With the finals race heating up and off the back of two losses, this was a game that Carlton simply had to win. It was an entertaining and hard-fought game between the two sides, but in the end it was the Blues who came up victorious, as expected.
But if Carlton thought they were going to get the easy win, then North very quickly let them know that it was not going to be the case. The pressure was hot from the first bounce, with North locking the ball in their forward half to start the quarter. However, they could only manage one goal before Carlton started applying pressure of their own. From then on, the quarter was an arm wrestle, with both sides laying plenty of great tackles and causing turnovers. Only one goal separated the two sides at the first break.
North took control of the game early in the second thanks to their clearance dominance. Carlton’s pressure dropped right off as the Roos tidied up their forward 50 entry kicks and grew in confidence with each passing moment. The Blues were unable to navigate ways through North’s defence, and kept turning the ball over, which led to North hurting them on the rebound. But Carlton weren’t going to stop trying and forced their way back into the game with two quick goals to returning Jessie Motlop. However, they couldn’t quite get things completely back onto their terms, with North kicking a goal after the half-time siren to get some breathing space.
The half-time break was just what Carlton needed. After North blasted out to kick the first goal, Carlton flipped the game on its head, applying intense pressure, forcing North into mistakes, and dominating the inside 50s. They went on a run of five goals as they made the previously composed North fumble and got more numbers to the ball. But just as the Blues had done earlier, North showed tremendous spirit (of the Shinboner variety, perhaps?), refusing to give up, and managed to sneak in a couple of goals to keep the game alive. This Carlton side, however, has a resolve about them, and responded with the last two goals of the term to put themselves in the box seat heading into the final break.
With fatigue starting to settle in for the Blues, the door was left open for North. At first, the Blues appeared to want to shut down the game for the entirety of the quarter, but after a couple of North goals they put on the after-burners one last time to get back out to a comfortable lead as the time started running out. North had a few chances late, but couldn’t make the most of them as Carlton proved to be the more composed side and ran out victors by 19 points.
Inside 50 differences
For much of the game, there was a stark difference in the way each defensive 50 was set up. In the first half, North were able to find a lot more space for their forwards to run into, but the Carlton defenders were able to position themselves in the right spots to intercept and were helped by poor kicking from North.
At the other end, however, North had completely clogged up their back 50 in a clear strategic attempt to curb the impact of Curnow and McKay, who kicked nine goals between them the last time these two teams met. It did the job for the first half, with the big guys having little impact, but the ball hitting the ground allowed the Carlton smalls to get to work.
When Charlie Curnow kicked his first goal in the first quarter, it looked like he was in for a turnaround from his poor game last week, but he couldn’t find much of the ball for the rest of the first half and when he did, he still wasn’t striking it well.
But you can’t keep a good player down, especially not a back-to-back Coleman Medallist. In the crucial third term, suddenly Carlton were able to draw out the Roos’ defence and allow the space for Curnow to run into. He started looking dangerous. He kicked three goals in the third term and had a couple more chances in the fourth. His burst proved to be the difference between the two sides in the end.
X-factor from Xerri.
If best-on-ground got awarded at half-time, then three Brownlow votes would have gone to the ruckman Tristan Xerri. He took full advantage of an injured TDK to dominate the taps with 21 and backed up his good work to lead the way in clearances to half-time, with nine, almost twice that of next-best, Patrick Cripps. His efforts went a long way to helping the Roos win the clearance battle early on and have the dominant second term that they did.
He didn’t have as much impact in the second half but finished up with a massive 43 hitouts, and was the leading tackle layer with 10 to still finish the day in the top 3 for fantasy points.
The Walking Wounded
It was a rough day for the Blues and for no one more so than Tom De Koning. He came off partway through the first quarter with a foot issue and looked unlikely to return to the game when he went down into the rooms. But he pushed through, and although he didn’t have quite the impact in the ruck, he was still able to hold his own and fought hard to collect 15 disposals, 11 of which were contested and had five clearances.
His day was officially ended early when he came off in the fourth now with a chest injury causing him trouble.
He joined Blake Acres on the bench, who had been ruled out of taking further part in the game not too much earlier and had also needed a trip down to the rooms for assessment. Sam Durdin, Adam Saad, Sam Walsh and Matthew Kennedy also all got looked over but were able to play out the game.
And of course there was the big talking point.
McKay head clash
There’s no doubt this incident will be added to the ever-growing list of head clashes that may not have been dealt with properly.
It occurred in the third term, when Carlton were stamping their authority on the game. Harry McKay appeared very disorientated after hitting his head in a contest. There was a pause before the umpire restarted play to see if McKay would be taken off, but the doctor was otherwise occupied in the rooms seeing to Acres, and McKay was left out on the ground.
The runners went out to him a couple of times, but he refused to go off before the doctor dragged him down into the room to do an assessment shortly before the three-quarter time break. McKay returned to the game having passed the test and brushed off the incident post-game as just needing to resettle.
With players getting large suspensions for ‘dangerous tackles’ it seems highly hypocritical of the AFL that they haven’t enforced a rule around a player hitting their head having to come off for assessment. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, the players need to be properly seen to by the doctors, because if it’s left in the hands of the player, of course going to say they are fine.
But with the AFL’s focus appearing to be on preventing head clashes from happening rather than how to react to them, it seems unlikely concussion protocols will change any time soon. Hopefully, McKay is ok and doesn’t experience a delayed concussion.
Was this a Band-Aid win for the Blues?
There’s no denying that the injuries impacted the Blues, but all the same, the win was far from convincing. Many times during the game North were able to force them to go slowly along the boundary line and midfielders were on the wrong side of stoppages which left the North midfielders to run away with the ball without pressure. The defence also allowed some easy score opportunities that North should have punished them on, especially late in the game.
Still it was a start towards getting back on track. They were able to keep North under 100 points, won the contested possession and turned around the clearance game after it went against them early. With the premiership race still wide open, Carlton are in the box seat now sitting in second spot. They still have time to fix these issues, but with the rest of the competition breathing down their necks there isn’t much margin for error.
Getting closer but not there yet
North truly proved today they have taken a big step forward in their development. It’s sure taken its time, but we’re now really seeing the signs North fans have been hoping for. They moved the ball with dare through the corridor as their midfielders took it up to the Carlton big names, and up until the last few minutes were right in the contest. Their ferocity towards the ball couldn’t be faulted, and they dominated the marking game.
However, the young side still has plenty of work to do. They looked way more fumbly than Carlton when they lost momentum and missed more than a few crucial opportunities during the game. Their lack of polish also resulted in a few crucial frees being given away which saw a chance of victory slip away and would no doubt have seriously frustrated Clarkson.
The Roos are on the up, but given how far back they started from, it’s not surprising there’s still a way for them to go before they’ll be back to being a finals contender.
Carlton have a short turn around this week, as they will come up against Port Adelaide on Friday night. The two sides met not all that long ago in Round 12 when Carlton were able to beat Port for the first time at Adelaide Oval quite convincingly by 36 points. Port have been improving recently, and the Blues will have to test a few players this week on the track, but it should be another win for Carlton in a game that could have a big impact on the final shape of the ladder.
North will come up against Geelong, who will be wanting to respond after their disappointing loss to the Bulldogs this week. The last four games between the sides have been 60+ point wins to Geelong, but North have come a long way since that last encounter in Round 5. It will likely still be a Geelong win, but they can expect a much greater fight this time around.
