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Venue: Telstra Dome | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date: Sat 24 May 2008, 2:10pm | Result: Won by 9 points | ||||||||||||||||||
| Umpires: Ellis, Fila, Meredith | Crowd: 28,955 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Goalkickers: Fisher, Betts, Scotland 2, Carrazzo, Fevola, Pfeiffer, Edwards, Simpson, Stevens, Wiggins & Browne 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Reports: TBD | Injuries: TBD | ||||||||||||||||||
Game Review
For the second time this year, Carlton gave away a free kick in their defensive 50 before the ball was even bounced. This time the Blues gave away a 50m penalty to boot and ensured that Matthew Pavlich would kick the opening goal of the match before the ball was even bounced. From there on in in the first half, Calton comprehensively beat the Dockers around the ground.Fremantle dominated the hit outs 40 to 26 against an inexperienced duo of Matthew Kreuzer and Shaun Hampson, but apart from this, Carlton were easily the dominant team in every other aspect of the game. It was Fremantle's frustrating but incredible accuracy and Carlton's frustrating inability to convert that kept the Dockers in this match.
The Blues had a narrow lead for the most part of the game after kicking their first goal. In the third quarter, Fremantle punished Carlton for not being able to convert as much as they should have with 6 straight goals and were leading at three-quarter time.
The last quarter started off a very scrappy affair, with some to-ing and fro-ing (Superstars Matthew Pavlich and Chris Judd each kicked behinds in a low intensity opening), and it was a while before Andrew Carrazzo broke the drought with a magnificient long-bomb goal from outside 50 to get things going for the Blues. A minute later, Nick Stevens managed to kick a goal to put the Blues in front courtesy of some brilliant work by Bryce Gibbs to get the ball to him. Soon after, Matthew Pavlich had the chance to put his Dockers back in front, but hit the post from 20 metres out directly in front, bringing back memories from his effort from about 40 metres out against Geelong a few weeks ago. As the match approached an end, late inclusion Darren Pfeiffer managed to seal the deal for the Blues with a brilliant snap around the body to put the game out of Fremantle's reach.
Adam Bentick was arguably the best for the Blues, picking up 31 disposals and laying 5 tackles. Nick Stevens was also very influential; picking up 28 disposals, 12 marks and a goal while keeping Peter Bell to only 15 disposals. Jarrad Waite provided great rebound from Centre-Half Back, amassing 25 disposals, 7 marks and 5 tackles. Brendan Fevola equalled Alex Jesaulenko's tally of goals at Carlton (424) by kicking a remarkable soccer goal with his back turned to the goals. It was very much a good team effort that got the Blues over the line against the Dockers, snapping a 9-game losing streak against the Shockers which dated back to Round 16, 2001.
Carlton sat in 9th place with 4 wins from 9 games after this round of football.
Teams
| B: | 44 Andrew Carrazzo | 18 Paul Bower | 30 Jarrad Waite |
| HB: | 36 Darren Pfeiffer* | 17 Setanta Ó hAilpín | 16 Shaun Grigg |
| C: | 6 Kade Simpson | 5 Chris Judd (c) | 29 Heath Scotland |
| HF: | 2 Jordan Russell | 14 Brad Fisher | 3 Marc Murphy |
| F: | 19 Eddie Betts | 25 Brendan Fevola | 37 Jake Edwards |
| Ruck: | 22 Shaun Hampson | 7 Adam Bentick | 24 Nick Stevens (vc) |
| Interchange: | 4 Bryce Gibbs | 8 Matthew Kreuzer | 15 Steven Browne |
| 34 Simon Wiggins | |||
| Coach: | Brett Ratten | ||
| Emg: | 21 Mark Austin, 27 Dennis Armfield | ||
NB * Darren Pfeiffer replaced Brent Thornton in the selected side
Milestones
Carlton Goal kicking: Brendan Fevola equalled Alex Jesaulenko in Carlton's all time goal-kicking listOpponent Winning Streaks: Carlton finally ended Fremantle's record breaking winning streak of 9 consecutive wins against Carlton. Carlton had not defeated Fremantle since Round 16, 2001!
Interesting Fact: In Brendan Fevola's 151st game he played in his 50th Carlton victory (he has also played in 2 draws and 99 defeats).
Brownlow Votes
3. Nick Stevens, Carlton2. Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle
1. Adam Bentick, Carlton
Best and Fairest Votes
40 Adam Bentick, Nick Stevens, 35 Andrew Carrazzo, 33 Jarrad Waite, 25 Eddie Betts, 15 Setanta o’hailpin, 14 Chris Judd, 10 Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson, 5 Paul BowerVideo
Round 8 | Round 10