Round 18, 2010

Carlton 2.0 12 2.1 13 3.2 20 9.3 57 Collingwood 3.5 23 9.9 63 11.14 80 15.15 105
Venue:	MCG
Date:	2.10 pm, Saturday, July 31, 2010
Result:	Lost by 48 points
Crowd:	76,980
Goalkickers:	Hampson 2, Walker 2, Grigg, Fisher, Betts, Simpson, Johnson 1.
Reports:	Nil
Umpires:	S. Meredith, T. Pannell, M. Stevic
Injuries:	Armfield (concussion) replaced in selected side by Ellard, Judd (chest/shoulder)
Ladder:	7th

Game Review

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. Much pomp and ceremony was dedicated to the meeting of traditional rivals in an old fashioned block-buster in an old fashioned time slot on a Saturday afternoon. In the lead up Brett Ratten spoke of the enormity of the occasion, the history, the importance. But it’s one thing to talk it and another altogether to walk it. The Blues continued their dismal late season form delivering an insipid performance which, most pundits agreed, was their worst for the year. On the other hand, Collingwood showed why many have them as Geelong’s main rival for the 2010 crown with a powerful 48 point victory.

With the initial squad announced only David Ellard missed the boat. Back from a long lay off due to his bionic (LARS) knee installation Brad Fisher got the call up. His inclusion suggested that the match committee thought a dose of strong marking might be the order of the day for our forward line. In the final wash up Ellard ended up with a life-line when it was deemed Dennis Armfield’s injured neck might not quite stand up to the rigors of another full contact outing.

The opening moment was like a gift. A soft free in favour of Shaun Hampson, in the unmissable range, and the nerve settler was ours. Sadly, the equaliser came a couple of short moments later. In the time before that moment Carlton’s intensity had looked good and their disposal had looked ok. Perhaps the occasion had brought out their best? Maybe they were switched on, up for it even, raring to go? The second came after a few more minutes of relative stability when Shaun Grigg got on the end of a Chris Judd pass that found him dead in front. He made no mistake and the lead was ours again. Then all too quickly a change came over the game. It was as though the Carlton players realised they were inferior; as though the Magpies had grown wings. Two Collingwood goals and a string of behinds gave them an 11 point lead by the first break, but it really should have been a lot more.

When Grigg’s goal went sailing over the goal umpire’s head in the seventh minute of play you probably would’ve scoffed had someone suggested 67 minutes would pass before said umpire would wave their flags again to confirm the next Carlton goal. Sad as it sounds, that was the reality. A solitary behind edged the Blues to 2.1 by half time while Brad Fisher got his name in the scorebook with Carlton’s only goal for the third quarter. It was possibly the most one-sided period of play I’ve ever witnessed. Getting the footy inside our half was infrequent, inside 50’s like hen’s teeth. The Carlton defence was totally under siege for much of the period, panic reigned, confidence evaporated. Credit to Collingwood who completely out-everythinged Carlton and flexed their considerable muscle.

With three of the first four goals in the last Collingwood’s lead sat at 73 points and with Judd off injured keeping it under 100 was looking like a tough ask. With the game long over as a contest it would be tempting to ponder whether the Pies put the cue in the rack, perhaps they did? Regardless, the Blues finally found something, it wasn’t much, but it was something. They kicked five unanswered goals to give the scoreboard a modicum of respectability, but there’s no hiding the fact that the 48 point margin flattered Carlton enormously. Collingwood reigned supreme.

Both losses to Collingwood in season 2010 had been of a similar margin, 53 points in round 6, and 48 points in round 18. In a strictly numerical deduction you might argue Carlton have improved by about a goal in the three months that have come and gone in that time, but having witnessed both outings we could confidently say that the margins conveyed little of the real story. The round 6 contest was the best nine goal hiding we’ve seen, because it simply didn’t feel like a nine-goal loss. On the contrary, the eight goal loss we had just witnessed seemed so much more painful; it could’ve just as easily been 18 goals. Despite all that, Carlton were hanging on in the eight by a thread - living to fight another day with another blockbuster against another traditional rival, Essendon, to come.

Team

B:	45 Aaron Joseph	40 Michael Jamison	30 Jarrad Waite
HB:	1 Andrew Walker	18 Paul Bower	2 Jordon Russell
C:	29 Heath Scotland	5 Chris Judd (c)	6 Kade Simpson
HF:	19 Eddie Betts	23 Lachlan Henderson	4 Bryce Gibbs
F:	38 Jeff Garlett	14 Brad Fisher	22 Shaun Hampson
Ruck:	11 Robert Warnock	44 Andrew Carrazzo	46 David Ellard
Interchange:	13 Chris Yarran	16 Shaun Grigg	9 Chris Johnson
	46 David Ellard
Coach:	Brett Ratten
Emg:	27 Dennis Armfield, 12 Mitch Robinson, 31 Marcus Davies

• Ellard replaced Armfield in the selected side

Milestones

Last Games : Brad Fisher and Chris Johnson
Interesting Fact : Too many quiet Septembers of late? Well, with this game, Carlton had played 243 games since our last Grand Final, a new club record...

Brownlow Votes

3. Scott Pendlebury, Collingwood
2. Dayne Beams, Collingwood
1. Alan Didak, Collingwood

Best & Fairest Votes

31 Robert Warnock, 11 Kade Simpson, 3 Marc Murphy

Ladder

.	.	P	W	D	L	For	Agn	%	Pts
1	Collingwood	18	14	1	3	1931	1360	141.99	58
2	Geelong	18	14	0	4	2039	1388	146.90	56
3	St Kilda	18	12	1	5	1517	1312	115.63	50
4	Western Bulldogs	18	12	0	6	1876	1328	141.27	48
5	Fremantle	18	12	0	6	1880	1626	115.62	48
6	Hawthorn	18	9	1	8	1607	1506	106.71	38
7	Carlton	18	9	0	9	1672	1629	102.64	36
8	Sydney	18	9	0	9	1572	1553	101.22	36
9	North Melbourne	18	8	0	10	1521	1827	83.25	32
10	Melbourne	18	7	1	10	1490	1567	95.09	30
11	Adelaide	18	7	0	11	1490	1621	91.92	28
12	Essendon	18	7	0	11	1647	1889	87.19	28
13	Port Adelaide	18	7	0	11	1397	1717	81.36	28
14	Richmond	18	6	0	12	1361	1846	73.73	24
15	Brisbane Lions	18	5	0	13	1445	1815	79.61	20
16	West Coast	18	4	0	14	1486	1947	76.32	16

Game	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Posn	3	8	10	7	6	9	7	5	6	6	5
%	187.5	122	106.39	120.25	125.96	108.82	117.81	119.18	110.44	112.81	116.328
Game	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Posn	6	6	6	.6	.8	7	7	.	.	.	.
%	112.03	110.24	114.24	107.8	104.51	.105.97	102.64	.	.	.	.

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Round 17 | Round 19