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| Venue: | Marvel Stadium, Docklands. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date: | Saturday 13 April 2024 (4.35 pm). | ||||||||||||||||||
| Result: | Lost by 2 points. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Crowd: | 46,283 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Goalkickers: | C. Curnow 4.3, H. McKay 2.1, M. Owies 1.2, B. Acres 1.1, M. Cottrell 1.1, M. Pittonet 1.0, E. Hollands 1.0, O. Fantasia 1.0, P. Cripps 1.0, C. Durdin 1.0, B. Kemp 0.1, Rushed 0.5. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Reports: | Jordan Dawson (ADE) rough conduct on Ollie Hollands, rated as careless conduct, low impact, high conduct - $2500 fine. Matt Crouch (ADE) forceful front on conduct with Jack Carroll, rated as careless conduct, medium impact, high contact - 1 week suspension. |
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| Umpires: | Brett Rosebury, Nathan Williamson, Cameron Dore, Andrew Adair. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Injuries: | A. Saad (hamstring), M. McGovern (hamstring) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ladder: | 6th | ||||||||||||||||||
Game Review
Last-minute loss ends Blues’ winning start
Carlton has fallen by two points against Adelaide in Round 5. - By Cristian Filippo, Carlton Media.Carlton has been pipped at the post, falling by two points to Adelaide at Marvel Stadium. In front of 46,283 fans under the roof, the Blues wrestled for momentum in a topsy-turvy game, but looked to be headed for a fifth straight victory after opening up a game-high 16-point lead. However, three consecutive goals to an incredibly accurate Crows saw the Blues fall by two points in the 14.14 (98) to 16.4 (100) defeat. Defenders Adam Saad (subbed out in the second quarter) and Mitch McGovern ended the game on the bench due to injury, while milestone men Sam Walsh (34 disposals, 13 tackles) and Blake Acres (24 disposals, one goal) fought tooth and nail in the narrow defeat.
Quarter one
It was an end-to-end opening under the roof at Marvel Stadium, with Carlton gaining the early ascendancy in the clearance stakes but unable to quell Adelaide’s ability to slingshot down the corridor. In what emerged as a high-scoring, accurate first term, Harry McKay was brilliant as a focal point in attack, hauling in four contested marks for the quarter while also kicking the Blues’ first two goals of the game. The Blues struggled to stop the Crows in transition, with familiar nemeses Ben Keays and Taylor Walker - who kicked three goals on each of the last two games between these sides - recording multiple first-quarter goals. In his return (and his 100th game), Sam Walsh was busy with seven first-quarter disposals, while Jacob Weitering similarly had his hands full down back. As a fired-up Crows took the game to the Blues, some crucial defensive efforts from Jordan Boyd, Brodie Kemp and Adam Saad brought the team to life, finishing with a flurry to end the quarter seven points ahead.
Quarter two
There was a pattern emerging at Marvel Stadium, with Adelaide looking to pick through Carlton while the Blues tried to bash and crash their way through the Crows. It was the visitors who made the fast start to the second term, kicking three of the first four goals to wrestle the lead back from the Blues. Carlton’s job in holding up Adelaide’s offensive weapons was made more difficult with a hamstring injury to Adam Saad forcing him from the contest, subbed out of the game for midfielder Jack Carroll. Both teams made the most of their opportunities in front of goal, but some costly errors in transition denied the Blues the chance to make a further impact on the scoreboard. Curnow’s second goal and a sharp finish from Corey Durdin once again put the Blues in front in a see-sawing contest, as Zac Williams’ trademark dash returned with 10 second-quarter disposals. Moved to half-back following Saad’s injury, Matthew Kennedy was busy with eight disposals and three intercepts for the term, while the milestone man Walsh had 13 disposals to take his first-half tally to 20.
Quarter three
Continuing the trend of the first half, it was Adelaide which got the game on its terms to begin the quarter, hitting the front with a pair of early goals. While the Crows upheld their accuracy in front of goal, the Blues had some chances go begging in front of the big sticks in the third term. After converting at 80 per cent in front of goal in the first half, the Blues could only muster three goals from 10 scoring shots in the third, with a Matt Owies chance ruled touch via an umpire’s call and McKay hitting the post from long range at critical times. Continuing his exceptional start to season 2024, George Hewett led the way for the Blues around the stoppages, accumulating seven disposals (four contested), while Boyd continued to enhance his reliability in the back half, registering five disposals at 100 per cent efficiency. After 21 tackles in the second term, Carlton struggled to make its tackles stick in the third term, registering just nine for the term — one of those was to Elijah Hollands, whose crucial holding-the-ball free kick saw him kick his second goal in the Navy Blue.
Quarter four
The Blues needed to come out firing in the final term, and on the back of their leaders, that’s exactly what they did. After he had an early goal denied, Patrick Cripps stepped up with a mark and goal, with the Blues’ pressure game rising to a level that the Crows find it impossible to escape. When 150-gamer Blake Acres and Curnow bobbed up in quick succession, Carlton all of a sudden had a game-high 16-point lead. But, as had been so often the trend in a game with 15 lead changes, Adelaide came again, kicking three consecutive goals of their own to hit the front with just a minute remaining. As they did last week, the Blues pressed hard to try and find a last-minute winning goal, but the Crows held firm, with the Blues losing their first game of the 2024 campaign and ending their run of close-run wins in the process.
Berry the hero as Crows stun Blues in classic
The Crows have flown home to claim a stunning win over the Blues - By AAP with Dejan Kalinic.Adeliade has staged an outstanding late comeback for its first win of the season, upsetting Carlton by two points in a pulsating clash. The Crows kicked the last three goals of the game in the Saturday twilight clash at Marvel Stadium for the 16.4 (100) to 14.14 (98) win in front of 46,283 fans. Had the Blues won, it would have been their first 5-0 start since they last won the premiership in 1995. There will be plenty of debate around a score review in the third term when Carlton's Matthew Owies had a snap and the goal umpire ruled it was touched off the boot. The score stayed a behind on review and Blues fans were ropeable when they saw the video replays on the big screens. It will go down as one of the games of the season, with 15 lead changes.
When Charlie Curnow snapped his third goal 17 minutes into the last term, the Blues led by 16 points and they had 10 inside 50s to two in the quarter to that point. Another Carlton goal would have snapped the rubber band, but the Crows' desperation paid off and at 1-4, they have kept their rapidly fading finals hopes alive. Sam Berry, who was the substitute, snapped through the winning goal with just over a minute remaining. Carlton was left two short late in the game when Mitch McGovern went off the ground, after Adam Saad also suffered a hamstring injury that forced him out in the second term. Blues midfielder Sam Walsh celebrated his first game of the season with a best-afield performance, racking up 34 disposals after recovering from a back injury. Adelaide key forward Taylor Walker was mighty, kicking four goals. The Crows made a solid start, with two majors apiece to Walker and Ben Keays in the first term, but Carlton kicked the last three for a seven-point lead.
Neither side could open a lead of more than seven points through the next two quarters. With Carlton twin towers Harry McKay and Curnow threatening, Adelaide put an extra man into defence and it stunted the Blues' attack. The two teams went goal for goal in the third term and fittingly scores were level heading into the last quarter. Adelaide midfielder Matt Crouch is likely to come under Match Review scrutiny for collecting Jack Carroll high as they contested a ground ball on the outer wing in the frenetic final period.
Blues superstar dominates on return
Playing his first game of 2024, Sam Walsh dominated for Carlton. He had 34 disposals, 13 tackles, seven clearances and nine score involvements in a stunning performance. While he got support from captain Patrick Cripps (22 disposals, seven clearances and a goal), the Blues fell short.
Best: S. Walsh, C. Curnow, H. McKay, P. Cripps, B. Acres.
Voss dissects narrow Crows loss
Here's what AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss had to say following the two-point defeat to Adelaide. - By Carlton Media.Nail the big moments. That was the message from AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss to his players after the two-point defeat to Adelaide at Marvel Stadium. After being served so well by those very moments in previous close wins, Voss said the Blues got some key plays wrong on a night where they were off defensively, ultimately resulting in the team's winning start to 2024 coming to an end. Speaking on the team's brand of football, Sam Walsh's outstanding return and what the Blues can still improve on, this is what he had to say in totality.
On the instant response to the game:
“We’re bitterly disappointed. We haven’t felt this way for a while, so we’re clearly very disappointed. The game last week we half-snatched it and got our last five minutes right, this week we got it wrong. The moments that you need to be able to win those sort of games, we had two or three that we’d like back. Such is how tight those games are and the ebbs and flows in the momentum. “Overall, I didn’t think we defended well enough across the night — that was the main thing, which is interesting because last week I thought we defended extremely well. We’ll have a look at that and how we can get a bit better, but it felt for most of the night that Adelaide was able to move the ball a little bit too efficiently. Their finish was extremely efficient as well. Their shot quality was very good, we were obviously very inaccurate in the second half. “At the end of the day, in a tight game, it can fall to those moments and it can fall to your efficiency. They were better in those moments, and they walk away with the game.”
On losing out in the final moments:
“Some of it was in our control. You still have to acknowledge the opposition and their good play to put you under some level of tension. We’ve handled those moments very well. As I said to the boys, you’ve got to have some level of perspective — there’s been a lot of times where we’ve got those right. We got a couple wrong today. “In the bigger picture of things, there’s been a lot more to like than not, but that doesn’t mean that individuals or us won’t look at it as hard as we can to try and get it better next time. That bounce of the ball went the other way today, and that’s something we have to live with and learn from and get better.”
On Adam Saad and Mitch McGovern:
“Hamstrings at the moment. That’s what they were out of the game for. We’ll wait for Monday for the scans to see what happens from there.”
On fewer rotations in the last quarter:
“We don’t use it as a reason. We still had three on the bench that we could use. A couple of defenders go down so we had to shift the magnets a bit, we had to put guys in other roles. But I didn’t feel like that was the difference. If we maximise our moments, we don’t need those. That’s the hard reality. “In terms of a more balanced profile in the way we played, it was better in terms of the contest and clearance and trying to make it a forward-of-centre game. But if I had to take a bigger picture of the game, I never felt like we defended as well as what we could have.”
On Sam Walsh’s return:
“Incredible. His diligence that he’s had in that period of time, he’s had to be patient. The realisation of being out there, he’s very grateful he’s back out there playing football and we’re grateful that he’s out there. To be able to have our midfield mix with him in it, it’s obviously very important. He gives us a lot of drive. “I’m sure he’ll look at his game critically as he always does, we’ll see where it gets better, but we’re obviously a better team with him in it.”
On an improved clearance showing:
“I’d have to go back and look at the vision a bit more, but we certainly got enough drive out of there to maximise our opportunities. It’s why I don’t get too lost on ‘do you win stoppages?’. The reality is we won stoppages today and lost. You’ve got to look at the game in its totality and what you think you did really well. We’re always looking for that strong, balanced profile, but I just felt the consistency of being able to defend for long enough was not there. “When you get to the end of the game and there’s five minutes to go, defence has to be the thing that stands up. It wasn’t as robust as we needed it to be in the really big moments. We’ll have to look at that and how we can make that a bit better. Adelaide have spoken about their ball movement and how they want to improve it, they’ve clearly gone to work on it and it’s a credit to them to be able to hang in and stay present. “It’s a pretty critical moment for them in the wash-up of the whole season, but we’ll go back and look at where we can get better. We shift our eyes pretty quickly to GWS, that’s our next challenge.”
On Adam Cerra:
“Hamstring on Thursday, he got a bit tight. We explored it a little bit more the next day, and later in the day we found there was a slight little strain there. A low-grade strain. We’ll assess timelines and where that lies on Monday.”
On the overall style played today:
“I was a lot more pleased with how we went about tonight, there was more of our game together — the outcome was not the outcome we want. But in terms of being able to play the style of footy we need to be able to play, it was closer to what we want. But it just shows that this competition is really hard and we’ve seen it week after week after week, we make no assumptions, we take nothing for granted. “We talk a lot about earning the right and staying really present to what we’ve got in front of us. I think we’ve done that really well. But we’ve got to assess this correctly and look to where we get better, and also reward what we did well.”
On Adelaide’s defensive structure:
“It’s not unusual to see that, it’s quite a common thing to see that defensive support against Curnow and McKay — whether that’s directly on a man or not, that’s not an unusual look against us. I thought we navigated that reasonably well. They’ve still had their involvements and that’s part of the system we’re trying to get better. “As a result of trying to get through that, I thought we were able to stick to us a lot longer and challenge the opposition. If you look at the game itself, we’ve had 21 forward-half intercepts to their 13, so we were able to get territory and also able to keep it in their long enough. “But I think we can summarise by the fact that it wasn’t for long enough and they had four or five minutes where they were able to get scores really quickly. It might have only been a couple, but when they got them, they were able to kick them, and it keeps you in the game. It’ll be something to look at. We’ll look at it with a balanced view.”
On the touched call against Matthew Owies in the third term:
“I don’t have the benefit, being on the interchange bench, and seeing what happened there. Right now, I can only assume they got it right.”
On using two rucks:
“Cerra came out of the team, so that’s how we got the rucks in there. We’ve always looked at it, ‘Pitto’ has got himself in really good condition in the past couple of weeks. He’s put himself in a position to ask the question of coming into the team, Tom on his own has been really good and Harry has been supporting him. “It’s been something we’ve been talking about, when’s the right time to be able to do it. It’s not so much a luxury, but it’s a different structure we can go forward with if we need to. Tonight we thought that’s what we thought we’d go with in terms of the two rucks.”
Team
| B: | 17 Brodie Kemp | 23 Jacob Weitering | 24 Nic Newman |
| HB: | 6 Zac Williams | 11 Mitch McGovern | 42 Adam Saad |
| C: | 4 Ollie Hollands | 9 Patrick Cripps (c) | 13 Blake Acres |
| HF: | 46 Matthew Cottrell | 10 Harry McKay | 7 Matthew Kennedy |
| F: | 20 Elijah Hollands | 30 Charlie Curnow | 44 Matt Owies |
| Ruck: | 12 Tom De Koning | 29 George Hewett | 18 Sam Walsh |
| Interchange: | 37 Jordan Boyd | 14 Orazio Fantasia | 19 Corey Durdin |
| 27 Marc Pittonet | |||
| Substitute: | 16 Jack Carroll | ||
| Coach: | Michael Voss | ||
| Emergencies: | 25 Jaxon Binns | 5 Adam Cerra | 2 Lachlan Cowan |
In: Sam Walsh, Marc Pittonet
Out: Lachie Fogarty (suspension), Adam Cerra (hamstring)
Late Change: Adam Cerra (hamstring strain) replaced by Marc Pittonet.
Substitute: Jack Carroll (replaced Adam Saad in the second quarter).
Milestones
100 Games: Sam Walsh100 Goals: Patrick Cripps
150 Games (AFL): Blake Acres
450 Games (Player & Coach): Michael Voss
Front Runners
Matt Cottrell 15.5kmOliver Hollands 15.0km
AFLCA Votes
9 - Sam Walsh (CARL)9 - Izak Rankine (ADEL)
5 - Taylor Walker (ADEL)
3 - Jake Soligo (ADEL)
2 - Ben Keays (ADEL)
1 - Mitchell Hinge (ADEL)
1 - Charlie Curnow (CARL)
Brownlow Votes
Best and Fairest Votes
Video
Round 4 | Round 6