Game Review

Melbourne had been level on top with Carlton after 9 rounds but had faltered with consecutive losses to South and Essendon. They were desperate to reverse their fortunes.

Carlton made the running early mainly through better goal-shooting but Melbourne hit back during the second quarter to take a 2 point lead into the second half. Midway through the third scores were tied at 6-6, but the Blues managed the last two goals of the quarter to take a very handy 14 point buffer to orange-time.

The Demons goaled first in the last before Fred Davies and Ken Baxter's goals appeared to have secured the match. Melbourne however threw everything at Carlton and goals to Fred Fanning and "Spud" Dullard meant the margin was back to 5 points.

Melbourne attacked incessantly for the last 7 minutes but were held scoreless as the Blues defence performed stoically.

An amazing sidelight to this match was that as the MCG was out of bounds for football for long periods during WW2, only 4 Carlton players had graced the "hallowed turf" in senior football prior to this match - Bailey, Baxter, Brown and Bennett.

The Cartoonist's View

Team

Milestones

Debut: Les Carr