Carlton coach Mick Malthouse prays that their Sunday night AFL atrocity was a one-off visit to hell.

Malthouse said his team’s 81-point loss Essendon was embarrassing and he had no idea the Blues would be so bad.

“I pray it’s a one-off – I just hope it’s a one-off,” he said.

“If that’s the sort of stuff we’re going to dish up, there’s a miserable year in front of us.

“I’m loathe to think we can actually dish that up again.”

The fierceness of the Essendon-Carlton rivalry means their games often throw up unusual results, but usually because the underdog scores an upset win.

Sunday night’s 21.12 (138) to 8.9 (57) was so shocking because Carlton were so uncompetitive.

Apart from a period at the start of the third term, they were never able to challenge the Bombers.

“The opposition make you go wrong – Essendon are a very good football club, but tonight, we allowed them to play with relative ease.

“It’s embarrassing for our football club.

“Essendon totally outworked us and I didn’t see it coming.

“I was a million miles off that.”

Malthouse said their only salvation is that they only have a six-day break before their next game against Melbourne.

The Blues and Demons are winless after the opening three rounds.

Malthouse added that while a few of his players tried hard, none of them could have been satisfied with their games.

The veteran coach revealed that as he was conducting his post-game media conference, the players were having their own meeting.

“They will come out of that meeting and say they need to assess where they’re at as footballers and do something about it,” Malthouse said.

“In their mind, they couldn’t walk out without having a heart-to-heart.

“I’d be bitterly disappointed if they hadn’t done that.”