Blueseum - History of the Carlton Football Club

Round 17, 2007

Carlton	6.1	37	7.3	45	9.7	61	15.11	101
St Kilda	5.4	34	10.7	67	14.12	96	16.15	111

Venue: Docklands Stadium

Date: Sat 28 July 2007, 2:10pm

Result: Loss by 10 pts

Umpires: M Ellis, S Meredith, M Nicholls

Crowd: 32,327

Goalkickers: B Fevola 5; B Fisher 3; S Ó hAilpín 2; C Ackland, J Bannister, P Bower, M Lappin, J Saddington

Reports: Nil

Injuries: Wiggins (hamstring), Koutoufides (hip)

Game Review

In Brett Ratten's first game as Carlton's caretaker coach, the Blues put in a spirited effort to prove to the football world that they weren't tanking (as had been suggested in the previous weeks) by running the in-form St Kilda to 10 points at Docklands. The team came out hard in the first quarter and finished the game off well with a six goals to two final quarter, but the twin towers of Fraser Gehrig and Nick Riewoldt (who booted 10 goals between them) proved too big a hurdle for Carlton's defence.

Matthew Lappin was impressive for the Blues in his 250th career game, and Andrew Carrazzo continued his stellar season by racking up a career-high 38 disposals. Ryan Jackson, in only his third senior game was brilliant, keeping Saint star Robert Harvey to 19 possessions while picking up 23 himself. Marc Murphy was tried in a tagging role on Leigh Montagna and kept him to 13 disposals, while Brendan Fevola was outstanding with 5 goals, including one in the third quarter where he ran down Sam Fisher, then gathered the ball and kicked a super goal from about 65 metres out.

Sadly, the great Anthony Koutoufides struggled to run freely throughout the second half, and after a scan on his hip during the following week, announced his retirement after a stellar Carlton career of 278 games, including the 1995 Premiership.

Team

B:	18 Paul Bower	32 Bret Thornton	29 Heath Scotland
HB:	9 Jason Saddington	30 Jarrad Waite	38 Ryan Jackson
C:	3 Marc Murphy	44 Andrew Carrazzo	33 Ryan Houlihan
HF:	2 Jordan Russell	14 Brad Fisher	12 Matthew Lappin
F:	17 Setanta Ó hAilpín	25 Brendan Fevola	34 Simon Wiggins
Ruck:	11 Cain Ackland	31 Jordan Bannister	6 Kade Simpson (a/c)
Interchange:	4 Bryce Gibbs	13 Luke Blackwell	19 Eddie Betts
Interchange:	43 Anthony Koutoufides
Coach:	Brett Ratten
Emg:	7 Adam Bentick, 16 Shaun Grigg, 10 Dylan McLaren
In:	Eddie Betts, Jason Saddington, Ryan Jackson
Out:	Josh Kennedy (thigh), Andrew Walker (shoulder), Adam Bentick (omitted)

Milestones

Last game: Anthony Koutoufides
250 Games (AFL): Matthew Lappin
Stand-in Skipper: Kade Simpson continued in the role of skipper for this game
Debut (Coach): Brett Ratten. Ratten would go on to coach the Blues for 120 games, starting today, and ending in 2012 with a similar loss to the Saints.
Interesting Fact: This would be one of the closest losses in a record losing streak against the Saints.