Game Review

The brilliant form and solid support cast of recent weeks went missing as Carlton succumbed to 10th placed Essendon in this shocker of a lead-in to the finals. With Greg Williams absent, the remaining midfield of Brett Ratten, Kouta, Barry Mitchell and Adrian Gleeson seemed to work hard but overall, tagged out of the game as Carlton struggled to feed the forward line. Other than Kernahan, the support forwards did not fire and the Blues, despite being 1 point down at ¾ time, could not keep with the Bombers.

Essendon had been something of a bogey team over 1993 and 1994, and despite sitting in the bottom half of the ladder, seemed to find something against the Blues. Lesser known players would bob up – in this case, it was Peter Cransberg who would kick 4 and somehow become unstoppable. They seemed to be a team that would keep us in check for no reason whatsoever, with even youngster Julian Kirzner – later to be with Carlton – having his 15 seconds of fame by kicking a goal after beating SOS in a marking duel.

Whether this game was a factor in our upcoming fall from grace, no one knows. But somehow the Bombers drained our earlier form and beat us when we had it there for the taking.

Greg Williams was a late withdrawal from the senior side and was replaced by Ron De Iulio. Ron was listed on both the reserve and senior team sheets. At quarter time in the Reserve's match Rohan Welsh appeared after a dash to the MCG and played his first football for the season, after injuring his knee on the club's end of season trip. On that occasion, he fell down a hill while looking at the Golden Gate Bridge when he was out late at night with Peter Dean.

Team

Brownlow Votes

3. Darren Bewick, Essendon
2. Justin Madden, Carlton
1. James Hird, Essendon