another chance next week, and what better opportunity than Collingwood on Friday night at the MCG."
