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Game Review

The loss of Nick Stevens with a season-ending neck injury could not have come at a worse time, with the Blues forced to take on the reigning premiers at their home ground. This left us with a very inexperienced midfield facing the AFL's best, led by Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr. Carlton began the game with six players of less than 20 games experience, and another five who had played less than 50.

The match began in torrential rain and hail, which didn't appear to inhibit the superior skills of the Eagles in the slightest. Although the weather cleared in the second quarter, the Blues were beaten all over the ground, managing just one goal each quarter to record their lowest ever score against West Coast. Carlton had its chances, but missed some gettable shots at goal from even our most skilful players, finishing up with a miserable 15 behinds from 19 shots. Matthew Lappin was probably the Blues' best, with 29 possessions and a nice checkside goal from deep in the pocket to nab our first major of the game.

This was the second time in our long history that, in scoring 4 goals for the match, Carlton scored one goal in each quarter. The first such incidence was some 90 years beforehand, in Round 17, 1911, and the third in the corresponding match in Round 17, 2009.

In the wash-up to this match, half-forward Brad Fisher was found to have a fractured cheekbone, putting him out for 3-4 weeks. This had ended 4 games in a row (the first of 2007) where Brad had kicked at least one major, including his long-range kick in this game that went right through the big sticks.

Team

Milestones

Debut: Joe Anderson
Score Records: This is Carlton's lowest ever score against West Coast
Interesting Fact: This was also the second time in our long history that, in scoring 4 goals for the match, Carlton scored a single goal in each quarter. The first such incidence was some 90 years beforehand, in Round 17, 1911.

Brownlow Votes

3. Chris Judd, WCE
2. Ashley Hansen, WCE
1. Shannon Hurn, WCE

Best and Fairest Votes

Matthew Lappin 25, Bryce Gibbs 20, Heath Scotland 15, Setanta Ó hAilpín 8, Bret Thornton 6, Andrew Carrazzo 1

Mike and Dan

Mike and Dan’s Play of the Week – Cloke’s Dagger

From: https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/751257/mike-and-dans-play-of-the-week-clokes-dagger

In what was an otherwise disappointing day for Carlton fans, Cameron Cloke’s last quarter hip and shoulder on Adam Selwood showed aggression that has been a feature of his debut games with the Blues. Whilst the bump ensured that the young Eagle’s controversial week didn’t get any better, Cloke’s efforts, along with the return to form of Matthew Lappin, ensured that Carlton has some positives to take into its home game against Brisbane on Saturday evening. Mike and Dan caught up with Cameron to discuss his ‘Play of the Week’ and his role in the club’s new onball division.

We noticed there were a few choice words exchanged with Daniel Chick after you bumped into Selwood...

Yeah it wasn’t much - just the usual argy bargy, just the usual stuff that goes on during the game. It had been an interesting week for them but they played just as normal as any other club, no different to what we expected.

There's another Selwood that might get drafted this year. That would make 4 of them. With soon-to-be 4 Selwoods on the loose, are you hoping Jason gets another chance at AFL just to even up the numbers if it gets to a family feud?

*laughs* Nah, the Selwoods are all good blokes, I played a lot of junior footy with them and there was no personal malice involved in the bump on Sunday, I didn’t even know it was him until afterwards. I would be great if Jason got picked up again though, I think only the Danihers have had the four brothers play in the one game, so it would be fantastic for the family.

Jason played his first game on the weekend after coming back from suspension, I wasn’t able to watch it though as I was in Perth. He’ll just be looking for a consistent year this year, and if I get the time I will definitely go and watch him. I’m went along yesterday to watch Trav yesterday and I’ll watch Jason on the weekend, they usually come to all of my games when they can too.

In the match previews and planning, what role was outlined for you on Sunday? Were you expected to play a kick behind play, run forward - or a combination of both?

My instructions were to pretty much do what I’ve been doing so far this year, which means getting into the hole in the backline and helping out our defenders. I always try to win the ruck contests, but if the opposition ruckman starts to get on top, my role is to try and neutralize his impact.

It must have been a frustrating day out there for the players. How do you keep running and contesting when you know the cause is lost?

No doubt that losses like that are very disappointing and frustrating for the players and fans. When you are in a position like that and so far behind at three quarter time, you just want to win the quarter and get respect. Unfortunately they got a couple of early goals in the last quarter and put us on the back foot again, so we had to start chipping away at the lead again.

We believe that we are never out of the contest, as we showed in the game against Essendon. Dennis just told us at three quarter time to go out and do the fundamentals, as we had been missing our targets all day.

It is unusual for a bump to given Play of the Week but we just couldn't seem to take a trick out there. How much did the conditions contribute to our poor play?

The conditions changed dramatically, it was very hot one minute and hailing the next minute. It changed pretty quickly and West Coast adapted much better than us. We knew before the game that the rain was going to come in and fall pretty heavily, but I don’t think anyone could tell that it would get that bad so quickly.

West Coast are an awesome team and we thought we could have matched them, but their pressure was better than ours and they adapted to the rain more quickly and put themselves into what turned out to be a winning position quite early in the game.

Over time with Collingwood or Williamstown I have played in some pretty miserable days and wasn’t too phased about the weather on Sunday. Sometimes we train in the rain, and although it seems to be rare these days, we really take the opportunity to get out there when its wet as it is great practise.

Has Waitey sent an angry letter and a voucher for an optometrist to that Goal umpire yet?

I didn’t see the incident, we weren’t quite aware of it on the field at the time. I wasn’t far away from Fev’s report though, and I don’t think he’s got much to worry about.

When you see a bloke like Judd do what he does at close quarters, do you also go 'wow', like the rest of us?

Juddy is a superstar, and one advantage of a game like Sunday’s is that the boys can really get a lot out of it from watching someone so classy. Cox is a bit like that too, and it was a good opportunity for me to learn from watching him and the way he gets around the ground. We always take the opportunity to learn from our experiences when playing the best teams and against the best players.

After a loss like that, what is the mood in the change rooms? When is it OK to crack a smile or a joke? How long do the effects of the loss last before you concentrate on the next game?

After the game, everyone was a bit down, but we have to learn from our mistakes and move on quickly as there is not enough time to be negative, you have to start concentrating on the game next week.

Usually on the Monday the day after the game we review and analyse the match and learn as much as we can from it. Then we start our planning and preparation for the next game and really focus on matching it with the opposition.

You've played in some big matches for your old club - how does that compare to playing for the navy blue?

Its been really good, nothing compares so far to the Anzac Day clashes but I’m really looking forward to playing in games even bigger than that with the Blues.

Do you reckon you would have preferred to have played in the same era as your dad, when ruckmen were shorter, and physical 'activity' still had a place in the game?

No I wouldn’t say so, footy has changed completely since my Dad was playing, and he will probably want to argue it but the skills are much better now. Dad really didn’t have to do much in his day!

What are your goals for the rest of the season? How will you measure if you’ve been successful?

I just want to play every game this year and make an impact. I’m going to take it week by week and play some good footy. The only way to measure our success is to make finals, and I can’t see why we can’t make finals this year if we play some consistent footy over the home and away season.

What is it like working with one of the best ruckmen ever in Gary Dempsey? Is it intimidating working with someone who is so decorated?

No Gary is not intimidating in the way he goes about things. I am learning so much from things that he shows us, he is a lot taller than us and is big and strong, and gives us new tricks and tips and help with different aspects of our game.

We’ve got a new ruck division this year and we help each other out and give feedback when we can, it’s a really good group to be around.

Anything you want to say about your teammates? Who is the most annoying, has the most or least amount of luck with the ladies, or pays too much time to their personal grooming?

I have to say that Ryan Jackson pays a lot time to personal grooming, and even more than that he thinks he’s pretty good with ladies but we’ve never actually seen him with any!

Cloke’s physical presence, second efforts and enthusiasm for his new club have been features of Carlton’s start to the season. The Blues next few weeks against Brisbane, St Kilda and Collingwood will be crucial to its fortunes this year, and if Cloke can keep making consistent contributions to the team and setting an example with his one-percenters, the Blues will be on the way to making an impact this year.

Einstein on the Wing

D’oh! Bluebabies drown in Springfield nuclear bathtub

From: https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/779876/doh-bluebabies-drown-in-springfield-nuclear-bathtub

Men and women of Carlton (Digs and Bluebelles)

In the well-known card game 500, a laydown misere occurs when the hand you have been dealt is so weak, it doesn’t need to be played but just laid out on the table for the world to see. That’s what happened to our brave boys on the Western Front on Sunday.

I have no other scientific explanation for the Bluebaggers inability to defeat the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s two ninja mutant turtles with numbers 3 and 4 on their backs. Last year, we were 44 points up in the last quarter when Springfield did to us what we did to Essendon the previous week.

They reckon it will cost more than a $1 million to secure the signature of Chris Judd if he chooses to leave Perth at the end of the season and comes home to Melbourne. You don’t have to be Einstein to realise that on this performance it would be money well spent. When the heavens opened in the first quarter and filled the Springfield Oval to the brim, Judd acted like a Cartesian diver bobbing up and down with the ball in his hands.

Have you ever noticed the facial similarities between Chris Judd and Mr Burns from The Simpsons? Mr Burns has always suffered from a bad press but we reckon it would be “excellent” if he escaped from all the trouble in Springfield and pulled on a Carlton jumper “with all the champions, they like to send us”.

Weird Uncle Einstein use to always say that beneath every great AFL player, there is a Carlton player struggling to get out. How true is that? Mr Burns would fit in so nicely in the Princes Park locker room. We would have to find a new number for him because there is no way that Our Murph would ever give up his cherished number 3.

We are told that inside Mr Burns’ mansion in Springfield there is a room containing a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters, a bottomless pit, a human chess board, the largest television in the free world, a 'Hall of Patriots' commemorating his ancestors, a laboratory, a botanical garden of vultures bearing his likeness, a safe containing a Beefeater guard, and a theatre showing round-the-clock plays regardless of whether there is an audience. How cool is that?

He sounds very much like that Frenchy philosopher Rene Descartes that we told you about the other week. Like Mr Burns, Mr Descartes made a fortune playing the stockmarket. But Descartes's true idiosyncratic genius was epitomised by his tendency to work in a large bread oven where he spent much time meditating. We kid you not.

At some stage I suppose we are going to have to talk about the football – but I think I’ll leave that till next week when we play Fitzroy at the Optus Dome. On Wednesday, some small comforting pleasure may be derived from watching Collingwood and Essendon engage in the annual mutual disemboweling exercise that I know is so dear to your heart.

Gold skullcaps this week go to the Four Goal-kickers of the Apocalypse, Skinny Lappin, Fish Fisher, Scotto Scotland, and the Fev Jezzavola. Silvers go to Joey Anderson for his first game and Cloakroom Cloke for knocking-up the man in the spotlight from Springfield in the last quarter.

We leave you this week with the last image from the changerooms as the Baggers did their warm-down to the tune of the Donkey Serenade:

There's a song in the air/But the fair senorita doesn't seem to care/For the song in the air./Oh, I'll sing to the mule/If you're sure she won't think that I am just a fool/Serenading a mule./She'd love to sing it too if only she knew the way./But try as she may, in her voice there's a flaw/And all that the lady can say/Is hee-haw-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w/Senorita, donkey's feet are/Not so fleet as a mosquito/But so sweet like my Chiquita/You're the one for me!/Ole!/

Carna Blues! Don’t let the lion sleep tonight. – TERRY MAHER.

The Ghost

A Tale of Two Clubs

A kid is a kid is a kid is a kid…. Our kids played men, gee guess who won.

So, from all the papers and commentators and friends I’ve been led to understand that last week was about learning. Learning how far champions run. Learning about skill and pressure and working in pairs or packs. Last week was…na, who am I kidding…last week what just a reminder of where we were. Forget last week, we know those lessons. You know, the worst of times… And to get to the best of times we need our kids to be men but you cannot speed up time (anyone reckon the Ghost is reading too much Dickens?). A kid is a kid is a kid is a kid…. Our kids played men, gee guess who won.

In fact last Sunday my son played a practise game before the delayed, drought-butchered season finally starts. His team played a team two divisions above them. The other team were taller, faster, stronger and more skilful and, while at times Jack’s team tackled and harassed and did everything the coach asked of them, still two divisions is two divisions – it was apt the game was played on a Sunday. My son’s team were lambs to the slaughter.

So for Carlton - what I expected to happen, happened, so why the pain, the agony, the almost exquisite desire to plunge my foot through the television screen? Easy: Football is about the heart, the head is for chess. What we know, what we expect, what we see between a man-child’s small biceps and a veteran’s bulldozer arms, means nothing when the ball is bounced. When the Navy Blue runs through the banner the child part of my psyche that is all bluebagger expects every Carlton team to play like the great teams I’ve seen.

Sometimes I still wait for Big Nick to lay someone out (can someone get a highlights video of Big Nick and give it to Cain?) – well done Clokey on that last beautiful bump. I wait for a Jezza mark, a Buzz goal, a Doully save, a special moment of Kenny Hunter’s courageous madness, a dash from Southby, a goal from Sheldon. But those moments are memories and memories cannot kick goals.

Like everyone else, I must wait for the boys to become the champions we all wait for. Bryce shows he will, I have no doubts about Marc and there are others who are showing us that they are developing. JR impresses me this season. I loved Ando’s debut and the Irishman is a marvel.

Last week was about the goal, about where we want to be and it was about where we are. West Coast are the bar, we are only now back on the track, only started the run-up. We have a long, long way to go before we can tackle the best.

So this week is a better indication of where we are at. The Brisbane Bears – that’s right Bears I refuse to call them Lions. I refuse to acknowledge anything to do with Fitzroy. I remember their pain even if many of the old Fitzroy supporters poured out of the woodwork like borer after a kerosene dousing - funny what a flag will do for some people’s morals. Brisbane are the Bears or more truthfully, when I see that jumper of theirs, the unbearables – forever.

So we play them this week and it’s our kids against their kids and our champion forward against their champion forward. Unfortunately Fish and Stevo (yep we have to get used to Stevo but not yet, not so soon) being out is a pain in the neck (sorry Stevo I couldn’t resist). Fish provides a chance for another kid but still just as too many cooks spoil the broth so too many kids ruin the chances of winning.

I think Hartlett or Edwards in for Fish and I wouldn’t mind Jacko getting a gig this week. I think we need to strengthen the midfield to cover Stevo’s absence. Can we just play Waite down back and leave him there? He did so well in the NAB cup and provides cover and dash. Lance to play deep in the forward line and push Fev up to CHF - come on Denis you know you want to.

The way to beat the unBears is to play with flair, to forget locking them down and playing to our strengths. We can kick goals, lots and fast, if we just let ourselves play that way.

Let the kids run. Let Bryce play forward; make them cover him for a change, let Jacko take the run with and Joey to go into the backline. I want to see the unBears chase us. If we try to lock them down players like the butcher, Black, will carve us up. Make them chase our tails and we have a chance. Chase theirs and we are gone – we all know koalas have no tails.

So this week Fev to bag seven, Setanta to keep Brownie to two and Carrots to be the best on the ground and we run riot on the twisted dual corpse of two clubs that were and are no more.

Go Blues!To lose would be unbearable!To win is always divine for the little child in all our bluebagger hearts who remembers the great players, the great times and always the great victories. In more ways than one, this week is a clash between two cities, two clubs and two times, once when we were giants and now as both clubs rebuild through kids and a key forward who can dominate.

Go Blueboys!

Carlton by 17.