Game Review

After their worst performance of the year in Adelaide the previous week, the Blues bounced back to something like their best with a 41-point victory over the struggling West Coast Eagles in this Friday night match at Etihad stadium. Carlton may have started as warm favourites, but the Eagles came to play too - making their intentions plain when Carlton’s Marc Murphy was felled by Eagle Daniel Kerr before the opening bounce.

Brad Fisher celebrated his return to Carlton’s senior side with the first goal, quickly followed by one each to skipper Chris Judd, and Ryan Houlihan. West Coast got one back through former Blue Josh Kennedy, then Carlton’s barometer, Brendan Fevola, set the Blues alight. His brilliant, skidding right-foot banana kick from deep in the left forward pocket dribbled through for full points, and from then on the Blues were never going to be beaten.

Fevola finished the game with six goals against the Eagles’ All Australian full-back Darren Glass, Chris Judd continued his stellar season with another Best on Ground effort, and Murphy recovered quickly and made the Eagles pay by collecting 31 possessions. As well, blossoming tagger Aaron Joseph didn’t let Daniel Kerr spit without a contest, and Carlton’s ruck duo of Matthew Kreuzer and Shaun Hampson took the points against the game’s premier ruckman, Dean Cox.

Others to impress for the Blues were Nick Stevens, Paul Bower, Kade Simpson, Setanta O' hAilpin and Jeffery Garlett. Small forward Mark Le Cras played a lone hand up forward for West Coast, booting six quality goals from limited opportunities. The win lifted Carlton to fifth spot on the ladder with a 5 wins, 5 losses and a healthy percentage of 118.5. Only the two unbeaten teams in Geelong and St Kilda had better.

Statistically, the average age of this Carlton side was 23 years and 36 days, with an average League experience of 70.1 games per player. Nick Stevens was the oldest at 29 years, 146 days. Stevens also boasted the most experience with 222 games. Jeffery Garlett was the youngest, at 19 years and 299 days, playing in just his fourth game.

With Michael Jamison playing his 29th game in this match it was the 200th time that Guernsey Number 40 had run out in a senior match for Carlton since it was first used in 1959 (it is the 43rd number to reach this milestone at Carlton). When Brendan Fevola scored his 5th goal in this match, it was the 1,200th goal scored by guernsey number 25 for Carlton.

Team

Brownlow Votes

3. Chris Judd, Carlton
2. Marc Murphy, Carlton
1. Brendan Fevola, Carlton

Best and Fairest Votes

42 Chris Judd, 39 Aaron Joseph, 38 Brendan Fevola, 37 Paul Bower, 36 Marc Murphy, 35 Kade Simpson, 30 Matthew Kreuzer, 16 Ryan Houlihan, 6 Nick Stevens, 5 Brad Fisher