MELBOURNE great Garry Lyon says Carlton, for the rest of this season, must avoid selecting players that won’t be part of the club’s long-term vision.

Lyon’s comments came after triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown highlighted “absolutely unacceptable” efforts from two experienced Blues during the club’s humiliating 57-point loss to Fremantle on the weekend.

The Blues failed to kick a goal in the first half while the Dockers piled on 12 unanswered goals to set up a 70-point lead at half-time.

What made Carlton’s performance more perplexing was that they had an almost identical demographic to the Dockers. The Blues, on average, were 100 days older than Fremantle, while their line-up had played an extra two games than Fremantle’s line-up.

“If you were sitting up in the coaches’ box and you were Brendon Bolton watching some of their efforts, they were so uncompetitive in this first half against Fremantle. And it was experienced players,” Brown told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

Brown pointed out two passages of play that personified the Blues’ poor work ethic in the first half.

During the first term, 10-game Docker Michael Apeness clearly beat Blues defender Sam Rowe to a loose ball in the forward pocket before easily pushing Rowe away from the ball. Rowe then trudged back towards the ball with little intent as Apeness handballed to an open Brennan Cox for an easy goal.

“It looks like we’ve slowed it down — we haven’t slowed it down. This is real-time footage,” Brown said.

“That’s just terrible.”

But Brown was particularly scathing of an effort from midfielder Sam Kerridge later in the quarter.

As Fremantle moved the ball along the broadcast wing, Kerridge was following star Dockers on-baller Lachie Neale — but it wasn’t a close check.

With Kerridge trailing 10m away, the hard-working Neale presented to take an easy uncontested mark. As the short kick play progressed, Kerridge fails to guard space in front of two Dockers before a lackadaisical effort to pressure Brandon Matera allowed the Dockers forward to kick a goal.

“I would expect a bloke who’s playing for his football life — he had several efforts like this throughout the day. That is absolutely unacceptable.

“If he gets a game next week, I don’t know what vision Brendon Bolton’s watching.”

Lyon said the solution was simple on paper but, considering Carlton’s list position, could be difficult to manufacture in reality.

“So just move them on — this is what they’ve got to get to — but then you say who do you replace them with? And this gets back to … you’ve just got to work damn harder at identifying the talent out there to come into an AFL system,” Lyon told On The Couch.

“But they’ve just got to make a call on these blokes and then replace them with guys that are out there and work hard to find them.”

Premiership coach Paul Roos said it was particularly hard to support the Blues’ effort against the Dockers considering how similar their age and experience profiles were.

Roos added there was an unsettling chasm developing between the top teams and bottom teams after watching the Carlton-Fremantle and Geelong-Richmond games in Round 13.

“I sat there thinking Carlton mightn’t be too far from 10th, 11th, 12th — maybe even, clutching at straws, eighth. But gee they’re a long, long way from what Richmond are capable of doing,” Roos said.

“That’s really the concern at the moment.”