'The fans are probably rioting': AFL great urges Sam Docherty to 'help Carlton' after explosive rant goes viral

AFL great Rory Sloane says former Carlton captain Sam Docherty should be trying to help the Blues rather than add to the pile-on following a dismal round one performance.

Docherty made headlines on Friday when a voicemail he had sent fellow former Carlton player Dan Gorringe went viral, after Gorringe chose to air it on his podcast.

Docherty - who captained the team for three years and only retired last year - was explaining why the Blues struggled in a 63-point loss to the Swans on Thursday night.

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He said it was due to "the same shit that happens in every other game" as he went to town on his former team in an expletive-filled rant.

Docherty later explained to 3AW radio he never intended for Gorringe to play the audio clip on the podcast.

Sloane, who captained Adelaide before retiring in 2024, suggested Docherty should spend his energy on helping his former club.

"I don't think in my time I've seen an old captain dust his hands of a footy club as fast as Sam Docherty there," Sloane said on Nine's The Sunday Footy Show.

"I love the honesty, but I hope he can use his platform to really help Carlton go forward.

"The fans are probably rioting at the moment. He can help those fans level out their emotions a bit.

"(It was) interesting."

The Blues are being rinsed across the AFL world after leading the Swans early in the third quarter, then letting 12 goals be put past them before three-quarter time in one of the most dominant quarters of footy seen in years.

Carlton player Marc Pittonet on Sunday claimed he had not heard Docherty's criticism.

"I actually haven't seen the comments sorry, I live in my own bubble," he said in an interview for the The Sunday Footy Show.

"I'm not a listener (of the podcast), sorry."

A number of fights broke out during the season-opening game at the SCG and Blues defender Jacob Weitering admitted his teammates let emotion get the better of them.

Sloane agrees, and says under-fire Carlton coach Michael Voss needs to learn to temper the emotions of his football club and players.

"I think Carlton are the most emotional footy club I've seen, and that's both their fans and inside the four walls too," Sloane said.

"They build every game up to be a must-win game... they probably got too heated and too emotional.

"You can play off emotion for small periods of the game, but you can't sustain it.

"Vossy has got to have a really normal week this week, it can't be 'we've got to respond'... if you keep building every game up, your cortisol levels are up here."

The Blues finished 11th last year despite expectations they would be a genuine finals contender.

Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd reckons the Carlton list is one of the weakest in the AFL this year, and was not surprised by Thursday night's result.

"The gulf in talent on the two lists is huge, absolutely massive," Lloyd said on The Sunday Footy Show.

"There are not too many Carlton players who would get a game in this Swans team... I think it was a top-four team against a bottom-four or bottom-six team."

Carlton faces Richmond at the MCG on Thursday night.