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Carlton ends a disastrous season with a face-saving draw against the Bombers at the MCG.

Round 23, 2014

Carlton 6.3 39 7.4 46 11.4 70 14.6 90
Essendon 1.3 9 9.6 60 11.11 77 13.12 90
Venue: MCG
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2014
Result: Draw
Crowd: 56,663
Goalkickers: M. Watson 4, C. Yarran 2, T. Menzel 2, D. Armfield, T. Bell, J. Waite, K. Lucas, B. McLean, C. Wood 1.
Reports:
Umpires: J. Dalgleish, R. O'Gorman, S. Wenn
Injuries:
Ladder: 13th


Game Review

With less than a minute of play left in this see-sawing encounter on a perfect Saturday afternoon at the MCG, Carlton and Essendon were locked on 90 points apiece when Bryce Gibbs marked right on the Blues’ attacking 50-metre arc. Bryce’s kick for goal seemed good off his boot, but it felt a metre short, and the Bomber defence rushed it away to bring up the first draw of the 2014 season.

In a game remarkable for big momentum swings – each team led by five goals at various stages – Carlton tyro Matthew Watson revived his career, kicking four majors in a breakout performance. Veterans Chris Judd, Andrew Carrazzo and Brock McLean, along with big-hearted ruckman Cameron Wood controlled the midfield for long periods, while key defenders Michael Jamison and Sam Rowe finished off their impressive individual seasons with solid efforts.

After Carlton’s abysmal 103-point defeat by Port Adelaide in round 22, few pundits gave the Blues any chance of upsetting Essendon. In spite their ongoing legal disputes over allegations of systematic doping at Windy Hill, the Bombers were entrenched in the top eight and assured of a place in the finals. On the other hand, Carlton had only the club’s tarnished reputation to defend at the end of a truly bleak season. The Blues’ cause wasn’t helped either, by the late withdrawal of captain Marc Murphy, who hadn’t recovered from severe concussion suffered against Port Adelaide. Murphy’s absence saw the Blues start this match with four changes from the previous week - Nick Holman, Blaine Johnson and Nick Graham as well as Murphy came out, replaced by Watson, McLean, Dennis Armfield and late inclusion Patrick Cripps, who was named as the Blues substitute. In bright sunshine on a perfect Melbourne Saturday afternoon, the two teams ran out to a mixed reception from the crowd of more than 56,000, and the first quarter was a cracker.

Prior to his recall for this match, Watson had been groomed as a defender. However, he started forward in this match, and had an immediate impact when he won a free kick and goaled from 25 metres to draw first blood for the Blues. Essendon struck back with their only major of the term, before Carlton exerted real authority on the contest and slammed through the next five. With Judd, Gibbs, Carrazzo, Wood and Sam Docherty influential around the packs, Carlton skipped away to lead of 30 points at quarter-time, in one of the Blues’ best quarters of football for the year. Highlights for Carlton fans included Chris Yarran’s slashing 2-bounce run and goal after 18 minutes, and Watson’s classic left-foot snap from the boundary line deep in the left forward pocket – a brilliant kick that arrowed through for Matthew’s second.

Bomber coach Mark Thompson ripped into his team during the break, demanding that they lift, and they did. From the first bounce of the second term, Carlton’s defence was under constant pressure. Wave after wave of Bomber attacks swept into their forward 50, and their persistence was rewarded with three unanswered majors. At the 15-minute mark of the quarter, Essendon’s Joe Daniher added another two goals in two minutes, and suddenly the Bombers were in front. They kept their foot on the throttle, and at half-time they had snatched back the initiative by 14 points.

The third quarter turned in to an arm wrestle, as both sides tightened up and scoring became more difficult. Carlton chipped away at the deficit, and when Troy Menzel brought up his second goal of the term with a neat set-shot from deep in the left-forward pocket shortly before the three-quarter time siren, there was only seven points in it.

Armfield was subbed out of the game at the last break, allowing Cripps to savour the atmosphere of his third senior match. Early on, McLean fired up the Carlton crowd when he ran on to a perfect handpass from Judd, and kicked truly to get the Blues back to within one point. Essendon quickly replied, but McLean bobbed up again, and his pass to Watson produced the big number 10’s fourth major. Fourteen minutes in, Wood won the ball in the middle of a pack. Somehow, he snapped a crucial goal over his shoulder, and put Carlton ahead by 5 points. Essendon responded once more, then Zach Tuohy just missed with a set shot from 45 metres to level the scores with 26.45 on the clock. In the very next passage of play, Gibbs marked and missed as previously described, before the final siren sounded with the score all square.

So ended Carlton’s 2014 – a season that had begun amid confidence and optimism, but ended in mediocrity.

Subs: Patrick Cripps replaced Dennis Armfield at ¾ time.

Team


B: 6 Kade Simpson (A/C) 40 Michael Jamison (DVC) 17 Sam Rowe
HB: 13 Chris Yarran 42 Zach Tuohy 43 Simon White
C: 35 Ed Curnow 5 Chris Judd 15 Sam Docherty
HF: 2 Troy Menzel 30 Jarrad Waite 27 Dennis Armfield
F: 10 Matthew Watson 41 Levi Casboult 28 Tom Bell
Ruck: 36 Cameron Wood 4 Bryce Gibbs 44 Andrew Carrazzo (VC)
Interchange: 9 Kane Lucas 14 Brock McLean 47 Ciaran ‘Gus’ Sheehan
Substitute: 16 Patrick Cripps
Emergencies: 3 Marc Murphy (Captain) 20 Nick Holman 45 Blaine Johnson
Coach: Mick Malthouse

*- Patrick Cripps replaced Marc Murphy in the selected side

Milestones

Last Game: Jarrad Waite, Brock McLean and Kane Lucas
Interesting Fact: With his 4 goals in this game, Matthew Watson tripled his career tally - to 6 majors!
Interesting Fact: This would be Ciaran Sheehan's last game for almost 3 years, and in the Guernsey #47

Brownlow Votes

3. Chris Judd, Carlton
2. Brock McLean, Carlton
1. Patrick Ryder, Essendon

Best & Fairest Votes

Chris Judd 10, Brock McLean 10, Matthew Watson 6, Bryce Gibbs 5, Ciaran ‘Gus’ Sheehan 5, Simon White 5, Sam Docherty 4, Michael Jamison 4, Zach Tuohy 4, Sam Rowe 1, Chris Yarran 1,

Ladder


Pos Team P W D L For Agn Stk Chg % Pts
1 Sydney 22 17 0 5 2126 1488 1L - 142.88 68
2 Hawthorn 22 17 0 5 2458 1746 2W - 140.78 68
3 Geelong 22 17 0 5 2033 1787 1W - 113.77 68
4 Fremantle 22 16 0 6 2029 1556 3W - 130.40 64
5 Port Adelaide 22 14 0 8 2180 1678 1L - 129.92 56
6 North Melbourne 22 14 0 8 2026 1731 4W - 117.04 56
7 Essendon 22 12 1 9 1828 1719 1D - 106.34 50
8 Richmond 22 12 0 10 1887 1784 9W - 105.77 48
9 West Coast 22 11 0 11 2045 1750 2W U1 116.86 44
10 Adelaide 22 11 0 11 2175 1907 1W U1 114.05 44
11 Collingwood 22 11 0 11 1766 1876 1L D2 94.14 44
12 Gold Coast 22 10 0 12 1917 2045 4L - 93.74 40
13 Carlton 22 7 1 14 1891 2107 1D - 89.75 30
14 Western Bulldogs 22 7 0 15 1784 2177 3L - 81.95 28
15 Brisbane Lions 22 7 0 15 1532 2212 2L - 69.26 28
16 GWS Giants 22 6 0 16 1780 2320 1W - 76.72 24
17 Melbourne 22 4 0 18 1336 1954 10L - 68.37 16
18 St Kilda 22 4 0 18 1480 2436 5L - 60.76 16

2014
Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Agst PA RI ES ME WB WC CO SK Bye AD BR GE HA GWS CO SK SY NM FR GC GE PA ES
Carlscr 87 86 57 58 119 92 70 101 ... 81 91 102 90 92 76 151 51 109 78 97 76 37 90
OppScr 120 98 138 81 91 89 104 69 ... 76 98 107 118 100 91 66 122 86 83 58 82 140 90
W/L -33 -12 -81 -23 28 3 -34 32 ... 5 -7 -5 -28 -8 -15 85 -71 23 -5 39 -6 -103 ---
Ladder 12 13 15 17 16 16 16 13* 13 12 12 12 12 12 14 13 14 13 13 13 13 13 13
% 72.5 79.36 64.6 65.9 77.0 80.8 78.9 84.8 84.8 86.7 87.3 88.1 86.9 87.3 87.1 93.5 89.5 91.4 91.5 94.0 93.9 89.2 89.7



Round 22| 2015
Contributors to this page: Jarusa , molsey , WillowBlue , PatsFitztrick and pblue .
Page last modified on Saturday 11 of June, 2022 15:53:26 AEST by Jarusa.

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