‘Sack the board’: Fuming fans turn on Blues in ugly act as veteran pleads ‘stick by us’

Vandals have targeted Carlton’s Ikon Park overnight in the wake of yet another disappointing defeat, while football boss Brad Lloyd has fronted the media as pressure continues to build at the club.

Michael Voss’ Blues have slumped to 11th on the AFL ladder after last night’s loss to Port Adelaide and it appears that the fans are becoming restless.

The words ‘sack the board’, ‘sack Austin, Lloyd’, ‘Keep Voss’ and ‘TDK yes or no’ were graffitied onto a brick wall at the venue.

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Austin appears to refer to list management boss Nick Austin, while Lloyd is likely a reference to footy boss Brad Lloyd. Carlton’s star ruck, Tom De Koning (TDK) is weighing up his future amid huge offers from rival clubs, including St Kilda.

The images, posted by Fox Sports News’ Drew Jones on X, showcased the extent of the damage.

Graffiti at Ikon Park after another Carlton loss. Source: FOX SPORTS

Graffiti at Ikon Park after another Carlton loss. Source: FOX SPORTS

Graffiti at Ikon Park after another Carlton loss. Source: FOX SPORTS

Police said the incident took place at around 1am on Friday morning.

“Police are investigating after graffiti was sprayed on the wall of a sporting club on Royal Parade, Carlton North at about 1am this morning,” Victoria Police said in a statement.

Cleaners have been working to remove the graffiti early this morning.

Lloyd himself fronted the media this morning as the team arrived back from Adelaide at the airport.

“I was only made aware of the graffiti a couple of minutes ago, to be honest,” he told Fox Sports News.

“I understand the disappointment, but I don’t condone that sort of behaviour either.

“The pressure is enormous at the moment but we need to stick together as a team, as a club. The stronger together message, there’s no other way around that really.

“I think (Voss) is going ok. He’s a competitor and he’s hurting with our form, but he’s holding up pretty well, he’s a strong man and a strong leader. He’s a wonderful person, I couldn’t speak more highly of him as a person, as a leader. I’m very fortunate to be around him and the way he goes about his work. Obviously we’re not getting the results that we’d like, but he’s a good man.

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“We need to keep looking across the board. You can go really hard on the senior coaching role and the senior roles within the club, but there’s a lot of things we need to look at across the board… We’ll keep doing that and keep working towards where we need to get to.

“There’ll be change in different parts, no doubt and there will be parts that we keep grinding away at.

“I’ve seen a lot of times, we all have, through Clarkson and Hardwick and all these different people along the way that have been through challenging times and things have turned. It happens in footy and we’ll look towards that as well.”

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It comes after veteran small forward Orazio Fantasia pleaded with fans to stick by the club despite the 6-9 win-loss record post-match.

“Stick with us,” Fantasia told 3AW Football post-game when asked what he would say to the fans.

“We know what team we’re trying to become, things take time. We know we can turn this around.”

Similarly, defender Nick Haynes told The Age that the playing group needed to take ownership for the performance on Thursday night.

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“We’ve played some good quarters this year, which shows the system works. When we do, it looks exciting,” Haynes said.

“But we haven’t been able to play that system for long enough; for four full quarters. We definitely take onus for that and it will be our goal next week.

“And if blokes don’t do it, we’ve got plenty of young guys coming through the twos who will play the system we want.”

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