Game Review

A resounding win under the roof.

Carlton has produced a 54-point triumph over Port Adelaide. -

Carlton has produced a resounding return to winning form with a 54-point triumph over Port Adelaide. On the back of a blistering first 15 minutes, the Blues withstood a potential fightback and made their ascendancy count in the 18.10 (118) to 9.10 (64) win. In his first game back for two months, Sam Walsh was a welcome addition for the Blues, bursting out of the blocks to finish with 28 disposals, while Harry McKay was a dominant presence to finish the day with an equal-career high of seven goals. The baby Blues opened proceedings under the roof, as contested marks from Hudson O’Keeffe and Ashton Moir from similar positions on the ground both ended with goals inside the opening five minutes. Walsh was involved from the opening clearance, getting the assist for O’Keeffe while contributing three clearances from seven first-quarter disposals as the Blues’ on-ball brigade was utterly dominant. With 16-4 clearances for the term, it was a Navy Blue wave in offence as the Blues piled on six goals in 16 minutes before their opponents had even registered a score.

McKay started in outstanding fashion, with his seven disposals for the quarter resulting in seven score involvements - with two of them goals of his own. Port Adelaide responded in the second half of the first term, producing three of the last four goals - and when Ollie Lord kicked the first of the second term, the margin was back to 19 points. But as one Lord for Port Adelaide stepped up, Carlton’s own Lord responded in kind, as in-form youngster Cooper produced two direct goal assists for his captain to open up another break on the scoreboard. The Blues’ midfield didn’t let up, as Walsh (16), George Hewett (16), Lord (15) and Patrick Cripps (15) were the four dominant ball winners on the ground as the Blues dominated field position.

With 30-10 clearances and 36-14 inside 50s, it allowed the opportunity for the Blues’ forwards to get to work with nine inside-50 tackles, as McKay was the main beneficiary on the scoreboard with four goals as the Blues surged to a 55-point lead. The game tightened up as a contest in the third, with inside 50s essentially levelled, but Carlton’s defenders stood up when called upon. Lachie Cowan produced a string of important defensive moments in the third term on the way to seven disposals (three intercepts). At the other end, the Blues had chances to extend the lead beyond a 10-goal buffer, but a series of set shots went awry after good transition. McKay continued to be a focal point both inside 50 and down the line, before Evans bobbed up with a second against his old side. Carlton drove their advantage home in the final term, kicking the first three goals - Flynn Young kicked his first lot of multiple goals, while McKay made it seven - before Port produced some late goals with the sting out of the contest.

McKay boots seven as Blues power past Port.

The Blues have recorded a comfortable win over the Power. - By Chris Nice at Marvel Stadium.

An equal career-best seven goals to Harry McKay coupled with a superb return from injury for Sam Walsh has propelled Carlton an emphatic win at Marvel Stadium, accounting for an under-siege Port Adelaide by 54 points on Saturday afternoon. After falling on the wrong side of the ledger in last weekend’s thrilling finish to Gold Coast, the Blues picked up immediately where they left off to ram home seven opening-quarter majors and tear away to a 18.10 (118) to 9.10 (64) victory under the roof. Carlton caught fire early with a scintillating six-goal passage from six individual goalkickers in the space of 20 minutes to set the tone, banking another 11 majors for the game in opposition to Port Adelaide’s nine. McKay was again prominent up forward with his best figures of the year to catapult Carlton towards its best opening half (13.5) of the season, while the reunited midfield trio of Patrick Cripps (22 disposals, two goals), George Hewett (35 disposals) and the returning Sam Walsh (28 disposals) dominated the midfield battle despite resistance from Travis Boak (23 disposals) and Zak Butters (28).

Fast, sleek by hand and working in unison — aided by Walsh’ seamless inclusion to the midfield brigade — the Blues looked a far different outfit to the one that had lost seven of its past eight games. McKay was doing near-cartwheels after being upended in an early contest up forward, and the Blues fans in the stands weren’t far from doing some of their own as the theatrics of Ashton Moir, Francis Evans and McKay sent a buzz around Marvel Stadium. On the flipside, it went from bad to worse for the Power in the opening minutes, with the in-form Aliir Aliir was assessed for an ankle injury. Fears for Aliir were allayed after 10 minutes off the ground, but although bravely battling through the entirety of the match was clearly hindered and unable to reach his athletic best.

The flow-on for the defence was compounded when Josh Sinn was subbed out prior to half-time with a corked calf, and while moving Lachie Jones onto McKay in place of the hampered Aliir, Port Adelaide were unable to stem the bleeding or score themselves up the other end. It took all 386 games of experience from Travis Boak to stop Carlton's six-goal run at the 20-minute mark of the first quarter, and while boosted by Jack Whitlock’s maiden major moments later, Ken Hinkley’s side couldn’t get the engine room ticking over well enough (clearances 41-31) to truly challenge the Blues for extended periods. Meanwhile, the old firm of Cripps and McKay only continued to gather steam as the game wore on, producing multiple majors in the second term to stymie Port Adelaide’s probes into attack. But the longer the game wore on, the more holes the Blues were able to poke in the Power’s depleted defence and ultimately pile on more scoreboard pain as a result.

After having the kicking boots on in the opening half, the same couldn't be said after the main break right up until the game’s final minutes. It took 11 minutes for Whitlock — the Power's sole multiple goalkicker — to snap the deadlock and register the first of a combined 10-goal second half, three of which were consolation efforts kicked in the last five minutes. But the Blues remained sharp through the middle and resolute in defence despite their scoring steadily drying up, finishing the game not so much with a bang, but perhaps some growing optimism heading into Season 2026. Port Adelaide just couldn't defend its defensive half of the ground. The Blues piled on 35 points from forward half turnovers and 26 points from clearances. It conceded 94 disposals in its defensive 50, while managing just 39 itself. Harry McKay was best afield after booting an equal career-high seven goals. He kicked four of these from 30-plus metres out - having a career-high 15 score involvements. He dished off three score assists and pulled down three contested marks.

S.Walsh-Buckling Sam back with a bang
Michael Voss stated pre-game that Sam Walsh’s long-awaited inclusion would produce a “better version” of Carlton, and he certainly wasn’t wrong. Following 10 weeks on the sidelines recovering from a troublesome foot injury, the co-vice-captain's impact was undeniable in his 28-disposal, five-clearance return. It took just under two minutes for Walsh to stamp his presence and get youngster Hudson O’Keeffe on the board to kick off Carlton’s six-goal run to open proceedings. Walsh lined up for 11 of 19 centre bounces prior to half-time, and while only attending another handful for the game, was certainly a welcome addition back into Carlton’s ranks.

Seventh heaven for Harry
Harry McKay has found himself the subject of much discussion this season, but the Blues spearhead silenced his doubters with an equal-career-best seven goals as he and the Blues set their sights on closing out the year on a promising note. The No. 10 again started brightly with an electric goal out of the ruck, putting himself down for another three at half-time as his first-half opponent Aliir Aliir struggled to match him in the air due to injury. McKay levelled his best at the 19-minute mark of the last stanza to the rapture of the Blues cheer squad, albeit by the slimmest of margins as his snap just cleared the fingertips of the Port Adelaide defence.

Best: H. McKay, G. Hewett, S. Walsh, P. Cripps, J. Weitering, L. Cowan.

This Blue is key to a Carlton bounce back in 2026

A fit and firing Sam Walsh would undoubtedly be on Carlton's wishlist for 2026, but if it wasn't near the top, it definitely would have jumped up a few spots in light of Saturday's exhibition against Port Adelaide. Walsh collected 28 disposals, five clearances and almost topped it off with two majors in his first game back from a 10-week injury layoff, but it was the way he complemented Carlton's greater engine room with his inside-to-outside transition that was his best feature on Saturday afternoon. The 2021 John Nicholls medallist has been marred by several troublesome injuries over the past few seasons, but should he be in top shape come the first game of 2026, Carlton fans will be relishing the possibilities of what might be. - Chris Nice

Voss on finishing strong

Michael Voss' post-Round 23 press conference.

On the performance as a whole:
"Each week, we’ve felt the power of our contest again. Some of the pressure we’ve been able to get on the ball a couple of weeks back, you start to get a really clear picture of what that looks like. At the end of the game last week, you start to see the scoreboard and the power of our play, finishing our plays and the style of football we want to play. You haven’t seen it for the entirety of the game, but you’ve seen it for patches. "It gives you confidence that you’re moving in the right direction. Today for large parts of the game, we were able to get what we wante . It’s been a little while since we’ve dominated supply, so to get the territory in the game that we needed and more importantly get the scoreboard ticking over was a huge plus out of the game. "It feels like every time we’ve stepped into a game, to see components and to see individuals who are having highlights in our game - whether that’s our younger players or leaders that are leading - we sat in here and said we’re going to play out the season strong. That’s exactly what we’re doing. I can’t fault the boys and how they’ve been able to approach it."

On Sam Walsh's return:
"It shows you good players help. When you don’t have them for a while and then you see the difference they make in your system. 'Walshy' we’ve missed, Harry we’ve missed. [Walsh] comes out and does what he does, he’s our transition mid that gets from inside to out better than anyone. "We’ve got a key forward out there that we haven’t seen for a lot of the year that kicked seven goals as a focal point. Good players help, and to have those players in great form was really important to us."

On the team's offence clicking:
"It’s more playing what we see in front of us. Quickness hasn’t been our issue over the course of the year, our finish has - how we finish our plays. We’ve gone to work on that pretty hard and not all of it has clicked in place the way we’ve wanted it to, or as quick as we wanted it to. "But to see the transfer now, we’re starting to see some better entries and quality entries, finishing our plays. In any game style you play, that’s important. We were able to get the supply we wanted, it puts an opposition under tension and it maybe forces them to do things they don’t want to do and we can capitalise on those errors."

On Cooper Lord's role, and his game ending due to a concussion:
"He’s a great player Butters, a very important player to them as their fire starter - what more can you say about him? The opportunity for Cooper to come in as a very diligent young man… he’s a pro, he’s going to get everything out of himself in his career with whatever that looks like. You go and learn on good players, he’ll learn a lot over this last three weeks. "He’s banked 21 games across the season, he’ll unfortunately miss the next one but it’s such a valuable body of work to have to be able to give you the confidence that you belong. He’s proven that, he belongs in AFL footy. Hopefully he can impact for us in years to come."

On what Harry McKay provides:
"This year has been different to others. I think we can forget about Harry that he was leading our best and fairest up until Round 9 or 10 last year. He’s been in solid patches of form, he’s a difference maker for us - your best players have got to be. We’re seeing a really good version of Harry at the moment. "If I look across the whole team, the selfless nature in which we’re playing - they’re feeling that again. Whether that’s the shot selection and putting players in better positions, whether that’s rewarding the runners that are there, whether that’s support runs and finishing plays like Matty Carroll did deep into the fourth quarter, whether that’s Mots pressuring right to the end in the last quarter - we’re seeing the selfless nature in the way we’re playing. "You’re always trying to do that, but there’s also the momentum and the feel and the selfless nature that becomes contagious. They’re feeding off each other at the moment, which is pleasing to see."

On the team's midfield showing:
"The midfield was particularly impressive. They’ve got a good midfield: I know Horne-Francis is missing out of there, but they’ve got a powerful midfield which you have to manage and they’re always a threat. To have that dominance, territory and supply from that one source was obviously important in the game. "When mids start joining in [on the scoreboard], that’s always a good thing. 'Crippa' kicked a couple, 'Walshy' didn’t convert his opportunities but he was getting shots on goal as well. It’s not one particular thing, there’s a lot of things that have to happen for that to come tighter. "Small forwards kicking goals, midfielders kicking goals, sharing the load amongst our talls - it’s just a better version. Ideally, that’s what you’re always trying to achieve. Over the last month, we’re starting to grow confidence in each other and individuals are playing better and making larger contributions."

On what to expect from the final game of the season on Thursday night:
"We’ve got to finish the season. "Our supporters have gone the journey with us and we’re extremely grateful for that. We’ve had some lean times at various stages throughout the season, we’re really grateful they’ve stuck with us and seen the emergence of some younger players that have come in. They’ve energised behind us, you hear the stadium tonight and you think it’s Round 2. With every goal, they’re getting behind us which we’re really pleased about. "Next week, we want to finish the season strong: there’s no guarantees, but there’s always something we can continue to improve and every game we play is valuable. You don’t wish games away, you don’t - because when you end, you wish you were there. We’re going to continue to do that, and I think the leaders are leading that very well right now."

Team

B:	42 Adam Saad	23 Jacob Weitering	32 Matt Carroll
HB:	2 Lachlan Cowan	26 Nick Haynes	4 Oliver Hollands
C:	13 Blake Acres	9 Patrick Cripps (c)	18 Sam Walsh
HF:	44 Francis Evans	33 Lewis Young	3 Jesse Motlop
F:	6 Zac Williams	10 Harry McKay	12 Tom De Koning
Ruck:	40 Hudson O'Keeffe	36 Cooper Lord	43 Ashton Moir
Interchange:	35 Billy Wilson	29 George Hewett	8 Lachie Fogarty
	45 Flynn Young
Substitute:	19 Corey Durdin
Coach:	Michael Voss
Emergencies:	27 Marc Pittonet	38 Will White	11 Mitch McGovern

In: Sam Walsh
Out: Will White (omitted).

Substitute: Corey Durdin (replaced Cooper Lord in the third quarter)

Free Kicks

Carlton 13
Port Adelaide 16

Front Runners

Oliver Hollands 14.5km
Blake Acres 14.1km
Francis Evans 13.9km

Interesting Facts:

1. Harry McKay equalled his career-best of seven goals.
2. Harry McKay had a career-high 15 score involvements.
3. Flynn Young kicked a personal best of two goals.

AFLCA Votes

10 - Harry McKay (CARL)
8 - Sam Walsh (CARL)
6 - George Hewett (CARL)
3 - Zac Williams (CARL)
2 - Patrick Cripps (CARL)
1 - Francis Evans (CARL)

Brownlow Votes

3 - Harry McKay (CARL)
2 - Patrick Cripps (CARL)
1 - Sam Walsh (CARL)