The last game of the round saw an injury riddled Carlton team head to Perth to play the Eagles, who were sending off Andrew Gaff, and celebrating Jamie Cripps’ 250th game.
Carton’s injury struggles were much publicized throughout the week and they were potentially hit hardest in their forward line losing both Curnow and McKay. With no Silvagni since the preseason, and TDK also injured, the question was who would play up front for the Blues. Many suggested Mitch McGovern would play forward, but would he be needed behind the ball to combat the dangerous West Coast talls in Allen, Waterman and Darling? Would they provide a debut to youngster Harry Lemmey?
A win for the Blues would go a long way to ensuring they feature in September, a loss would see them outside the 8 and battling Collingwood for a place in the 8, while needing other results to go their way. Carlton was going to have to move some magnets, and they were going to need some heroes to stand up with their season basically on the line – and they had a few.
The game basically played out as a team who knew their season was on the line, and a team who was perhaps mentally on holidays already after another long, tough year. Carlton didn’t really kick into gear until the 2nd quarter, but once they did the game was all but over by halftime. Let’s take a look at the game and the players and plays that made the difference:
The Game:
The first quarter saw both teams kick two goals, and it was a scrappy game with a lot of turnovers between the arcs. The Blues started Brodie Kemp forward (more on his game later) and he made an instant impact with a mark but was unable to convert the shot on goal. Carlton we’re having the lion’s share of the inside 50’s, but with no Curnow or McKay to target, the West Coast defence was generally able to cut-off their entry kicks, particularly if they were coming in high. Harry Edwards had three intercept marks himself in the quarter. It would be West Coast who drew first blood against the run of play with Waterman converting from the pocket after a pass from Cripps hit him on the lead. Waterman then got the second after a chain of West Coast handballs ended in a free kick almost straight infront.
The Eagles had two goals on the board to their star forward, and the Blues were looking like it could be a long day without their own stars up forward. I made a note at this point of the game that the Blues really needed to start lowering their eyes when entering their 50, as any ball with a bit of height on it was getting killed by the West Coast defensive forwards.
I was actually reminded of a mate who is a new dad, and recently told me he has always had a dream to coach an underage footy team, and have them just kick the ball along the ground into forward 50 all day to see if it would work, and the way the first quarter was going I thought that could be the Blues best chance of hitting the scoreboard. As I finished my note I looked up to see the Blues get their first of the day via Kennedy after a chaos ball inside 50. When they followed up that bit of play hitting Kennedy on the chest who was unfortunately unable to convert, I started to check my loungeroom for hidden recording devices.
The quarter would end with a nice mark to Kemp, who converted and the Blues went into the break two points infront. Patrick Cripps had been good with 11 disposals (more on him later) and Kemp was making a difference up forward, not just with his mark and goal, but the fact that McGovern had zero intercepts in the first quarter.
The second quarter started the way the first ended with Kemp getting his second after Edwards dropped a mark he probably should have taken. The Blues were now lowering their eyes entering 50 and hitting up leading players resulting in a shot for goal for the first gamer Lord that he was unfortunately unable to convert. At this point, I noted that although the Blues were now lowering their eyes, their entries were quite shallow and a lot of their shots were coming from around the 50. West Coast was playing a dangerous game trying to chain up handballs out of defence and were constantly turning it over just outside their own 50 – Ginbey was the biggest culprit here.
When Durdin goaled from 35 out directly infront after a beautiful kick from Williams, I noted that that as the deepest entry the Blues had for the quarter, and unsurprisingly it resulted in a goal. Captain Cripps was everywhere in this quarter, even battling it out in the ruck to give Pittonet a spell where he just bodied Williams out of it twice to take clean possession, before making sure Liam Ryan felt every inch of the crunching tackle he laid on him. As Acres went to kick the ball inside 50, Duggan cannoned into his back resulting in a downfield free for Owies and the easiest of goals, before Kennedy added his second of the game and the margin was out to four goals.
West Coast did not kick a single point for the entirety of the second quarter, and barely went inside 50. When they did, Weitering was having a field day mopping up their haphazard entries. As the halftime siren went the Blues marched off having added 4.5 to the margin, but really the game had been a tough watch with turnovers everywhere. The heat Carlton brought in that second quarter though was the sort of a heat a team brings when their season is on the line, and West Coast could not cope with it.
The third quarter saw an early goal to Jamie Cripps in his 250th, and all of a sudden the margin was only 4 goals. West Coast had upped their pressure and I thought we might have a game on our hands, but Patrick Cripps was having none of it. After hitting the deck in a wrestle with Reid, Cripps was the first to get up and ran past Kennedy for a handball receive before kicking long to Williams who had escaped out the back of the West Coast defence. The Williams goal breathed some life into the Blues who would go on to kick five goals for the quarter, and West Coast again had no answers for Captain Cripps, or for Brodie Kemp up forward who slotted his third of the game.
By the last quarter the heat was well and truly out of the game and the Blues were content to spend some time keeping possession. They rested Cripps for the majority of the quarter, and there were some nice moments with goals to Binns (his first goal in only his second game) and Moir who had come on as the sub in his first game after Durdin’s shoulder popped out in the third. Jack Petrucelle added a 4th goal for the Eagles after Walsh was tackled by three or four Eagles players, before Kemp had the final say with his fourth goal of the day to close out 65 point win for the Blues and keep their finals hopes alive.
There were a few big performances in this one, but let’s start with
Brodie Kemp:
In just his fourth season, Kemp was asked to fill the void up forward that was left by the injuries to Curnow and McKay and while those are some big shoes to fill, he certainly played his role to perfection today. He finished the game with five marks to go with four goals and a behind, but it is perhaps what he did without the ball that was more telling.
Jeremy McGovern is easily one of the top intercept defenders in the game even at the age of 32. He seems to have gotten his body right this season, and has returned to form after a disappointing 2023 season that saw him only play the eight and a half games. You only need to go back a week to see the sort of damage he can do to a team. Against North Melbourne he was the proverbial brick wall with 13 intercept possessions, 25 disposals and six marks. Not only was he stopping North’s forward forays, but he was hurting them the other way as well.
Now a look at the stats sheet today will tell you had 19 disposals and four marks, and you might think he played a similar game, but this is where stats can be misleading. When Kemp took the opening mark of the game, it meant McGovern had to play accountable footy on him – and with no other talls in the Carlton forward line, there was really no one for him to go to if he did sag off Kemp anyway. Time and again Kemp dragged McGovern away from the action inside forward 50, and was able to hurt him the other way with 4 goals of his own.
McGovern still had the seven intercepts in this one, but a lot of them came higher up the ground and he had little impact on the Blues entering their 50. Edwards was able to play McGovern’s role in the first quarter, but the sheer volume of forward 50 entries over the course of the day wore him down. I don’t think too many would have predicted Kemp would be the one playing forward today, and it was a bit of a masterstroke from Vossy that went a long way to the Blues winning this one.
Captain Cripps:
Geez, you’d love to play footy on a team that has Patrick Cripps in it. He was enormous today and just flat out refused to let Carlton’s season be over no matter their injury list or their opponents. He finished the game with 35 disposals, but was largely put on ice in the last quarter. Of his 35 disposals a mammoth 21 of them were contested, and he also helped himself to a game high 10 clearances as well as a game high 12 score involvements.
While there were other Carlton mids who were good today (Hewett and Ollie Hollands spring to mind) this was really Cripps day. Right from the start you could see his intent, there was no way the Blues were going to lose today while Cripps was on the field. He ran hard, he tackled hard, he helped out in the ruck when Pittonet needed a rest, perhaps the only thing he didn’t do today was kick a goal!
I mentioned a bit of play earlier where he found himself wrestling with Harley Reid at a stoppage, and I think this footage should be shown to young Reid as part of his development. Both Cripps and Reid went to ground without getting near the ball in the stoppage. The ball made it’s way about 20 metres forward to Kennedy, and who was there running past for the handball receive? Patrick bloody Cripps? And where was Reid? He was jogging about 20 metres behind making sure his finger was okay, after taking longer than Cripps to get up off the ground. Nothing against Harley Reid, I am sure he will go on to have a great career, but that little bit of vision there just showed why Cripps is such a champion, and the workrate that is required if Reid one day hopes to be as good as Cripps.
And what of West Coast?
Honestly, they were tough to watch today. Turnover after turnover, an inability to get the ball into their own 50 in the second quarter, and honestly a lack of pressure in that same quarter. They started the game brightly and their pressure was right up, but it just fell away once the Blues matched them in that area. It’s hard to take much out of a game where one team has been done for most of the year, and the other teams needs a win to keep their finals hopes alive, but at this rate we could be looking at a 100+ margin next weekend in Geelong.
The usual suspects were good for West Coast today. Yeo and Reid tried hard, although sometimes I think they need to spend less time trying to be tough and break tackles and just go with the first option they see by hand or foot. I don’t mind a bit of niggle in footy, but Yeo letting Acres know about it when he caught him holding the ball in the last quarter almost made me laugh given the 54 point margin in the game. Maybe focus more on your footy than trying to be the hardest bloke out there! Reid had a couple of really good moments, particularly bursting out the front of the stoppages in the second half, but he had two gettable shots that he was unable to convert, and then blazed away from outside 50 in the last quarter rather than lowering the eyes. I know this almost comes across as a bit of a compliment sandwich given they were probably two of West Coast’s best today, but they could be just that little bit better if they kept things a little bit more simple.
Outside of those two, it was hard to find winners for West Coast. Edwards started the game well and gave some indications he may be able to cover for Barrass if he is off to the Hawks as is rumored, Ryan tried hard in the forward line after a corkie, Hunt kept providing an option with his run from the back half, and despite what the commentators were saying I thought Bailey Williams broke even with Pittonet in the ruck battle – but who else is there at West Coast?
They have a couple of great forwards in Allen and Waterman, but today the ball rarely went down to them, and when it did it was hardly to their advantage. Yeo is 30 years old with a suspect body, Tim Kelly is also 30 and seems to drift in and out of games as he pleases, Reid will be a star but he is only in his first season and you can’t expect him to single handedly lift this team week in and week out. Outside of Reid, who are the young guys at West Coast to get excited about? Brady Hough is playing well as a lockdown defender, Jack Williams looks like he could develop into a backup ruck/third tall forward, but I didn’t see a lot to be excited about for West Coast fans today, and I didn’t see a lot to tell me that it is going to get better in a hurry.
Other Bits:
Nice of West Coast to give Gaff a send off game infront of the Perth fans – perhaps Essendon and Brad Scott could take some notes after the way they handled Heppell’s retirement earlier this weekend!
Elijah Hollands has quietly put together a pretty nice season for the Blues. A number 7 draft pick who only managed 14 games at the Suns, the Blues picked him up basically for nothing (a shuffle of the draft order) and he has slotted in well in the navy blue.
Liam Ryan, despite his corked thigh, almost took another contender for mark of the year in the last quarter, it was a shame he couldn’t hang on to it as it was a great fly.
Not sure I’ve seen a better first goal in AFL than Ashton Moir’s kick across his body out of midair. Wouldn’t have been out of place at the Euro’s last month.
And that will do me, West Coast head to the Cattery next week for what at this stage looks like it could be a slaughter, while Carlton need to beat St Kilda at Marvel to guarantee finals footy this season – they should be able to get it done, but who knows in what was been a pretty unpredictable season thus far.
