IT WAS a surprisingly genial Carlton coach who spoke to the waiting mediaafter seeing his team get thumped by 77 points by Fremantle at Subiaco Oval onSaturday afternoon.
But that kindness could well have evaporated like the early morningMC Labour Park dew come match committee time next week.
Denis Pagan warned that Carlton'sVFL side the Northern Bullants could be raidedfor runners in an effort to give his side the pace it requires to putconsecutive thumpings behind it.
"We've won fourgames. We don't come off the ground off a big loss and run in and say 'we’vegot to formulate our goals' – we want to try and do as well as we can,"the dual premiership-winning coach said.
"We know we have to get run into the side, and we'vejust got to see if there's any young blokes who play in our VFL side tomorrowwho are prepared to run. That's probably been evident in both games."
After a decade with the North Melbourneunder-19s before moving up to the senior team, Pagan has a better pedigree fordealing with youngsters than any other coach in the AFL.
"We've got to be positive. We've got a very younggroup, obviously, and a high percentage of them are trying as hard as they can.We've got to get everybody back into some sort of form.
"You've got no alternative but to be positive, it's notgoing to serve any purpose with our blokes, ranting and raving at the moment."
Pagan said the Blues made too many errors under pressure.
"We're pretty disappointed – whenever we lookedthreatening early in the game, we turned it over with a bodgy kick or anineffective handball.
"To think we've had 57 entries (into the 50) – I thinkthe Dockers had 53 or something – they smashed us.
"Centre bounces, clearances around the ground; we wonmore than our share, but when they got a sniff, they started running, and wecouldn't keep up with them.
"Just the number of times in a pack situation where wehad the ball, and a quick kick would have been preferred, and we tried to handballout.
"There were probablynearly 28 ineffective handballs that just didn't find their targets when aquick kick forward just might have made all the difference."