2000 Pre-Season

2000 Pre-Season Series Second Round –“The Millennium Challenge Match”

Game Review

Brendan Fevola kicked a Pre-season record 12 goals on New Years Eve against Collingwood at the MCG. This is still a League record* for the most goals by a player in a 'Night' Series game (at January 2007*) and was 5 goals better that the previous Carlton 'Night' game record of 7 goals scored by Brad Pearce in the Round 1, 1996 Pre-Season match.

This season the 'Night /Pre-Season' became a round robin format with each side playing 3 matches before the finals. Carlton played their 2nd game before the 1st round match and it was called the “The Millennium Challenge Match” against thier old foes in Collingwood and won by 88 points.

Team 2000 Pre-Season Series Second Round

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2000 Pre-Season Series First Round

Game Review

Murray Vance had his jaw broken late in the third quarter. He would not play another senior game all year and just one further game in his career in 2001 before being delisted.

Team 2000 Pre-Season Series First Round

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2000 Pre-Season Series Third Round

Game Review

Lance Whitnall had chances late in the match to win this match for Carlton but messed them up.

Anthony Franchina was found not guilty of striking Michael Stevens

Team 2000 Pre-Season Series Third Round

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2000 Pre-Season Series Semi Final

Game Review

This was Carlton’s seniors' last game at Waverley but Carlton’s VFL side would play Monday night football there during the 2000 season.

Team 2000 Pre-Season Series Semi Final

Practice Match

27th February

VETERAN Carlton midfielders Craig Bradley and Fraser Brown yesterday eased their team into the regular season as the Blues completed their pre-season campaign with a comfortable 34-point win over Hawthorn in Shepparton.

While Carlton controlled the game for most of the day, it was not until the end of the first half that they looked as though they probably couldn't be beaten, after leaving Aaron Hamill in control of a lacklustre forward line for the first term. That said, the Tuggeranong-bred forward proved he had not forgotten his days on country grounds, marking, if missing, most of the Blues' initial forays forward.

But if the Hawthorn defence was, for the most part, stoic, it found little support in its forward line, which without Ben Dixon, Nathan Thompson and occasional target Trent Croad and featuring a subdued Shane Crawford, struggled to create scoring opportunities.

Joel Smith, the Hawk's most lively forward, appeared to have been granted a licence to roam and perhaps took too much advantage. Slipping into the back half on several occasions, Smith essentially left Andrew McKay without an opponent and the chance to work himself into the game. Moved officially down back in the second half, he could at least find someone to kick to.

Crawford, who was manned for most of the day by either Anthony Franchina or Ben Nelson, took most of the first half to exert any significant influence, two free kicks in as many minutes turning into two goals and a less daunting half-time deficit than would otherwise have been. Crawford appeared more comfortable when shifted into the centre square at the start of the third term but, watched closely by Franchina, could not break away.

But while the Hawks failed to capitalise on their early dominance, their impressive early form not even translating into a first-quarter lead, it took Carlton just a few minutes to make the match their own. In less than three minutes the Blues kicked as many goals, Brett Ratten, Darren Hulme and again, Hamill, breaking the Hawthorn spirit and inspiring their own side to wake from what had been a slight slumber.

In a sometimes spiteful third term, in which Hawks rover Anthony Rock was escorted from the ground with what appeared to be a rib injury, and several scuffles over the ground, Carlton turned its 10-point half-time break into an even more unreachable lead, kicking six goals to Hawthorn's four and successfully working more of its players into the game. Even Stephen O'Reilly was granted a stint in the forward line, where he helped himself to a goal, handing over duties on Hawthorn's Nick Holland to a tight Trent Hotton.

Most of the Blues' drive arrived through its midfield and, most particularly, Bradley and Brown. Both consistently cleared the ball from the middle, before heading for the half-back and half-forward lines respectively, and gave Brendan Fevola and Simon Beaumont no choice but to offer Hamill, who finished with five goals, some support.

Bradley seemed to switch on the speed whenever he felt like it; in one passage of play he slipped a handpass over the heads of two opponents and collected it back, running to the goal line to send through a screw kick. Later, he helped himself to a spot on the bench.

In the end, it was as effortless an outing for his team; the biggest challenge they faced was winding their way through the autograph hunters who invaded the ground after the final siren.

Shepparton

CARLTON

1.2 6.5 12.7 14.9 (93)

HAWTHORN

2.5 4.8 6. 9 8.11 (59)

Goals: Carlton - Hamill 5, Bradley 2, Hulme, Ratten, Allan, Fevola, O'Reilly, Nelson, Beaumont. Hawthorn - Taylor 2, Crawford, 2 Harford, Smith, Lord, Holland.

Best: Carlton - Bradley, Brown, Hamill, Hulme, Massie, O'Reilly. Hawthorn - Smith, Lord, McCabe, Salmon, Chapman, Taylor.

Umpires: Kennedy, Mitchell, Ellis.

At Deakin Reserve, Shepparton.

Crowd: 5000

From: Quayle, Emma.  Sunday Age; Melbourne, Vic.. 27 Feb 2000: 7.