A post-game admission from Patrick Cripps in a nutshell encapsulated the Blues’ maiden win of the season – which didn’t feel awfully victory-like.

And a three-time premiership star believes a “massive” worry remains as Carlton continues to battle second-half demons.

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Carlton survived a late Richmond storm at the MCG on Thursday night to officially rebound from last week’s collapse in the Harbour City, but again it was a hard watch for the navy blue faithful.

Carlton had the game on its terms in the first half, igniting an exciting high-handball brand that led to several threatening scoring opportunities – and giving cause for hope in a similar fashion to last week.

But like in Opening Round, that brand couldn’t be sustained – and really, the difference was simply that Sydney mercilessly punished the Blues, and Richmond – and Tom Lynch – didn’t.

And signing off from a post-match interview with SEN radio, Cripps – in a concession – put it simply but adequately.

“I just want to say one last thing … (it’s) so important as a club we stay together. This year’s not going to be smooth sailing, but the most important thing is you ignite together,” he said late on Thursday night.

“When things don’t go your way, you stick together – but when the good times come, let’s enjoy them together.”

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The outright acknowledgement that progress will be far from linear this year is stark, even if most already predicted that to be the case.

And triple premiership forward Jack Riewoldt, who called the game for Fox Footy on Thursday night, believes the key issue remains between the ears.

“I think it’s real … I think there is a massive mental load on Carlton,” Riewoldt told Foxfooty.com.au on Friday.

“Consistently, they’ve proven to themselves that they get a bit of the wobbles.

“And you’ve only got to rewind back a week, and even a year to the Richmond game in Round 1 last year to know that they wobble … and you take a Tom Lynch worst masterclass in goalkicking of all time, and it probably saved Carlton in the end.”

But the Blues had almost as many missed chances as Richmond, repeatedly squandering opportunities to put the result beyond doubt earlier in proceedings.

Yet Carlton and Voss will continue to look inward for an explanation as to why they can’t close out games stronger – despite showing the “fight” that the coach alluded to in his press conference.

“They (the Blues) had their opportunities – Lachie Fogarty could’ve put the game to bed if he’d kicked that goal a minute into the second half (which would have made the margin 33 points),” Riewoldt continued.

“There were a few things I think Carlton got wrong on the night, and Michael Voss has obviously addressed the elephant in the room – that they need to fix what’s going wrong in the second halves of games.

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“It will be the big watch for everyone until they can actually show that they can consistently perform post that half-time break – I’ve got no doubt they’re racking their brains potentially on who starts on the ground, what warm-ups they do, the psyche, the mental load, all that sort of stuff.

“At the moment, they just don’t have the answers, and they were probably lucky that Richmond didn’t run over the top of them again last night.”

Carlton recorded 16 fewer inside-50s than the Tigers, with Richmond going at 43 per cent scoring efficiency from 60 entries. The Blues’ 44 entries were almost 10 fewer than their 2025 season average.

And despite dominating at centre ball-ups early, they wound up losing the centre clearance count.

The Blues managed one goal after half-time and looked largely incapable of getting anything going forward of the ball until Will Hayward found Zac Williams for his decisive set-shot goal at the 20-minute mark of the final term.

“I’m literally stunned with what we saw play out in the second half,” Hall of Fame Legend Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy in the post-match.

“We saw them stop in the second half last week, the Blues. They stopped again (on Thursday night), there was no run.

“To kick one goal in a half of football, and hang on and win a game, it’s just that the opposition weren’t good enough to execute when they had their opportunities, to actually get the game done.

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“I’m flabbergasted that they hung on. I felt nervous for the Blues all the way through that second half, because you could tell what was happening.

“And in the end, I felt sorry for the Tigers, because they probably deserved to win.”

Saints great and First Crack analyst Leigh Montagna added: “A win’s a win, and that is all Carlton was after – but it probably was one of the least convincing wins I’ve seen, the way that they completely stopped in the second half.

“They should have put that game to bed, Richmond, in those third and fourth quarters, with all the looks they had.

And two-time flag-winner David King, who’d noted the simple difference between winning and losing was all that mattered for Voss after a trying week, acknowledged the Blues’ inability to maintain momentum for a whole match.

“They can’t sustain the way they want to play. Right now, that’s the challenge,” he said.

“Do you continue on? Of course you do. (But) they’re going to have some of those problems along the journey.”