IN one week, Carlton turned a heart-breaking eleventh-hour defeat into its first win of the season.

The two-point loss to the Suns was still fresh in the minds of the playing group before they sealed the four points with a 44-point win over the Western Bulldogs in Round 5.

It was no surprise to injured skipper Sam Docherty that his Blues could get on board for season 2019.

The joint captain admitted it took some home truths.

“We’ve been close for a number of weeks and obviously last week when we played Gold Coast, that was the tipping point,” Docherty said on RSN Inner Sanctum on Wednesday.

“It’s one of those things, bad losses like that spark up a bit of determination.”

The Blues led Gold Coast late in the fourth quarter, but the last four minutes of the Round 4 clash saw the Suns snatch a win.

In the days following, Docherty led a tough review meeting with fellow captain Patrick Cripps to face the reality of those final minutes.

“We reviewed the game really hard and as players we watched the last four minutes. It wasn’t that much fun but it needed to happen,” he said.

“It took us about 30 minutes and we basically stopped it at every point.”

“There was some good stuff, but the stuff that we wanted to fix far outweighed that.”

“Going into the game we just knew we had to play four quarters against the Dogs.”



It sure was good to see the big man back.#BoundByBlue — Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) April 23, 2019

Pleasingly for the skipper, it wasn’t long before the learnings of the prior weekend’s defeat were implemented in the Northern Blues’ three-point victory over Collingwood.

He said Sunday’s AFL performance was a case of doing what the positives they’ve shown in previous weeks for longer.

“Even though we didn’t see it in the AFL, the VFL had to implement exactly what we went through for those last four minutes and they did it really well,” he said.

“Then we had the AFL: we brought the same stuff we’ve been bringing each week in terms of contest work and our defensive mindset.”

The Blues will face Hawthorn with a newfound assurance in their game plan, having seen how it can stand up against the Bulldogs.

With three of their opening five games within 20-point margins, Docherty is confident the Blues now have the learnings to stick fat in close matches.

“Hopefully we get in a game soon late where it’s close and we can implement it all,” he said.