It is cold comfort that Carlton has Essendon to point a finger at.
The Bombers have been atrocious when it comes to September success, it’s true, but the Blues have not exactly enjoyed the smoothest of rides, either
We have all smiled along at accounts counting the days since Essendon last won a final. It’s reached the point where those social media accounts have become a parody of themselves, attempting to find ways to make the same old joke seem fresh. And yet, of course, there is another target if they chose to look.
Another powerful club who fell on hard times and have not yet truly got back up.
This year marks the tenth anniversary since Carlton’s last finals win. Yep, it’s been that long.
In the 2013 finals series, the Blues got up to knock over the Tigers from eighth sending both massive fanbases into simultaneous raptures and despair, depending on who you supported. However, the good times lasted just a week, with Sydney ending the Blues’ season the following week.
Since then, we’ve been left with a Carlton team struggling to find themselves, lost in the dreaded mid-range of the ladder for the most part, waiting for something… anything to break them out of the funk they found themselves in.
It appears they may have found it.
In stark contrast to the way they finished the 2022 season, and the way they played during a six-game losing streak earlier this season, Carlton is steaming toward finals. They’re not sitting in the top eight hoping that other teams fall over around them. That tactic didn’t work last year and it wouldn’t work again this season – the race is too tight.
No, the Blues have taken responsibility for their own season, with an impressive eight-game winning streak following a disenfranchising loss to the Bombers that saw some rather poor behaviour from their supporters.
Although the Blues punctuated their winning streak with a big win over Collingwood at a point where the Pies just weren’t losing games, it was the win against Melbourne that was perhaps the most impressive of them all. The Dees matchup well against Carlton. Their midfield can stand up to the bully ball of Patrick Cripps , and their defence can weather the storm known as Charlie Curnow, but as the Dees fought their way back into the contest after being hammered (at least in general play) in the first quarter, it was not just the superstar that stood up. Once again, the supporting class in navy blue refused to go quietly into the night.
Whilst we saw the captain stand up to start the last quarter, you could just as easily point the finger at half a dozen “lesser lights” of the Carlton team when you talk about who lifted in the final quarter.
George Hewett, Nic Newman, Blake Acres, Brodie Kemp, Paddy Dow, Lachie Fogarty, Tom De Koning… these are not likely the names you would have mentioned if I’d asked you who was going to carry the Blues home against one of the premiership fancies, but that was who put their hands up and it has to be gratifying for Blues fans to see.
Too often, when a team needs someone to lift, too much is left to too few, and in the past Carlton have been absolutely guilty of this. However, good teams, and, dare I say it, great teams, have a habit of getting the most valuable contributions from players who in years before, have not been overly reliable. The growth of a list and the players in the bottom half of that list is usually the big factor in a team making the leap from also-ran to contender.
Guess where the Blues now find themselves?
Often, supporters use the term “the lid is off” as a way of mocking the supporters of a rival club. We trot it out after a Round One win, or when a team that has struggled strings a few wins together, but rarely is it embraced.
There is a valid reason the lid should be bubbling over at Carlton right now.
Recent history suggests that the teams heading into the finals with momentum rarely have it checked.
In 2022, Geelong won their last ten games to sweet to the flag.
In 2021, the Dees went 8-1 with a draw.
In the toilet of a shortened 2020 season, Richmond strung together a 10-0 run from Round 12 until they lifted the cup.
This is the way flags are won, and as the Blues stretched their =winning streak to eight games, it is them in the position to emulate those who have come before.
When we joke about the lid coming off at Princes Park, it is done early in the year when we know there is soon to be heartbreak for Carlton fans.
No one is laughing now.
If the lid is looking unsteady on the Carlton pot right now, it is because there is a valid reason to start fearing this Carlton team. They are not a side reliant on two or three players anymore. They are not looking like a team ready to fall over as we near September. They are no longer looking like the hunted.
They look like hunters, and we saw so much of that in the way they chased down the Melbourne players with their relentless pressure. Pressure from players like Matt Owies, Ollie Hollands, and Jack Martin.
Yes, I am sure that many are barracking against the Blues as we head toward the finish line of the home and away season. Those people have long memories. They are scarred from what they experienced when they were younger. They fear the lid coming off because they know what comes next. It’s like a nightmare for them.
The sound of that song haunts them – da dada dada… they hate it. They experienced it. They don’t want it again.
And yet, if you listen, there it is, getting louder with each week and each win.
Keep the lid on? Is that what you’re telling your fellow Carlton supporters? How long can you do that for? How long can you keep things under wraps when your team is THE form team of the competition and they’ve knocked over three top eight sides in the past three weeks?
Screw it – blow the lid off. Enjoy it. It’s what footy is all about.
The Blues are up and about and after ten years without a finals win – not quite Essendon, but still pretty damn humiliating for a powerful and proud club – it is time to embrace the 2023 season for what it is.
It is the year Carlton finally turned it around.
The lid is off.
Be afraid… be very afraid… da dada dada.
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
